Between being sick for like a week and having some high-quality insomnia on top of it, I’m a little zombieriffic right now. The weather got HOT, all of the sudden. This is a good thing–I am perfectly content with a summer climate and its attendant sandal usage–but that, combined with the mid-semester hard work fatigue has made us all a little antsy and ready for break, already, I think. It’s going to be a hard second half of the semester, what with the yummy weather and the knowledge that, after Pesach, it’s really only like 6 weeks until I leave. Holy cow. Did I just write that? Holy. Moly. Oy. That is SO not something I’m ready to wrap my brain around.
And I messed up–way back in August, when I booked my return flight, it was a little unclear when finals and the like were, so I picked a random Wednesday late late night in the right vicinity. And for some stupid reason, had the following Wednesday stuck in my head as the date–so imagine my surprise when I find out the other day that I don’t leave right after Shavuot, but, rather, the day my finals officially end. Which just stinks in all sorts of different ways–having to pack and study at the same time, not getting a reasonable chance to say goodbye to folks, because I’ll be, yes, packing and studying, missing Shavuot in Jerusalem (!!!! and I loveses Shavuot !!!!!!) and my friend’s daughter’s bat mitzvah, all sortsa things. Feh feh feh. I’ve already gone once to see if they have better dates for me, and all the flights are full. I’ll check back another time or two, just ’cause you never know with these things, but I’m gonna assume that it’s a done deal. I mean, worst case scenario I land in LA to Shabbat and two days of Yom Tov, which is a nice chance to reconnect with my friends there and sleep off my jet lag, but still. You know. Yeridah can be a harsh thing, man.
Also, we get two weeks of vacation for Pesach and I’m taking one of them in Ch’ul (Chutz l’Aretz, aka “Not Israel”), which should be great fun but I’m sad not to have more time around here–tradeoffs, all good tradeoffs, just feeling all nostalgic-y now, don’t mind me. But I’m going to Greece, which should rock, and I’m going with a friend who rocks, so fun should be had. Shabbos on the Greek islands? You know, twist my arm. Will be interesting to see how all my learning on hilchot avodah zarah (um, idol worship) shakes down as I wander amidst fallen temples to Zeus. Old things and islands.
Ugg. Okay, time for bed.
Hey, I see from my highly inaccurate statcounter thingo that some new people seem to have found this blog over the last week or so. prolly lots from Jewschool. Anyway, if you’re out there, welcome, feel free to say hi in the comments anytime the spirit so moves. That goes for all you other lurkers too, you know.
Now. Sleep. Yes, sleep.
Well, OK, then — I’ll say hi. I tend to read Jewschool and a few other more personal blogs associated with it (yours and mobius’s) like I read the paper… just drop in when I have a free moment to see what’s new, laugh or be informed.
The whole commenting thing seems kinda silly. Every once in while I get sucked into an argument with a right-winger over at Jewschool, but I usually regret it. But I don’t want to be a “lurker”. So I’ll give you a bit of my time, since you’ve been sharing your life and thoughts with all of us for so long.
I haven’t quite had a chance to read all of the post on the west bank trip, but it looks very interesting. My favorite post ever (I’ve been reading this blog for a while) was the one about the Israeli hippies and your left-wing friend saying “you realize they all were in the army”. That one really stuck with me…
I was once on a beach in Israel camping/partying with a bunch of silly Rainbow Gathering-type hippies (during an extended stay there, when I was working as an illegal day-laborer in restaurant kitchens and on construction sites… afterwards I went on to Syria and Lebanon). Anyway, I had some of the same thoughts, especially when politics came up.
It was very interesting comparing them to their naive American counterparts… I’m not saying one is better than the other (hippies everywhere are a little silly), but just different… a certain jaded, cynical, sad quality underneath the starry-eyed universalism. Setting aside the question of what it’s like to be a Palestinian dealing with the army, it definitely let me see how being an Israeli IN the army, in unpleasant and ambiguous situations, affects a liberal young person for better and (mostly) for worse. But hell, I’ve never fired a gun… what do I know?
Hey, Jordan–
Welcome, and thanks for your excellent thoughts.
Yeah, totally. It’s funny, I was in this trendy waffle shop yesterday and they have all these American cartoons from the funny pages up in a collage, so overlapping and more decorative than anything, but very cute. And while I was waiting for my order, I was looking at them–there were a lot of Beetle Bailys. And it was interesing to think about how even something as silly as that reads differently here, where everybody serves, than there, where the army is not connected to the lives of most of the hipster kids. Definitely affects the jaded liberals, I think you’re exactly right about that. More jaded, anyway. Don’t know if I’m comfortable putting a judgement on how it affects them, but you’re dang right that it does…..
right, of course Beetle Bailey dates back to the days when pretty much all the young men HAD served in the military… I’m assuming it’s the loyalty of all those aging WWII’ers who keep that very unfunny strip in the papers.
that was certainly a different era in America. I think the WWII experience probably caused a lot of young men and women to grow up very fast, which might have been a good thing… on the other hand, it also instilled a certain amount of uncritical, knee-jerk patriotism in most members of the WWII generation. Anyway, Israel in 2005 is not the USA in 1945, so any potential analogy here has its limitations…
anyway, bye for now… I’ll try to keep commenting sporadically… oh, and mazeltov on the cheap-ass Talmud.
Hi d.. it’s me, and while I’m sad and surprised to learn of your imminent yeridah, I’m so psyched for selfish reasons.. By the way – you’re doing Pesach in Greece? I did yom kippur in Crete in 2003. It was beautiful.. I’ll send details..