Saturday, August 26, 2006
Two posts in one day! It's your your lucky day. [There are a lot of pictures in this posting. If you're having trouble viewing in email, go to our blog.]
The apartment is finally in order, so we wanted to show you all the before and afters. Take a tour of our home!
We're on our way to Spain!! We'll share some more pictures when we get back.
The apartment is finally in order, so we wanted to show you all the before and afters. Take a tour of our home!
| The entrance to our home: | |
 When we first moved in |  And now. |
 And our Shabbat dinner last night. Cute, huh? | |
 Bedroom |  The bedroom leads to the balcony |
 Balcony (called a "mirpeset") |  The living room, doors lead to the same mirpeset |
 More living room |  More living room |
 The floor by the bathroom when we moved in |  The shbath when we moved in |
 The bathrooms here are all separate: shbath and sink to the left, toilet in the other room |  and the shbath today! |
 our kitchen when we first moved in |  The bright orange built-in, folding table, which I had to scrub scum and paint off of |
 the kitchen cabinets before I got to them. Most of what you see is rust. |  Our new kitchen! The cabinets now match the table, the insides are covered and clean. Hurray! Also, notice the difference in the floor color (just from cleaning) |
 This is a 2nd mirpeset. The washing machine lives out here, but we have to run an extension cord from the kitchen to get it running. The tanks are the gas that keep the stove running. |  The office/study. It has a very small mirpeset also. |
 These are the stairs leading up to the apartment and Jamie's classmates bringing our bed up. (They didn't think it was so funny for me to take a picture of this. I did!) |
We're on our way to Spain!! We'll share some more pictures when we get back.
Friday, August 25, 2006
One more day until Barcelona!
Anna and I wanted to catch you up on the last few weeks, which was pretty action-packed. Two weeks ago, I planned a progressive Shabbat dinner for my class. We had about 45 participants and six houses, each hosting a different course of one meal. We all went to services at HUC, then met on the steps outside together. We sang songs and niggunim (wordless melodies) from house to house. My favorite part was that at each house we said a kiddush, a blessing over wine and for Shabbat. At each house, one person was in charge of creating a unique and creative interpretation. For example, at the first house, we sang a less common but still traditional melody, at the second we said the kiddush with feminine pronouns and conjugations. For a bunch of students studying Hebrew, it was remarkably hard! And it really drove home the point that we take for granted all the masculine-oriented God-talk in Judaism.
Stuffing 45 people into small Israeli apartments was a little tricky, but lots of fun. Even better, almost every apartment was on the third floor or higher. You had to earn your food. =)
Last week, I participated in the Beit Cafe (literally, "coffee house"), a long-running HUC tradition. It's essentially a talent show/silent auction, and all the proceeds went to charity. We raised almost $1000 that night! I ended up in a few different numbers: I debuted a new song I wrote a few weeks ago, participated in a few improv sketches, and then sang a parody of "Don't Worry Be Happy" I wrote all about Jerusalem and living in Israel with a bunch of the cantors. It was lots of fun.
We had our finals for the summer term and ended it all with a little party. No one told us until the day before that we (as a class) were supposed to perform a skit or song at the party. Naturally, every other class had been working on their skits for a few days. I got drafted into writing another parody for my class, this one to "Piano Man" all about Hebrew and our professors. It came out great and writing verses in Hebrew helped me practice for the final. =) Bonus!
Anna and I wanted to catch you up on the last few weeks, which was pretty action-packed. Two weeks ago, I planned a progressive Shabbat dinner for my class. We had about 45 participants and six houses, each hosting a different course of one meal. We all went to services at HUC, then met on the steps outside together. We sang songs and niggunim (wordless melodies) from house to house. My favorite part was that at each house we said a kiddush, a blessing over wine and for Shabbat. At each house, one person was in charge of creating a unique and creative interpretation. For example, at the first house, we sang a less common but still traditional melody, at the second we said the kiddush with feminine pronouns and conjugations. For a bunch of students studying Hebrew, it was remarkably hard! And it really drove home the point that we take for granted all the masculine-oriented God-talk in Judaism.
Stuffing 45 people into small Israeli apartments was a little tricky, but lots of fun. Even better, almost every apartment was on the third floor or higher. You had to earn your food. =)
Last week, I participated in the Beit Cafe (literally, "coffee house"), a long-running HUC tradition. It's essentially a talent show/silent auction, and all the proceeds went to charity. We raised almost $1000 that night! I ended up in a few different numbers: I debuted a new song I wrote a few weeks ago, participated in a few improv sketches, and then sang a parody of "Don't Worry Be Happy" I wrote all about Jerusalem and living in Israel with a bunch of the cantors. It was lots of fun.
