Note: although posted now, this blog is in fact a few weeks
old (new one to come shortly)
Wow has it been a long while since I last blogged! First, I
was too busy with the holidays to sit down and type and then I was overwhelmed
by all the stuff I had to say since so much time had elapsed. The idea of
attempting to compile my thoughts was simply too daunting. So I will do my best
to be concise and give a good idea of what I’ve been up to.
As of Yom Kippur we were done with classes and set to go on
break for over 2 weeks. As the days got closer to Succoth all of Jerusalem was
transforming, there was a vibe of excitement. Succas were being build on every
street of all different shapes and sizes – I couldn’t wait to see what they
would look like inside. For the first day I went to two different families: the
first was an amazing American/Canadian family that took in 10 seminary girls
each more last minute than then next (I was the most last minute only
confirming the day before). The mom was afraid that we would have nowhere to go
so she said yes to all of us. Thus, one would think that her succah would be
large enough to fit us all comfortably, why else would she say yes? Alas, this righteous
woman has 10 girls, herself, her husband and two of her 4 kids in a succah that
should have only fit half our number. Somehow, we all fit and in the end had a
wonderfully delicious meal. Hashem definitely looks after those who do for
others. One cool thing they did as a couple was an innovative icebreaker where
each girl introduced herself, where she was from, where she was studying, one
thing about herself that everyone knows and one thing that most people don’t
know. Then each would have to share her thoughts on a question asked by her
husband. That night (I went a second time since then) the question was, what
inspires us or interests us about Abraham (he was the Ushpizin of the first
night)? I don’t quite remember what I said but one thing I’ll always think
about him is that he was willing to talk about GD to the world, he wore his
religion on his sleeve no matter what or who was around. This is a lesson to us
all, Jewish, religious, and non-religious to own our thoughts, beliefs and
thoughts, to show pride in who we are rather than censoring ourselves for the
benefit of others.
Since I could write forever I thought I’ll provide some
pictures with blurbs about what I did. Since we were off for all of Succoth
there was a lot of free time to do fun activities. However, I somehow only
managed to do a few things.
Besides for tons of shopping I went to the biblical Zoo with
my friend Alana, which was actually really cool. For each animals there was a
description of their social structure, food and where they could be found. The
most interesting detail though was that under this info there was always a
quote from the Torah showing where this animal could be found or is mentioned
in Torah.
As I mentioned in my previous blog my mom has been in Israel
for a while. During my break from school we decided to plan an excursion of
sorts. We were supposed to wake up at 330 AM for a mini bus coming for us at 4
but neither of us could fall asleep so we basically stayed awake until it came.
The first place we headed to was a sunrise hike at Massada. Unfortunately the
driver was a bit tardy and the sun began to rise as we were hiking. I’ve done
the hike one before and am pretty sure I BLOCKED the experience out of my
memory because I do NOT remember it being that hard!! Despite the fact that the
sun was pretty blistering during the climb it was incredibly beautiful and I
feel so grateful that I had the opportunity to do it. The next stop was Ein
Gedi – definitely my mom’s favorite. We did a water hike through a nature
reserve with tons of waterfalls. My mom suddenly spontaneous and clearly very
hot decided to jump into the waterfall with all her clothes on. It was really
cool to see her enjoy the experience that much.
Our final spot was the Dead Sea. I was excited because it was going to
only my second time going into the sea and also my first opportunity to try out
my fashionable swim dress lol. Unfortunately, the tour company has some sort of
deal with an Arab group that runs one of the Dead Sea beach locations. It was
pretty run down and overly stuffed with people. The beach was gross and being
renovated with a tractor while we were there. My mom had a panic attack over
the mushy ground in the water and I was just all around exhausted and ready for
bed. That was not the greatest end to our trip but the beautiful drive home
definitely made up for it.
So that was all that was exciting about my break and I will
post a new blog soon that is genuinely up to date!
POSCTSCRIPT: I am in the central bus station in my fave café
when they closed the front gate thing that comes down when a store closes.
Funny thing is we were all inside! I figured they were just checking out how it
works so I just kept doing what I was doing UNTIL I HEARD AN EXPLOSION!!!! Just
SIMPLY! That made me jump a bit so I listened to what people were saying in the
café, apparently someone lef a bag unattended so the army came to blow it up in
case it was a bomb and the door to gate to the café was brought down for our
own protection. Imagine this happened in Montreal?!?!? Here everyone is
chilling like any regular Sunday. NBD!
The soldiers having coffee next to me were saying that it
was probably some poor guy who forgot his knapsack/suitcase and now he wont
have any clothes L
