Thankgiving, take two
Howdy!
Wait, did I just say howdy? Scratch that. How about "hello"? Yeah, I think that fits me better.
I am currently spending my free Shabbat with the Jacoby family in the Jerusalem suburb of Tzur Hadassah. For the diligent readers who have been with me since Day 1, you'll remember that it was they who picked me up from the airport when I first arrived. For the rest of you, suffice it to say that Michael Jacoby was my dad's business partner for many years.
As most of the Americans managed to escape yeshiva Thanksgiving some way or another Thursday night, only four Americans took the taxi from Ma'aleh Gilboa to Jerusalem. Needless to say, I rode shotgun. After a half-hearted "farewell" to the two Canadians, I stayed with Josh to say hello to two of his YULA friends: Amanda and Dvorah. Then we too parted ways, and I took a cab to Kafit Cafe on Emek Refaim, where I eventually met up with Cary, who took me to Tzur Hadasah.
Friday was else uneventful, save watching parts of a terrible Charlie Sheen movie titled "The Chase." It was predictable, stagnant, had poor characters, and had nauseating camerawork. As Shabbat was one of the earliest of the year, there wasn't time for much else, and after dinner, some backgammon and reading, I retired for the night.
(Tangent #1: At dinner, we discussed Israeli slang*. I've been working on my slang. Really. From easy words like סבבה and אחלה to למלם (which comes from the Hebrew phrase לא מועיל, לא מזיק) and על הפנים, I've been learning new words left and right. One I'm told that is fairly new is נשנש, which I believe is the Israeli word for metrosexual. I've tried my hand at creating a new word; when discussing movies, I remarked that a certain picture was the best of its genre, hands down. Somehow, the literal translation, ידים למטה, hasn't caught hold. Neither has the popular LA greeting "what's up dog?," which, when translated to ?מה קורה כלב, amounts to confusion at best, an insult at worst.
Tangent #2: this Shabbat we read parshat "Chayei Sarah," and the first chapter deals with Abraham's burial of his wife Sarah in a cave he purchases in Hebron. To mark the occasion, I've heard that Jews flock to the cave for this Shabbat every year to visit for the occasion. These are things I have never heard in Los Angeles.
Now back to the story)
Today, Saturday, began the right way with sleeping in and reading. I was re-reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," which I had last read in tenth grade (or as the Canadians fondly note, "Grade 10"). Three years later, I was able to appreciate more fully the beauty of Fitzgerald's prose, a style that a former teacher, Nat O. Reynolds, once referred to as "a novel written in poetry." I noticed images and patterns, plot points I had never fully understood, saw characters and interactions that had failed to hold my attention the first time around.
Lunch today was interesting, as we were invited to a luncheon at the Housen house. What surprised me was that it was full of fifteen or so American families and, even more surprising, it was a pot-luck, delayed Thanksgiving feast! I should note that the turkey wasn't kosher, so it was less my feast than theirs, but the mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, apple sauce, pumpkin pie, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and cornbread more than made up for the festive bird I do not particularly savor. Later, I played with a baseball too big and a glove too small, and tossed a football with a doctor who once lived in Los Angeles and studied at NYU.
Shabbat has been over for two hours already, and it's only 7:00. We had chamin, a variation on cholent, for dinner. I was going to head over to the city to try and meet up with some friends, but seeing as (1) Michael came down sick and isn't going, (2) I am not allowed to bus or tramp (Hebrew for hitchhike), and (3) I'm running low on money, I think I'll stay in tonight.
Back to yeshiva tomorrow.
סבבה- ("sababa")- means fun and good, or okay. Modifying word like "faf," sababa can be used anywhere in positive context.
אחלה- ("achlah")- same as sababa, for the most part. What, you want to know the difference? What do I look like, a linguist or something? Jeez.
למלם-("lamlem")- means neutral, it is an abbreviation of the next term.
לא מועיל, לא מזיק- ("lo mo'il, lo mazik")- means doesn't benefit, doesn't hurt. Hence, neutral.
על הפנים- ("al hapanim")- literally "on the face," it means very bad. Negative. Bad.
נשנש- ("nash-nash")- metrosexual, as the above paragraph wrote. Girly-man.
ידים למטה- ("yadayim l'matah")- literally "hands down," but so far not catching on.
מה קורה כלב- ("mah koreh kelev")- what's up dog, just minus the cool. When you think about it, dogs aren't so cool: they pee on the rug, bark, shed hairs all over. Yeah, I can kinda see why it can be perceived as an insult.
Wait, did I just say howdy? Scratch that. How about "hello"? Yeah, I think that fits me better.
I am currently spending my free Shabbat with the Jacoby family in the Jerusalem suburb of Tzur Hadassah. For the diligent readers who have been with me since Day 1, you'll remember that it was they who picked me up from the airport when I first arrived. For the rest of you, suffice it to say that Michael Jacoby was my dad's business partner for many years.
