A Carlebach Shabbat

On Thursday night I didn't finish class until 7:30 p.m. 11.5 hours of a school day is quite long!  But, as soon as I was done I had places to go and people to see so I was on my way very quickly.  Where was I going?  The famous Lea Geller got into town on Thursday evening, and we had made plans to rendezvous.  The plan was to take the 63 bus to Arlozorov and take the 10 from there.  But after waiting at Arlozorov for way too long I decided that I didn't want to be any more late than I already was.  I did nothing other than break cardinal rule #1 in the Israel life of Julia Owen.  I am almost embarrassed to share this with the public... What did I do?  I hailed a taxi.  The first guy was on the mental institution side of things in terms of the price, so I encouraged him to drive away very quickly.  But I was able to convince the second one to lower his initial price to something much more reasonable, and I got in.  

Even though it really did pain me to willfully take a taxi, something quite positive came out of it.  After a couple minutes of speaking with the driver he asked me where I was from.  When I said "America" he didn't believe me!!  Know what that means?  It means that my Hebrew was so good that he couldn't tell that I'm American.  A real miracle, people.  After a couple of minutes he dropped me off at the hotel, and I went upstairs and knocked on Lea's door.  SO great to see her!!! She even brought me letters from the Gindins, a bottle of mousse, and muffins from my aunt!!  Could not have been a better present.  What a wonderful thing it was to eat my aunt's muffins as I read the cards from my cousins!  I still have muffins left, and let me tell you people... They're my most prized possessions right now.  And, I have such a stock of mousse-- it's amazing! Anyways, it was so so great to be able to hang out with Lea for a while.  It's so happy to get a breath of Seattle over here.  On the way home I actually found out that there is a singular bus which takes me from her hotel to where I live, so that was kind of rude.  But it's all good.  As I was walking home from the bus stop this wave of complete and total exhaustion came over me, and I passed out soon after I got home.  

Friday morning I went on another adventure into Tel Aviv-- third time in one week-- to meet Orlie for one last hurrah before she left.  We spent a couple of hours together walking around, which was super fun.  At one point we were sitting on these benches which surround a fountain, and we noticed that a couple of guys were trying to make a circle around the fountain by holding hands.  After about two minutes one of the guys approached us asking if we'd help them make a circle, and we said yes.  The guys were from the army, so we figured that it was our responsibility, as supporters of Israel, to do what we could to help them.  The guys kept asking people to help make the circle, and every time a person would come one person would leave.  Which wasn't really helping... After like five minutes they gave up, but it was a hilarious while it lasted.  People were taking pictures of or staring at us the whole time because it looked funny.  And it was.  

I got back home in time to catch the bus for our optional Shabbaton.  Eleven girls and two madrichot.  We went to the Carlebach Moshav, which is basically a hippy community.  Rabbi Trugman, who runs a program for the kids here once every two weeks, invited us to stay at his house for the Shabbat.  What a beautiful view they have!  It overlooks a forest and Modi'in.  Before Shabbat we listened to him and this guitarist play music, which was a nice way to bring in the Sabbath.  We went to synagogue, which was quite lengthy because the Carlebach followers like to incorporate song and dance into most everything, and it was good.  After we had a nice dinner, and spent the night hanging out and talking.  A couple of us stayed up until about 3, which is so unusual for me and way past my bed time.  But it was fun, so it's all good.

Shabbat day a couple of us planned to wake up for synagogue, but unfortunately none of us did... We all woke up a little before 11 and had lunch.  After lunch, a couple of us walked around the moshav and went to their little farm and park.  Then we came back and hung around until seudah shelishit time.  When Shabbat was over we went to the guitarist's house to watch a "musical Havdalah."  It was just like it sounds... Havdalah + guitars.  After some time to pack up, we headed back home.  I spent my night watching tv shows, for the first time in about a month, and sleeping.  Hurray!

This morning I went to Ulpan, and received a lovely text message saying that Magen David Adom was cancelled for the day.  I went to the grocery store, stocked up on fruits and veggies among other things, and came home and cooked and cut vegetables.  I made myself a great salad with cabbage, tomato, avocado, peach, carrot, asian crunchy noodles from America (thanks, Mom!), and I dressed it with balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, pepper, and olive oil.  It was wonderful.

I plan to spend the rest of my afternoon and evening doing some studying for finals even though they seem far off from now.  I think it's just better to make it as easy as possible when it comes to the real finals days, because I will have sixteen finals in a much too short time span.  

I wish you all a Shavua Tov!