Nine Nights of Hanukkah

After our fabulous Christmas celebrations we were, well, very full. We also knew that we had to begin planning for our Hanukah celebrations!
Sufganiyot appeared in stores 2 whole months ago (I suppose this is the Jewish equivalent to putting out Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving, as they were put out after all the major fall holidays). These are fried donuts filled with deliciousness. The most basic, and my favorites, are filled with strawberry jam. They can also be filled with halva, dulce de leche, chocolate or really anything else. They can be covered in frosting, sprinkles, chocolate. There are also savory sufganiyot which I have heard are fabulous. Huge hanukiahs/hanukiot have appeared all over town. However, hanukah really isn't a big holiday. It is enough to get us a few days off from school, to garner some hanukah-lights around town and the smell of fried food in the air. But, life does not stop for hanukah.
Of course we had to celebrate it though! We had been lighting the hanukiahs every night and singing the prayers. Yet, the only available night to actually celebrate was the day after Hanukah had ended. Oh well!

Havdalah: All Things Must Come to an End

Shabbat has always been my favorite Jewish holiday. When I went to interfaith classes to learn about being Jewish, the cantor taught us that it is the most important holiday in Judaism. It was the only holiday my family really ever tried to adhere to. We spent Shabbats sans electricity, sans cars, sans work of any sort (quite a difficult task for a high school girl with a social life). Shabbat became my favorite holiday. My Dad would make golden brown challah for dinner, we would light the candles and say the only blessings I ever really learned. The comfortable, simple blessings over the wine and the bread became my own because of their repetition, unlike the rest of Jewish tradition which I often felt had been left out of my DNA.

This Tastes Like Jesus: Christmas

Let's begin with the Christmas party. We decided to have our Christmas dinner on Shabbat night, two days before Christmas because we always do Shabbat dinner!  

Our menu: Cornbread covered in dulce de leche made out of goat milk, latkes, Chinese noodles, bread, cheese, applesauce (homemade with cranberries), applesauce from a jar, mashed potatoes with LOTS of butter and sour cream, broccoli and other veggies, a pear pie with whole wheat crust, a berry pie with whole wheat crust, and ice cream! 

The venue: my apartment. My roommate was in charge of cleaning, inviting and decorating. She bought beautiful flowers and placed them all over the apartment, some in wine bottles and some floating in cute little dishes of water. She lit tons of tea lights and lined the counters and tables with them. We cut out some snowflakes which were taped up to the window. A bunch of friends showed up with food in hands and a 3-D Christmas tree they had made (way better than my 2-D one). They placed it under the sign that read "Presents Here". Somehow, everybody had managed to dress up in Christmasy colors and I turned on the Christmas carols. Another friend brought over these very strange candies that looked like little Christmas presents. Everything was ready and Christmasy! Let's eat! 

December 22

Wake up early. Make 10 eggs with sauteed garlic and onions. Add some fresh basil.

Start off to school. Report my apartment's latest craziness. 

Attend Hebrew class where my teacher speaks increasingly quickly in order to finish reviewing in time for us to eat. I cannot think without eating so I stare blankly at the board. We present her with a beautiful necklace to thank her as she was an amazing teacher. She must know at least 5 languages fully and bits and pieces of pretty much every other language. 

Head home, take a 2 hour nap to try to catch up on the sleep I have been missing because of the delicious, heavy late dinners we have and the homework that I try to do while my eyes heavily drift shut. Wake up, head to Tmol Shilshom, an adorable bookstore with amazing milkshakes with some friends. 

We decide to take the train. We get to the train station and neither of the 2 ticket machines will take our money because there is no change in the machines!!! Decide to take the bus. Which is at least 90 degrees despite the fact that it was a pleasant 75 outside. We sweat and chat with other students we run into on the bus. It takes us an hour to a place that we could have walked to in less time, but it was fun! Meet up with friends and start studying. Our chatter over milkshakes and coffee drives everyone else away. We study hard, preparing for the finals that are stretched out over the next three weeks.

You just gotta learn to laugh.

It makes me laugh and laugh and laugh how silly life can be here sometimes.

It is as a friend once told me: Israel tries soooo hard to be part of the West. But at the end of the day, things are really very Middle Eastern. This dichotomy can drive you crazy

A list of this week's grievances:

• Last weekend, on Friday night, our water heater simply did not turn on. I learned how to do everything while walking around in a towel because I was hoping the water would heat up. It did not. So I soaped up and hopped under the freezing cold drizzle. It took my breath away, it was so cold!! It was also Shabbat and NOBODY works on Shabbat. Thus, I knew I would have to wait until Sunday to say anything. Saturday, only more of the same. Sunday I couldn't not shower anymore. So, I heated up water in the tea kettle, poured half of it into one big pot and the other half into another pot. Added some cold water (I have learned from scalding myself these past few weeks to remember that boiling hot water is in fact REALLY hot). Soaped up. Dumped it over my head. It was actually a pretty nice shower. My roommate just decided to use the cold water. She woke my other roommate up with her screaming. Cranky household that day...