Friday, January 21, 2011

First week back....

Yes, this week I led T'fillah. While this statement would normally not sound as bizarre, it is. When I was in Arizona I led services all the time...but as the Cantor. This week my role for leading the service was totally different... I had the more "Rabbinical Role". While I did not feel as though the service went well, I have been getting very positive feedback from my classmates, staff, and administration. I probably feel weird about the situation because it was the first time I was leading a service in this position.
The first week of being back has been pretty exciting. I got in on time and headed right back for the apartment. I was greeted by my new roommate abbey who is great... (she actually cleans up after herself!) I tried really hard not to but I took a quick 30 min nap until Shabbat was over. I was starving since I didn't eat the breakfast one the plane. Breakfast plane food scares me especially when it's kosher. So I woke up after 30 mins and headed downstairs to Soya to get food. I was greeted with big hellos and hugs!!! And of course, out of the goodness of their hearts they didn't make me pay for my meal. They are so good to me. I immediately gave them their yummy yummy gifts, Sconza Candy and they LOVED IT! I gave Tomer (the guy that works at night at Soya) one to give to Eran (the guy that works in the morning). The next day I saw Eran and asked if he liked the candy and he had no idea what I was talking about because Tomer ate his!!! I felt really bad but I didn't have any extra so I told him I would figure something else out. I also got a Giants baseball cap for Tomer's sone. I guess he loved it so much he wants more hats!!! So, look out Uncle Dennis, I have an international order coming your way.
I didn't get to see Moshe until Sunday night. He too was very excited to see me. I gave him the chocolate and said he couldn't eat it until later in the evening because he had just eaten meat. (For Kosher laws you have to wait 6 hours after eating meat to eat milk, and since the chocolate has milk... well you can figure it out from there.) So that evening I went to dinner at my friends house and I get back at 9:15 so see if Moshe had eaten the candy yet (oh btw, I have him the Chocolate covered Cherries) and he only had 4 left in the bag!!! He loved them sooo much. He said he was saving the rest of the cherries to give to his Yeshiva friends. He wanted me to get him more but I clearly have no way of doing that so I told him he should have savored each and every bite.
Then I FINALLY was able to see Muhammed. He is doing well, minus the fact that they changed the bus route a little bit so it takes him a lot longer but the company didn't actually allow for this extra time in his schedule so he rarely gets a break during the day. I rode the bus with him for 4.5 hours!! (that's definitely a record for me). We talked and just enjoyed seeing each other again. When I was home I made sure to get him something for the bus. On his normal bus, his partner has up all this heart stickers over the different mirrors on the bus, so I thought it would be nice to get him something to put there to. So I ended up getting him I really cool sticker of the Golden Gate Bridge that says San Francisco over it. He put it up right away. I also got him some American Flag stickers (how could I resist?) and he put three of those up. So I am forever more a part of that number 18 bus! Last night I got on the bus and after we smoked Hookah. We hadn't done that in a while so it was really nice to in a way go back to the old ways.
School has been good. Nice to get a few new classes and nice to have a schedule again. I have been absolutely exhausted though. Between getting home at 1am from the bus rides and getting up at 645am I am surprised I am still a functioning human being. Even today, Friday, a day when we don't have school, us education students had to be at an elementary school at 815 so we could observe the school. As cool as it is to see... ARE YOU KIDDING ME! 815 ON A FRIDAY MORNING! so tomorrow is my 1st day being able to sleep in since being back. I have a feeling that since I have slept-in in a while I won't be sleeping in as late as I would like to. Thats also okay though since I do have some work I need to get done.
The weather here as been cold. During the day it is pleasant out, and I can get away with wearing a skirt with leggings and a jacket, but at night I need layer upon layer upon layer.
Something that was really shocking to me when I got back was how much I missed it here. I was having such a hard time adapting to the culture and society and I was very much looking forward to coming back... who knows, maybe now I will move here! :)
Even though it's a friday night I am absolutely exhausted and I need to get some sleep. I still need donations for my trip to the Ukraine so I will be sending out another mass email soon. Thank you to those of you that donated. I will post again soon!

Jaq

2 comments:

  1. Is this a joke....you're not moving to Israel!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. i mean... not within the next 2 and a half years im not

    ReplyDelete