http://kollersinjapan.blogspot.com/2010/08/some-things-ive-learned.html?spref=fb

also, shabbos was nice: a distant relative came to visit and we talked about family trees and religion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterspout

http://twentyfivelifelessons.blogspot.com/

• last last week i visited boulder. i stayed in the house i lived in pre-israel, ziji khorlo. good times on the back porch, a hair cut by my former roommate, amelia, and a dash of subletter-subletter drama made for exciting times at ziji.
• we went to see my friend, phil, play at the goat wednesday night and went again to hear samba music from a local band.
• my good friend ilana, who i met in israel, was visiting her parents in colorado while i was in boulder, so she came up to stay with me for shabbos. we went to the chabad of cu friday night and to the goldfeders’ @ the aish kodesh shul down the street from ziji for lunch on saturday. motzi shabbos, amelia, ilana and two friends from aish, hayley and yedidya, and i went to karaoke at outback, a local dive bar. amelia, with her extensive theater background, sang somewhere that’s green from little shop of horrors (everyone loved it!), while hayley belted out total eclipse of the heart. yedidya went for havah nagliah (they had a whole list of jewish hits!).
• i spent the better part of this past week in evergreen, searching online for jobs and apartments in boulder. for shabbos, i came down to colorado springs to visit ilana and her parents. ilana cooked up a literal banquet for shabbos— almost everything was gluten-free and vegan! she made gf jerusalem kugel with raisins, cabbage salad with thai peanut sauce, a garden salad, salmon, veggie butternut squash cholent, hummus, mint babaganoush, challah, cashew ginger fried rice and gf chocolate cake with vanilla frosting! awesome, awesome stuff :) so we basically lounged all shabbos— eating, reading, talking over many topics at length and then, before havdallah, we took a two-hour walk around the neighborhood. it was a nice jaunt since the area is basically built right at the bottom of the mountains :)
• motzi shabbos, ilana, her mom and i drove to manitou springs for a girls’ night out— we listened to a bit of live music at a “colorado” bar (with plastic fish hanging in nets from the ceiling, statues of deer in the corner and country music blasting during intermission) and then played skeeball and ddr (yes, dance dance revolution, the video game!) at the local arcade, both of which i hadn’t played in years.

tomorrow, it’s my mama’s birthday!! :) guess we’re making a day out of it in colorado springs, and then to boulder again on monday. shavua tov, have a great week everyone!

when did this happen?

edit: my rabbi in boulder addressed a group of young jews, including myself, in this way. “frum” means “observant” in yiddish, in this context.

— first seen today on a tag inside a secondhand dress i’ve had for the past two years

don’t get me wrong; new york was a blast. no sightseeing, really, just seeing friends. liz, chelsea, caroline and i had a picnic in central park and then went to the comedy cellar to catch ardie fuqua (pictured), modi  and godfrey, among other comedians. a hilarious, hilarious night:

in the following days, i went to see inception with ari and ilana; joined ilana at caravan of dreams (dangerously delicious vegan fare— their smoothies pack a punch!); picked up a few tasties @ tu- lu’s bakery; met with manzell for lunch:

and, at the end of my trip, participated in the first mayanot women’s 5770 reunion in crown heights! informal, yes, but it just so happened that about ten of us from around north america just happened to be in the area monday night. we met at musha’s house near eastern parkway and went to cafe k in mill basin for dinner. staffed by israelis and awesome kosher sushi!

the flight back to colorado was uneventful, long. it was good to finally be home, see family, eat *also* dangerously delicious homemade gluten- free dishes (including from- scratch multi- grain bread! and killer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting!) and to sleep on a real, american mattress (israel, i love you but your foam pads that pass for something to sleep on aren’t real mattresses).

truly, i am so blessed to be home.

yes: the job hunt is a significant challenge. 

no: the four jews in my quiet mountain town, including the israeli jeweler down the street, do not make a thriving jewish community.

yes: i’m floored that there’s an entire aisle dedicated to gluten free products at whole foods… i’m floored by the ridiculous abundance of whole foods, period.

