finally here
3 September 2006
Sorry for being remiss in posting for a while. I got off the plane in Israel and immediately fell into such a jetlag and whirlwind of things to do, it’s been hard to get back on the blog journey. (I am also struggling with the personal/public nature of a blog, which is why very few of you have been given this address yet…all in good time.)
What I’ve managed to do:
• Get a cell phone, at the underground agency for American students. I’ve been given a 1800 number that folks in the States can use to make the call much cheaper—if you want it, let me know.
• Find an apartment. I was pretty committed to living alone, but after seeing a bunch of places both with and without roommates, I decided that I’d have a much easier time, logistically, if I’d take an apartment with a roommate. While learning Israeli society is all well and good, I was not so thrilled about having to call Bezeq and set up the phone line by myself, not to mention buying dishes and chairs and a bed. And while I have not yet moved into my roommate’s home, I must say that I’m looking forward to the companionship as well. I move in a couple of days—I am ready to unpack.
• Join a gym, not as nice as my beloved HW, but totally sufficient for spinning and yoga.
• Buy produce in the Shuk at unbelievably inexpensive prices, and buy toiletries at my local corner drugstore for far too much money. The Shuk has rapidly become one of my favorite places in Jerusalem—rows of produce sellers, spices in large burlap sacks, olives and nuts and dried fruits, bread and pastries, fresh cheeses and not-as-fresh fish, all in the main stalls. In the little side alleys are notions shops, cheap pots and pans and papergoods, Ethiopian grains in unlabeled bags. On Sunday or Monday it’s quiet, calm, sellers smoking over their wares and talking quickly in Iraqi-accented Hebrew. On Friday midday chaos reigns: prices of produce drop rapidly during the day, young children and old Arab women crouch in the aisles at makeshift booths and sell sabra fruit (cactus) and home-pressed olive oil. Some of my friends won’t brave the crowds on Friday; I feel that it’s the only time to authentically feel the rush, Shabbat is almost upon us! And in this season of Elul, occasionally a shofar blast sounds as well.
• Find my way to a minyan that needs my skills, although I’m not sure how much I’ll be willing to reveal myself as a potential organizer. There are only so many days I can make a community go—is this something I want to do this year, help out another startup with my good energy and Torah reading talents? On the other hand, I’ve begun to feel lazy by just sitting and listening each week. Sometime soon, my time will come…
• Learn my way around southern Jerusalem, from Baka to the German Colony, Rehavia up through Nachlaot to the center of town. Still can’t get around the Old City, though—its mess of aggressive sellers and hungry children makes me feel like a rich American, lost in somewhere all of a sudden very foreign.
• Made some friends, maybe? All in good time.
And things to do:
• Learning: one of the missions of this fellowship is to learn some serious Jewish texts in a formal or informal setting. My instinct is to enroll in an organized program of Jewish learning, preferably one where I can recapture some of my Talmud skills. Unfortunately, with the requirements of my fellowship (Thursday meetings), it’s been hard for me to find a class that fits my schedule. Interestingly enough, the classes that fit my schedule are the highest level classes at both P. and CY (two renowned institutions which I am concealing from Google by initials). While I’m a bit nervous at pushing myself into classes that are for people with quite a bit more recent text experience than I have, I’m going to replay the struggle of high school and try to get in to one of these classes. I do hope I’m not overreaching—I always hate to not be the best at something, but I also know it wouldn’t be shameful if I needed to drop down a level. Of course, that’s when Thursdays intervene. In any case, I’ll spend the next two weeks trying classes and then get settled.
• Hebrew language study: after visiting an Ulpan (immersion class for new immigrants), I’ve become more convinced that private tutoring would be a better use of my time. With my day-school background, my holes are more about useful vocabulary than about the grammar that upper-level classes teach. I can conjugate verbs in the future subjunctive, but I don’t know how to ask for change when I give cash for a bill. And mostly what I need is someone to speak Hebrew with me all the time, correct my mistakes, and teach me lots and lots of new words. That said, our fellowship’s regular Hebrew teacher has just absented herself from the program, so I’m on the lookout for a new teacher—I’m concerned but hopeful.
• Community service: perhaps the biggest cipher in the program profile for me. I’ve been calling and meeting with lots of former fellows to talk about their volunteer experiences and getting some ideas and some discouragements. I think I’ll have to narrow down whether I want to use my skills to work towards some sort of big change in society, or whether I’d rather have hands-on experience in my community and help just a few people but in a more direct way. Working with women, in a health-care setting, with children in an resettlement center—all of these possibilities have the ring of goodness but I’m not sure which will be the best for me.
Having all these loose ends flying around is rather irritating for a Myers-Briggs J like me. I’m not used to not having all of my ducks in a row. Nevertheless, I am hopeful that once I get my learning nailed down, other things will follow. I’m ready to wake up in the morning with a schedule and a plan, rather than the ambiguity of the current days. Perhaps when I’m looking ahead towards today and tomorrow, I won’t look back towards home quite so much.
I’ve much more to write—perhaps once I’ve installed internet in my house, I can write about our “community days” and their challenges: how to construct community in thirty-six Thursdays? Talk to you soon.
