acclimating continues.

Time feels like it is flying. My days are filled with errands – today was a proud day for this little woman. I went to the bank and set up my bank account entirely using Hebrew☺ now all I have to do is wait and see if I got something totally different than what I want. I am still figuring out my short term living situation but a new opportunity came up – I might be able to live free of rent with the rosh yeshiva’s daughter in his house while is goes on vaca. Sweet deal if it works out, better than the 450 bones I was gonna drop if this hadn’t come up. It would be great if it worked out.

Yesterday I met several new people in the program – very exciting that more of them are getting here. I ran around with one of them for a few hours helping him with apartment hunting, ulpan, post office, health insurance, phone. It was bizarre. I feel like I am such a newbie, but it is amazing what a few weeks in the country has already given me. Learning the basics is such a priority that within a few weeks I can already be of help to those just arriving now. It is a nice feeling to help them out – and to see the difference a little time makes in adjusting…l’at l’at – slowly slowly.

I got word last week that my best friend’s brother is getting married! Congratulations family of the Weez! Wedding number two, only two more to go and then all you have to look forward to is grandkids☺

Tonight there is a study night at pardes for new students and others interested in a night of studyin’. I am looking forward to meeting more people in the program(s), I have met so few of them already and I am already psyched about them. After that I am not allowed to go out! I gotta switch to more of a study mode in my sleeping pattern. I went out again last night, there is just too much to do here! I started my evening with family-ish friends with dinner. They are the closest thing I have to family in Israel, and they are wonderful and so so helpful. So we went out to dinner and had good conversation. Really nice people. I brought them a gift from the US – a bowl made by a ceramicist whose work they had been admiring. Nurit loved it, which was wonderful.

My shabbas was fun and relaxing – my meal Friday was with 16 chill people, and lots of good veg food. I met some nice people, one of which isn’t leaving in a month!!! There are so many people that I meet who are only here for a few weeks, a month or so. I know I am here for a long haul, though, and it is an additional plus when I meet others who are as well. There were a bunch of mcgill folk, montreal folk, pardes folk. I went to a shul called shira chadasha for services. They have a mechitza (division between men and women) but men and women both lead parts of the service and women can read from torah and have aliyot (saying the blessings before and after reading sections of the torah portion). It was my first time there and it was crowded – reminded me a bit like the atmosphere at the ghetto shul in montreal, but lots more older people. Crowded, lots of energy and singing. I enjoyed it, I may go back this coming week. Saturday I went to eat at shmuel and bonna’s. their house is beautiful, but their garden is even more amazing – chard, fruit trees, ginger plant, herbs – my eyes and nose were on overdrive!

Something happened on Friday night that made my shabbas feel more holy, which is funny cause it was a little thing really. I was at the table with my 15 mates and the guy who I had just met, a DJ and jewish all-star of sorts, whom I had had great talks with all night, when we started singing before birkat hamazon (the blessing after the meal). I was talking to someone else at the table who is also of a reform background and asked if she knew a certain version of oseh shalom – a prayer for peace. It is by far my favorite…it is just so gentle and simple that I feel moved every time I sing it….

…I remember when I thanked the community last year at the camp I worked at, after the last service I which I was the chazzan for, I told them that two things in the world always bring me closer to knowing God – when I feel wind against my body and when I sing with others….

And the guy started beat boxing to my singing…I totally got lost in the moment, it brought me to a higher level, it was like the room disappeared and it was just his music and mine joining and going up to some undisclosed location…something which I haven’t felt in a long time on shabbas…I was so thankful for that sensation, and I feel like it hasn’t gone away yet.

making music, there isn’t much like it.

I gotta run home for a bit before this evening’s study session begins. I hope all you people whom I love, scattered all over the world, are doing well, living life and making history…or something☺ much love.