As most of the Americans managed to escape yeshiva Thanksgiving some way or another Thursday night, only four Americans took the taxi from Ma'aleh Gilboa to Jerusalem. Needless to say, I rode shotgun. After a half-hearted "farewell" to the two Canadians, I stayed with Josh to say hello to two of his YULA friends: Amanda and Dvorah. Then we too parted ways, and I took a cab to Kafit Cafe on Emek Refaim, where I eventually met up with Cary, who took me to Tzur Hadasah.
Friday was else uneventful, save watching parts of a terrible Charlie Sheen movie titled "The Chase." It was predictable, stagnant, had poor characters, and had nauseating camerawork. As Shabbat was one of the earliest of the year, there wasn't time for much else, and after dinner, some backgammon and reading, I retired for the night.
(Tangent #1: At dinner, we discussed Israeli slang*. I've been working on my slang. Really. From easy words like סבבה and אחלה to למלם (which comes from the Hebrew phrase לא מועיל, לא מזיק) and על הפנים, I've been learning new words left and right. One I'm told that is fairly new is נשנש, which I believe is the Israeli word for metrosexual. I've tried my hand at creating a new word; when discussing movies, I remarked that a certain picture was the best of its genre, hands down. Somehow, the literal translation, ידים למטה, hasn't caught hold. Neither has the popular LA greeting "what's up dog?," which, when translated to ?מה קורה כלב, amounts to confusion at best, an insult at worst.
Tangent #2: this Shabbat we read parshat "Chayei Sarah," and the first chapter deals with Abraham's burial of his wife Sarah in a cave he purchases in Hebron. To mark the occasion, I've heard that Jews flock to the cave for this Shabbat every year to visit for the occasion. These are things I have never heard in Los Angeles.
Now back to the story)
Today, Saturday, began the right way with sleeping in and reading. I was re-reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," which I had last read in tenth grade (or as the Canadians fondly note, "Grade 10"). Three years later, I was able to appreciate more fully the beauty of Fitzgerald's prose, a style that a former teacher, Nat O. Reynolds, once referred to as "a novel written in poetry." I noticed images and patterns, plot points I had never fully understood, saw characters and interactions that had failed to hold my attention the first time around.
Lunch today was interesting, as we were invited to a luncheon at the Housen house. What surprised me was that it was full of fifteen or so American families and, even more surprising, it was a pot-luck, delayed Thanksgiving feast! I should note that the turkey wasn't kosher, so it was less my feast than theirs, but the mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, apple sauce, pumpkin pie, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and cornbread more than made up for the festive bird I do not particularly savor. Later, I played with a baseball too big and a glove too small, and tossed a football with a doctor who once lived in Los Angeles and studied at NYU.
Shabbat has been over for two hours already, and it's only 7:00. We had chamin, a variation on cholent, for dinner. I was going to head over to the city to try and meet up with some friends, but seeing as (1) Michael came down sick and isn't going, (2) I am not allowed to bus or tramp (Hebrew for hitchhike), and (3) I'm running low on money, I think I'll stay in tonight.
Back to yeshiva tomorrow.
***
*For those of you who followed the star, here is a translation and transliteration of the slang terms mentioned above. Now you can be as cool as an Israeli! Wow! Just memorize the pronounciation of the words below, and your friends will be in awe of you! Unless you live on an Israeli kibbutz at a Israeli yeshiva in Israel. But if not, you will soon be the talk of town! And you, and the whole town, will love that! סבבה- ("sababa")- means fun and good, or okay. Modifying word like "faf," sababa can be used anywhere in positive context.
אחלה- ("achlah")- same as sababa, for the most part. What, you want to know the difference? What do I look like, a linguist or something? Jeez.
למלם-("lamlem")- means neutral, it is an abbreviation of the next term.
לא מועיל, לא מזיק- ("lo mo'il, lo mazik")- means doesn't benefit, doesn't hurt. Hence, neutral.
על הפנים- ("al hapanim")- literally "on the face," it means very bad. Negative. Bad.
נשנש- ("nash-nash")- metrosexual, as the above paragraph wrote. Girly-man.
ידים למטה- ("yadayim l'matah")- literally "hands down," but so far not catching on.
מה קורה כלב- ("mah koreh kelev")- what's up dog, just minus the cool. When you think about it, dogs aren't so cool: they pee on the rug, bark, shed hairs all over. Yeah, I can kinda see why it can be perceived as an insult.
posted by Yoni Bain | 8:40 AM
3 Comments:
Hahahaha...I'm finally starting to have a subconscious influence on you! Soon enough you'll be wearing a cowboy hat and saying you've got enough food to choke a horse! HAHAHAHA!
Tsk tsk, you failed to mention that you spoke to a good friend from the states! Talking to you was one of the highlights of my holiday (which doesnt say much). I've never been a fan of family gatherings but this year everyone was too full to breathe, much less talk! I hope to catch you online in the future, but if not, I'll try and send you a letter!
maybe you never heard about the "chaieyeh Sarah" tradition because your parents didn't want you going to Hevron and getting your head blown off by a motar shell.
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