Live from New York

It’s Saturday Night.

In the midst of wonderful thunderstorms, sheets of rain sweeping across the city, I enjoyed a cozy Shabbos inside. We had planned to eat up on the roof, but the humidity, early on in the day, prompted us to switch to my air conditioned apartment instead. After the thunder and lightning started, but before the rain, we decided to go up to the roof, to enjoy the view and breathe some “fresh” air before the rains came. In the time it took us to climb those twenty-five stories, the skies opened up: big, heavy drops poured down on us with such force that they bounced off the roof tiles and soaked my shorts from the bottom up.

There are many things I enjoy about this region of North America, and the thunderstorms are included. For all it’s spectacular scenery and nature, Vancouver just doesn’t know from good storms.

Another thing I love is the mesh of cultures here. A friend once said that all New Yorkers are part Jewish, Irish, African American, Italian, and Latino/Latina. And I’d believe it. Two year’s ago, I was walking with two friends from the Upper West Side, where we had attended Rosh Hashanah services, to the Upper East Side, where we would be having dinner. Our walk took us through Harlem, on a fairly indirect route (these same two friends would get us lost in Central Park the next day, as we tried to cross from West to East, only to have me, the visitor, get us out of there). We passed Miss Mamie’s and a guy, eating outside, shouted at us. “Hey! Heyyy!!” We kept walking, a little unsure. “Hey! Jews!” We turned back to look at him, a little confused, and more than a little cautiously. “Shaw-naw tow-vah,” he said, with an amazingly Southern drawl and unique pronunciation that I would never have expected to hear.

Following the same vein, Friday’s encounter brought a smile to my face. I was out walking with Gwen. We passed a volunteer (African American, wearing a cross on a chain around his neck) collecting money to feed and shelter the homeless. I threw some change into his collection vessel (a large, empty, water jug, like for a water cooler). A few hours later, we passed by him again. He was still asking passers by to contribute change to help feed the homeless, provide shelter, and every penny helps! He saw me, and changed his pitch, asking for “tzedakkah” instead. I said I’d already given. He paused, looked more closely at me, and said, with a smile, “Oh yeah, you did! Thanks! Shabbat shalom!” And I smiled and kept walking.

As they say in Avenue Jew, “everyone’s a little bit Jewish.”

Vancouver Pics

The Vancouver photos!

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.

Sprung!

Greetings from Bryant Park! It’s a beautiful spring day here in NYC, and I couldn’t help but take advantage of the free wifi in the park before continuing with my afternoon. The grass is green; the tulips, crocuses, and daffodils have  bloomed bright pinks, purples, and yellows; the sky is blue; the sun is warm; and the coffee is iced. A fantastic day!

Amazingness of the last few days

Amazingness of the last few days

Friends. I’m blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life. And, though I’m glad I talked them out of it, it’s sweet that they volleyed around the idea of caging me in order to keep me near them.

Mile High Club. (Not that Mile High Club.) As the sun rose, I was somewhere over eastern Europe, or the Mediterranean. I noticed several black hatters standing in the aisle, reaching for their tefillin. I joined them. I got quite a few looks, but I think it was worth it. (It was suggested to me, before I left Israel, that davening on the plane/in the airport was important, so that folks could see alternatives to the black hatters’ orthodoxy.) It was also a nice bookend to the davening and shofar blowing in the airport on my way to Israel in the summer.

ICBC. Actually did something right! And easily! And quickly! They’re mailing me an extension on my driver’s license, so that it will remain valid until I get back to BC.

Swiss Air. Though they probably lost money on my flight from Zurich to Montreal, I’m thankful they didn’t cancel it. The plane was less than a quarter full - we each had a row to ourselves. Enough room to spread out, sprawl out for naps, and not care if the seats were fully reclined. I had a lovely conversation in Spanish, which pleased me as I really thought I’d forgotten that language. And then a French with a smattering of German conversation, comparing and contrasting women’s clothing/modesty in Judaism and Islam with a Catholic woman from Munich.

A fantastic welcome home from my parents and the friends I’m staying with.

SNOW! Landing in the snow was great. As we approached YUL, we were flying through the white clouds for twenty minutes. Once we descended from the clouds, the ground was white as far as I could see, which gave the illusion of still being in the clouds. It made for a trippy, but smooth, landing. Also, wearing crocs was great on the plane (comfy, easy to take off), but not such a great idea walking through the snow with my luggage from the car to the house. Wet crocs and toes! There are snow piles on every front lawn on this street - easily 3-3.5 metres tall. I’m in heaven.

Cuddles with the dog. Good talks. Many hugs. Good food. I’m happy to be back on this side of the pond.

And now, to sleep. Laila tov, bon soir, good night…

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.

Sheleg!

I’ve taken a few photos, but I’ll go out later and take more.

Last night, the temperature dropped about 8ºC down to 0ºC. The winds were impressively strong, breaking limbs off a few trees in the area. Around 2am, the snow actually started to stick in my neighbourhood. 5 hours later, about 5cm of snow had accumulated (and it’s still coming down!). It’s fluffy, wet snow; large flakes. And because the temperature is still hovering around 0-1ºC, there’s a lot of water everywhere; some seeped into the apartment from the mirpesset. The temperature is expected to drop, which means there’ll be ice everywhere.

The result of 5cm is that Hebrew University is closed today. (MS and I were discussing this possibility yesterday, and realised that a missed day costs us about $50. What are the chances they’ll make up this day?) And if the snow continues, as is forecast, classes could be cancelled again tomorrow.

And, because this is so rare, both of my ulpan teachers spent time talking about it in class yesterday. They both said that it’s normal for Jerusalem to get snow once every year or two. And they stressed that snow meant that everyone stays home, there aren’t many vehicles on the roads, schools are cancelled, no one goes to work, the city basically shuts down. Oh, and one teacher said that to be a Jerusalemite meant staying home and eating soup when it snows.

ETA: Jerusalem is very Vancouver-esque in its attitude towards snow.

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.

The White Stuff

I could laugh, gloat, point out that I was wearing shorts today… But who am I kidding? I really miss it.

Save some for me? Make some snowballs and put them in the freezer?