A little bit about a lot a bit.

So, I have not written here in a very long time. I'm sorry. I promise. Let me try to update you. There was of course j-hist, Hebrew, and my other classes, but it was really just a cycle of schoolness. On, say, the 18 of October, parents started to invade our lives. There were parents on their little "Parents' Pilgrimage" everywhere. I (and everyone else on the trip) felt that my independence was invaded and suddenly there were parents breathing down our necks. They were here for about two weeks and were gone. Mind you, it was nice every once in a while to have parents during that time because they would take me out to dinner or shopping for what I wanted or even take me to Hebrew University for a visit. (Just to clarify, I did write this knowing that my parents can see it...but they already know how I felt about the subject)

The parents left, and we had our return to normalcy. When I went to HU, I was very impressed. I really wanted to go there. Right now, I am not positive that is my college because I remembered all the great things about Hampshire. There are both duking it out for first place and its a neck and neck race.

A little while later (sometime in the beginning of November) we went to Poland. Quite the trip. We were not really touring, as we had a true and definite purpose. We were there for Jewish reasons. We had lots of Shoah stuff to see. You may wonder what Shoah is and I will simply tell you that Holocaust is not enough to describe that situation. I really do mean no offense to those that read this, but I dislike Poland greatly. I won't say hate, because one of the girls on the trip does not appreciate such language and she might be standing right over me as I write this. Her feelings aside, I really do not like Poland at all. My reasons for this are thus: Jewish culture there is on show. Like at a zoo. For example, we went to a Kosher-style restaurant. It was a show of Yiddish culture. Yiddish culture is much like Jewish culture, except before the Shoah and (mostly) in Eastern Europe. It of course had no Jews in the restaurant- nothing but a tourist attraction. They played Klezmer music (music in Yiddish, which is also language if you did not know that) and in it they sang a song that should only be sung on a Saturday night or at the end of a holiday...it was a Wednesday. There were other such experiences, but I am opting for not being repetitious and/or boring.

During our stay in Poland, we went to two death lagers (lager is the word for camp as in concentration camp in German). Very moving experiences. I am glad that we went during the heart of the bitter Polish winter. So cold and miserable, and we were so bundled up and still miserable. While we were at Majdanek (my-dah-nik, a death lager), it rained. The rain mocked me. I was there in my layers of warmth with rain protection on top and still not on the cozy side (speaking of, my stomach just gurgled in want of Cosi...). I thought back on my brethren that endured through such awful conditions with just a pyjama top and bottom and maybe, but just maybe a pair of shoes; none with socks. The average time for living through such a a concentration lager (whose sole purpose was not to kill immediately but to work the Jews and others for a little while) was just three months. There were pictures, mugshots even, done by the nazis. They had a date of entrance and a date of death on them. One that I saw of a healthy-looking teenager had a difference of just 16 days. The longest time that I saw was 11 months. Needless to say, it was a very moving experience and I will leave most of the details to myself (we were there for 5 days, all of them chock full from 5:30 in the morning to around 7 at night).

There were two good things that came out of my visit to Poland: a tea house and Esperanto. The tea house was absolutely amazing. If you were unaware, I have this ambition to own a tea house in addition to whatever I end up doing in my life. This tea house was so amazing but mine will be better. I at least know now that my idea of a tea house is possible, plausible, even doable in praxis. Next, we visited the grave of a guy who had the pseudonym Dr. Esperanto. He created a language which is now called Esperanto, after him. His goal was to create an international language based on Slavic, Germanic, and Romance origins. Very intriguing, I know. It has no irregular verbs, and has very simple rules. I am currently teaching it to myself, and if I may so myself, I am doing quite fine. I reccomend that you do some research about it if you do not know what it is.

After Poland, we had a day off of nothingness and sleep. It was quite nice. The day after that, we went to Gadna. Gadna is an acronym in Hebrew which stands for G'dud Noar (Youth Brigade basically). I realize that interpretation meant very little. It was in essence a week of basic training for Tzahal (Tzavoh Hagana LeYisrael- Israel Defense Forces). There was lots of running around and basic training type stuff. Our group was divided into three teams and altogether with two other teams we were were a platoon. It was lots of fun. Gadna is not a program for Americans. It is a program for Israeli kids so that they can get a feel for the army which they will enter a year later. Therefore, our commanders spoke to us in Hebrew. Not the slow, let-the-American-understand Hebrew that I am used to, but fast super Hebrew with slang and everything. I was of course the translator for my team. I had to relay orders to my team from our commander, and it was hard. The first two days, I made lots of mistakes and therefore my team made lots of mistakes. After that, I really had to shape up. We were having lessons about guns and safety and the army and other things that I had to translate, and I needed to have exact translations without missing details. I got pretty good at it. On the last full day, we got to shoot an M-16. 10 bullets each. I got eight on target. Second best in our whole group. We all had a hidden agenda while there: get the commanders to laugh. We were quite successful. It was hard, but we triumphed even in that. It was a lot of fun and it helped my Hebrew tremendously. We of course got to wear uniforms and belts and canteens and stand in attention. It was really like a week in the army except super-concentrated.

That week is over and now I'm here. It has been a tough few weeks. However, I have come out full of experience. I really did enjoy the army and I really did not at all enjoy Poland. That's it. Thanks for reading through!