Vancouver Pics

The Vancouver photos!

BC travels

I spent four lovely nights in Victoria, visiting my home, my friends, remnants of my plants. It was great to relax, fully embrace my dorkiness, play a lot of Scrabble, and fall back into a comfortable rhythm with my friends.

On the way back to Vancouver, I had to transfer buses as the Ladner Exchange. There, a woman and her college-aged daughter started pointing at me, then pointing at a fellow standing a few paces from me. I stealthily paused my iPod so I could casually listen in on what they were saying about us. The mother was saying something about my “beanie” and the “head dress” of the other fellow. (Based on what I saw, I assumed him to be Sikh, so that was in fact a turban.) I wasn’t the only one listening in; the other guy had been listening and caught my eyes when this was said of us. He stepped towards the mother and daughter to clarify things with them. But he didn’t know the words “kippah” or “yarmulke,” so in trying to explain that he wasn’t wearing a head dress, and I wasn’t wearing a beanie, the mother and daughter concluded that we were both of the same religion and were wearing variations on the same religious head wear.

At this point he looked to me, so I stepped over and tried to clarify. At some point the daughter had a “light bulb” moment and said something like, “Oh, like what the Pope wears?!” Um, yes. Kind of. Many religions have customs of head coverings and… I lost them. He looked at me and shrugged. The daughter started talking to her mom about an Easter “South Park” episode which claimed the Pope’s hat was pointy because the Pope had rabbit ears to hide. And I put my earphones back in and turned on my iPod.

It’s good to be back on the west coast…

As a side note, I’d recommend reading two recent posts on Jewschool: The H in Apartheid, a thoughtful piece on Hebron, and No One Is Jewish, about Jews who have had their conversion revoked.

Pesach Plumage

So here I am in Seattle, cleaning, kashering, and cooking. The kitchen is pristine. The rest of the house… not my domain. Because I’m not the one who will be eating in this house post-Passover, I’m allowing my host to have the final word on some of the halakhah. The result is the chometz cupboard and box in the fridge (stuff he’ll want to eat in a week, that’s expensive to replace, and needs to be refrigerated). Thanks to the internet, both the box and the cupboard have been sold. That is, he no longer owns a cupboard in his kitchen, nor does he own the box in his fridge. I had fun with it, drawing on the boxes:

Then we had to find a feather. Despite suggesting to a friend that “tackling a bird” would be a great way to get a feather, I was not about to attempt this method on my own. We went to a dollar store that had a craft section. Alas, no feathers. We checked a K-Mart, alas, no craft section. Then we went to a giant pet store chain. They sell birds and, sure enough, there were feathers at the bottom of their clean-looking cages. While I wandered amongst the cat toys, trying to decide which cat toy could be defeathered the most easily, my friend approached an employee. “I have sort of a weird question… We need a feather for a religious ceremony. And I saw some in the birds’ cages. Could we have them?” The employee found a second employee, who agreed. Minutes later, he was on his hands and knees in the bird cage (while we were both mildly creeped out because, you know, no matter how clean that cage liner was…) grabbing a half dozen colourful feathers from budgies. My friend and I both reached for the nearby hand santizer as a reaction, but it was empty. (Oh, and let’s not forget the smell in there. A customer’s big ol’ dog had decided the floor next to the bird cages was the perfect place to do his business, both businesses.) Hands were washed once we returned home.

And now we have tiny little feathers to sweep for crumbs with.

The weirdness continues

About 3 minutes ago, there was an earthquake.

In about 3 days, it will snow again.

(Oh, Israel… you so crazy!)

ETA: Turns out the epicentre was in Lebanon, a magnitude of 5.0 - 5.3 (depending on your source). Based on the few earthquakes I’ve been in, I’m estimating the rumble in Jerusalem as a 2.7.

Snow!

It’s snowing. In Jerusalem. I’m so happy, I can’t even tell you.

I’ve been sitting out on the mirpesset (balcony) for about an hour now. I’m thoroughly damp (it’s very wet snow, with the occasional slush thrown in), but still happy. The city is so quiet, it could be Shabbat!

Photographic evidence to come. Tomorrow. Once I find the cord for my camera.

To recap: yesh sheleg b’Yirushalayim akshav!

Linkage

I haven’t done a post like this in a while, but here we go again:

• Breaking News: Hartman to Ordain Women [Orthodox] Rabbis in Jerusalem
• Albertan Kiley Granberg’s neat wedding band design
• VentureBeat’s list of 27 electric cars, new to the market (or to a market in the fuure, if their startups get off the ground)
• It’s nice to see that some cities are still offering (and encouraging) free wifi, like Meraki in San Fran, when Dublin and Jerusalem (can’t find the story now, but Unwired Jerusalem is no more) had to cancel theirs.
• 10 years ago, Montreal suffered under record-setting ice storms. This week? record highs (10.6°C yesterday), winds, and flooding.

Bethlehem - 1.

I haven’t quite figured out what I want to say about Bethlehem yet. At this point, I have many thoughts, but they’re fragmented. So the words will come later.

In the meantime, photos [full set here].


And a video. I took several videoclips of the graffiti on the Bethlehem side of the wall (”security barrier,” as it’s euphemistically called). Some are political, some are angry, others hopeful. Many are in Arabic, many more are in dozens of other languages as visitors from around the world leave their mark of solidarity, frustration, outrage, or sympathy. The voice in the background was that of our tour guide, Elias, who works for Holy Land Trust; his words don’t always match what we’re seeing on the wall.

An Evening of Firsts!

Received my first “shneqel” coin in my change. That is, the recently introduced 2-sheqel coin. The design is interesting: looks like two shofars as cornucopia, with some of the seven species poking out, and a pomegranate in the centre.

For the first time since I arrived in August, I’ve seen an ambulance donated by Canadian Magen David Adom for Israel. But not just any CMDAI-donated ambulance - one I organized the fundraising for. It’s nice to see my work realised. (I know this as donors’ names are displayed on the doors of the ambulance, and these donors were folks I worked with.)

I read, and understood, tonight’s midrash! Well, 98% of the words. Woo! Previously, I’ve needed to look up waaay too many words, which makes learning a slow and frustrating process of read two words, look ‘em up, read two words, look ‘em up, try to phrase the previous words with the current words, read two words… repeat the process… Understanding what you read is a far superior method.

Singing and Dancing Yids

Has anyone else seen the television commercial for YES (an Israeli satellite station), wherein dozens of chareidi guys dance down the street to YMCA? I saw it on tv the other day, and thought it was great. Surprise, surprise, the chareidis aren’t impressed. (I especially enjoy the English sung with heavy Yiddish accents, and the line “it’s against the Torah!” being used as a selling point.)

And, I know I’m late with this review, but The Ten was sooo bad. And yet, I kept watching until the end. I’m not sure what was worse: seeing Winona Ryder sexing a ventriloquist dummy, the never ending anal rape scenes, or Paul Rudd’s introductions (and “singing!”). Or maybe it was the constant stream of B- and C-rate actors, reminding me of their potential and talents that weren’t be met in this movie. So, so bad.

In the morning, in the evening, and on the pages…

Since being in Israel, I’ve fallen out of habit of laying tefillin and davening every morning. Of watching what I eat and being conscious of where my food comes from. Of cleaning my thoughts before going to bed. Of reading. And I want to get back to it all. I need to wake earlier so I can have time to lay tefillin. And ask more questions when buying food. And write down thoughts and lists before I go to bed. And get my hands on English books. Yes.