in-between heavy stuff.

so i know i promised more decadent divulgings, like visiting Eyal's family and the insanity of Jerusalem and Israeli politics, but i just posted a juicy post so this is an inbetweeny light and fluffy cupcake, with apple sauce instead of oil.

the landlord won't do anything about the mold in the apartment, nor do we have any solutions for making it less damp in here. i've come to systematically hanging random piles of clothing outside on our line (can you do something systematically to something random?), just so that each piece of clothing can dry out every so often. it's kinda like doing the dishes even though you know you'll be eating off them again soon. plus my mom told me that sun kills mold so hopefully it'll help beyond just keeping things dry. ugh. how gross is mold? ugh.

i'm looking for a job, which in englishified hebrew is this: ani mechapesset avoda. as soon as my resume template lets me have more than 2 previous jobs (we've had a fight about it, he hasn't budged yet but i'll wear him down), i'll have a resume ready to submit to two interesting places, and some other places too. the interesting places are: BCVS, a residential treatment centre for Orthodox women 16-20 with an eating disorder, and this other place that i can't think of the name right now, but it's a centre for kids with special needs. day programs, respite, cool rec facilities and such. or maybe a vegetarian soup place.

as you can see from my brilliant hebrew above, ulpan is going well. i can say a variety of things, some of which are useful; i can use a variety of verbs in a mix of tenses, some of which only if i'm talking to male-identified person. i can say, for some reason, "No way!" and "There's no point" and "You and me, we will change the world." i've found myself sitting between Barrie, a guy in his early 50's i guess who is smiley and jokey and supportive of the Hebrew struggle and non-obnoxious like many other people in the class, and Jeremiah, a guy about my age with no neck and a mediumly-fierce Zionist attitude but he knows i'm against that so he keeps quiet about it. we hung out the park the other day and gossiped about the annoying people in our class, mainly this one British guy in his 30's named Pesach who is constantly seeking attention in a slightly passive way and who's English name is- no joke- Paul Simon. he says he's looking for a wife. i say GOOD LUCK BUDDY.

in vague emotional news, today i'm having a very hard time being here when i know one of my best friend's in the universe is going through a really tough time. it's painful. really really painful.

Randoms:

• I'm obsessed with this collection of blogs. Don't even go. Your friends will never see you again.
• My favourite line from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Tom Stoppard): "Hamlet, in love with the old man's daughter, the old man thinks."
• I just started reading Bernice Chu's blog and i really like it!
• I made an awesome walnut "cream" sauce for pasta the other night. *gurgle* yum.
• This is awesome: http://www.orthodykes.org/
• For some reason I decided to use capital letters where appropriate in this section.
• Keep an eye out for my soon-to-come picasa album. :)
  

today i miss: dad, the Shanly house and all its inhabitants.
***Just in case this little section isn't clear, you are ALL in my heart at ALL times... but of course, sometimes people stick out one day, for one reason or another. these are those people.***

my toast is ready. gotta go.
xo

rant

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhgggghhh i procraaaaaastinated and now there's toooo muuuuuch.

oy, i just let the cursor flash for like a minute before putting it work again. can't make brain work. but it wakes up quickly. so here i go.

i've been wanting to rant briefly about a variety of things, so lemme just release some babble on you and the i'll write some real posts later.

• my apartment is damp and i don't like it. clothes feel like i took them out of the dryer just five minutes too soon, my bed and slippers are cold and damp to get into, and bathroom towels won't dry without assistance from the clothesline outside. i found mould/mold (which one is British, which one American?) on some jeans i haven't worn in a while. i can do lots of gross things but mould/mold is NOT one of them. i don't know how to reconnect with my jeans yet.
• i got sick again and i think it's because my home is soggy. at least i didn't get the eye infections Eyal had. yuck.
• health food here is generally more expensive than at home, but the vegetables and fruits here are divine, way cheaper (even if organic!), and mostly local. WHO KNOWS HOW HAPPY I AM THAT I CAN GET LOCAL BANANAS AND AVOCADOS, RAISE YOUR HAND!
• i complain about my ulpan (hebrew school) teachers because they are training to speak monkey hebrew and not teaching us much vocabulary, but i'm complaining less lately. they're teaching us mostly structure, and using some boring verbs and very little other vocab, but Eyal is making me label everything in the house so i'm learning at home too. i think we might start a group here for people who want a social space in which to learn vocab, instead of the alternative, which is becoming very intimate with a hebrew-engish dictionary. i want to do units like we did learning french or spanish - a school unit, a shopping unit, an "all about me" unit - with relevant vocabulary, like 'to dance,' sister, 'i don't need a plastic bag', protractor, and fly-fishing. learning how to count above five might also be helpful. but recently (like this past week), i've actually begun to be excited about ulpan, and i find i know more thank i think i do. still hesitant to use it with eyal's friends, cause i kinda feel like i'm acting, but they always respond really positively when i use it so i should get over myself. :)

Coming soon: our trip to tel aviv/living in this insane city, the first weekend hanging out with Eyal's family up north, & Purim (it will a doozy).