We had our finals for the summer term and ended it all with a little party. No one told us until the day before that we (as a class) were supposed to perform a skit or song at the party. Naturally, every other class had been working on their skits for a few days. I got drafted into writing another parody for my class, this one to "Piano Man" all about Hebrew and our professors. It came out great and writing verses in Hebrew helped me practice for the final. =) Bonus!
Friday, August 18, 2006
Just a quick update today.
We've made plans with some classmates and in just over a week we are on our way to Spain for 5 days! We'll be in Costa Brava, which is supposedly less than an hour from Barcelona. I really wanted to go to a big city and do some fun exploring. But, on this side of the world, the resorts are much cheaper. So we went with the best of both worlds: A very reasonable packaged trip to a resort very close to a big city. And I checked the weather and it's only 78!!! Compared to our current conditions, I may need a winter coat.
I'm really excited to get out of here for a few days and do something else. It has been a very strange time in Israel. I'm learning to get along in this very conservative place. It's really strange though. Today, in the shuk, there was a hassidic man jumping up and down and singing, trying to entice people to take his literature and try teffilin (bands you wrap around your arm and head to pray). I don't know about you, but acting like a mental patient isn't what convinces me to try something new.
There's not really any other news, other than the "war" is over and we clearly lost due to not recovering any soldiers, not disarming Hezbollah and not accomplishing any goals at all really. No one's very happy here about it.
I'll leave you with some more strange religious stuff: Do you know what the Kotel is? It's the Western Wall where Jews pray (It's the last remaining piece of the 2nd great Temple. It's actually not even from the Temple, but part of the retaining wall around the Temple.) Anyway, Jews go here to pray and they put little notes into the cracks in the wall. But, luckily with modern technology, you don't even need to go to the wall! You can email the Kotel and you can fax the Kotel! The email is run through a non-profit, aish.com at http://www.aish.com/wallcam/Place_a_Note_in_the_Wall.asp. However, the fax is run by the Israeli government. 02 654 0877!!! Oh it's all so strange. I'll also put the link on the righthand link section so that you can get live feed of the Kotel any time. I know you're all dying for it...
We've made plans with some classmates and in just over a week we are on our way to Spain for 5 days! We'll be in Costa Brava, which is supposedly less than an hour from Barcelona. I really wanted to go to a big city and do some fun exploring. But, on this side of the world, the resorts are much cheaper. So we went with the best of both worlds: A very reasonable packaged trip to a resort very close to a big city. And I checked the weather and it's only 78!!! Compared to our current conditions, I may need a winter coat.
I'm really excited to get out of here for a few days and do something else. It has been a very strange time in Israel. I'm learning to get along in this very conservative place. It's really strange though. Today, in the shuk, there was a hassidic man jumping up and down and singing, trying to entice people to take his literature and try teffilin (bands you wrap around your arm and head to pray). I don't know about you, but acting like a mental patient isn't what convinces me to try something new.
There's not really any other news, other than the "war" is over and we clearly lost due to not recovering any soldiers, not disarming Hezbollah and not accomplishing any goals at all really. No one's very happy here about it.
I'll leave you with some more strange religious stuff: Do you know what the Kotel is? It's the Western Wall where Jews pray (It's the last remaining piece of the 2nd great Temple. It's actually not even from the Temple, but part of the retaining wall around the Temple.) Anyway, Jews go here to pray and they put little notes into the cracks in the wall. But, luckily with modern technology, you don't even need to go to the wall! You can email the Kotel and you can fax the Kotel! The email is run through a non-profit, aish.com at http://www.aish.com/wallcam/Place_a_Note_in_the_Wall.asp. However, the fax is run by the Israeli government. 02 654 0877!!! Oh it's all so strange. I'll also put the link on the righthand link section so that you can get live feed of the Kotel any time. I know you're all dying for it...
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
God provides.
That's the message I got today. A lot of people have heard my stories of continual "luckiness" that I seem to survive on, but "luck" is only a term of convenience. At some point I made a decision that my life was not random bits of coincidence strung together.
