Holiday Season

As we approach the month of holidays, the weather has begun to cool. I feel that this is somewhat a metaphor for my life in Jerusalem. I've said this in every entry I've written, but I finally feel like I'm settling down. I've finally allowed the city to welcome me into the complex web of insiders, outsiders, tourists, yerushalmis, Jews, Arabs...etc. My Hebrew is also improving, b"H.
Maya was here for a week, and it was wonderful having her. It was the first time we've really lived together in 8 years. She taught us many valuable things. For example:
1. you need to keep food in your house
2. having food in the fridge is necessary
3. eating during the day sustains life
To be honest, we were doing fine, but we are very grateful for the introduction of skee.
Maya also helped us discover Mamilla. Elyssa describes it as a less expensive more Jerusalem-y Rodeo drive. It has nice shops and gorgeous views of the new city and the old city walls. I've been there now three times in one week. Last night we had a "mini-bronf-reu." Roberta, Hody, Julie, Elyssa, and I went out for tea/icecafe. We then ventured into the old city and met up with Noah! I love the inherent multicultural nature of Jerusalem. We crossed from this modern outdoor mall into the ancient walls of the old city. Where else can you do that?

Anyway, as Rosh Hashana approaches (tomorrow night!), I've been thinking about the things that make up my life. I've been in Israel for almost a month, and I feel as though I've matured tremendously, but I have not changed. In my mind, I'm still 4, or 12, or really any age. I'm still frustrated by the same things, I still feel the same way about interactions, weather, food, time...I think the reason growing older is so weird is because we change very little except to become more refined: more adapted to society. How can I be living on my own? I still loving rolling in the grass, making weird noises, and eating ice cream until I feel sick. I'm stuck in this weird middle ground between teenage-hood and adulthood. It's glorious and frustrating. I can define and redefine myself, but how do I explain myself? Why am I here? Do I really have to come up with goals? Can I let them develop as I meet people and put my super dirty feet (thats what you get from wearing sandals in the city) in foot holds?
I'm looking forward to spending Rosh Hashana with family, eating good food, reflecting, starting anew.
Shana tova umetuka l'kulam.
A sweet and happy new year to everyone,
Eliana

Surprises

Life continues to solidify for me here in the city of peace, holiness, conflict, disorganization, unity, music, beginnings, and endings. Even as I write "solidify" I'm thinking of other words to put there, and many of them mean the exact opposite. Being from the Northeast, I'm not used to the last minute planning, the strange organization, the lack of baseball...etc. Elyssa and I are continuing to search for and find places to spend our time. We're still very much in the planning period, but we're less frustrated than we were.
On Sunday, I visited Pardes. The word "Pardes" literally means "orchard;" it is well named (although it is on top of a Mazda dealership). I felt like I walked into a hall at the Havurah Institute (although this time, almost everyone was in their mid-20s). I sat in on a social justice class and was welcomed into a wonderful chevruta of two Dorot fellows. We learned rules of Shmitta, first by examining the text from the Torah, then the Mishnah, and then the Gemarra. SO welcoming and inclusive was this community, that I felt comfortable contributing to the class conversation. I'm eager to start learning there, though I am completely unsure of my schedule.
Which brings me to my next point.
Elyssa and I also visited Yad B'Yad (www.handinhandk12.org). Of everything that I planned on participating in this year, I was most excited for this. While it's too early to judge, I admit I'm a bit nervous about this venture. First, the building was gorgeous. Jerusalem stone, glass, open spaces, beautiful library etc. They did, however, seem a bit disorganized. I'm attributing this now to the fact that we are in the awkward time period after the summer and before the major holidays (there are about 10 days of school in October). We did have the opportunity to play with the kids (although many of them had gone home because it is Ramadan). I spoke to the kids in Hebrew (they do not yet have the English to speak with me) which is great! They were a bit crazy, but it was nice to start. The school really was beautiful and I'm excited to start working there after the chagim (sort of a mantra here: everything starts AFTER the chagim).
We then caught a bus to the center of the city (mirkaz ha'ir) for a meeting at the Open House. It really is a wonderful organization, and they are in great need of funds, so we'll be networking and raising money. Hopefully, in a couple months, my Hebrew will be good enough that I can do more person-to-person interaction.
And now for something entirely different....well, not really. I auditioned for Rent. I swore I wouldn't do theater this year, but...we shall see. I vistied the Supreme Court today with ulpan, and I had my first longish conversation in Hebrew with a French woman. If I didn't know a word, I substituted French, which was a little confusing.
I'm looking forward to new adventures. Shabbat shalom!

Things Come Together

Yay productivity!!
Shabbat was especially wonderful (although not productive...clearly). On Friday afternoon, we had the opportunity to see some of our friends from Bronfman! We made a wonderful dinner (shakshuka! and stir-fry) and went to beautiful services (again at Shira Chadasha) and had a dinner guest. It was so wonderful that everything came together for Shabbat: dinner guest, plans for lunch (at another Bronfman friend's house), and plans for seuda shlishit at Shimon's. It was really nice to see Bronfman people whom we hadn't seen in a while.
Seuda shlishit: Shimon is great. We talked about politics, the hypocrisy of the republican party, sarah palin, etc. Shimon turns out to be pretty passionate about American politics (for someone who made Aliyah).
We then went out for coffee etc with bronfman people and some Israeli friends at this really awesome jazz club/open jam session.
Things are coming together in terms of plans too. We start at Yad B'yad and Open House on Tuesday, and we start learning with Shimon on wednesday. I visited Pardes today. What wonderful people. I'm very eager to start learning there. I am clearly the youngest there, but it is such a great opportunity to learn with passionate young Jews.
Sorry for the discombobulation. I'm quite tired.
Laila Tov,
Eliana