Today, I especially miss, for various reasons: Lindsay Rothmar, the Montreal house, and Alex Duffy.

xoxox

and OH!!!!!!

i started ulpan today. met a friend named Elisa from Buffalo. she was the only non-religious girl in my corner. (apparently i'm a 'back corner' girl... do you know what YOU are??)

aaaand.....

i just finished my first page of Hebrew homework!!!!!!!

Four days in

I'm sorry, but this post will probably be boring. But it'll be a decent standard details catch-up.

The flight was fine. Took off and landed rather promptly. I sat next to friendly, punky, air-sick youth pastor who kinda stole my window seat but I figured she needed it more than me. Made sleeping nearly impossible, so I've been tired since I got here. I guess jetlag has something to do with it too.

It was the first time I'd ever had someone waiting in the airport for me with my name on a sign. That was pretty cool. She nabbed me nearly as soon as I got off the plane, then took me to another person who had my name on a sign, all the while telling me about this crazy flood that had just happened in the south. The new sign lady let me bud the security line to get my passport stamped, and then took me upstairs to the absorption office (kinda freaky - i was absorbed...) where the lady told me that my necklace (the Celtic Goddess lady... you probably know the one) "is not good thing for Jew to put." Ah well. I put it anyway. I didn't give her a hard time about the comment because then she gave me cashmoney and introduced me to the man that was to get my bags for me and wheel them out. That was pretty awesome.

Eyal was waiting for me with Leon and a rose. We were happy. We were happy for so long that the guy who wheeled my bags out finally came over and was like, "Uh, ok well mazel tov and enjoy Israel," and kinda sauntered away. It was amusing.

The apartment is very cool - it needs heaters in every room. (YES I KNOW i'm Canadian but this doesn't mean I don't have the right to complain about the cold. Because it's SO cold at home, we need heaters and sweaters and slippers and duvets, and thus we don't acclimatize to the nippy weather. So there, Israelis.) Although most apartments are like this- the buildings here are constructed to be self-cooling because it's so damn hot in the summer. So it's a lot of tile and concrete and poor insulation. I know I'll appreciate it in the summer.
But in other definitions of the word, the apartment is very cool. I'll post pictures when Eyal gets home. It's kinda like a cave, with lots of archways and niches and slopes in the ceiling and walls... apparently this is old-style Israeli, but at the same time not very common, because our place is older than most - so unique even to Israelis! Neat. :) It's a half-basement, so we still get lots of natural light. Not direct sun, but not a typical basement, so it's fine. There's lots of space for storage, and Leon (the dog), and toys for when Yismo and Bloomie (the nephew and niece) come over. We have a decent kitchen, a washing machine in the bathroom, and large common area that we'll use often. Already have, in fact...

On Friday night (people call that Shabbat here), we had four friends over for dinner and wine. I made three Indian dishes from the Indian Vegan cookbook Lon gave me just before I left (it's AWESOME. i can't wait to make stretchy fried bread) and they were all well-received. Yeahhhhh. I really like Eyal's friends. His friend Tultul (which isn't his real name - "tul" means curl, and he has curly hair, so they call him Tulul. I don't actually know his real name...) lives close and he's super nice. Also, Omri's girlfriend Michal lives close-by, and Eyal 2's girlfriend (he's one of Eyal's best friends) named Liori goes to school in Jerusalem, so I have some lady friends near-by too. And soon I'll make my own friends. :)

In other news... tomorrow, I'm going to pop into the community centre (rather, center) that is right by my building because they have an ulpan there (an intensive Hebrew studies program) that I will hopefully start attending the first week of February. Other things on my to-do list:

1. get a cell phone
2. get a router so we can hook up our VOIP phone (which will let me call anywhere in Canada and the U.S for one low monthly price!!!)
3. sign up for a bank account
4. get my Israeli ID card (Teudat Zehut), which I actually need to do first.

To delve quickly into feelings... I think i was in shock a bit when i got here. I wasn't feeling nervous or excited or anxious or worried or anything really... kinda weird. Jess told me i shouldn't worry and that i'll start to settle and accept my new life and feel again. *lol* Well she didn't say it exactly like that... but i've actually started to wake up to all the new things in the past day or two, so things are moving along. More on feelings another time.

Love.