Passover with my Family

This weekend I spent with my family for passover. I was expecting a bigger group but it was just one set of cousins, at their house. It was very relaxing. After the work I've had to do over the last two weeks I needed it. I was able to sleep through the morning. Other than that we ate, hung out, played boardgames, and ate some more. I was really glad to be a member of my family this weekend. Just the fun we had playing Taboo and Upwords and the discussions we had at our seder. After a couple of years of spending passover elsewhere, it was a treat to be back with my family and the seder that I'm used to.
Keywords:Family | Judaism
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Rosh Hashanah

A new year. On Wednesday night I went to Phil's house, a fellow ETC first year. He made a very nice holiday dinner. Since I can't cook, that is a skill I really respect. It was a great social event. There were 5 of us there, not all Jewish though. The discussion was interesting. Stuff like that makes me think the ETC would be cooler without as much busy craziness.

Their house was really nice. It was big, clean, in a nice neighborhood, near stuff, closer to the ETC than where I live, and cheaper. I'm jealous. I like being near campus though. Oh well.

I went to services with some friends. Had lunch at AEPi. Went to tashlich in Schenley park. That's about it for jewish stuff. It went well.

The new year also makes me think about resolutions and what I want to do. A friend has inspired me to try to go running again. I also want to try to be more proactive about work so I can really enjoy my free time. I want to practice juggling and actually get good at it. I never practice anything and I want to do it this time. Excercising would be good. And then there's the perpetual resolution. If you don't know what I mean then you don't need to. If any good comes of any of those this next year I'll be impressed.
Keywords:Judaism | Friends
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Hebrew Class

For the last four weeks I've been taking a hebrew class at the hillel. I saw an email advertisement for it and thought I should check it out. Being in this class really reminds me of how hard languages are for me. It is humbling to know there is something that I'm truely bad at learning. While I'm best at certain things, I usually feel that I can learn anything that can be taught. Language is just really hard for me. I think very slowly. While the words may make sense to me, I can't even hear them, let alone translate, at the speed the teacher goes. It is a struggle, since I'm not used to feeling the stupidest person in the class. Especially with such a small class, it is very stressful every time it is my turn to do something. Each week I am convinced that I should give up and not go back. I do think I'm making progress and learning some things. Maybe some real college class would be more appropriate.
Keywords:Judaism
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Addendum

Booth Addendum

There was so much in the last entry but so much happened and I left a few things out. The first story was when Ben came up to me and asked "What booth needs booth?" I didn't intend to give a nonsense answer (and that is probably what made it so funny) but the ridiculousness of the question caused me to answer, "That's good true." I don't want to put the next story in here but for those who know, lauan:wood::gold-plated:jewlery. The bush we had to be the burning bush in the booth was a real bush. I took it back and planted it in our yard. I think I did a good job. It looks good where it is, even though it isn't in a place that we've had a bush before. I hope it lives. I think it is nice that it blesses our house. Unlike people who did small things such as hieroglypic tiles or beanbag frogs, there wasn't anything for me to take away from the booth, but the fact that I was able to plant and leave something from the booth makes me feel good. It will hopefully be there for a few year and I'll be able to come back and say, "that's the burning bush." The last thing I forgot was a pointer to my carnival pics.

Passover

Booth really put me in the right mindset for passover. When we said, "Because of what God did for me when I was a slave in Egypt," I feel as if I really was. After all building a booth is hard labor and we were even building pyramids.

At one seder I went to, instead of cups of salt water, they had spray bottles of it. It seemed like a good idea until a little kid got hold of it and decided to give me a shower and no one thought they should stop him.

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Keywords:Booth | Anecdotes | Nostalgia | Judaism | Grad School
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