This is mildly pathetic.

To quote Austin Powers, I feel like I've lost my mojo, baby. I mean, let's face it, everyone is dealing with the same (or similar shit). This shouldn't be that hard.

I came to the miraculous realization that my coping skills would be better if I was more upbeat/positive. So I just need to do that. Easy, right?

I haven't made any concrete New Year's Eve plans. I'm not even sure I want to. Blech.

On a positive note, I hung out with Roberto and Elliott, my French horn minions. Roberto and I shared some of our "college stories" with Elliott. It was fun. I got some great reactions from them. At least I've been semi-productive with my time these past 2.5 years. :)

alas

I have received no more grades. Maybe this is a good thing. Still, it feels like purgatory (or being trapped in an airport, or whatever). Grade purgatory. At least my grades aren't being withheld because the JTS bursar didn't get his act together and get my tuition reimbursement when he should have...yay for no holds on my account...

Christmas was celebrated with my family in Michigan, as per usual. Also as per usual, it was the perfect amount of time to be crammed in with my family in such close quarters for an extended period of time. Of course, my dad reminded us that when he was younger and lived in a really sketch neighborhood in Chicago, the apartment the family lived in was the same size. He neglected to remember that I have no friends in Michigan to hang out with. Whatever. That being said, Rachel, J.J., and I had an awesome conversation one night, so that was fun.

So I'm back home and done with my brush with Christianity for the year.

On the car ride back to HP, my dad asked me if I'd ever heard of Lafayette University. Apparently his friend's daughter goes there. I told him that Columbia once played them in football and that "they're really French". Hooray for basing my knowledge of a school solely on CUMB halftime shows! I then felt compelled to hum my part for "Stand Columbia", but didn't because it's not that great a song. (Not that's stopped me before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykwqXuMPsoc)

Anyways, it's my first night back, and I am insanely bored. Save me!

Right now, I'm not so keen on going back to NYC. I'm fully aware of the fact that all of my friends will also be leaving HP and returning to college. But I just don't want to go back. In the beginning of last semester, I was doing so well. School was meh, but I was living a nice, relatively healthy and balanced life. Things then went to shit the weekend before Thanksgiving and as awesome as Thanksgiving break was, I couldn't get back into the rhythm that had been working so well for me before. I've been having nightmares about not being able to handle my schedule next semester and I'm afraid that it's going to drive me over the edge. Then of course, I'm thinking about changing positions on the wind ensemble's exec board, and this one might involve more work. AND CMTS is putting on Fiddler on the Roof and I want to audition for the cast and when that fails, try for the pit orchestra, if they need French horns. But it probably won't matter because I probably won't even have time for the rehearsals. Ugh.

Basically, I feel like I am in over my head right now in school, and I don't want to go back. I've also been reading through the LSAT book...and it sounds scary and unfun and law school sounds like lots of work and I want to run away all Peter Pan-esque.

In reality, I know everything will be okay (and to that LSAT prep thing that keeps commenting, I saw your link the first time, please no more comments!)...I just wish that I had more time in between semesters...blarg.

In short, please rescue me!

WOOOoooOOO

I AM DONE! I would like to forget about that psych final...DONE!

I got a decent grade on my Brit Lit paper! I am waiting on 1 JTS grade and all 3 of my Columbia grades...fun...

I am all packed, my room is relatively clean, I washed almost all of my clothes, and I don't think I've forgotten anything!

My flight leaves at 9pm, which means that I should be leaving within the next 30 minutes, since I bet traffic is going to be a major butt.

I AM SO TIRED. I may have nodded off several times during my psych final. Oops.

In short, I am delirious, you are all beautiful, and if I miss my flight home, I will be one pissed off woman. :)

goals...revisiting and revising

Here were my goals for the semester:

1. Go to shul more

I didn't do this, and I'm okay with that

2. Care more about school

I definitely didn't do this, and I'm less okay with that. I will say though that I do not think I have done poorly this semester, and that this has been my busiest semester by far.

3. Study for the LSATs

I didn't do this...

4. Keep training to run 5ks

I kept this up until Thanksgiving break...

5. Continue my pursuit of awesomeness

I generally succeeded here!

And now...here are my goals for the Spring 2010 semester:

1. Kick ass in school

For obvious reasons. Seriously. I need to attack this semester with the right attitude, of it is going to p0wn me in a very uncomfortable way.

2. Study for/take the LSATs

I am going to start studying for the LSATs over winter break, and I hope to take the February test. My incentive to do study hard is that if I do this and get a good score in February, I won't have to take it again/study more!

3. Restart running, train for more races

Without races to train for, I lost my momentum. I still want to run a half marathon in June! This means that I need to get back up to running 3-4 miles a day...maybe I won't be running 4 miles everyday anymore (that wasn't healthy anyways), but I need to rebuild my strength and endurance.

4. Eat healthier!

This will help my running and my general health. Before Thanksgiving, I was actually doing okay with this, and I felt healthier/better as a result. Therefore, logic would dictate that I should restart this. So I will. It won't be easy or fun. In fact, this might be the hardest goal.

5. Learn euphonium/baritone

I've been thinking about switching marching band instruments. I don't really feel an incentive to come to rehearsals anymore, and I think that switching instruments will change that, because I will have to relearn all of the music.

6. Continue my pursuit of awesomeness/sanity

Obviously.

7. Clean my room/do laundry once a week

This way, it won't become a huge job that I have to do at the end of the semester when I should really be studying for finals. (Except it's not even that huge of a job.)

In other news, I take my psych final at 1pm and my flight (hopefully) leaves LaGuardia at 9pm. Before my final, I have to finish studying, do my laundry, and run a few last-minute errands. After my final, I need to pack, fold my clean clothes that I'm not taking with me, and take out the garbage and some of the recycling...because there is a shit ton of it. I have time for all of this.

I'm really hoping that this winter break is fun and restful, that I get to spend lots of time with friends and family. I hope that I actually study for the LSAT and restart running. I also hope that you all finish your finals without major detriment to your health/sanity and that you accomplish everything that you want to during your winter break.

And now, I really must get back to my psych...

lollerskates

The worst is over! The end is near! Huzzah!

My stress level is significantly lower, which is marvelous. At this point, I'm just hoping that the weather is clear on Tuesday evening and that my flight will...fly.

I want to go home! I miss home shenanigans. I want to go to work with my mom. She is a preschool teacher, and I hear stories about the kids in her class. Apparently they are all good, but kind of weird. There's one girl that my dad and I call Science Girl, because she really likes science. I want to meet her.

Shenanigans had also better involve sledding on Centennial Hill. Perhaps also ice skating? Basically, awesome hangouts with friends. (They will also involve the 13 verse Torah reading that I haven't started thinking about yet.)

And now, to discuss the topic which made me think, "I should blog about something and share my thoughts with the world!"

So here it is. BUTLER. For those of you who don't go to Columbia, Butler is the main undergraduate library. There are also a bajillion other libraries, but this is the biggest. Basically, people camp out in Butler during midterms and finals. I think this is absolutely ridiculous. Then again, my studying methods differ from many people...in that I don't study too much. Since I have so many goddamn classes to take, I try and find classes that involve minimal studying (except for the JTS core classes and ArtHum/MusicHum, which I'm required to take)...and this has actually gone pretty well for me (this statement is pending my Fall '09 grades).

I deal with stress in a few ways: going running and having major amounts of time to myself to chill. In case you didn't notice, neither of those methods involve going to the library. Sometimes I'll bring some books and go to the JTS library after a class. Since I've started work study there and now I know where everything is, being in the library feels very comforting.

Now, Bwog has several commenters who are seriously against people they claim just go to Butler and camp out to make a big deal of how much they "study". Even if that is the case (and I'm inclined to think that this is the motive for some people, in which case, they are huge tools), why the hell do they care?

Butler always intimidated me for this reason: those freaky camping out people. I'm admittedly not a very intense studier. I'm lucky enough that I can do pretty well in my classes without studying a shit ton. I refuse to turn studying into an art form.

Of course, there is the seamier side of The Butt (I couldn't resist!)...that's right, the hookup scene. Not that I would know, seeing as how I avoid the place. Presumably people "study" at Butler to check out the doodz and ladiez. Whatever. This can be summed up by a conversation I had at a party last night:

freshman girl: I need to get back to Butler!
me: Why?
fg: This guy came up to me and started talking right before I left to come here. He said I should come back by 2am!
me: Oh, Butler...
fg: What grade are you in?
me: I'm a junior.

fg: Oh, so you know all about Butler.

me: Totally.

This is proof that I can affect jaded wisdom which fools drunken freshmen. But let's face it, we already knew that.

In conclusion, I'm trying really hard to make it through my undergraduate college career without spending ungodly hours in the library. Though I might have to reconsider, as studying in a library might make me more productive. Because let's face it, there is no way in hell I am going to approach some random guy in Butler. So I think that I will be safe. In fact, I won't want to surf the internet and have people judge me for my website choices.

(If I ever decide that I'm desperate for companionship, I might venture into Butler. But probably not, because they're probably all lame anyways, what with all the studying. Or fake studying. That's even worse than real studying.)

TubaChristmas!

Remaining work (by type):

papers: 2

classes: 2

finals: 2

Hebrew school classes: 2

Remaining work (by day):

Monday, 12/14: 1 paper, 1 class, 1 day of Hebrew school

Tuesday, 12/15: 1 paper

Wednesday, 12/16: 1 final, 1 day of Hebrew school

Thursday, 12/17: 1 class

Tuesday, 12/22: 1 final

Lately I've been so overwhelmed with dealing with the fact that the Joint Program is just so stressful. Granted, for getting 2 separate B.A.s (which is different from being a double major) for 160ish credits is a steal, but it's still an insane amount of work. It's scary to think that next semester might be my most academically rigorous semester of college.

