Now that you are all full of suspense....

I left off that last post with the sketch guys in the shuk. When I found Amelia and he saw that I wasn't alone he disapeared. It was weird, during the whole incident I was annoying but not scared. I was prepared to yell at him in Hebrew and go to the security guard who I saw when I walking in if he didn't go away. But by the time I found Amelia and knew he was gone I started shaking- it was scary!

So, after shopping we had lunch and went back to campus, rested, then got picked up to go to shabbat services. Kira had family friends in Jerusalem who rented cars for their stay. They picked us up and took us to the Reform synagogue Amela knew about. Tere were two problems with this situation however: 1. The father of the family thought my name was Amy so he kept calling me that and 2. We couldn't find the synagogue and since I knew the most Hebrew in the car I had to ask for directions. First they made me ask a man jogging on the street, then I asked someone in a gas station. No one knew where we should go but we eventually made it.

The service was nice, but I was very aware of my conservative background. In this service the Rabbi actually instructed us to take cleansing breaths at various times. Conservative Rabbis couldn't care less how deeply we're breathing during services. The other very obvious difference in the services was the text of the prayers. For example: traditional prayers might say something like: "Bless us like you blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." The reform revamping says: "Bless us like you blessed our mothers and fathers, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Leah, Jacob, and Rachel." I don't have a problem with the changes per se, I just don't like things changing from what I know. For 8-some years I prayed every day during the school year- I know many prayers by heart- so it throws me off when I'm going through them.

At the end of the service I ran into one of my campers from the service camp this summer. Everyone always says you'll see people you know in Israel, but it's a really weird experience. I knew that I knew her, but it took me a good 2 minutes of thinking to place her. Very strange.

We got back to our apartment ready for dinner, but we didn't feel like cooking. We did know of a free shabbat dinner in the complex, though. We headed over around 9 and proceeded to be very very awkward. Tere were some people there and some people still setting up (even though we came half an hour late). After some amount of time of awkwardness we finally sat down and the Rabbi came out to lead the service. He was very much the typical Rabbi- with a beard, black hat, and black coat. We soon found out that the dinner was semi sponsored by Chabad. Chabad is a group that is part of the Hasidic movement (for those of you without a lot of Judaism knowledge- they are the really religious looking Jews although they are not considered the same as the 'ultra-orthodox').

So we pray and everything and start eating. Basically what's on the table to eat is Challah, hummus, and salads. We eat for a while and the Rabbi dissapears. He comes back in a few minutes with bottles of vodka, banana liquor, and chocolate liquor. He says: "I have good news and bad news: The bad news is that we don't have a second course tonight, there should be a meat course as well. The good news is that we have alchohol!" and he proceeds to pour a shot for everyone without taking no for an answer. The night continues like this and soon he is passing out song books and trying to get everyone to sing. We didn't really sing, but we were endlessly amused by the inclusion of the song "Puff the Kosher Dragon" in the song book. The Rabbi continues doing "L'Chaim's"- aka saying l'chaim! and taking shots- so he was pretty gone. At that point he decided to give his dvar torah (commentary on the torah portion of the week). It was hilarious- he started talking abotu Moses recieving the 10 Commandments and breaking them upon seeing the Jews worshiping the golden calf but his first problem was that he couldn't say Deuteronomy- he just couldn't get the words out. He also called worshiping the golden calf "boogying with the golden calf" and basically said boogie as much as possible.

So it might not have been my typical friday night at Carleton, but it was pretty entertaining and very strange.

I spent most of the day on saturday sleeping and rediscovering House and cleaning. I've grown to really love cleaning my room on saturdays- it's so reqarding and I love starting the week with a clean room.

In other news: me and my dad are trying to figure out a vacation to take in the beginning/middle of October during my Sukkot break. it will be interesting because we have a week of more off between Ulpan and the Semester and a week into the semester we have another 10 day break. I'm going to be doing a lot of travelling during the end of September/October. I'm excited, but I just hope we can get everything figured out. Kira and I are going to sit down and figure out our Big Europe Trip- so all you people studying in Europe: get excited, we might be coming your way!
As far as me and my dad are concerned, right now it's looking like Turkey and Greece are possible destinations.

Another weekend is here, but I will save stories from tonight for another post.