Random Pieces of the Last Few Days

Ok, this will be abridged as I should be getting going so as to do some homework and eat lunch at some point soon- possibly not in that order.

So, Shabbos was very nice in some ways, very odd in others. Friday night was lovely, good davenen, a good communal meal, some fun chatter. Shabbos morning I walked to Anschei Chesed, and was Totally weirded out by how late they start. Why do no Conservative Shabbos services in NYC start before 9:30? 9:30 is doable, but really, I've gotten used to services that start at 9 over the summer... I don't know what to do with myself in the morning: I'd rather do my sleeping SHabbos afternoon. The services weren't bad, but I was distracted by my time confusion.

Sunday was quiet- a little too quiet at times, as was Saturday night. Sunday I did get to one of the workshops at Shorashim, which was nice- there were actually a couple of nice dances that I learned that were worth the time. ANd there was a funny video from a Yemenite wedding help at Kfar Chabad that was both sociologically itneresting as far as the mixing of styles of music and dance, and personally amusing- some of the things the teacher was pointing out as "classically chasidic" were very familiar from the weddings of assorted friends, not all of whom would identify as chasidic in the slightest (as far as I know).

Yesterday, my folks came down here with more of my stuff, and we brought it up, and walked aroudn the city some. It was sort of funny- my parents come to NYC, and what do we do? We take a look around the local cathedral (which was gorgeous, and being a Madeleine L'Engle fan, it was fabulous to see a little bit of where some of my favorite books take place), and stopped in a non-kosher restaurant, as Dad was famished. But it was really wonderful to see them- I needed it.

ANd then last night I went dancing, at the end of the Shorashim programming, and while I was rather bored at the beginning, I really enjoyed later on- I met some really nice people and had some interesting conversations. Everyone, of course, had an opinion about my career plans, and someone at one point told me that "the religious would say do one degree, get married, have children- and you'll be divorced." (This is a slight paraphrase, but not by much.) I think this is sort of ridiculous- one degree is still 5 years, probably at minimum, either way. And well, how would 2 graduate degrees rather than one protect one from divorce anyways? She of course also described the relationship of parents to children as "you'll never have as much power over anyone as over your children"- I was shocked and disturbed: what a Terrible reason to have children. (she doesn't have any, and she's never been married). And then I got a ride back to the seminary from some nice folks, one of whom turned out to be really disturbingly prejudiced. Weird night.

Random Pieces of the Last Few Days

Ok, this will be abridged as I should be getting going so as to do some homework and eat lunch at some point soon- possibly not in that order.

So, Shabbos was very nice in some ways, very odd in others. Friday night was lovely, good davenen, a good communal meal, some fun chatter. Shabbos morning I walked to Anschei Chesed, and was Totally weirded out by how late they start. Why do no Conservative Shabbos services in NYC start before 9:30? 9:30 is doable, but really, I've gotten used to services that start at 9 over the summer... I don't know what to do with myself in the morning: I'd rather do my sleeping SHabbos afternoon. The services weren't bad, but I was distracted by my time confusion.

Sunday was quiet- a little too quiet at times, as was Saturday night. Sunday I did get to one of the workshops at Shorashim, which was nice- there were actually a couple of nice dances that I learned that were worth the time. ANd there was a funny video from a Yemenite wedding help at Kfar Chabad that was both sociologically itneresting as far as the mixing of styles of music and dance, and personally amusing- some of the things the teacher was pointing out as "classically chasidic" were very familiar from the weddings of assorted friends, not all of whom would identify as chasidic in the slightest (as far as I know).

Yesterday, my folks came down here with more of my stuff, and we brought it up, and walked aroudn the city some. It was sort of funny- my parents come to NYC, and what do we do? We take a look around the local cathedral (which was gorgeous, and being a Madeleine L'Engle fan, it was fabulous to see a little bit of where some of my favorite books take place), and stopped in a non-kosher restaurant, as Dad was famished. But it was really wonderful to see them- I needed it.

ANd then last night I went dancing, at the end of the Shorashim programming, and while I was rather bored at the beginning, I really enjoyed later on- I met some really nice people and had some interesting conversations. Everyone, of course, had an opinion about my career plans, and someone at one point told me that "the religious would say do one degree, get married, have children- and you'll be divorced." (This is a slight paraphrase, but not by much.) I think this is sort of ridiculous- one degree is still 5 years, probably at minimum, either way. And well, how would 2 graduate degrees rather than one protect one from divorce anyways? She of course also described the relationship of parents to children as "you'll never have as much power over anyone as over your children"- I was shocked and disturbed: what a Terrible reason to have children. (she doesn't have any, and she's never been married). And then I got a ride back to the seminary from some nice folks, one of whom turned out to be really disturbingly prejudiced. Weird night.

Weird

There have been 2 fire drills/alarms/somethings today, the first day of school. The latter seems to be some sort of mechanical misfunction (reminiscent of some we had in high school- those were steam or something getting on the wires), as we didn't even have to go outside, but it made for an odd few moments. Well, I guess better over-sensitive sensors than ones that aren't sensitive enough. But it's still been a bit disconcerting... At least it wasn't while it was really pouring out...

The rest of my first day has gone pretty well though: my classes were interesting, and I think productive, although I think one may be a good bit of review- but it's broader in scope than the other Bible classes that I've taken, so it may well be good for me- and it's only 2 hours a week, so it seems best that I should stay in it. And the teacher seems like a good person to get to know in terms of figuring out my future, so... My Hebrew class is seeming like it will be a Lot of work (I think I did almost as much parsing for my homework for Thursday- with which I am not exactly finished after abotu 2 hours of work- as I did for a chapter of Biblical Hebrew translation last year. And this was just a paragraph. But I did learn of an Nt form in Hebrew writing, even if it is mildly archaic, which is sort of cheerful. And once I look up these people, I expect I'll know a nice bit about R. Joseph Karo's colleagues, too.) My Hebrew will be getting a workout- my Talmud class is going to be conducted in Hebrew for the most part, as well as of course, my Hebrew class. But so far I like my teachers, or at least my first impressions...

Weird

There have been 2 fire drills/alarms/somethings today, the first day of school. The latter seems to be some sort of mechanical misfunction (reminiscent of some we had in high school- those were steam or something getting on the wires), as we didn't even have to go outside, but it made for an odd few moments. Well, I guess better over-sensitive sensors than ones that aren't sensitive enough. But it's still been a bit disconcerting... At least it wasn't while it was really pouring out...

The rest of my first day has gone pretty well though: my classes were interesting, and I think productive, although I think one may be a good bit of review- but it's broader in scope than the other Bible classes that I've taken, so it may well be good for me- and it's only 2 hours a week, so it seems best that I should stay in it. And the teacher seems like a good person to get to know in terms of figuring out my future, so... My Hebrew class is seeming like it will be a Lot of work (I think I did almost as much parsing for my homework for Thursday- with which I am not exactly finished after abotu 2 hours of work- as I did for a chapter of Biblical Hebrew translation last year. And this was just a paragraph. But I did learn of an Nt form in Hebrew writing, even if it is mildly archaic, which is sort of cheerful. And once I look up these people, I expect I'll know a nice bit about R. Joseph Karo's colleagues, too.) My Hebrew will be getting a workout- my Talmud class is going to be conducted in Hebrew for the most part, as well as of course, my Hebrew class. But so far I like my teachers, or at least my first impressions...