In addition to dealing with school, I need to buckle down and start studying for the LSAT, especially since there is no way that I can afford a class...any of those classes. Also, I might need to look into planning when I'm going to visit the Chicago-area law schools I'm applying to, because I'm not going to be home much when they're in session. My options are early January, late March, and mid-late May. (I'm leaning toward the later, if possible.)

Despite all of my freaking out about my grades, I looked up school rankings and all the accompanying data and oddly enough, my grades are actually good enough for all the schools I'm considering (there are 10)...at least, they will be if I keep doing well. But no pressure. Ugh.

And now for the happy part of this post! Today I went to TubaChristmas with Elizabeth! TubaChristmas (tubachristmas.com) is the most magical thing ever! Now, for those of you who have been paying attention, my main instrument that I play is the french horn (I also play piano and am capable of playing violin, but I haven't touched one of those in years) and mellophone for marching band. Well, the euphonium (both tubas and euphoniums/baritones play at TubaChristmas) has the same fingerings as the mellophone, so I played one of those today! It was a lot of fun. Even though I'm no stranger to celebrating Christmas, I haven't been very exposed to the music/hymns...or so I thought. A lot of them sounded very familiar...I just didn't know they were Christmas songs. Anyways, we went down to Rockefeller Center, registered and practiced in a parking garage (I also bought a TubaChristmas hat!), and then went out onto the ice rink and performed for people! It was really rainy, but still supremely awesome. I'm officially going to try and go to TubaChristmas every year that I can, either in NYC or elsewhere.

And now to finish my paper that is due tomorrow/today.

hrm

My blogging rate, not unlike my productivity rate, has been rather low lately. Maybe I should amend this! And by that, I mean that I want to procrastinate from writing a paper, and that writing here actually helps transition me into my paper writing because at least this is actual writing and not me mindlessly playing solitaire.

(I just stopped to play some solitaire.)

Thanksgiving break was, in short, exactly what I needed. It was restful, but not in the sense that I got much sleep. Because I didn't. In fact, I think I got less sleep than I do at school. It was restful in that I got to see a lot of friends and just hang out. More to come over winter break!

I found out that I can graduate on time, but the number of classes I'm going to have to take each semester is going to drive me crazy. It's still better than doing summer school. Still, I am worried about my sanity. I have to take AT LEAST 21 credits (7 classes) a semester, plus work study, plus my job that pays me money for food/living expenses, plus wind ensemble and marching band. I can already predict panic attacks.

Today is Tuba Christmas! This involves going to the ice rink at Rockefeller Center and playing awesome Christmas music! I will be playing euphonium. A group of marching band people are going. It is going to be super!

Work I still have:

Monday, by 5pm (but really by 2:30pm, because then I have to go to work): Brit Lit paper

Tuesday, by 3pm: anthro paper

Wednesday, 10:20am: cantillation final

Thursday, 8:45am: musicianship final (really, it's just another class)

NEXT Tuesday, 1-4pm: psych final

It's actually pretty decently spread out. My Brit Lit paper is 1/3 done (I have 5 pages written, but no thesis...but everything I've written is going into the paper. Also, I've only covered one of the two books I need to write about...so I have done 1/3 of the work but I have 1/2 of the required content, if that makes sense. My anthro paper is half written (again, I'm not sure that there is a thesis, but this one is far more coherent, because I had to submit 3 pages already, and then I submitted one additional page...both for separate assignments in the class). The cantillation final will require 2 hours max of studying. Psych will require more time, but I'll have all of Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and part of Tuesday. At least, the parts that aren't spent cleaning my room. Yeah.

Blargh.

yay, life!

On Friday, I took my midrash final. Why did I take it in November? Because we're allowed to take the final whenever we want, and I didn't want to worry about it in December, when I need to focus on the rest of my classes.

You might be thinking, "Sarah, what the hell is midrash?" That's totally cool, because I wasn't completely sure before I took the class. Midrash is interpretation of Jewish texts (like the Torah, but not limited to just the Torah) done primarily by rabbis. I feel comfortable telling you this because I got an A on the final and the teacher, who is the chair of the JTS midrash department, said that he agreed with my definition. He also said that he was pleasantly surprised by how I did on the final since I'm so quiet in class (hard to believe, right?) so he had not been sure how I would do. I got a kick out of that.

He also told me that now that he knows that I "know my stuff" that he expects me to participate a lot in class. This means he's going to call on me, so I need to have all of the Hebrew/Aramaic texts prepared for class. Oh well. He's an awesome professor, so I'm okay with that. (Side note: I'm always supposed to have the texts prepared for class, but whatever.)

This past weekend, the band went to Cornell. This meant that I got to see Scott! We hung out at his house and watched "Ocean's 11" and had a slumber party on his extremely comfortable couch. It was epic. Also, the football team won! This brings this season's number of wins to 3. This is 1 more win than last year (and one more win than the year before)! Next weekend we're playing Brown, and we don't have to wear our uniforms! I am looking forward to this...I have a potentially awesome/entertaining costume for the game!

chugging along

My "midterm season" will end on Tuesday! I have a psych exam then, and an anthro paper due tomorrow...and I just remembered that it's due tomorrow and not Tuesday, when the class is.

Shit.

So on Friday, I got a haircut. Now, I think my hair is around the length of JJ's (my brother), except for my bangs, which are longer. Now he and I will probably look even more alike, minus the fact that he is 6+ inches taller than me and I have boobs. I'm donating my hair to Locks of Love! This is my second time doing this. Currently, my hair is sitting in a bag on my printer. Maybe I will mail it in tomorrow?

Last night, Louise, Sam, Sam's friend Justin, Charline, Adam, and I went to see Rocky Horror Picture Show performed live. It was awesome! Adam and I had never seen it before, so we went up on stage and participated in a very special game...I came in second, to a 15-year-old girl who was skanked out in American Apparel. I don't mind losing to her. We bought prop bags for the show, which basically involved throwing things. During the wedding scene we threw rice...and it got stuck in everyone's hair (especially mine), clothes...it was super awesome.

I have been having a thought for awhile. I don't think this is necessarily something I am capable of doing, but it would be awesome to have. I think that there should be an interactive website for Jewish travelers. Basically, you enter the name of the place you want to go, and get message boards and links and everything, with resources (Chabbad, list of kosher restaurants, synagogues, also bitchin' places to go, both religious and secular alike), as well as a message board, to talk to other travelers (like what I did for my trip to Cairo, which I planned completely by myself). It would be so awesome and helpful!

If I could have basically any job, I'd love to do this.

This was one of my random thoughts of the day!

travel bug?

Not that I have the money to travel to awesome places ("awesome" is subjective...I think that Stew Leonard's is awesome, though that's less of an opinion and more fact), but I still want to travel!

Granted, I don't have the time at the moment to carry out said travel plans. That's actually one of the good things about marching band...even though it takes up a lot of time, I get to see a lot of the east coast...FO' FREE!

Here is my list of places to go:

1. Mount Vernon, IA

I NEED to go visit my friend Mara. We went to Camp Young Judaea Midwest together. We discovered that we share the same birthday and are basically two halves of the same person (She's the bubbly, effervescent half and I'm the cynical half.)! She goes to Cornell College and is making aliyah after she graduates...so I should visit her now, before she moves halfway across the world!

The only issue is that Cornell College is about 3 hours away from my house by car, and I'm not sure that my parents will let me borrow the car to make the trip.

2. Philadelphia, PA

I also need to visit Mike, my Facebook husband. And Philadelphia is a pretty cool place.

3. Annendale on Hudson, NY

I need to go to Bard College to visit Josh!

And beyond?

So I'm in Florida...

Florida is great! I'm visiting my grandparents right now in Cape Coral, which is in South West Florida.

As I was boarding my connecting flight from Miami International Airport to Southwest Florida International Airport, the woman scanning the tickets turned to me and said, "How old are you?" I was shocked. Do I really look like I am not old enough to fly by myself? I told her that I'm 20 (I had to pause for a second, because I haven't had to tell people of my entrance into this new decade very often), and she said, "Okay, big girl!"

It was weird. And patronizing.

Then, I went to Home Depot with my grandpa, to try to find a new mini fridge, preferably with hinges on the left side (so my left-handed grandpa has an easier time getting his beer out of the mini fridge while watching football). They didn't have what he was looking for, so the woman turned to me and said, "Go online and try to find it for him." They then had a discussion about how they can't use the internet.

It's official: I'm the youngest person here.

The weather is apparently unseasonably warm, which I love. It's in the 80s and sunny! I found a great running route, but I have no desire to wake up before the sun is in full force, so I haven't been doing quite as much running (25 minutes yesterday, 33 minutes today...okay, so maybe not THAT much less...) I don't think I'm going to get rid of my awesome farmer's tan, but I think I definitely have more freckles now than I did two days ago...win! There's also the pool, but it's not as fun by myself. When I came to Florida with my family, my siblings and I would swim together...which always devolved into fighting (I'm a mean fighter). This is my second visit to Florida by myself (I also came to Florida by myself last October), and since my schedule doesn't really line up with my family's, I'm not sure when the next time I'll be able to go on a family vacation with them (aside from when we visit my Grandma for Christmas) will be.

As for homework...I've done a little. For me, this is a big deal, so you should be happy for me! I'm writing a paper on A Clockwork Orange, about how the orchestral music relates to the violence and sexual imagery.