Sorry for being remiss in posting for a while. I got off the plane in Israel and immediately fell into such a jetlag and whirlwind of things to do, it’s been hard to get back on the blog journey. (I am also struggling with the personal/public nature of a blog, which is why very few of you have been given this address yet…all in good time.)
What I’ve managed to do:
• Get a cell phone, at the underground agency for American students. I’ve been given a 1800 number that folks in the States can use to make the call much cheaper—if you want it, let me know.
• Find an apartment. I was pretty committed to living alone, but after seeing a bunch of places both with and without roommates, I decided that I’d have a much easier time, logistically, if I’d take an apartment with a roommate. While learning Israeli society is all well and good, I was not so thrilled about having to call Bezeq and set up the phone line by myself, not to mention buying dishes and chairs and a bed. And while I have not yet moved into my roommate’s home, I must say that I’m looking forward to the companionship as well. I move in a couple of days—I am ready to unpack.
• Join a gym, not as nice as my beloved HW, but totally sufficient for spinning and yoga.
• Buy produce in the Shuk at unbelievably inexpensive prices, and buy toiletries at my local corner drugstore for far too much money. The Shuk has rapidly become one of my favorite places in Jerusalem—rows of produce sellers, spices in large burlap sacks, olives and nuts and dried fruits, bread and pastries, fresh cheeses and not-as-fresh fish, all in the main stalls. In the little side alleys are notions shops, cheap pots and pans and papergoods, Ethiopian grains in unlabeled bags. On Sunday or Monday it’s quiet, calm, sellers smoking over their wares and talking quickly in Iraqi-accented Hebrew. On Friday midday chaos reigns: prices of produce drop rapidly during the day, young children and old Arab women crouch in the aisles at makeshift booths and sell sabra fruit (cactus) and home-pressed olive oil. Some of my friends won’t brave the crowds on Friday; I feel that it’s the only time to authentically feel the rush, Shabbat is almost upon us! And in this season of Elul, occasionally a shofar blast sounds as well.
• Find my way to a minyan that needs my skills, although I’m not sure how much I’ll be willing to reveal myself as a potential organizer. There are only so many days I can make a community go—is this something I want to do this year, help out another startup with my good energy and Torah reading talents? On the other hand, I’ve begun to feel lazy by just sitting and listening each week. Sometime soon, my time will come…
• Learn my way around southern Jerusalem, from Baka to the German Colony, Rehavia up through Nachlaot to the center of town. Still can’t get around the Old City, though—its mess of aggressive sellers and hungry children makes me feel like a rich American, lost in somewhere all of a sudden very foreign.
• Made some friends, maybe? All in good time.
And things to do:
• Learning: one of the missions of this fellowship is to learn some serious Jewish texts in a formal or informal setting. My instinct is to enroll in an organized program of Jewish learning, preferably one where I can recapture some of my Talmud skills. Unfortunately, with the requirements of my fellowship (Thursday meetings), it’s been hard for me to find a class that fits my schedule. Interestingly enough, the classes that fit my schedule are the highest level classes at both P. and CY (two renowned institutions which I am concealing from Google by initials). While I’m a bit nervous at pushing myself into classes that are for people with quite a bit more recent text experience than I have, I’m going to replay the struggle of high school and try to get in to one of these classes. I do hope I’m not overreaching—I always hate to not be the best at something, but I also know it wouldn’t be shameful if I needed to drop down a level. Of course, that’s when Thursdays intervene. In any case, I’ll spend the next two weeks trying classes and then get settled.
• Hebrew language study: after visiting an Ulpan (immersion class for new immigrants), I’ve become more convinced that private tutoring would be a better use of my time. With my day-school background, my holes are more about useful vocabulary than about the grammar that upper-level classes teach. I can conjugate verbs in the future subjunctive, but I don’t know how to ask for change when I give cash for a bill. And mostly what I need is someone to speak Hebrew with me all the time, correct my mistakes, and teach me lots and lots of new words. That said, our fellowship’s regular Hebrew teacher has just absented herself from the program, so I’m on the lookout for a new teacher—I’m concerned but hopeful.
• Community service: perhaps the biggest cipher in the program profile for me. I’ve been calling and meeting with lots of former fellows to talk about their volunteer experiences and getting some ideas and some discouragements. I think I’ll have to narrow down whether I want to use my skills to work towards some sort of big change in society, or whether I’d rather have hands-on experience in my community and help just a few people but in a more direct way. Working with women, in a health-care setting, with children in an resettlement center—all of these possibilities have the ring of goodness but I’m not sure which will be the best for me.
Having all these loose ends flying around is rather irritating for a Myers-Briggs J like me. I’m not used to not having all of my ducks in a row. Nevertheless, I am hopeful that once I get my learning nailed down, other things will follow. I’m ready to wake up in the morning with a schedule and a plan, rather than the ambiguity of the current days. Perhaps when I’m looking ahead towards today and tomorrow, I won’t look back towards home quite so much.
I’ve much more to write—perhaps once I’ve installed internet in my house, I can write about our “community days” and their challenges: how to construct community in thirty-six Thursdays? Talk to you soon.
posted by S. @ 3:47 PM
<< Home