L'Shana Tova!

Happy New Year! We are rushing around a bit as we count down the minutes until the start of Rosh Hashana tonigh, but we wanted to write a quick post. We are really looking forward to a fun weekend filled with lots of food, new friends, and trying out different places for services. Today we spent shopping and cooking some dishes that we are bringing to our various hosts throughout the weekend - we made seseame tofu and 2 apple kugels - and we hope everything tastes ok! This is our first time using our little toaster oven - did we mention that we don't have a real oven in this apartment? - so cross your fingers :)

Otherwise, it is certainly evident that it is holiday season here. Here are a few fun things that we have experienced in the last several days that we definitely don't encounter in the US:

-Our 1.5 liter coke bottles have Shana Tova (happy new year) printed directly on the labels
-Every night when we return home to our apartment after class, around 6/7, we hear someone sounding the shofar - a ram's horn that is sounded only for these high holy days - we think they might be practicing for this weekend :)
-Everyone wishes you a Shana Tova - from the receptionists at the hotels, the clerks at grocery stores and even Max's barber - everyone is in the spirit of celebrating the new year
-Apples and honey (foods traditionally eaten on Rosh Hashana) are on sale in the stores - there are also many specials on wine and of course there are round challahs in every store!

We hope you all have a healthy, sweet and meaningful new year!

Love,
Jenny & Max

Tiyul to Arad

Hello - We spent the past weekend with our school on a trip to Arad, a city that isn't far from the Dead Sea (about a 2 hour bus ride southwest of Jerusalem). It was very nice to get away and to spend time with our new fellow students away from school. It was also really nice since Pardes planned the entire weekend, fed us, organized all activites and everything - so it was a really enjoyable, relaxing Shabbat/weekend.

Arad isn't necessary the destination of choice, as it is relatively isolated and isn't really known for anything in particular, so we spent most of the weekend at the hotel - it was basically like a retreat with sessions, classes and meals. But we did wake up at 5am on Friday morning to go on a hike/walk to see the sunrise overlooking a valley and the Dead Sea, which was really gorgeous! And then we had various activities up on the hill/mountain - I got to do Yoga :) - which was really interesting, trying to balance among all the rocks and pebbles and looking out over the desert of Israel! As we were heading back to the hotel, we ran into a heard of camels being lead by a few guides ... so amazing to see so close and so many at once!



Other highlights of the weekend included a pool at the hotel - which also had a pool of Dead Sea water - very fun. And on Saturday night there was a Tisch (literally table) which traditionally includes a lot eating, singing, and speaking, all while sitting and banging on a big long table. It's a bit hard to describe without visual aids, but quite a site and a lot of fun!

Otherwise, we spent the weekend getting to know people better, attending classes that mostly had to do with preparing for the High Holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur that are starting this weekend, and celebrating Shabbat with lots of food, singing, services, etc.

Our week of classes went well ... we are excited to finish up the holiday season and move on to the subjects we will be studying for the year. Love to you all!

Betsy & Joel are Engaged!

We just wanted to pass along the very exciting news that my sister Betsy and her longtime boyfriend, Joel, are now engaged!! They went camping at the Grand Canyon over Labor Day weekend, and on Sunday, they hiked for 11 hours on the Bright Angel Trail about 2/3 of the way in (and out) of the canyon. Each way was 6.1 miles and a 3000-foot elevation change! Joel proposed at the deepest point that they went, called Plateau Point!

This shot is taken at what Betsy called their "own private rock" where they officially got engaged!





Mazel Tov and Congratulations to them - we are so excited for you!

Are we at Camp?

Well, our first week of classes have come and gone, and we feel excited, shell-shocked, and a little tired! In short, our days are jam-packed with Pardes classes and our nights already filled with too many ways to try to meet people. Although we are reminded by our faculty that all Pardes classes/activities are "optional" as we are all choosing to be there, it's hard not to want to take advantage of everything. There are classes that begin as early as 7:30am and that run as late as 9:30pm! But if there is one thing we have already learned in our first week, it's that you can't do it all! For example, it's too much to arrive at school at 7am for morning services, to spend the day in several classes, to run errands, make/eat dinner and then finish off the evening by playing ultimate until 11pm at the park. It's hard to believe that we sort of managed this schedule at Herzl every day during the summer - we must be getting old!

