banks

My friend Mia made aliyah this week. It was incredibly exciting for so many reasons... having a good friend in the country, getting to pinch Mia's cheeks. But what really made me happy was when she changed her facebook status to "Mia hates banks." Oh, new olim and the challenges they will encounter!

a dialogue on the Katamon social scene and life in general

This post is back after a brief hiatus. I'll deal with the consequences :-)

The other person's screenname has been changed for their protection and to, as I put it, "prevent scaring off the ladies." The name "fwb" has been used because it just seemed appropriate.

7:12
Beqx
i was about to make fun of you about something from before but i decided not to
though it would have been a general commentary on the katamon scene so maybe i can just reword it, hm
7:13
FWB
i've stopped going to the tuesday night shiur, u should be impressed with me
7:14
Beqx
im so proud of you!!
dated/lost interest in all the girls there, i understand
oops the comment came out anyway
just not in the context about the nbn seudat shlishit being to celebrate the "new crop"
but anyway..
7:15
FWB
i never liked the shiur anyways. and it's getting less popular and i never had much success
i have to keep my eyes open
the new crop is always the best hope

Beqx
sigh, new crop...
i hope theyre all under 30
7:24
FWB
well, when you see a girl for me, let me know
even you being antisocial is probably more social than me
7:24
Beqx
will do
hey i need to meet more girls
its impossible to make female friends
no girls want to talk to other girls
its ridiculous
guys just play basketball and poker
girls are awkward
7:25
FWB
and no girl will go over to talk to a gy
guy
i don't play poker. but basketball is correct
7:25
Beqx
that lasts like a week and then all the girls realize how dorky the guys in katamon are
7:25
FWB
but we're nice guys
7:26
Beqx
nice.. awkward.. dorks... i never said its a bad thing
its just the reality of katamon social events
7:26
FWB
i always freely admit I'm a complete idiot

7:30
Beqx
this conversation is making me want to be antisocial again maybe on shabbat i'll just hide in my room and play with my trains
7:30
FWB
i'm getting depressed myself
but u antisocial is still quite social
7:30
Beqx
but new crop! get excited!
7:30
FWB
eh, won;t be different from any other
see, I'm jaded
7:31
Beqx
you havent been here for that long
so sad
7:31
FWB
true
7:31
Beqx
i was jaded five minutes after getting here
7:31
FWB
also true

7:35
FWB
i want to stop aging
7:36
Beqx
maybe shira and i can come up with a potion
like our other potions
7:36
FWB
we could use a good mid-twenties crisis
7:37
Beqx
i think i had one- it was called making aliyah
and im still early 20s
7:37
FWB
i was trying to take an average of us
7:37
Beqx
hhhmm
what would a mid-20s crisis entail?
7:37
FWB
still trying to figure that out
what do teenagers do these days?
7:38
Beqx
uuummm
pretend to be 20?
i think they make up relationship crises and overdramatize everyhing in their lives.... oh wait, sounds like katamon
7:39
FWB
u need to get over katamon or go live in a hut
an igloo will also work
7:39
Beqx
oohh then i could have snow
Beqx
maybe teenagers do fun things like squirt ketchup at cars from bridges
im just thinking bart simpson here
7:41
FWB
do a prank phonecall.
ask for Amanda. Amanda huginkiss

FWB
what's the options then?
7:46
Beqx
flicking things at the backs of peoples heads at NBN seudat shlishits?
7:48
FWB
options what to do as we grow older
7:49
Beqx
that sounds like something that needs a list. but shira isnt here so i have no one to make lists with
you dont think we should flick things at people?
7:50
FWB
too unrealistic
on that note, i'm off to do some shabbos
good to talk. be my girl-lookout pleae
later

When your world shrinks very fast

I just came home from a wedding on Har Tzofim. The chuppah had a stunning view of the entire city. The bride was my friend Ruti who was briefly in ulpan with me, I ran into her once on the street, and she invited me to her wedding. In ten days I'm going to the wedding of the girl who sat in front of me on my aliyah flight. I've only seen her twice (briefly each time) since then. And she invited me to her wedding. Such is life in Israel.

