Am leaving tomorrow for a week in Chul (Chutz L’Aretz, literally “outside the land”, which all this time later I still find hillarious. Like my brother had this friend from high school for whom there were two places–Chicago, and everywhere else, which he decided was called “France.” When my brother came to visit from college in Boston, Mike would say, “So, how was France?” When another friend of theirs returned from a year in Japan, Mike would say, “Hey, so what’s new in France?” Chul is this mysterious, amorphous terrain of not-Israel.)

Anyway, I’m going to the part of Chul where they keep the truly worthy bagels and excellent art collections, as well as a bunch of friends and various types of work-ish things. Will try to blog while away, but if not, have a lovely week and see you on the other side.