no: i do not like sharing my room with a mouse.

yes: i want to celebrate shabbat. here. with deer in the yard and hummers at the feeder and a mouse in my room (which will hopefully be caught and released soon) and delightfully uplifting food and family.

i am spoiled. overwhelmed. well fed. well slept. religious. not religious. unmarketable. unemployed. in limbo. in the mountains. loved. loving the beauty. loving shabbat. and oh so blessed.

shabbat shalom.

my last week in israel mostly included seeing people for the last time on this trip— loren, from south africa (i love that lady.. she’s the one with the “don’t forget to breathe” blog); chaya from ulpan from perth; mayanoters, isralighters, etc. on the night of tisha b’av (monday night aka my last night in israel), my roomates and nir and i went to the old city to hear eicha, or lamentations. it’s a custom to read it on tisha b’av, to commemorate the destruction of the second temple.

after the reading, we ended up running into nearly everyone i had intended to say goodbye to before i left. it felt like one of the those dreams where you’re in a room and everyone you’ve ever known is there with you. we ran into ari siegel from grand rapids; asher, from egypt- trip fame; yosef dovid, lazily shmoozing in the streets of the old city in his bathrobe; emuna witt (another lady i love!); nili, a former mayanoter who’s getting married in august and our mutual friend, shifka… so many.

it was perfect. 

we left the old city and i packed all night. nir came over to help and it was another lyla lavan (a white night, which in army code means “sleepless night”). we finished packing before the sun rose and arrived to the airport by 5.30. i made it through security easily enough, although they questioned me a little more thoroughly than most— as usual. i suppose my name sends up a red flag in the mind of an israeli security officer. so i passed through, boarded my flight and crashed from tel aviv to london. after a three hour layover in heathrow, i crashed again until we arrived into new jersey. 

i arrived into newark tuesday evening. the flight was relatively uneventful, however, it turned out to be the day of one of the biggest fasts in judaism. i tried keeping it until sundown in new york but after packing and schlepping and traveling and flying, i had to break it early— i was super dehydrated and pretty famished.

from the airport, i trekked to liz’s apartment in the upper west side. it was a relatively easy haul thanks to her detailed directions. we took it easy for the rest of the evening, and i slept like a rock.

the next day, liz left early early for work. i got up when she did and stayed up for the morning. i headed out around ten to walk/ subway it down south near battery park. my friend, manzell, and i met for lunch in a park (green acre park, i think) near the building where he works.

after lunch, i stopped by whole foods in union square to pick up a few gluten free items. spontaeneously, i stopped in pie by the pound, a pizza joint, because they were offering gf pizza AND beer. so i couldn’t resist. it was a little hard because i knew there were kosher places around but i just couldn’t find any.. so i settled for the most kosher unkosher pizza i could find (and eat). needless to say, it was pretty awesome stuff. and the beer! they had at least seven different kinds of gf beers and ciders to choose from! the owner, jeremy, and i got to talking about our shared food sensitivity and i ended up passing the afternoon away over pizza. he showed me art pieces by a local artist he was planning to display on his walls and i told him about my art degree; he had me sample gf cookies he was eyeing to sell (although after my anti-recommendation i don’t think he will— i told him to look into nana’s instead); and, i helped him pick out a benjamin moore color for his walls.  

after a couple of hours at the pizza place, i went to s’mac to meet up with liz (sensing a pattern here? ny is delicious). we had dinner (again with the kosher nonkosher— that’s an entire posting in itself to discuss where i’m holding) and needless to say, it was cheezy goodness. sarita, your mac and cheese has done it again.

liz and i headed back to the apartment after dinner. our friend jen stopped by later later and i felt so bad— i wanted to catch up with her but i was completely exhausted. so we made plans to meet on monday with a few other mayanoters to catch up. she’s so excited about a new boy— looks like marriage materrrrriaaaaal :)

in any case, my time here is filling up quick. today, i met jordana from isralight (we went apartment- hunting) and i’m doing a little housework for a bit of pocket change. tonight, the girls and i are picnicing in central park and going out to comedy cellar for a late show.