But now, on to the most important thing...stone crab claws. The season just began. Here's how it works: The crabs can regrow their claws! This means that the fishermen catch the crabs. If the crab has 2 claws, they take the bigger claw and put the crabs back. If the crab only has 1 claw, they aren't allowed to take anything. This means that the claws are the best in the beginning of the season, because there are more of them. The claws are hard, like porcelain. In the restaurant, they sometimes pre-crack them for you, to make it easier. You take the claw cracker and use it to whack the claw, rather than crack it. Pieces of the claw then chip off, and then you can pull the crab meat out with a little fork. It tastes absolutely incredible. My grandpa likes to use the butter sauce with the crab, but I think it's too rich for that (plus, the emulsified butter grosses me out), but I think that it actually goes best with mustard (yes, Grey Poupon).

So yeah, vacation rocks!

Whee!

School is going the way it always does.

So is marching band.

This week, my goal is to run 4 miles everyday. To be honest, I don't really notice the addition of the extra mile. My running pace is a little slower, but that's it.

This weekend, I'm going to Florida to visit my Grandpa and Buscia (I think that's Polish for grandma? Anyways, she's my step-grandma...she and my grandpa got married when my mom was in middle school or high school...so basically I grew up with a 3rd grandma.)! I'm leaving on Saturday afternoon and returning to NYC on Tuesday afternoon.

Today I had a meeting at Hillel with someone from Nefesh b'Nefesh (Hebrew for "soul in soul"), an organization that facilitates aliyah (Jews moving to Israel and gaining Israeli citizenship) in North America and the UK. It was really informative. The woman went through the benefits that an oleh (a new Israeli citizen) receives (free M.A., 5 months of intensive Hebrew lessons, money, subsidized housing...things like that).

Basically, what I found out is that if I want to take the plunge and move to Israel, I'll need to first spend a year or two working and paying off my student loans. While I would receive money from the state, it wouldn't be that much. I could qualify for extra grant money when making aliyah if I demonstrate the need, but I would need to make significant progress on paying my loans back.

I still don't know if this is what I want to do. But I know that if I choose this, my future in the US will not involve grad school immediately after getting my B.A.s.

retrospect

Last year, I had a serious case of the sophomore slump. I knew it at the time, but looking back, I'm not sure I knew how bad it was. I think that I'm consistently happier this year...which is good, since it's happening right now. Deep, I know. It's weird, saying, "I was generally unhappy last year. I'm less depressed now." Part of this is because I highly doubt that I was suffering from clinical depression, and having lived with people who have to live with depression everyday, I'm always very hesitant to claim tendencies from any mental affliction. (I prefer to think that I'm the most normal person you'll ever meet.) I have moods, but then again, so does everyone else.

I do think that running has helped me. Running everyday has to lead to more endorphins, or something. Also, I'm getting regular exercise. That's probably a good thing.

In general, I'm massively behind on work. If there's a paper due or an exam coming up, I write the paper the night before (like I'm doing now) or I cram for a day or two before the exam. I used to be so much better than this. And yet, I really do think that it's going to work out.

I'm not as interested in anthropology anymore. I was going to focus on ethnomusicology, but it just didn't work out. Since I decided that I'm going to law school, I decided to not write a thesis. Sure, I need to get good grades, but some of the joy of academic pursuit is gone. I'm generally enjoying my classes, but they're just that--classes. I'm not sure how much bearing they will have on my life after I graduate, and I'm more than okay with that.

The classes that I take in the cantorial school frustrate me. I have a different background than the cantorial students. I can't sing as well as them (I chose violin/french horn lessons over voice lessons, which I think was the smart choice), but I have a stronger musical background (which comes with having played musical instruments since I was 6). I also have a strong background in chanting Torah/haftorah/all of the other scrolls that involve chanting...so the only thing that I am lacking is experience as a choral singer. That's it. It's so weird, sitting in classes with people who will one day go on to lead synagogues...it makes me realize that I could do that. I might even enjoy it. I'm just not sure that I have enough religious conviction to do that sort of thing. I sure as hell don't have the patience...I'll never be a people person. I guess the frustrating thing is that as far as the classes go, it all looks so easy. I know that's not actually true, but that's the way it looks.

I think this means I need to make an appointment with my major advisor/dean of the cantorial school and have a chat. I actually need to do this anyways, since I'm almost done with my JTS major...

I haven't started studying for the LSAT, but I'm taking a (free) practice test in December. I want to be done with all of that shit as soon as possible. I'm kind of afraid. When I was in high school, I had an ACT tutor, but I can't really afford that kind of thing now. I bought the prep books, hopefully they'll help out. And hopefully I'll get good grades and everything will work out. I'm already fantasizing about winter break.

I've been thinking about Thanksgiving a lot...going home, getting to see friends. I'm not even joking, I already know what I'm going to be doing for most of the holiday...all my "free time" is scheduled. This is the first time I've ever really been looking forward to going home. I used to be so proud of the fact that I was so independent, living far from home. That's changed this semester. When I think about grad school, I think about going back to Illinois, hoping that I can get into either UChicago or Northwestern.

But you know what? I can honestly say that despite my procrastinating and homesick ways (and the fact that I really need to clean my room), life is good.

How's that for an update?

conversation

Arielle was leaving Goldsmith today as I got back from my run.

Arielle: You look sweaty!

Me: I just got back from my run.

Arielle: You don't run!

Me: I run almost 3 miles a day

Arielle: Since when?

Me: Since this semester.

Proof that your freshman year roommate(s) can change! Also proof that I can go running everyday and still be out of shape. Poop. (At least you can't call me lazy!)

You know that thing called homework?

You don't? Neither do I.

So far, this semester is going well. Conveniently enough, I haven't had any real work due. Do you smell an impending disaster? Because I do.

I'm not sure if running will ever be something that I love, but it's something that I've come to enjoy. Sometimes. Running 2.5+ miles and not keeling over doesn't seem like much of an accomplishment now, but 6+ weeks ago, it might have seemed like one. I have 3 more weeks of the 5k training, and then I'm going to start working towards a 10k. I called my little brother up to get running advice (and to apologize for anything I've done in the past year to hurt him, Yom Kippur-style), and he was really happy to give me advice. Basically, running is the only thing that I am doing consistently that I am not required to do. Because doing my class reading isn't required.

This year, I'm doing work study at the JTS library, because I'm getting a scholarship from the school. Shelving books is kind of zen-like, when I'm left alone at it. It's not something I would willingly do otherwise, but it's really not that bad.

This year, I'm also an assistant teacher in a special needs class at the Hebrew school. Or, as Meir, the head teacher and most adorable old man I have ever met, says, I am his co-teacher. I really enjoy the work. I have no desire to go into education, but I do look forward to going to work on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. It's nice.

Marching band is going pretty much the same way it always has, except that now I'm one of the older people, which I get a kick out of. Also, I'm the "Real Sarah", which I find entertaining.

Charline and I are working on a web show. It will be awesome and immature and inappropriate. Whee! We have most of the rough draft of episode 1 done. I'd love to finish the script, polish it, and film the episode by the end of the month. This will involve casting willing friends/other people to be in the show, as well as acquiring old lady costumes for Charline and myself. We'll also have to actually find time to film it. We'll see how that goes.

I'm surprised/dismayed by my current relationship with alcohol. That is to say, I'm not really into it in the way I used to be. Either I'm more mature/health conscious now, or I'm just getting boring. It's probably the later.

This update has been very long overdue. My bad.

and now I'm here

and so it goes
and so it goes

and you're the only one that knows

NYC is as awesome as always. Running is actually going well. I feel like there is more to say. That is to say, there probably is.

Oh well.

goals

These are my goals for the year:

1. Go to shul more. This is actually something I have been missing for awhile. I can't explain it to someone who grew up more secular than I did. I have issues with Conservative Judaism, but I feel at home in the prayers. And if I have to put up with Hillel kids who are in a perpetual USY (United Synagogue Youth, the youth group for Conservative Judaism) reunion, so be it. I can deal. I'm good at ignoring things.

2. Care more about school. Don't get me wrong, I do pretty well for myself. But I could do better. Especially if I want to go to a fancy pants place for grad school and get a scholarship.

3. Study for the LSATs. I don't want to have to pay for a class. We'll see how this goes. I've heard law school and the work involved afterwards described as slave labor, but I think a JD would be a good thing to have. Plus, I like school and people who have an inflated sense of self-importance, so law school is perfect for me.

4. Keep training to run 5ks. This has actually been going pretty well, and I like having a goal within sight. I've actually been enjoying it so far, which is more than I can say for my past attempts at running.

5. Continue my pursuit of awesomeness. I used to be an extremely shy person who was really uncomfortable with herself. This has changed a lot, but I feel like people still see me the way I was in middle school, wearing huge t-shirts and leggings, sitting in the corner during the lunch period and reading a book...basically unable to have a normal conversation with anyone who wasn't an adult. In a lot of ways, I feel that as I've gotten older, I've become more immature. I was one of those kids who had a big vocabulary and used it. Now I feel like I sometimes spend more time goofing off than doing productive things. But this is healthy, I think. I can be a mature, fully functioning member of society when I want to but right now, I'm acting my age. I rock.

Number 5 is purposely vague. Basically, I want this year to be better than last year was. In some ways, it already is--I have a much clearer view of what I want to do with my life...or at least, the next step or two that I will be taking. This is very comforting, since I am highly anal retentive when I want to be. Essentially, Number 5 is there to remind me that I need to focus on being happy, because being happy is pretty freaking awesome.

So, yeah.

so.

Salutations, my darlings!

Things have been going well here. I finally moved all of my clothes from the suitcase downstairs to a laundry basket in my room. Basically, my clothing has exploded all over the floor, where it will stay until I wash everything and pack for NYC.

I am thoroughly enjoying my chillaxing time, but I have been semi-productive!