Today we celebrated Tu B'Av, the Jewish Valentine's Day. It's making a popular resurgence, and a group of HUC students organized Tu B'Av-o-grams at 5NIS a piece, delivered right to your valenti--I mean, your friend. It reminded me of unpleasant elementary school memories but I bought a bunch, hoping that if I made such a gesture I would inevitably get one in return. A small voice in the back of my head pointed out that rarely do I get what I'm expecting, and that I should send a Tu B'Av-o-gram out of the goodness of my Tu B'Av-o-heart.
And just like that, I received exactly one bag of candy with a paper heart attached from a fellow student, one who's in my class but I haven't hung out with very much. And I admit, seeing the stacks of hearts attached to some of my friends bags reinforced this idea that I feel like I'm in a sea of strangers. And not that I don't appreciate that one sweet gesture, but the demon of comparison reared his head. I spend at least 6 hours out of every day with these people; did only 1 person in 60 feel I'm worth five shekels? (That's about $1.05, FYI.)
And so did my day go from pretty good to an aching disappointment that I couldn't seem to shrug off. Anna and I did a little shopping around our apartment, and had a nice dinner, but I felt the weight of uselessness around my neck like the proverbial albatross.
We left after dinner for a torah study at school, and in Zion Square we ran into a friend of mine. He walked right up to me and gave me a big hug and said, "Thank you so much for the Tu B'Av-o-gram. It really meant a lot to me." We chatted for a minute, then continued on our way to school. We stopped to buy a few items and then wandered on towards campus. As we approached the black gate, a crowd of students walks up. As a cantorial student, I have keys to many of the doors and gates that are usually locked after 5pm, so my well-timed arrival saved eight students a five minute walk around the building. They all cheered my name as I walked up and thanked me for just being who I am: a cantorial student with a key to the gate.
And suddenly I felt better. Here I was mopey about being invisible and unliked, and God provides not one but two situations where people were honestly happy to see me and not ashamed to say thank you. It turned my whole day around, and both episodes couldn't have lasted more than five minutes together.
This is why I'm in cantorial school, why I moved Anna and myself halfway around the world. Because every day I see proof, in my heart undeniable proof that there exists a God who wants me to be happy for no reason that I can discern, and mostly just asks that I be a good person in return. Sounds like a fair deal to me.
That's the message I got today. A lot of people have heard my stories of continual "luckiness" that I seem to survive on, but "luck" is only a term of convenience. At some point I made a decision that my life was not random bits of coincidence strung together.
Today we celebrated Tu B'Av, the Jewish Valentine's Day. It's making a popular resurgence, and a group of HUC students organized Tu B'Av-o-grams at 5NIS a piece, delivered right to your valenti--I mean, your friend. It reminded me of unpleasant elementary school memories but I bought a bunch, hoping that if I made such a gesture I would inevitably get one in return. A small voice in the back of my head pointed out that rarely do I get what I'm expecting, and that I should send a Tu B'Av-o-gram out of the goodness of my Tu B'Av-o-heart.
And just like that, I received exactly one bag of candy with a paper heart attached from a fellow student, one who's in my class but I haven't hung out with very much. And I admit, seeing the stacks of hearts attached to some of my friends bags reinforced this idea that I feel like I'm in a sea of strangers. And not that I don't appreciate that one sweet gesture, but the demon of comparison reared his head. I spend at least 6 hours out of every day with these people; did only 1 person in 60 feel I'm worth five shekels? (That's about $1.05, FYI.)
And so did my day go from pretty good to an aching disappointment that I couldn't seem to shrug off. Anna and I did a little shopping around our apartment, and had a nice dinner, but I felt the weight of uselessness around my neck like the proverbial albatross.
We left after dinner for a torah study at school, and in Zion Square we ran into a friend of mine. He walked right up to me and gave me a big hug and said, "Thank you so much for the Tu B'Av-o-gram. It really meant a lot to me." We chatted for a minute, then continued on our way to school. We stopped to buy a few items and then wandered on towards campus. As we approached the black gate, a crowd of students walks up. As a cantorial student, I have keys to many of the doors and gates that are usually locked after 5pm, so my well-timed arrival saved eight students a five minute walk around the building. They all cheered my name as I walked up and thanked me for just being who I am: a cantorial student with a key to the gate.
And suddenly I felt better. Here I was mopey about being invisible and unliked, and God provides not one but two situations where people were honestly happy to see me and not ashamed to say thank you. It turned my whole day around, and both episodes couldn't have lasted more than five minutes together.