But really, we are realizing that the hard-core text study that we are doing in every class really takes a lot out of you. It's crazy that we are actually learning texts all in Hebrew - it's a lot more empowering to feel that these texts belong to us and that we are being taught the skills to decipher them. Much of classes for this month of Elul (the current Hebrew month) are focusing on the upcoming High Holy Days - Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot - by teaching specific texts and subject matter regarding the themes associated with these days. Most relevant, is the theme of T'shuvah - asking for forgiveness, repenting - that is very central to these holidays and to start a new year. It great to spend the days leading up to these holidays really preparing for them.

Pardes also organized a Shabbat dinner for this Friday night where returning students (many students spend multiple years at Pardes) host new students. We had a very nice dinner filled with Israeli salads, Jerusalem kugle, rice, tofu in peanut sauce and more! We have never been to a vegetarian Shabbat meal that tasted so good! We spent the rest of our weekend doing laundry, running errands and resting. We are also slowly starting to make friends - we spent some time at 2 friends' apartments this weekend and also had some friends over to go running in the park. So, slowly but surely, we are setting up a life here.

Thanks to everyone for their emails - we love hearing from you - and miss you!!

Out with Ulpan & Nachlaot ... And into Pardes & Katamon

After spending our weekend moving and cleaning, we are now living in our new apartment in the neighborhood of Katamon!! Needlesstosay, the apartment was not in great shape when we arrived - mostly due to the last tenant leaving a ton of his stuff (supposedly to come back and get later) and all of his food. So, we relocated his belongings to the balcony at the landlord's request (he was also annoyed that the past tenant left it all!) and as the rain isn't supposed to begin in Jerusalem until mid to late October, his stuff should be fine outside. And we emptied the entire kitchen of all old food, washed everything, and have began to re-stock it with some new dishes and to "kasher" the rest by putting the pots and stuff in super hot water. So, we are starting to feel like we actually live there, and we hope to cook our first meal there tonight. So far we are only set-up to have "milk" meals as investing in 2 sets of everything at this point seemed a bit overwhelming - we figured it was better to get it into shape for milk meals so that we can feel comfortable having people over. One of our main goals this year is to try to decide whether we want to try to keep a kosher home when we return, so we will start slowly and see how it goes :)

Our new address is as follows:

Puchtel
13 Bilu Street
Jerusalem, ISRAEL 93221

We don't yet have internet or a phone line set up - we are working on it and will let you know once we do. One other thing is that unfortunately our camera broke, so we are in the process of trying to acquire an international warranty card from Pentax in the US and then we will get it to a shop in Jerusalem that supposedly will ship it to the Pentax service center in Tel Aviv ... oh the joys of working with a global economy! Anyway, we'll keep you posted on the progress, but for now we hope our stories can do justice to our experience without the videos and pics.

More important, today was our first day at Pardes - and I can already report that it was about 1000 times better than our experience at ulpan. Most of the morning was filled with orientation type activities - learning about the school, introductions, etc. - there are well over 100 students here (not all of whom will be staying for the full year, but we think most are). And we met many nice people from all over the world - most are from the U.S., but many from Canada, Australia, England and other parts of Europe. I would say that off-hand probably about half are recent college graduates who are taking a year off before they attend graduate school or start working. But there are also some like us who left jobs in order to come here for a year - it was reassuring to know that others felt it important enough to "take a break" from the working world to come to Pardes.

Max and I also found out that much to our surprise, we were both placed in the "Bet" level (or second level - bet is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet). As we both felt that the 3 page placement exam that we had to take last week was way over our heads, we are certainly relieved and excited that we don't have to start totally at the beginning in the first level. The class level dictates our morning schedule from 8:30 to 11:45. We will have Chumash/Torah class 3 mornings a week with the 14 others in Bet level and we will have Misneh/Talmud class 2 mornings a week with the same group. Then from 12-1, and again from 2:30-5, we get to pick 4 different elective classes - one for each time slot for Sun and Tues and one for each time on Mon and Wed - we are limited a bit by which classes we can take since we are considered "introductory level," but there are still many choices! Today we got our first taste of the afternoon class - I picked a Modern Jewish Thought class that is focusing on learning about various Jewish philosophers from the 19th and 20th centuries, and Max picked an Introduction to Midrash/Agaddah class (rabbinic commentary). There are other choices for the other dates and times such as Interpersonal Relationships, Biblical Hebrew Grammar, Halacha (Jewish Law), Women & Mitzvot and many others. It will be fun this week to decide on all of these classes!

So that's about it for now ... we will try to get our internet and phone up and running soon! Miss you all :)