Yesterday, I felt like I had transitioned into a band mom. I picked my brother and his bassoon protege up from the high school to take them to the ice rink. Of course, my brother is an airhead, and he did not have socks, so I needed to make a pit stop at our house. While my brother ran in to get said socks, I was in the car with a little freshman girl who I needed to entertain. I asked all of the mundane questions, and she was quiet and nervous. Which makes sense, really. I then realized that this could be my life in an indeterminate number of years...carpooling small children. My goal in life is to make a shit ton of money...not really for the money's sake, but so that I can work while my husband gets to do all those delightful errands. Because if I make more money than he does, then I don't have to work part time or any of that shit.

That is actually my train of thought.

Tonight after dinner, I told what is quite possibly one of my best stories to my family. It's not actually inappropriate, but I'm still not posting it here. I'll say this much:

Dad (in reference to my story): Only you would tell that to your parents.

Horray for sharing!

sweet!

I have glorious news, my darlings!

Today, I woke up at the glorious hour of 1:30pm and checked my email. I had a message from one of my Write On for Israel (WOFI--an Israel advocacy/journalism program I did during my junior/senior years of high school that took me on a free 2 week trip to Israel during the summer after my junior year), saying that a one day DC fly-in is being arranged by Jewish communities across the country, to lobby congressmen and senators re: Iran. I was offered a spot in the Chicago delegation, representing WOFI alumni, with my travel and registration fee reimbursed. Of course, I said yes. Not only do I get to go to DC for free (again...this is actually the 2nd time I'll have gone to DC through WOFI), but I get to miss a day of classes to do it, and there's NOTHING anyone can do about it. Also, it's on a Thursday and I have no Friday class, which is good.

I rock.

I decided I want to start running 5k races. This involves training to run said 5k races. I started that today, and will look to enter some races in October and December.

Here are other little things that happened today:

My dad and I had a discussion about beer pong. It went like this:

Dad: Sarah, have you heard of beer pong?
me: (Oh, I've done more than hear about it...) You mean pong or beirut?

Dad: What's beirut?
me: What most people call beer pong. Actual beer pong involves breaking the handles off of ping pong paddles and then using the paddle to hit the ball. It's how they do it at Dartmouth. (I know, I sound like a huge snob. But it's true.)

Dad: No, that's not beer pong.

me: ...yes it is...

My dad then showed me a video that someone posted onto Facebook. It involves people making insane pong shots. My dad was going to send me the link, but the only way to do that would have been to share it through Facebook...and that would involve being Facebook friends with my dad. So I don't have the link to share with you. Sorry.

My mom brought home nail polish for me and my sister.

me: Thanks for the nail polish.

Mom: Which color did you take?
me: ...well, considering that they're both dark purple, I took dark purple.

Mom: No, they're different colors.

me: ...what colors are they?

Mom: Well, they're almost the same. It's a negligible difference.

me: ...I see.

I'm wearing said dark purple nail polish right now. Because I'm awesome like that.

I also said the phrase "dumb fuck" in front of my grandma. Oops. My dad told me to watch my language. He almost never does that. They want my grandma to think that I am a good person and don't swear. Oops.

I also played Guitar Hero, aka one of the best games, ever.

So as you can see, today was kickass.

ha. so.

Today, I woke up at an ungodly hour to get to downtown HP (that's Highland Park, for those of you not in the know) by 8am. I met with a guy from my shul who is a lawyer. We talked about lawyery things, since I've decided to go to law school and whatnot. He didn't tell me what to do one way or the other, but after 49 years, he still enjoys what he is doing. More than anything, that's what I want out of my career. Well, I also want to be able to pay off all of my student loans and be able to support myself.

My grandma is here to visit! She usually comes for a little in the spring/summer, and also for Thanksgiving. (She is usually our only guest.) We then go visit her for Christmas. Oh, Christmas, I have such mixed feelings about you...but those can wait until Christmas is closer...assuming I'm still writing this then and you are still reading it.

This is the first conversation my grandma and I had, even before we hugged:

Grandma: Did you do something with your hair?
me: No?

Grandma: But it's curly. Did you use anything on it?
me: No, it was like this when I woke up.
Grandma: Did you lighten your hair?
me: No, I spent a lot of time out in the sun in Israel.
Grandma: ...Oh, you got bangs! That's it. (She hasn't seen me for awhile, since Christmas, I guess...I mean, I've had bangs since February, so I don't consider them a recent change.)

This conversation was especially weird since my grandma was bald. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in January of 2005. Thank god, she's been doing well, all things considered. She just finished a round of chemo and wasn't wearing her wig, because she says it makes her head sore/gives her a headache if she wears it for too long. But this is the first time I've seen her bald. It was weird.

My sister then called and asked when I wanted to get a pedicure. I said I'd go with her because she views this as an appropriate bonding ritual, getting foot massages is fun, getting toenail polish that my parents disapprove of (like yellow) is even more fun, and I have a lot of dead skin on my heels courtesy of Israel that needs to be removed. She wanted to go at 8am tomorrow morning. I quickly said no. In case you didn't already know, I value my sleep. I will wake up early to go to shul or football games or sometimes even class, but I won't get up that early for a fucking pedicure. She then suggested Thursday, but this is when she moves into her apartment/dorm. Even though my parents pre-requested a room for her, they are convinced that it will still be first come first served, and I agree. While I appreciate Rachel's dedication to getting a pedicure, I think moving into her swanky Chicago pad is more important. So we're going Saturday afternoon.

Being home is nice. There are many couches for me to fall asleep on. There is also my bed and even though it is a bunk bed, it has a really awesome mattress that makes me feel like I am sleeping on a cloud or something equally awesome. It always takes me a day or so to get used to the crappy school mattresses.

This is making me think of moving back into the dorm. While I don't have that much stuff, it's still not a pleasant thought. My only hope is that I can move everything out at once...

blah update blah

So I am safely ensconced in the spare bedroom in my house, safe with my computer and Guitar Hero. Yay!

So I had to pay an extra $165, in additiong to a $45 overweight fee, because I had to check 3 bags. It sucked. But I got to drink in the airport in London and on the plane from London to Chicago, so it was okay.

Today, I went to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, with Josh! We saw all of the animals, including the river otter, the beluga whale, and the giant sea turtle. It was fabulous.

I have also been keeping semi-normal hours. Amazing!

I don't really feel like being interesting now, sorry.

lolz

So most of you have probably not met my parents. My mom came to visit me at school in February of my freshman year, and my dad occasionally comes to NYC for business. I did drag my mom to a basketball game and a wind ensemble concert, so in theory she met people. My dad knows my suitemates from freshman year, and that is it.

The reason for this is simple. My parents are awesome and I don't want to share them with you. I might rethink this next year.

My parents tell me that I am smart and special and awesome, but also that I am weird. All of these things are true! (They would probably make some comment about my ego here.) They also have helped cultivate my sense of humor.

An example. Here is a snippet of an email conversation between me and my dad that took place today:

Sarah: Tomorrow I think I am going to Tel Aviv to the beach and then to the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem, to see all of the nice animals!

Dad: I wonder if the keepers allow the animals to have sex in public in the biblical zoo?

Sarah: Well, they'd be demonstrating how to know something biblically. If that's not appropriate, I don't know what is.

Dad: Good point! Send pictures of anything suspicious or scintillating.

There you have it. I'm authorized to email my pictures animal on animal lovin'. My dad brought this up because the first day that I was an official tour guide at the Central Park Zoo, it was mating season and the animals were getting it on and I kept texting my parents when it happened.

So yes. My parents are awesome and I will be seeing them in less than 2 days!

here it comes

This week has been pretty interesting. At least as interesting as pretty much every other week. On Monday, I felt infinitely better! Yay! It might have had something to do with going to bed at 10pm on Sunday evening. Yes, that might have helped. I walked home from JPost, it's what I've been doing most days this month. On the way home, I stopped by a music store to get a present for my Dad. He likes CDs and has a kickass sound system (that I'm not allowed to touch).

Tuesday, I was in a really foul mood, due to lack of sleep. I accidentally turned off my alarm clock and woke up around 11am. Thankfully, my internship being what it is, this didn't matter. I was bitchier than usual and translated yet another press release (about asbestos in army bases) and then walked home. On the way, I stopped at Ben Yehuda to get a t-shirt for my brother. It's really inappropriate and awesome! I then went to the sushi place near my apartment for dinner, before going home to take a short nap.

Around 9:30pm, Alisa and I hung out to play pool, because we are just that awesome. Srsly, you know you're jealous. Once again, I ended up staying up late, but not quite as late as the night before!

Today, I again accidentally turned off my alarm and woke up at noon. Yay! I got into JPost around 1:15ish (hey, I needed to shower), rugelach in tow for my last day at the internship. I got my letter of recommendation and JPost t-shirt, translated my last press release, did video editing, and then went to get dinner with someone from shul/pick up one of his suitcases that I'm taking home with me.

And now I am listening to my righteous dance music and generally chilling. Tomorrow I might to go Tel Aviv, to the beach. We'll see. I also might go to the zoo. What I definitely need to do is wash my bedding and vacuum my room, as well as empty my things from the fridge. Yes, this will definitely happen! There actually isn't that much there (as in, I won't need to throw much out) because I was a smart grocery shopper. Go me!

I also need to pack. But I only have one suitcase, so it's not like it's going to take TOO long.

So yeah. That's it. At approximately 5:35pm CST, I will be landing at O'Hare airport, where one or both of my awesome parents will be waiting for me. Yay!

almost over

...my cold, that is! I went into the JPost today and felt really lightheaded. That feeling always freaks me out. I haven't recalled feeling like that since April of senior year, when I donated blood and almost passed out afterwards. (I feel a bit bad, not donating. I'm O+, a universal donor, so I should probably hit up the red blood donor van when it's on campus.)