This is why I'm in cantorial school, why I moved Anna and myself halfway around the world. Because every day I see proof, in my heart undeniable proof that there exists a God who wants me to be happy for no reason that I can discern, and mostly just asks that I be a good person in return. Sounds like a fair deal to me.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
We've gotten a lot of emails recently wondering why we haven't been posting to the blog. First of all, I've come down with a nasty cold and have been in bed for a couple of days. I never knew what a luxury a shower was until I didn't have one. The shbath (see earlier posting) just isn't cutting it. Also, we've been lazy and busy.
I started Hebrew class last week and am having a lot of fun. All of a sudden, I see or hear a word somewhere and I go, "I know that word!" It's pretty exciting. And it seems to stick better when you're actually using it. Jamie is very busy with school, and his real school year hasn't started yet. He's in ulpan (intensive hebrew) for about 4 hours a day, and choir rehearsal and musicianship and voice lessons and tours of the old city. I barely see him and the real challenges haven't even begun (or so they keep telling me).
Right now we're getting ready for his week long break in the end of August. We're looking at Greece, or pretty much any affordable European city. That's one of the advantages to where we're living.
We hosted our first Shabbat dinner here last Friday. I had to go out and buy plates and wine glasses, but we managed. We also don't have a table, so it became a game to see who could find the best way to balance their dinner. Ethan found stools outstide and brought them in. By far the best solution. The apartment is beginning to feel like home, finally clean and a little bit decorated. I would have liked to put up pictues, but I'm a little too tired still to wander around and climb on top of the furniture to get good shots (don't worry mom, it's my furniture. I'm allowed to do that now!).
When the fall term starts, Jamie will have a full load of classes, plus lessons, community service, etc etc. So, I'm looking at how to fill my time. Right now, I'm planning on doing ulpan in the mornings and studying at the Conservative Yeshiva in the afternoons. The Conservative Yeshiva is a really neat place, run by the Conservative movement in America. They have intensive study all year, but unlike other yeshivas, they welcome women and look at text in an egalitarian way. Trust me, this is very rare in this city. Many of the other SOs (significant others) have said they'll be studying there as well.
I'm sure none of you will be surprised to learn that I've set up a listserv for the SOs and have been organizing things as much as possible. Most of you know I'm not happy unless I'm in charge of something, and the laundry wasn't cutting it. But, we've got some great stuff going. One of the husbands brought his projector and surround sound, so we're having movie nights. We've got one of the professors at the school to take us around on tours of the city once a month. Seems most of the SOs are in the same boat of trying to find things to fill the days, so we're working together on it.
Milchama (hebrew for war, but doesn't it sound better?) I feel like I need to address this because we've gotten some concern about the Israeli situation. First of all, please be aware that the American media is very biased and only shows the most sensationalized images, whatever gets more viewers and therefore more money. There are two good Israeli sources to check out (all in English): HaAretz Newspaper at www.haaretz.com and the Jerusalem Post at www.jpost.com. I'll also put these links up on the right side bar of the blog so they'll stay there for you to click on anytime.
Secondly, we have been told repeatedly (and are seeing that it's true) that Jerusalem is the safest place to be. There is a large Muslim population here and many Muslim holy sites. If there were a hit on a Muslim or their sites, the predictions all seem to say it would lead to all out war within the Arab world. In fact, we are so much safer, that they are sending students from evacuated cities here. And you can tell by looking around how much safer it is here. There are no scared people walking around, everyone is going about their normal business, honking, yelling, pushing--totally normal.
And thirdly, please know that Israel is hurting and she needs your support. There are some attrocious images being sent around the world. There is no balanced reporting happening. Israel has dispraportionatelly fought back, but what would happen if rockets were coming onto American soil. Would the US send rockets? Most importantly, Israel has attacked very specific targets and looks to avoid civilians (I realize they have not, but it truly is the goal). Hezbollah is sending random rockets with little aim and hoping to hit civilians. It is not an even fight and it won't ever be. But Israel depends on the support of America, she always has.
It's surreal here. Walking down the street, you see orthodox women, younger than me, with 3 children. Or, there are the Hassidic men, dressed in garb from 17th century Poland (and I thought I was hot!). There are tons of Muslim women with gorgeous head scarves, all walking together and holding hands. The other day, I took a cab home, looked out the window and saw a monk eating ice cream. Which of these neighboring nations might be able to show the same freedom? In what other country in the Middle East might you find Jews and Christians and Muslims freely eating the ice cream of their choice with little notice of anyone besides the tourists?