Week one= shalem

Hello again,
We've had an interesting week. I've now been to ulpan for 7 classes, and I'm still worried about hebrew. My comprehension is fine, but I need to work on my dikduk (grammar). oy. The class is easier to get through now, because I sit with my new friend Michelle, who is getting her masters at Hebrew U. We talk about American politics, and struggle through our thoughts, attempting to articulate them.
Last Shabbat, we went to a friend's house for dinner after beautiful services at Shira Chadasha. The dinner was amaaazing and we are fast learning to appreciate free meals. Saturday afternoon (after sleeping until 11:45) we went to Shimon's. Fortunately, I wasn't that hungry, because it was mostly meat.
Elyssa and I have been going to ulpan, coming back and enjoying our siesta, and going out in the afternoons for errands etc. We finally had our first meeting today! We met with Shira from the Open House about volunteering there. We are probably going to do some resource development and community organizing. The Open House (http://www.worldpride.net/index.php?id=1319), by the way, is the center for GLBTQ support in Jerusalem. The people who run it are really wonderful. We had planned to visit there anyway, but a chance meeting helped facilitate our progress. We had coffee with Assaf (our security guard/counselor/friend from last summer) and his friend walked in and we talked. He told us to come to the Open House, and he gave us some more contact info. Yesss, so now we feel busy.
We have meetings with Pardes and Yad Byad on Sunday.
We are leaving tomorrow afternoon for Tel Aviv to visit Maya and Uri. We're going to the beach!
On friday, we hope to visit with Hody, Julie, Eitan, and Roberta!!! איזה כיף להיות עם חברים
We just returned from hanging out with some Israelis who are our age! It was exciting. We watched a football match (actually soccer) and I stumbled through Hebrew as they stumbled through English.
To bed! I'm tired. (we seriously have walked about 6 miles today. probably more. we hate paying for transportation)
ciao

Ulpan and such

Day one of ulpan. We woke up at 6:30 and showered. I should add here that our shower is interesting. The shower head is about at chest height. One lifts said shower head in one hand, and uses the other for showering purposes. It is a learned skill.
Anyway, after showering, we walked to Ulpan (Hebrew class) and arrived at 7:57 (it starts at 8). I am in "Gimmel plus" which is level three plus. The teacher is nice, and very much a crazy Israeli lady. There are 10 people in my class. At least 2 of us are Jewish, one woman is an olah chadasha (new immigrant) from Russia, and the rest are Arab. Everyone in the class is really nice and eager to learn Hebrew, which is great. I understand everything which is going on (awesome!) but I still lack speaking skills and dikduk (grammar). I'm going to buy a grammar book tomorrow.
After 4 and a half hours at ulpan, Elyssa and I went grocery shopping...again; this time at Mr. Zol which is a conviently large and familiarly structured supermarket. We then walked to the old city. According to Omer (one of our Israeli friends from last summer), it would be a 10 minute walk. An Israeli 10 minutes...actually, more like 20. We bought some more stuff for our apartment and then decided that we would save money on cab fare and walk all the way back. An Israeli 10 minutes. This time, 25. Exhausted, we drank water and ate pita (welcome to Israel) and put our couch bed on the floor. We now have sugar, flour, water filter, rice, pasta, fruit, olive oil, soy sauce, TOFU, pita, pita, pita, hummus...and other assorted necessities.
After eating, Omer headed back to his large apartment (but they have 11 people) and we stayed home, did our homework, and cleaned the kitchen.
We're exhausted because we walked so much, and we're still getting over jetlag, but all is well. We had a delicious dinner and are looking forward to the weekend (it comes a day early here...it also ends a day early).
I'm looking forward to trying to get some antibiotics for possible pertussis tomorrow. Wish me luck.
Peace, homies.
e

2 days of travel, and we're here

We made it! It's so weird how travel across time zones really messes with your perception of time. My flight from Boston to Toronto was nice. I sat next to a nice Canadian woman and talked about American politics, and how Barack Obama should win the election. I arrived in Toronto and found my gate. The man sitting at the desk provided several hours worth of entertainment. He either loved his job (he was very cheerful) or really hated it. Anyway, I eventually boarded the plane and smushed my too-big backpack into the overhead (an elderly woman sitting under the overhead gave me a hostile and nervous look).
The flight wasn't bad; I sat next to two 18 year old boys headed to yeshivot in Israel. We talked about baseball, mostly. I can't sleep on airplanes, and I didn't really want to watch 10 hours of movies, so I watched people. The flight was about 1/2 students headed to study in Israel, and 1/2 older people or really young families (multiple children, of course). The flight attendants were nice; among them, there were 5 languages available (Arabic, Hebrew, English, French, and Italian).
I arrived at Ben Gurion, and after some confusion with baggage claim, I went through "customs" (a couple of old men in uniforms, sitting in chairs, waving people on), and found Maya! A friendly face was certainly welcome. Maya bought me gelotto and I kvetched. Eventually I headed out to the Sherut area and boarded the van headed for Jerusalem. The driver, being Israeli, found speed limits to be merely a suggestion (and a mild one at that). Also, lane indications were no biggy (who needs them anyway?)
He dropped me on the street. I looked around in the dark, saw no number 12, and rustled through my bag to find my phone. Elyssa found me, though, and we headed upstairs to unpack.
The apartment is small, and not very well furnished, but we'll go to the shuk tomorrow. I've unpacked, and it finally feels like a home. The oven is small, but I expect that we will be able to use Shimon's kitchen!
We're heading to ulpan tomorrow morning at 8, and then some organizational stuff.
Peace out, from the holy land,
Eliana Tair