So, I quickly translated a press release from Hebrew to English (I haven't heard from the copy editors yet, which could mean they haven't found any problems!) and left. As I was on Yaffo Rd, I had the quintessential Israel experience--bumping into somebody I knew.

Since I don't have any family in Israel, I'm somewhat at a loss for this. Sure, I've seen people who I know from home or school, but they were planned meetings. When you randomly bump into someone in Israel, it's sort of a testament to the fact that you belong to the Jewish people, that you're a legitimate member of the Jewish community.

Either that, or that you know Jews who are also invested in Israel. Whatevs.

I'm taking it easy today, but I do have some touristy plans:

Monday: Jerusalem Botanical Gardens--they're right by my apartment, so I figure it can't hurt to check it out. A good chance to take photos!

Thursday: Maybe I'll actually make it to Tel Aviv? I really need more pictures! Also, it might be nice to actually go to the beach, despite the fact that I don't really like the beach? I want to have a full day, since it'll be my last time in Israel for the indeterminate future. I also want to check out the Biblical Zoo. It's in Jerusalem and supposedly has all these animals that lived during the time of the Bible. Basically, it's a zoo. And zoos rock. And it's something I've actually never seen. I figure I can bum on the beach in the morning/early afternoon and then hit the zoo on the way home.

I've been thinking a lot about how I want to be back in HP/NYC, but I haven't been thinking about what this means...that I'm going to be leaving Israel and that my summer is almost over. I'll really miss it here. This summer has been good for me. While I would've loved to have been able to spend more time with friends, summer has been productive. I think my writing has gotten better (at least, I've learned how to write newspaper articles), and I've been making tentative plans for the future. (These entail talking to the Nefesh B'Nefesh people about how student loans from undergrad/(free) grad school work for people who make aliyah, as well as studying for the LSATS, to see if I need to take one of those horrible classes during spring semester.)

Also, in a weird mood last night, I ended up coming up with a tentative schedule for the Spring '10 semester. Yes, I'm just that anal. This involved me cursing out JTS for scheduling classes to overlap with Columbia's, as well as for only offering required classes a very limited amount of times. Even though I've arranged it so that I'll theoretically have the time to take every single class I need to graduate (and not one more), if JTS doesn't offer a specific Bible class during Fall '10, I'm going to have to go to the Dean and beg to take the JTS core out of order, or I won't be able to graduate/finish all of my classes on time. There are other JTS core classes that I still need to take, but only the Bible classes have specific prerequisites.

I also still need to fit MusicHum into my schedule, but worst comes to worst, I can go to the Core office and tell them that I'm in the Joint Program and blahblahblah. I'm no so worried about that...if I managed to fit ArtHum into my schedule, I can probably make MusicHum work for me too.

I have no regrets about doing JTS/Columbia, but fitting the JTS classes in is a huge pain. One MAJOR benefit of being in Columbia's School of General Studies is that while I have the same number of classes in my Core Curriculum, I have MUCH more freedom in what I can take. For example, I don't need LitHum, CC, Frontiers of Science, or any of those classes. Instead, I have a certain number of literature, humanities, social science, and science classes that I need to take, but I can take essentially anything that falls under those categories. I still have to take ArtHum and MusicHum, but at least I can pick the other classes. For example, instead of CC, one of my social science classes I'm taking is an anthro class that also counts towards my major. Nifty!

Unfortunately, the JTS core is very specific...and way larger that the infamous Columbia core. A seemingly infinite humber of Hebrew classes (7 for me, and that's relatively average), 3 Bible classes, 4 history classes, 3 literature classes, 2 Jewish thought/"philosophy" classes, and 3 Talmud classes. That's 22 classes, y'all.

I know, I chose this. And for the most part, I do enjoy the classes I've taken. At least, sometimes.

I just hope that in May 2011, I can graduate with my class and be permanently done with my undergraduate career.

being sick

Being sick in a foreign country where you need to take care of yourself and figure everything out sucks.

I'm pretty sure all I have is a cold, though it's one of the worse ones I've had in awhile. I could've asked my roommate for the location of a doctor, or I could have taken the bus to one of the hopsitals, but I have more than enough memories of Israeli hospitals, and I don't want to repeat the experience.

I have absolutely horrible allergies. Whenever the weather changes, it can get bad enough to make me sick. I was basically sick for all of April. Not contagious sick, but uncomfortable. I stopped wearing my contacts because they made my eyes burn.

But the worst of it is the animal allergies. In kindergarden, my class had a pet rabbit. I think his name was magic related...Hocus Pocus, maybe. I wasn't allowed to pet him. All of the other kids wold crowd around the rabbit, and I had to stay back. Even today, my aunt has guinea pigs and I need to dose myself up on medicine before I enter her house.

The animal bit is the hardest because I come from a family that likes animals more than people. My dad grew up in a tiny apartment in Chicago (first in Austin, which was and still is a really bad neighborhood, and then West Rogers Park), in a house filled with different small animals (no dogs, because my Nana knew she would be the one who would end up taking care of them. My mom grew up in a rural town in Michigan, and she had all sorts of animals. She even had a pony at one point, a beast grey with white speckles named Choo Choo who had a mean streak. (Her grandma won him in a lottery.) Because of my allergies (and, to a slightly lesser extent, my parents'), we were limited in the kinds of animals we could bring into the house. Dogs used to make my eyes itch and my nose run, but I got over that with sheet willpower.

When I was younger, maybe in middle school, my mom took me to the allergist. They did the test where they prick you with different things, and my parents bought an air purifier for my room. Freshman year, I told my roommates that they wouldn't be able to put on perfume or smelly things in the room, because it would set off my allergies. At one point someone, I forget who, was using some sort of hair care product that smelled and I had a coughing and sneezing attack that proved that I wasn't kidding.

Anyways, I get allergy-related colds, but they rarely happen in the summer, which of course made me afraid that I had swine flu. After staying up all of Thursday night, I went to the pharmacy on Friday morning. I waited in line and told one of the people at the desk that I needed sudaphed. She told me I needed to speak to the pharmacist. I was waiting in line with a pack of expensive cough drops when I saw that there was a much cheaper bag of them near the register. I quickly went to return the ones I had to the shelf, and I saw that an old woman had taken my place. She was talking to the pharmacist, who was trying to explain that I was first in line, not her.

After mentally cursing out old people (the woman eventually moved), I placed my order. The pharmacist got the pills and opened the box, removing some of the extras and explaining that according to a U.S. law, they were only allowed to sell me 12 pills per day. I smiled and said I understood, mentally cursing the speed freaks who were prolonging my purchase, leaving me to choke on my own phlegm.

Pills and cough drops in my possession, I went next door to the grocery store. Grocery shopping in Israel is an experience, because the packaging is all in Hebrew (or other languages...Russian, German, etc.), so I need to closely read things or guess. I finally found boxes of powdered chicken broth and frozen kreplach (balls of dough with ground beef inside...perfect sick food!), and also got lox (I couldn't resist), brie (I blame Amital and her Frenchness), my favorite cereal, and a frozen salmon fillet, for when the sickness is gone (or for tomorrow, when I finish the kreplach). I paid and went home.

The food was magical. As soon as I heated up the water in the koomkoom (those kettles you plug into the wall and pour water into and it boils...kam means to get up or rise, and many Hebrew words are combinations of small two-letter words such as this) and made my tea (which a former roommate had left behind) and soup, I felt mentally better, relieved of the worry that I have swine flu (though I'm still not getting tested). Since then, I have sequestered myself in my room, so I don't infect my roommate. I've left to get more tea and soup (I swear, I am so well hydrated, it's not even funny) and to take my allergy medicine, occasionally entering into benadryl-induced slumber.

I almost never use benadryl. Actually, I only use it when I have allergy-related issues, since that's what it is for. I'm a really light sleeper, and I love the drug-induced sleeping that benadryl gives me. Normally, I wake up every couple of hours, but with benadryl, I can sleep for 6 hours straight. It's such a good feeling that it takes a small amount of restraint to not use the pills more often. But I don't, mainly because I'm afraid that they won't be as effective if I take them all the time.

I'm hoping that I'll feel well enough tomorrow morning to go to my internship. I only have 4 more days left. Also, I can bring a mug and bowl and make my tea and soup there...I just don't want to infect people.

boo!

I'm sick. It started on Thursday morning, when I woke up with a tickle in the back of my throat. It didn't hurt, it was just annoying. Then tonight, when I wanted to go to sleep, it evolved into a sore throat/nasal congestion.

Soon, I will go to the pharmacy and the grocery store and get things like decongestants and chicken soup (and also normal food) and hopefully kreplach (for the non Jews, these are balls of dough with meat in them, they're typically put in soup)!

That will rock.

impending

I'm going home in a little over a week.

I'll miss things here, but I'm not going to cry and be all "How can I leave you, my beloved Israel?!" I know I'm prone to melodrama/histrionics (admittledly partly because I get a kick out of it), but I've never been one of those Obscene Israel Lovers, and now is hardly the time to start.

(Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Israel. If I wasn't, I wouldn't consider making aliyah. I just don't see the point in waxing lyrical about the country is all.)

While I do miss NYC and am ready to resume my steamy love affair with it, I'm really looking forward to going back to Highland Park. I have a few tentative adventures planned and I'll hopefully make the most of my time.

In other news, I've been doing a lot of translating. It's not the most interesting work, but I actually prefer it to some of the other articles. And since I'm in the awkward position of not being able to conduct interviews in Hebrew yet being able to decipher Hebrew press releases (with the help of online translators, Google, and asking Hebrew speakers about a few words) and not finding the work offensive, that's what I've been doing this week. It's been keeping me pretty busy, which I do enjoy.