Ruti's chatan gave a lengthy speech in which he seemed to personally thank each person in the room. There is one person he mentioned who was not at the wedding. Batsheva Unterman was killed in yesterday's attack in town leaving her husband and six month old child behind. When I got home from the wedding I saw a sign on my street announcing that the location of the shiva is the building right next to mine. It makes sense-- Batsheva and her family would often host Dov, Ruti's husband, for shabbatot so that he could be near Ruti who was living around the corner.

Yesterday probably around the time of the attack I was waiting at the 13 bus stop at the end of my street with Tamar, the kid I am taking care of for the summer. When we got to the bus stop we had barely missed a bus and while we waited two buses passed in the other direction. I don't know if one of those buses is that one that was smashed into, or maybe it was the bus right before it. But maybe. The timing was about right.

The wedding tonight was very small with a collection of family and various friends from different parts of Dov and Ruti's lives. And there were a lot of kids there. It's hard to imagine that one of the guests was supposed to be Batsheva and that one of the kids who should have been there tonight is now without a mother.

Update on my life

Starting a few weeks before Pesach and up until a week ago I had the absolute joy of spending three afternoons a week (at least on the days I wasn't sick or unable to move because of my back) with this incredible adorable little guy, Noah. Playing with Noah brought back great memories of Raphi at that age. We went to the playground and hung around the apartment being silly. Once I got to bring him and his girlfriend (kids these days start young) Eliana to the playground together. Hopefully I'll see Noah in LA in September. Such a treat getting to play with him. This is a picture of him excitingly greeting his friends at his good-bye party.
I finished ulpan. That's right, I made it to the end. It's crazy that with ulpan finishing I'm more or less "done" with the beginning steps of making aliyah. I'm still convinced I have another ten years until my klitah is complete. I'm happy to say I learned a lot and made some good friends. It was comforting being around other people in the same position as me and being taught by teachers who really cared about us. For most of my time there I didn't feel that much of a connection to the place but I think over the next few months I'll really appreciate my time there and the friends I made.

This was taken at the Birthright Mega Event in Latrun. I was there with the Gift of Life Foundation to get more people in the bone marrow donor registry. American college students are so awesome. There were thousands of people there mostly from the US but also from France, Brazil, and India. I met some fellow Bostonians and fellow Terps. It was like a huge summer rock concert. It's great seeing so many people so incredibly excited about being in Israel.

Over the next few weeks I get to hang out with a slew of friends visiting from high school and college who will be visiting the country. Can't express how happy I'll be to hang out with them again. Really, really excited about that.

Also have a decent amount of babysitting jobs lined up. I have a short one in a couple weeks and then a six week full time job beginning at the end of June. It will be the first time I will be out of the apartment all day every day. It will also be the earliest I've had to wake up on a daily basis, and really the first time I'll have something in the morning I actually have to come on time to. Should be interesting. The job is for a four year old girl so hopefully I can be paid to do things like go to the zoo.

After that... I'm planning a month-long trip back to the US that will go through Rosh Hashanah. I haven't been in Newton for RH in a few years now. When I get back I'll have a few weeks (mostly taken up by Succot) until I begin a Masters in Education program at Hebrew University. So far I got accepted to the special education program and I'm waiting to hear from the Early Childhood Studies program. I'm hoping that between the Har Tsofim area and central Jerusalem I'll be able to find a sufficient amount of work for when I'm not in class (or trying to understand the material in Hebrew).

I guess I haven't been writing in my blog much lately because I've grown less cynical and more optimistic about my life here. Not to worry-- I still have plenty about the Katamon social scene, but I'm also becoming more accepting of it. In general with work for the summer and school set for the Fall (didn't expect to hear from Hebrew U until July) I'm feeling much better about things. It's been a really long and slow year. As I just told my friend who's making aliyah in a year-- the paperwork is the easy part. It's the packing the month before and the rest of your life after that that's the hard part. But I'm looking forward to toughing it out.

Once again, here is one of the top reasons I am here

I couldn't not share this.

Last night I was babysitting for Ami (5) and Erez (4). We heard a lot of police cars outside and I was telling him that the police was getting ready for President Bush to visit again.