The point anyway, is that Jamie and I are very safe, keeping our heads together, keeping up on the news and avoiding the northern cities (actually all cities besides Jerusalem). Have faith. Israel needs it and so do we. Lots of love and missing you all lots.
Love,
Anna
I started Hebrew class last week and am having a lot of fun. All of a sudden, I see or hear a word somewhere and I go, "I know that word!" It's pretty exciting. And it seems to stick better when you're actually using it. Jamie is very busy with school, and his real school year hasn't started yet. He's in ulpan (intensive hebrew) for about 4 hours a day, and choir rehearsal and musicianship and voice lessons and tours of the old city. I barely see him and the real challenges haven't even begun (or so they keep telling me).
Right now we're getting ready for his week long break in the end of August. We're looking at Greece, or pretty much any affordable European city. That's one of the advantages to where we're living.
We hosted our first Shabbat dinner here last Friday. I had to go out and buy plates and wine glasses, but we managed. We also don't have a table, so it became a game to see who could find the best way to balance their dinner. Ethan found stools outstide and brought them in. By far the best solution. The apartment is beginning to feel like home, finally clean and a little bit decorated. I would have liked to put up pictues, but I'm a little too tired still to wander around and climb on top of the furniture to get good shots (don't worry mom, it's my furniture. I'm allowed to do that now!).
When the fall term starts, Jamie will have a full load of classes, plus lessons, community service, etc etc. So, I'm looking at how to fill my time. Right now, I'm planning on doing ulpan in the mornings and studying at the Conservative Yeshiva in the afternoons. The Conservative Yeshiva is a really neat place, run by the Conservative movement in America. They have intensive study all year, but unlike other yeshivas, they welcome women and look at text in an egalitarian way. Trust me, this is very rare in this city. Many of the other SOs (significant others) have said they'll be studying there as well.
I'm sure none of you will be surprised to learn that I've set up a listserv for the SOs and have been organizing things as much as possible. Most of you know I'm not happy unless I'm in charge of something, and the laundry wasn't cutting it. But, we've got some great stuff going. One of the husbands brought his projector and surround sound, so we're having movie nights. We've got one of the professors at the school to take us around on tours of the city once a month. Seems most of the SOs are in the same boat of trying to find things to fill the days, so we're working together on it.
Milchama (hebrew for war, but doesn't it sound better?) I feel like I need to address this because we've gotten some concern about the Israeli situation. First of all, please be aware that the American media is very biased and only shows the most sensationalized images, whatever gets more viewers and therefore more money. There are two good Israeli sources to check out (all in English): HaAretz Newspaper at www.haaretz.com and the Jerusalem Post at www.jpost.com. I'll also put these links up on the right side bar of the blog so they'll stay there for you to click on anytime.
Secondly, we have been told repeatedly (and are seeing that it's true) that Jerusalem is the safest place to be. There is a large Muslim population here and many Muslim holy sites. If there were a hit on a Muslim or their sites, the predictions all seem to say it would lead to all out war within the Arab world. In fact, we are so much safer, that they are sending students from evacuated cities here. And you can tell by looking around how much safer it is here. There are no scared people walking around, everyone is going about their normal business, honking, yelling, pushing--totally normal.
And thirdly, please know that Israel is hurting and she needs your support. There are some attrocious images being sent around the world. There is no balanced reporting happening. Israel has dispraportionatelly fought back, but what would happen if rockets were coming onto American soil. Would the US send rockets? Most importantly, Israel has attacked very specific targets and looks to avoid civilians (I realize they have not, but it truly is the goal). Hezbollah is sending random rockets with little aim and hoping to hit civilians. It is not an even fight and it won't ever be. But Israel depends on the support of America, she always has.
It's surreal here. Walking down the street, you see orthodox women, younger than me, with 3 children. Or, there are the Hassidic men, dressed in garb from 17th century Poland (and I thought I was hot!). There are tons of Muslim women with gorgeous head scarves, all walking together and holding hands. The other day, I took a cab home, looked out the window and saw a monk eating ice cream. Which of these neighboring nations might be able to show the same freedom? In what other country in the Middle East might you find Jews and Christians and Muslims freely eating the ice cream of their choice with little notice of anyone besides the tourists?
The point anyway, is that Jamie and I are very safe, keeping our heads together, keeping up on the news and avoiding the northern cities (actually all cities besides Jerusalem). Have faith. Israel needs it and so do we. Lots of love and missing you all lots.
Love,
Anna