I'll share more of the aforementioned HP adventures later...one of them may or may not involve being ON A BOAT...

Addendum

This is a continuation of my last post.

I don't think I've really changed since coming to college. I've been rereading my posts from Crossing the Line, and...I feel like I'm the same. I get the same reactions to what everyone else wrote as my 16-year-old self had. Exactly the same. And in the posts, I'm a nerd and I talk about French horn and Shabbat. Really, what's changed?

I feel like I've regressed, that I'm less mature. I used to ALWAYS do my homework right after I got home. Senior year I rebelled a little...and waited a few hours. But I was almost always done before 11pm.

I'm not concerned about the sleep issues. That's normal. And I know that when I was 16, I didn't really worry about a job and paying my bills and that sort of thing. I know that deep down, I am more mature...maybe? I mean, I never had to worry about those things before, because I was living with my parents and a minor.

So in conclusion, drinking proclivities aside, I'm not sure that I've changed much in the past 4 years.

Then again, I had a pretty good thing going back then...maybe this isn't so bad?

wooooah

Today, some interesting things happened. Yay!

Every Sunday (remember, the Israeli work week is Sunday-Thursday), there is a staff meeting where the staff discusses random articles. Today, the political correspondent brought his 9-month-old baby. He made lots of funny faces during the meeting and crawled all over some of the staff and took their cell phones. It was absolutely hilarious.

Then I babysat the boy for a few minutes while his dad was making phone calls. Nothing bad happened! The baby didn't fall or choke or anything. He did smell weird, though. And not in a "full diaper" kind of way.

My article today involved translating a press release. It went well.

A few minutes ago, Abby IMed me, reminding me of Crossing the Line, our old Googlegroup. (For the record, the name was my idea. Even 5 years ago, I was all about going there.) This was when Gmail was in beta, when it meant that you had a friend who gave you one of his precious invites. My old gmail account has died, which is good, because my immature email address has died with it.

Mostly, the group was a way for me and my friends to keep in touch during sophomore year of high school. Sure, we had AIM and we saw each other almost everyday, but we were nerds, so we had a Googlegroup. I've been rereading it and reminiscing.

Also, I have these weird bumps on my middle finger. Boo, eczema.

mad dance party

I miss being in the dorms because I am playing mad dance party music on my laptop right now and I have nobody to dance with. If I was back in MSRH or moved into Goldsmith, I could probably convince Amital to join me. This is why she and I are rooming together. Because We understand that sometimes, you need to have a mad dance party to break out the ridiculous dancing.

I came up with a brilliant idea for next year. Mimosas at breakfast. During the week. This could be a good reward for getting out of bed earlier than normal...which is to say, to wake up more than 5 minutes before class starts. I have a bad habit of doing that. I can probably motivate myself with alcohol. I don't think that this is unhealthy. It's not like I'm saying I'm going to go to class tipsy/drunk. 1-2 mimosas can't do that to me. Partly because CUMB has trained me well...but mostly because my alcohol tolerance has always been pretty decent. (Only getting smashed when I want to/plan on it counts as having good alcohol tolerance.) This is how I will stay awesome.

Side note: 3/4 of my morning classes are with grad students. Clearly this is a way for my maturity level to match theirs. Maybe it will even help my singing! You see, one of my morning classes is musicianship, which is basically sight singing. Another morning class is advanced cantillation (teaching how to chant things other than torah and haftorah readings...basically, it's going to be a review, because I already know most of what they're going to be teaching).

If you want to come join me at Goldsmith around 10am on Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday, let me know. We'll have a party.

You know you want to. And if you don't, you're actually mistaken...and I sort of feel sorry for you.

But it's okay, I guess--more champagne for me.

oh em gee

No beach. I stayed up until 4am and woke up at 12:30pm and felt like crap. Yay!

Today I Skyped Amital and Josh. This is the first time I've used Skype for non internship-related things all summer. Lame, I know.

I wanted to share this site with you: http://myparentsjoinedfacebook.com/. I emailed it to my parents. I really hope they understand why it's funny. I'm still not making my Facebook profile public/available for their viewing pleasure.

Before I pass out from exhaustion, I want to talk about Gmail's mail goggles. Basically, you set it up so that at a certain time on certain days (Friday and Saturday nights from 1am-6am for me...I guess that's Saturday and Sunday mornings...even though I'm more of a Thursday/Saturday drinker, courtesy of CUMB), you have to do math problems for your email to send.

I do send emails when I'm drunk. The thing is, they're for legit things. Because when I get home and am sufficiently drunk (or actually, on any night, regardless of my level of sobriety), I can't fall asleep right away, so I check my email. And if I think it's important enough, I send the emails then, too. (I'll let you guess if I've ever emailed you while I've been drunk. Most likely, I haven't.)

In the future, I'll probably just save the emails as drafts. But I've been debating whether or not to keep my mail goggles. 90%+ of the time, I'm not remotely drunk at those hours of the day/night, and I actually trust myself to send legitimate emails when I am. That's what spellcheck is for, afterall.

Better safe than sorry, I guess. Sometime, I might want to send a ridiculous email and forget that my graphing calculator is within arm's reach. Or I might forget how to use it. I doubt that. I'm a very high-functioning drunk person. But still.

IM goggles might be useful. Not phone/texting goggles. I've never been into that. Except texting CUMB-related quotes. I'm pretty good at that, and I have remarkably good spelling skills.

What Gmail should really do is play movies whenever I try to send emails while drunk. This will keep me occupied long enough to make me tired.

Example: One time, I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button while I was drunk. I remember all of the movie...and I don't think being drunk made it trippy, because the beginning of the movie was weird enough.

In conclusion, Gmail rocks and I will continue to use its mail goggles feature. So if you ever get an email from me over the weekend in the wee hours of the morning, feel special, because I had to do math in order to send it.

And that is all.

cereal rocks

I think I have found my most favorite cereal ever here. It is called Cariot. I'm not really sure how to translate that best, as the Translating Gods each have their own definition. Basically, it's a wheat-based squares with either vanilla or chocolate cream in them. It works both as a breakfast cereal (I mix it with cornflakes) or as a dessert. I thought I should share that with you.

I think that I might FINALLY drag my pale-skinned self to the beach tomorrow. I know, you are surprised! I'm just not really a beach person. But I need to take more pictures for my family, and the beach is as good a place as any to do that.

Plus, if I don't go to the beach, I might just bum around all day, and that's what Shabbat is for!

So...yeah.

Let's get stereotypical!

In our joint post, Hilary mentioned that there is to stereotypical Israeli.

Unfortunately, that's not true.

It's easy to see how someone could think this, based on the places Hilary and I went. The areas I frequent in Jerusalem--the Central Bus Station, the walk from the Jerusalem Post to my apartment (with stops in the shuk and Ben Yehuda St.)--these are places frequented by Anglos (as well as...everyone else). Many of the olim, the immigrants who come to Israel to make it their home, are of European descent. Were we to go to less affluent areas, the racial demographic would be very different.

The Ashkenazic (people of eastern European descent) Jews in Israel have the monopoly. Israel has racism, just like pretty much every other country. Pale skin might not be natural to the area, but it elevates its bearer to a certain status. Then there are the Jews of Middle Eastern descent. Upon arrival in Israel, many of these people were given second-rate jobs, because they were considered, as a whole, less intelligent.

It is possible to argue that some of these people did not recieve stellar educations. In this case, I shall compare them to American Jews. As a whole, Jews in America prefer to live in large cities or suburbs of large cities. (With the exception of Johnson City, TN, where I was born, my life has mirrored this trend...I've also lived in suburbs of Philadelphia and Chicago and am now at school in NYC.) These areas tend to have decent school systems. And for the areas that don't, there are still outside resources.

The same cannot be said for areas of the Middle East. While many Jews did live in large cities (Alexandria, Egypt, for example, before they were essentially expelled), they represented a religious minority, which posed problems that aren't as present in the United States.

First semester of freshman year, my Medieval Jewish History teacher told the class that medieval Jewish history is defined as the period in time when Jews were ruled by other religions. A time when religion was synonymous with politics. I know that this is a generalization, but for the purposes of this blog, it will suffice, because in the Middle East, Islam rules in a way that Christianity no longer does in the majority of the West.

It is for reasons such as this that many Jews in other Middle Eastern countries left. And now, many of them are second class citizens in a country where they are part of the religious powerhouse.

It's ironic, because these people represent the physical appearane of the "stereotypical Israeli".

There are also the Ethiopian Jews. Airlifted to Israel, they had to walk away from essentially everything. And there are generational rifts. The children who don't remember (or barely remember) living in Ethiopia are assimilating in a way that their parents can't. There are societal problems. Clashes.

This is an oversimplified explanation of the ethnic societal tensions in Israel. It does not include hard facts and sources, but this blog isn't really a hard facts and sources kind of blog. It's a blog where I get to ramble about the things I'm thinking about. It's also supposed to include the ridiculous things that I say/encounter when nobody else is around. And it will. But probably not until I get back to the States, because I try not to stick out too much here.

It's sad, I know. I mean, I have a reputation to uphold. In theory.

Balls.

la de dah

And now, on to other things!

JPost internship: I am really enjoying my time here. I've gotten lots of writing opportunities, and the other interns are cool. I know that I don't want to go into journalism, but this is still a fun/good experience. Also, it's in Israel, which makes it even more awesome. If I was doing this in Chicago/NYC/Washington (god forbid), it wouldn't be nearly as cool.

Thursday os Tisha B'Av. It's the 9th day of the month of Av, and it is when the Temples were officially destroyed. (I forget the year the First Temple was destroyed, but the Second Temple was destroyed in 70CE.)