Know why they call him Bush? Because he looks for poos in the bushes! Hahahahaha! --Ami

Oh, kids...

I am here.

That's what I kept thinking this week. I am here. I am here because of the brave men and women we remembered Tuesday evening through Wednesday afternoon when Jerusalem came to a standstill for a siren at 8pm and again at 11am the following morning. Everyone always talks about how appropriate it is for Israel to have Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) and Yom Haatzmaut (Independence day) back to back. That could never work in the US. How could Memorial Day come before an independence day for events that happened nearly 200 years ago? Unfortunately there are still US soldiers losing their lives all the time, but nobody in the US feels like their existence is sometimes hanging on a thread. But here the entire country feels that way. We all stop to remember. On Wednesday morning I went with my ulpan to a ceremony at a nearby high school. During the siren a girl behind me was sobbing. I didn't see who it was, and she wasn't the only one. I never saw so many teenagers express so much emotion like that. Throughout the ceremony students were leaning on each other. Afterwards when they got up there was a lot of hugging and people walked back to the school with locked arms. The eerie thing was that I realized what a close connection many of these students had to this day-- how many of them had friends or close relatives who lost their lives in battle. I have friends who have lost close friends. I have seen them crying. Last year UMD Hillel dedicated their Yom Hazikaron ceremony to the memory of Michael Levine, an American soldier whose twin sister graduated from the school a couple years ago. But I could never connect to the day the way these students did... and I hope I never do. We read a short article in class about the stereotype of Israelis as sabra fruits-- soft on the inside but prickly on the outside. The writer wrote how after a couple decades Israelis realized that it was okay to be soft, to express emotion. In fact they even had to in order to deal with the reality of living here.

Wednesday night we dried our eyes and broke out into song. I attended a Yom Haatzmaut tefilah with a full Hallel accompanied by a guitar and flute. After a "festive meal" at my brother's apartment I joined a couple thousand people at Kikar Safra (Jerusalem municipality) for singing and dancing to Israeli music. One day I will know all the hand motions and choruses. I guess it's just one more part of my klitah to look forward to. The city is so small. I felt like I recognized half the people there. Thursday morning I got up early to go on a hike with close to 25 other people. Coming back from the hike we were on a narrow road winding through valleys (note: don't look down) I had never seen before. I can't believe how developed a country can be after just 60 years. My grandma (seriously) asked me if there are sidewalks in Jerusalem, and here there are main roads winding around the sides of mountains. I hadn't seen that much green in Israel in awhile. My crazy Russian boss last summer, upon hearing that I'd be living in Jerusalem, said "Great, so we'll know that that part is ours." I had an inkling that she was Jewish, but never expected something like that from her. Rav Soloveitchik once spoke about how Avraham Avinu, after being told the borders of the land, walked the length of it in order to claim a true ownership of it. Every day I walk to ulpan, to work, wander down a small street I have never been on before, and yesterday I "inherited" a few kilometers more. I am here. Even after only nine months here I could observe Yom Haatzmaut with the excitement and pure joy of everyone around me. It isn't just that we need to appreciate the cost of having a Jewish homeland before celebrating it's independence. We NEED Yom Haatzmaut after the tears and emotions that get poured into Yom Hazikaron. We take just one day in the year to forget all our pains, all the blood that's been spilled, and just celebrate. There are flags everywhere, music coming from every, and the parks were full of families and friends celebrating together.

This year I didn't just celebrate the independence of the Jewish homeland, I celebrated the independence of my HOME. Even my 96 year old grandma, who never exactly expresses happiness over me being here, was really excited to ask me about Yom Haatzmaut. I can't wait to tell my other grandma about it whose opinion is "of course you moved to Israel, our family was always supposed to be in Israel. I couldn't do it but you could." I was thinking about how every year we say that there might never be another Tisha B'Av, that when full redemption comes we won't need it anymore. I think even when there is peace we should have Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut as usual. It is too important for this country. Even in ten generations we have to tell the stories of what happened in the past sixty years. We always need to remember why we are here.

I am here. Zeh hayom asah Hashem, nagilah v'nishmechah vo!