welcome to israel. where the summer days are unbearable and laneia turns nocturnal.

in other news… time for the breakdown of the past couple of weeks!

so. isralight.

isralight is an umbrella organization that offers a couple regular programs— one, orayta, a men’s yeshiva, two, international workshops, and three, inward bound, which is the one i participated in. inward bound is a ten day program consisting of classes in the old city and tiyulim (trips) around jerusalem and israel. it’s hard to truly sum up the program in one sentence because it’s so dynamic and encompassing, but in a nutshell: inward bound helps jews to love judaism.

so for ten days i learned to love judaism with two of my roommates, sadie and rachel. with nearly twenty other participants, we explored insightful teachings with truly amazing teachers— rabbi david aaron, reb mottle wolf, rabbi leibowitz, rebbitzen manolson and rabbi binny. honestly, i can tell you all about the program and the what— but truly, it was the who who made the program what it was. the participants, the teachers, the madrichim (like camp counselors)— everyone played a special part in making the experience uniquely incredible.

every day, we had a different schedule. on the first day, wednesday, we had a wine and cheese party/ registration/ getting to know you event.

on thursday, we had class all day and a tour around david’s tower museum in the old city. at night we hiked to lifta (the abandoned arab village i had hiked a couple weeks ago with friends). there was a bonfire, s’mores, storytelling and so much singing… what a beautiful night. the next day, we prepared for shabbos and davened kabbalat shabbat on the isralight roof— an amazing way to welcome in shabbos.

shabbat was lovely and it flew by; havdallah also quickly came and went in a blur of singing and dancing and union. there were more classes throughout sunday, monday and tuesday and wednesday brought a full- day tiyul to the north. we stopped by a yom kippur war memorial “museum” in the morning and headed to tsfat by afternoon. there, and by hashgacha protis, i was able to catch up briefly with my chabad rabbi and his family from u of o.

we ended the day at a fancy restaurant and grill on the shores of the kinneret in tiverias. the food wasn’t great, but the sea with the red sunset hills was a beautiful sight.

thursday morning we went to the southern wall excavations. i remember going on birthright but this time it seemed much more real– with reb mottle’s vivid stories, it was easy to imagine what the area was like around the second temple period. in the afternoon, we had a few more classes and a kumzitz on the roof (minus the bonfire).

which brings us to my friday morning post. the second and last isralight shabbos was, again, powerful and vibrant— we were all sad to see the program end with havdallah. our group grew so close it was surprising we only knew one another for the past ten days (of course, there were quite a few exceptions for me— i knew many of the particpants from before).

many participants left soon after the program ended motzi shabbos. a few remained. in the past couple of days, i chilled with two girls from ny and nj, rami and jordana, and victoria (from seattle) on another brief program called eco- beit midrash. it was a two- day workshop that combined environmental issues, living sustainably and torah.

now the question is: what to do for the next week, my last week in israel?

this is friday afternoon at my friend hermie’s place in nachlaot.

this morning, i awoke early to cab it from the old city to a soup kitchen on the other side of town near the shuk. a group of of about ten people from isralight came as well as my friend, yosef dovid.

we went to hazon yeshaya, a center that provides food for low- income people and holocaust survivors  around israel. when we arrived, the kitchen was overflowing with volunteers. despite the crowd, the managers put half of us in the kitchen; the other half of the group was sent to the storage room to organize. i was in the latter group and we made a clean sweep of the room by unloading boxes, organizing shelves of food and cleaning the floor.

by 11 am, our group finished up and we headed to the shuk for a tour of the nachlaot neighborhood with reb mottle. at the end of the tour, i stopped by hermie’s place, where i promptly took an hour nap.

*yawn* good times. this shabbos we’ll be in the old city @ isralight, the last one of the program. more on the experience soon… i’ll try my best to post in chronological order fro now on!

ps. discovered this blog while searching for kosher kombucha: http://ogyid.blogspot.com/