It's a fast day. I've only ever observed the fast while I'm in Israel. It feels more meaningful here. (Also, I don't really keep track of the Hebrew calendar, so I tend to forget when it is when I'm at home and not surrounded by other people who will be fasting.)

On Friday, I will try and drag my ass to Tel Aviv and go to the beach...finally. Also to Nachalat Binyamin, the artists' market. I like this plan. I want to get rid of my farmer's tan and be evenly sunburnt. I also want to go into a body of water that I can legitimately swim in.

On Saturday I will sleep/bum around because that's all there is to do. Also because I want to. Sort of.

And tomorrow I am getting fro-yo and going grocery shopping. I like this plan.

recap, etc.

Sunday morning, I woke up a little before 6am to let Hilary out of the aparment. You see, the door does not automatically lock. Someone needs to physically lock it with the key. This is fantastic for me, because I tend to forget my keys...it's basically impossible for me to lock myself out of the apartment! (Unless I'm on the balcony and the door slams shut, but we won't dwell too long on that.) So I unlocked/locked the door for Hilary and then went back to bed.

Hilary's liturgy service was supposed to start at 7am. I planned to wake up at 10 and then catch the bus to the Central Bus Station, where I would meet Hilary and we would leave for the Dead Sea.

Hilary called me around 9am to let her in. It turns out that there was no Greek Orthodox service at 7am, so Hilary stuck around for a Catholic mass, then went to check out the Kotel/Western Wall. She was equipped with all of my maps (I have a map of Jerusalem that also has a close-up of the Old City, a big map of Israel that also has a small map of Jerusalem (not as good as the Jerusalem-only map, and a guide book with a map of the Old City that also has all the main sites), so she managed just fine.

We chilled for a little and then boarded a bus to the Central Bus Station, in hopes of catching the 11am bus to Ein Gedi, which is where part of the Dead Sea beachfront is. However, the bus was mad crowded, so we went to the ticket booth and bought tickets, then waited for the 12pm bus.

On the bus, we sat in front of some annoying/dumb Orthodox girls. Here are some of the conversations we heard:

-"We are in the land of Avraham Avinu (Abraham our father). HaShem (God) gave the land to Avraham, Yitzhak (Isaac), Ya'akov (Jacob), and Klal Yisrael (all of [the people of] Israel!"

-"I am petrified to go in Yam HaMelach (Dead Sea, but it literally means Sea of Salt) during the 9 days...simply petrified! (During the first 9 days of the Jewish month of Av, there are restrictions on what observant Jews can do. During this time, the First and Second Temples were destroyed (obviously a few centuries apart), and it's a period of light mourning. People don't go to movies and they don't eat meat. The holiday that is most similar to this is Lent.)

-(We passed some palm trees with bags covering their fruit to protect them from the sun) "I didn't know that bananas grew on trees! I thought it was only coconuts!" (They were actually dates, which are a popular produce in this part of the world.)

There were many other conversations. All of these were carried out VERY QUICKLY and in "Jewish" accents. Not quite Brooklyn...just Jewish. It was ridiculous and they were really annoying. Hilary and I exchanged many looks during the bus ride.

Open note to all Orthodox people: I know that in general, you guys are way more awesome/knowledgeable/savvy than those girls.

Anyways, we finally got to the Dead Sea! We changed in the locker room (after paying 2 shekel to get in) and headed down to the beach. In the locker room, a girl imprinted on Hilary. I say it like that because she was 8-10, but seemed a little off. Granted, English was her second language (Hungarian is her first), so that could be the issue. At any rate, her grandma couldn't go in the Dead Sea, so she seemed to think it was okay to have her granddaughter bug us. Of course, Hilary was much better about it than I was. I didn't feel like babysitting someone's kid for free. I'm just not as nice a person as Hilary, I guess. I'm okay with that.

The beack was really rocky. We left backpacks on the nearby rocks and our sandals close to the water (or so we thought), and carefully made our way into the water.

Time for an educational lesson about the Dead Sea! The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth. It's at least 400m below sea level. Water runs from Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee for you out of the loop Christian folk) in the north of Israel, down through the Jordan River. Along the way, it collects minerals. It then comes to the Dead Sea and because the Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth, the water has nowhere to do. It evaporates, leaving the minerals behind. (It is theorized that the tale of Sodom and Gomorrah happened nearby...Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt, the Dead Sea is full of salt...)

Because of the extremely high salt content, you float in the Dead Sea. Seriously. You basically just sit in the water. You can't splash people and you can't get your head underwater. We lazed around, and I tried to find a cool spot in the water, which sadly didn't happen. It was cool, and I only stung a little bit! (This is a big deal for me because I have eczema, and my skin is really sensitive...in the winter, my skin gets extremely dry. In junior high, the skin between my fingers got weird and I was convinced that I was mutating into some sort of lizard freak, which made sense, because I was an unpopular kid in junior high.)

Sadly, Hilary got the water in her eyes and that basically ended it for us. Besides, you can't really stay in the water for TOO long (we were in for less than an hour), because you get seriously dehydrated. So we made our way to the shore. After spotting our sandals, I went to retrieve them. The rocks were REALLY hot. It was an ordeal. But I survived. We rinsed off (yay for liquid soap as shampoo!) and returned to Jerusalem.

Sadly, I had to do video editing for the Jerusalem Post, so we went there. It just so happens to be less than 10 minutes from the Central Bus Station. I did the video editing and poor Hilary had to move from chair to chair as the Internet staff kept needing different computers. I finished at 7pm, and Hilary and I walked to the shuk to go to the most awesome Indian restaurant ever. It's a hole-in-the-wall (literally) place that serves vegetarian Indian food. You pick the number/size of vegetable dishes that you want, and they bring them along with daal, rice, naan, and the little relishes. We got small bowls of all 4 of the vegetable dishes, and they all rocked. We then walked to Ben Yehuda St to get more of the World's Most Awesome Fro-Yo. Srsly. I will miss that stuff when I go back home. I think I'll walk home from work tomorrow and treat myself to some!

We then got back to my apartment and hung out. Then, the next morning, Hilary left. Her bus to Eilat went smoothly (I think), but the 12:30pm bus from Taba to Cairo broke down, so she had to wait for hte 4:30. But she got back okay (after losing her Egypt cell phone, or so I'm told), and will be returning to the US shortly.

Today at work, I translated a Hebrew survey and its summary into English. Before you get all impressed by my fancy Hebrew skills, wait. Google translator works wonders. And when it doesn't, morfix.co.il does. Also my Google homepage. When the sentence structure is wonky (I love that word!), I read through the sentences and then translate them myself.

The survey was about Israeli Jews and their levels of Judaic knowledge. 500 people were separated by level of observance and asked about their level of knowledge, their children's level, and their parents' level. Basically, secular Israelis are slowly becoming less knowledgeable, while religious and Ultra Orthodox (haredi) Jews are becoming more knowledgeable. Basically, the data wasn't exactly surprising. But I found the study interesting (though the wording was really repetitive), and I was glad to use my Hebrew skills...if I hadn't, I wouldn't have had a story to work on. I felt useful!

sad revelation

I think I'm significantly funnier when I'm a "guest contributor" on Hilary's blog, and for this I am very sorry.

Part of the reason is because I enjoy writing funny things and watching Hilary's reaction. The other part of the reason is because it's easier for me to feed off of the things she writes.

In short, it's hard to be funny when I'm by myself. Because I can't hear/see anyone laughing. Alas.

Until recently, I had achieved a near-impossible feat. After a year of sharing a room with two girls (and we shared the common room with another girl) and a year of having a room in a hallway where one can hear ANYTHING that's going on, I had never overheard people having sex. I was very proud of this fact. Sadly, my overhearing other people having sex virginity is gone, and I told Amital that I'm going to knock on her door if she is ever too loud when she's doing it. She only thought this was a little funny...and that's because she believes that I might actually do it.

So I decided on an excellent rule for my Goldsmith apartment: If my hookup/relationship life is barren, I have no desire to hear yours. Well, I never have a desire to hear anyone's, but I can promise that I'll be a hell of a lot more tolerant. If said hookup/relationship life is barren, I have no qualms about hearing about other people (not the details, though...that'd be weird), I just don't want to actually hear it. Because then I will feel lame.

In intern-related news, I wrote and submitted the brief and translated a weirdly-phrased Hebrew passage and turned it into a photo caption. Thank you, JTS Hebrew reading and oral/aural classes. You taught me how to use Gooogle translator and Morfix.

alas

This morning at 6:07am, Hilary boarded a bus for the Central Bus Station and should be nearing Eilat right about now. It was great to have a visitor! It's proof that I can be hospitable when I want to, I guess.

This morning was slightly hectic. Apparently my roommate was woken up at 5am for the past 2 days in a row. (Hilary had to get up early on Sunday for church and today to catch the bus.) Personally, I think the problem centers on the fact that my roommate's room is right next to the bathroom, so if the toilet is flushed, she can theoretically hear it. There have been times when I've had to answer nature's call at 3am and have been afraid to flush. Srsly. But I do, because I don't want to get a talk about bathroom cleanliness...that would be bad.

So to make up for all of that, I made sure to wash (most of) my dishes and take out the trash. I also had to "organize" my room (throw all the clothes laying around in my suitcase and put Hilary's bedding in my laundry bag) because my roommate is having someone come to look at the apartment, for after I leave. The person is arriving "around 6 or 7", so in case that's before I get home, at least the room is presentable. I do need to properly organize things, though. Blech. At least it won't take long.

I think my roommate and I get along well. I think there might be some things that I do that annoy her, I'm not sure. I should probably vaccuum and take out the trash more often. I feel like things build up, and it's difficult to bring them up. At any rate, I'm only here for 3 more weeks.

