This entry is completely disjointed. I'm in a weird mood. Bear with me.
Jonathan got up today at 8:32am. On a Saturday. I promptly rolled over and got up at 1:43pm. I feel GREAT!
You may or may not know, but Jaimee and Helayne are from New York. This is not a problem in and of itself. What IS astonishing, however, is that they’d never had Mexican food (no, Taco Bell does not count). So the four of us went hunting for separate ingredients and last night, for Shabbat, Jonathan and I provided them with honest-to-God, SoCal Mexicana. I made fresh salsa, which turned out quite well if I may say so myself, and Jonathan turned pinto beans into refried beans. We had to go to the specialty cheese shop to get cheddar, it’s such a foreign concept here. And tortillas – they were so small, and a package of 8 cost 20 NIS ($5)!!! [At home they’re the equivalent of Californian pita, and you get them fresh-baked for a pittance. Ah, imports.] We warmed the tortillas in the pan, covered them with beans, cheese, shredded lettuce, and salsa, showed them how to wrap a proper burrito, and voila! It was so good I felt homesick.
Becca is coming in a week and a half!! My dad is driving us for three days up north, we’re going to go south to the Dead Sea, and we'll wander all over Jerusalem. I’m planning on taking some days off of school, and I’m realizing that the best strategy is to tell them I’m taking off, not to ask. Does the school infantilize us? Yes. Are we really adults? Yes too. What’s the worst they’re going to do, kick me out of the program?
When the Dean came last week, each student met with him for an hour to sort of introduce ourselves and ask questions. He is truly wonderful, but now I feel done with Israel… if I’m here to learn Hebrew, make friends, and love the land, check, check, and CHECK. Been there, done that, let's move on. It’s very hard to stay focused on the present. So Courtney and Jeffrey are going to come over today for movie-watching, and we’ve specifically banned all talk of Cincinnati. We shall be unstressed, yes we shall!
Supersol, the main grocery store near us, closed at 2:30pm yesterday for Shabbat. The nerve! I had to go all the way to the little makolet, neighborhood store, 15 minutes down just to get my paper towels. I can’t wait til it starts getting dark later, then things will stay open more. Yes, I love the peacefulness of Shabbat, but when it gets dark at 5, how early must one close?!
Jonathan has been sick all week, and pining for Savta's jello. I've promised that next time we're over there, I'll watch her and learn how to make it. Jello is like chicken soup in my family; if you're sick, a jello mold is always waiting to soothe your throat, and make you feel all better.
I have realized that I really, really like dried cranberries and dried apricots mixed together. I never knew this before. Oh, and fresh kiwi is quite good. I used to hate it as a child, but it's so tasty here. Wissotzksy brand chai tea is excellent too. [And hmm, I talk about food quite a lot, don't I? Let's not analyze this...]
Now don't laugh at me, but I learned three fascinating things about the letter hay this week. In Biblical Hebrew, it has at least three different uses when placed in front of a noun. One, it can be a definite article, “the.” Two, it can serve as a question word – “(hay)good and (hay)bad” is not necessarily “they were good and bad” but can be “Is it good or bad?” depending on the vowels underneath the first letter. And three, hay as a suffix can be directional. Byte is house, and byta is in the direction of home. Tzafon is north, tzafona is to the north. I’ve mentioned this before, but now it makes more sense in light of the hay - Yameen today means right. The ancient world saw east as north, for they based everything off of the rising of the sun, so their right was actually south. Ben-yameen meant son of the right (or the south), and the tribe Benjamin was the tribe that faced the southernmost direction! I'm giddily geeking out in Biblical Grammar.
In terms of cat news, we've found that Osher now likes to play fetch, just like Simcha. He's fond of the bigger balls with more texture, so he can track them more easily. In my Cincinnati goodie bag I had gotten a stress ball and he's pretty much claimed it as his. (I also got an HUC Cincinnati t-shirt that fits Jonathan, a Cincinnati Reds bumper sticker, a piece of chocolate from Graeter’s, their big ice-cream/chocolate store, and a packet of Cincinnati chili. But oops, I'm not talking about Cincinnati, so never mind).
And this camera is fabulous, I shall end on some pictures.
The cats tore down the screens on our kitchen windows, so until they get fixed, we've left the windows only partially open so the cats don't fall out. Here are the kitties fascinated by the great outdoors. Osher's on the left, Simcha's on the right.
Osher sleeping with me this morning. You can see the top of my hand underneath him - he always has to be touching some part of us!
You may or may not know, but Jaimee and Helayne are from New York. This is not a problem in and of itself. What IS astonishing, however, is that they’d never had Mexican food (no, Taco Bell does not count). So the four of us went hunting for separate ingredients and last night, for Shabbat, Jonathan and I provided them with honest-to-God, SoCal Mexicana. I made fresh salsa, which turned out quite well if I may say so myself, and Jonathan turned pinto beans into refried beans. We had to go to the specialty cheese shop to get cheddar, it’s such a foreign concept here. And tortillas – they were so small, and a package of 8 cost 20 NIS ($5)!!! [At home they’re the equivalent of Californian pita, and you get them fresh-baked for a pittance. Ah, imports.] We warmed the tortillas in the pan, covered them with beans, cheese, shredded lettuce, and salsa, showed them how to wrap a proper burrito, and voila! It was so good I felt homesick.