I should clarify. It's not an uncomfortable living situation, and I do like my roommate. I just feel bad. I mean, it is her apartment. I'm paying rent for 11 weeks, but it's her apartment.

I think living with Amital and Lauren this upcoming year will go a lot smoother. Amital and I shared a room freshman year and a kitchen freshman and sophomore years. This won't be that different. And Lauren is cool and easygoing, so things should work out well.

Today when I got to work (a few minutes after 10...I was proud of myself), I was afraid that I would get crap for skipping yesterday/not telling the editor I wasn't coming in. As far as I'm concerned, it's not their job to babysit the interns, and I've never missed for non work-related things. It turns out that there were no stories yesterday, so I missed nothing. (Dead Sea/etc. post to come!)

Today, the head intern/editor liaison came in to tell us that the editor wants us to pitch 2 "solid" stories to him per day, that for the number of interns, not enough content is being produced. Frankly, I think they should have accepted at least 5 fewer interns. (Hopefully that doesn't mean I'd be out of an internship...I was accepted on New Years Day.) So I pitched a story and have a brief (250-300 words) to write.

Which is what I've been working on today.

Good day to you, ladies and gentlemen! It is my distinct privilege, pleasure, and honor to return once again to address you. I hope that you have all been enjoying the relaxation and recreation inherent to the summer months, and...

PSYCH!

Hey! It's Hilary again, back to contribute to another super-awesome co-authored blog. This time, Sarah and I have switched things up - after a long hard summer in Cairo (right), I'm enjoying a weekend in Jerusalem with her! It's been great, and I'm thrilled to be able to offer some (hopefully amusing) insight about this fantastic place.

Because good things come in pairs. Except for threesomes. And orgies. And...yeah.

ANYWAYS...

Moving forward with our lives!

RULES TO FOLLOW:

1. When you’re at the border, remember to change some money at customs. Otherwise, you get to be cool like me and walk a couple of kilometers to get to the nearest ATM before taking a taxi wherever you need to go. It was fun, and the weather was gorgeous, but in general, it’s a poor life choice.

2. Parts of Israel (the southern portion) are almost as hot as Cairo. Sunscreen, sunglasses, and hats are highly recommended! Or you can just wear sunscreen, like we did when we went to the Dead Sea. Or you can follow none of those rules, which is what I do in my day-to-day life here. However, when I travel, I always pack a hat and sunscreen…for just in case. You should do the same!

I packed a hat because I’m awesome, and then I didn’t wear it at all, because I’m way awesome. I also broke my sunglasses the week before I came here. I’m not very good at this whole sun thing. Maybe I should move to Antarctica. Except apparently you can sunburn there, too. Washington State, perhaps? Anyway.

Is it sad that the first thing I thought when I saw “Washington State” was “Zomg! Twilight!”? Absolutely. Do I care? Absolutely not.

Dude, where do you think I got it from in the first place?

(It’s nice to know that we’re both thirteen-year-old girls at heart. But not in mind. Or body. Whoo!)

Because that wasn’t disturbing or anything. Thanks, Sarah!

But we digress.

3. Be circumspect in your photography. Don’t use your camera in Jewish neighborhoods on Shabbat. Also, don’t use it at Customs. In fact, no matter where you pull it out, unless it’s a blatantly tourist-y site, you’re going to get stared at. Unless it’s the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in which case, despite the fact that it’s full of tourists, the monks are still going to give you dirty looks.

4. Be aggressive! Got to be aggressive! Got to b-e a-g-g-r-e-s-s-i-v-e! People in Israel are very pushy in general. If you didn’t know better, you’d think that a lot of them are assholes. And some of them are. But that’s beside the point. Sure, you’re a tourist, but as long as you aren’t being obnoxious, don’t let people push you around!

Don’t let the veneer of Westernization fool you. At heart, the Middle Eastern “push-your-way-forward-in-life” philosophy still dominates here. It can be very off-putting and intimidating. Don’t let it stop you!

5. Get a change purse. I didn’t, and it was probably a bad choice. Israeli money relies on a lot of change – they don’t have any bills smaller than twenty shekels (around five dollars), and if you’re poking through your wallet, it can be hard to distinguish them, even if you know which is which in theory. (The fact that they’re all different sizes does help a little.)

If you’re me, you need an explanation anyway. My explanation: ask Sarah!

If you’re not visiting a person familiar with the currency, make sure to look it up in advance and find out the exchange rate.

6. Clothes. Us pale-skinned folks don’t stick out in Jerusalem nearly as much as we do in Cairo. There are a LOT of American tourists in Israel during the summer. So you won’t get stared at all the time if you’re not swarthy. One thing you MUST keep in mind is that Jerusalem is considered (by many) a holy city. There are a lot of Orthodox Jews walking around. Some of the Ultra Orthodox Jews don’t take kindly to us scantily-clad ladies (there’s a double standard where guys don’t get crap, even though according to Jewish law, they should)…I know people who have been spit at and called whores for wearing modest t-shirts and knee-length skirts. There is religious tension between religious and secular Jews. However, unless you are in an Orthodox neighborhood, such as Mea Shearim, you do not need to worry about what you are wearing…though you should still be protecting yourself from the sun. In Orthodox neighborhoods, girls should wear shirts that cover their collar bones and elbows and skirts that cover their knees.

Also, in general, don’t dress super scantily (by Western standards), because I will judge you.

I might too. But only a little.

7. More money talk! Don’t let the prices scare you. I did get scared a little, because I went from Cairo, where a subway ticket costs ~19¢, lunch costs a dollar, and a long taxi ride might cost three bucks, to Jerusalem, where a bus ride costs $1.50 and a full, reasonably-priced meal is around $8 – in short, European or urban American prices. Plan for a little more expensive than you’re used to. But it’s ok(ish), because you’re traveling, and that costs money!

Well, unless you’re me and you have to get through another month and then buy textbooks. Then you will be cool and cheap. But that’s almost more fun.

I should clarify. Things in Israel are cheaper than NYC, but more expensive than Cairo. Cairo is a huge city that is scaled differently. In general, Israel is a relatively Westernized country, Jerusalem in particular. Anyways, unlike Cairo, you should try to take the bus in Israel as much as possible. I bought a monthly bus pass, and for around $58, I can ride any Jerusalem bus an unlimited number of times. It’s cheaper than a cab, which isn’t that much cheaper than in NYC (though you don’t tip).

8. Bring a map. Actually, bring two. You can get reliable maps of Israel, because it’s so Westernized (thank God! You can’t really get a good, complete map of Cairo, weirdly enough), and especially when you’re in the Old City, YOU WANT A MAP. You want a map BADLY. In fact, we had two maps (three, actually), and it still took us forty-five minutes to find the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. But, once I knew where I was going, it took me ten minutes this morning to walk from there to the Western Wall. See? Useful? And then I was able to get back to the apartment all by myself, checking my way on the map…I was so proud.

Moral of the story: maps save your life.

Barring that, GPS is good too. This is why I love my iPhone.

My dad has GPS on his phone. We call if the Traffic Bitch. This isn’t really relevant.

9. As Sarah pointed out with Cairo, it’s really helpful to have someone who can show you around. You don’t have to speak Hebrew to manage here – most people speak English quite well – but it’s nice to have that. It was also helpful for things like the bus system, and the grocery store, and the restaurant we went to tonight (which was this awesome hole-in-the-wall Indian place in the shouk that I never would have found on my own). Travel with a friend who knows what the bloody hell they’re doing. Your life will be so much easier.

Many people in Israel speak English to a certain degree (they start learning it around 4th grade), but many of them will just start talking to you in Hebrew. My Hebrew is FAR from perfect, but for the small converstations, it’s easier to have them in Hebrew, especially when asking for directions or having someone explain a dish…in general, they will go faster. (It also helps if you know what Indian food looks like.)

And people don’t automatically assume that you’re a tourist, as they generally do in Cairo. There are a lot of ex-pats living here, and there isn’t really a visual/physically stereotype for the average Israeli. So it makes sense, but it makes it hard sometimes. Be prepared to smile a lot. And if you’re me, speak slowly. Very slowly. If you’re learning Hebrew, though – great! It’s a good chance for you to practice! Now if only I could do that more in Cairo…

I need to jump in here. There actually is a stereotype for what Israelis look like. Sort of swarthy, dark hair. Very Mizrachi (Middle Eastern Jews). However, with the influx of immigrants from Ashkenazic (Eastern Europe) backgrounds, this stereotype is somewhat watered down. While someone at the Jerusalem Post (the newspaper I intern at) commented on the color/lightness of my hair, I’ve seen girls with actual red hair (not auburn, like mine). It’s not that unusual.

I won’t go into this more here...this sort of discussion will have to wait for a later post.

In the meantime, that's all from me, folks. Thanks for putting up with my (hopefully not-too-inane) ramblings; with any luck, you've actually enjoyed them!

At any rate, she's much more proper than I am...it's a nice break, I'm sure. :P

Yeah, that alone must be a relief for you guys! Anyway, if you liked it so much that you want more, please feel free to stop by and read about my adventures in Cairo and elsewhere at http://www.repeatinginshallah.wordpress.com. I'm told it's pretty awesome. But you should find out for yourself! Thanks for reading.

P.S. Me and Hilary have been having the most awesome slumber party. We're sharing my bed. You KNOW you're curious...

(...the bed is twice the width of the JTS beds (twin extra-long), so it's actually not scandalous...)

P.P.S. I'm a goody-two-shoes Orthodox Christian girl. Damn straight it isn't scandalous!! I have a reputation to uphold!

P.P.P.S. If you're NOT a goody-two-shoes Orthodox Christian girl, let me know! ;)

P.P.P.P.S. Preferably without letting me hear about it. (Please, God, let it be without me hearing about it.)