Becca is coming in a week and a half!! My dad is driving us for three days up north, we’re going to go south to the Dead Sea, and we'll wander all over Jerusalem. I’m planning on taking some days off of school, and I’m realizing that the best strategy is to tell them I’m taking off, not to ask. Does the school infantilize us? Yes. Are we really adults? Yes too. What’s the worst they’re going to do, kick me out of the program?
When the Dean came last week, each student met with him for an hour to sort of introduce ourselves and ask questions. He is truly wonderful, but now I feel done with Israel… if I’m here to learn Hebrew, make friends, and love the land, check, check, and CHECK. Been there, done that, let's move on. It’s very hard to stay focused on the present. So Courtney and Jeffrey are going to come over today for movie-watching, and we’ve specifically banned all talk of Cincinnati. We shall be unstressed, yes we shall!
Supersol, the main grocery store near us, closed at 2:30pm yesterday for Shabbat. The nerve! I had to go all the way to the little makolet, neighborhood store, 15 minutes down just to get my paper towels. I can’t wait til it starts getting dark later, then things will stay open more. Yes, I love the peacefulness of Shabbat, but when it gets dark at 5, how early must one close?!
Jonathan has been sick all week, and pining for Savta's jello. I've promised that next time we're over there, I'll watch her and learn how to make it. Jello is like chicken soup in my family; if you're sick, a jello mold is always waiting to soothe your throat, and make you feel all better.
I have realized that I really, really like dried cranberries and dried apricots mixed together. I never knew this before. Oh, and fresh kiwi is quite good. I used to hate it as a child, but it's so tasty here. Wissotzksy brand chai tea is excellent too. [And hmm, I talk about food quite a lot, don't I? Let's not analyze this...]
Now don't laugh at me, but I learned three fascinating things about the letter hay this week. In Biblical Hebrew, it has at least three different uses when placed in front of a noun. One, it can be a definite article, “the.” Two, it can serve as a question word – “(hay)good and (hay)bad” is not necessarily “they were good and bad” but can be “Is it good or bad?” depending on the vowels underneath the first letter. And three, hay as a suffix can be directional. Byte is house, and byta is in the direction of home. Tzafon is north, tzafona is to the north. I’ve mentioned this before, but now it makes more sense in light of the hay - Yameen today means right. The ancient world saw east as north, for they based everything off of the rising of the sun, so their right was actually south. Ben-yameen meant son of the right (or the south), and the tribe Benjamin was the tribe that faced the southernmost direction! I'm giddily geeking out in Biblical Grammar.
In terms of cat news, we've found that Osher now likes to play fetch, just like Simcha. He's fond of the bigger balls with more texture, so he can track them more easily. In my Cincinnati goodie bag I had gotten a stress ball and he's pretty much claimed it as his. (I also got an HUC Cincinnati t-shirt that fits Jonathan, a Cincinnati Reds bumper sticker, a piece of chocolate from Graeter’s, their big ice-cream/chocolate store, and a packet of Cincinnati chili. But oops, I'm not talking about Cincinnati, so never mind).
And this camera is fabulous, I shall end on some pictures.
The cats tore down the screens on our kitchen windows, so until they get fixed, we've left the windows only partially open so the cats don't fall out. Here are the kitties fascinated by the great outdoors. Osher's on the left, Simcha's on the right.
Osher sleeping with me this morning. You can see the top of my hand underneath him - he always has to be touching some part of us!
posted by Michal at 4:44 AM
6 Comments:
My mouth is watering for that Mexican burrito you made. Sounds scrumptious!
Love the pics of the kitties. It was a brainstorm to create your feline family. So good to have warm, living lovings ... like the rest of the Lovings!
yer Savta
I'm scared that I get way too excited about your cat pictures.
Please note, friends of the Lovings, I am much more attractive than that picture appears. Poor Jonathan and Michal get to see unshowered, sweat-shirted Mara far too often.
Aww, thanks ,Savta! I'm so so glad Jonathan insisted on getting the cats - he wanted one, I said no. He wanted another, I said no again. Now I can't imagine life without them!
And Mara - LOL you're absolutely right, the picture doesn't do you justice at all. You realize now you're FORCED to take another picture and give it to me to post instead. :)
ha-ha-hey
Just to get in another librarian note - this also makes for fun alphabetizing. We want to ignore the 'hey' that is 'the' but keep the 'hey' that signifies a question. Sometimes we get it right!
Your discussion also reminded me of the print we have in our dining room called "hey day" Its a bunch of 'heys' floating around the page. It was made by former printer/artist current rabbi Peretz Wolf-Prusan. You'll see some of his prints in Cincy too.
Thinking of Cincy and Graeters - I still miss their black-rasberry chocolate chip icecream. sigh.
sheryl
LOL, having to alphabetize never occurred to me! As for the ice cream... I've never tried it, but I've heard such good things. Do you ever have librarian-conferences or something at HUC? If so, you'll visit and we'll have a Graeters *hey*day. :)
Unfortunately I don't usually get back to Cincy, especially since my brother moved out. I get together with my librarian buddies at the Association of Jewish Libraries convention each June. This year it's in Phoenix.
BTW, did I tell we ended up with 2 more rats? Sadly our two oldest rats and one of the 'babies' died. We got Ruthie 2 more for her birthday. Do you want to come for dinner? ;-)
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