Update on Return Home and Stuff
I never really finished the trip report so I will make a feeble attempt in the next 9 minutes.
Wednesday: I flew from Amsterdam to Newark. I was lucky enough to have nobody sitting next to me that whole flight. Lucky by way of space, but that also meant nobody to chat with. There was a cute Dutch guy sitting across from me, friendly, but no real conversation. The flight went well, until the end when the turbulence in New Jersey had our plain rocking like a boat for at least 10 minutes. I was feeling queezy, which has never happened on a plane. The girl across the aisle got her barf bag out, I kid you not, but didn't use it. (unlike the trip there where a man barfed a couple times across from us).
I landed in Newark and was stressed about catching my next flight. I walked so fast, sweat beads building, to go to passport control. Waited in line there. Walked fast to to my baggage. Waited for a while there. Rushed to customs. Waited in a long line there. Finally rushed to the airport tram to get to the other terminal, the furthest one, to check in to my next flight. Waited in line to check in. Only to find out, I had abount a little more than an hour more than I thought. So I rushed for nothing :)
While waiting for my flight there were at least 6 Chasidic men carrying boxes waiting for their flights. It was the week before Pesach so they were carrying home Shmura Matzah from Brooklyn for families in California :) I have to say it's a great feeling to see this.
On my flight, across the very narrow aisle, sat a young Chabadnik. We had great discusssion most of the flight. We talked about Judaism and observance. I discussed how I struggle with formal prayer and he suggested I try to pray ten minutes a day. It did get me thinking about some things, and because of this conversation, I decided to go to shul most of the day on Saturday. I don't usually go. It was a great day at shul. The Torah portion didn't do much for me because I really think I need someone to discuss the deeper meanings, to analyze it. I wasn't raised doing this so, unfortunately, we were raised reading them as stories, and never got the many layers besides the obvious lessons. I was able to get to know better another girl my age from shul. We had a nice day and that's who I ran around with doing errands yesterday.
Ok, so that was just Wednesday...
I finally got home at midnight. So now it's Thursday, 1am, and I finally get to bed and fall asleep about 1:30. I didn't sleep that great, though I was so happy to be home, in my bed, with my kitties.
I woke up at around 9am and thought, wow, I woke up at a normal hour, this will be easy. Of course I was wrong. I fell asleep hard on the couch around ten on Thursday. I did errands that day, picked up two weeks of mail at the post office, washed all laundry and house rugs, swept and vacuumed, unpacked. No wonder I was so tired.
Friday: I woke up early, maybe 7am or so. Too early for how tired I felt. I had an extreme headache the night before as it was. Again I ran errands and did stuff around the house, payed bills, did some Pesach shopping. Then I went to the rabbi's for Shabbos dinner. Great dinner, a few odd people, but I digress on them. I had the worst upset stomach all night.
Saturday: As mentioned above, I did the Shabbos thing all day. I began getting a sore throat that afternoon. A bad sore throat. I was chatting with a friend online that night and fell asleep, sitting up, around 10pm. I am not adjusting well to jet lag.
Sunday: That was yesterday, ran errands all day with a horrific sore throat. I felt more rested but since I've been home I had headaches, then stomachache, now the sore throat which today, Monday, is turning to a cough. UGH.
And so, that's how my homecoming went.
posted by Tamara @ 9:11 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
When they do the movie, Tam's European Vacation, can I play your travel partner?
I have lots of experience being obnoxious. Some say I'm a natural.
Welcome home! And I'm looking forward to getting even more details at girls night!
Nani missed this one:
[http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/16666/index.html]
Monkeys Say ‘Dayenu!’
It’s that time of year again at the zoo: when the monkeys get fat and lazy thanks to Orthodox Jews.
* By Carol Vinzant
Security has been tight this week at the Central Park Zoo, with ticket takers, staff, and guards on the lookout for suspicious packages of cookies, pretzels, hot-dog buns, and pound cake. Observant Jews have till Wednesday to clear their houses of hametz (leavened products) before Passover, and every year many of them take their castoffs to the zoo. Baffled zoo staff note that the snow monkeys are the main beneficiaries of the pre-holiday pig-out, apparently because the polar bear’s glass wall is too high and the sea lions would only be interested if offered gefilte fish. “If a big group comes in carrying bags, admission is going to notice,” says zoo spokesperson Kate McIntyre.
The small, pink-faced snow monkeys (Japanese macaques) may not mind the interruption to their grooming routine and carefully prepared diet of fruits, greens, and nuts, but their caretakers sure do. Standard protocol is to politely ask food-throwers to stop. If they persist, security hovers and asks again (last year, one food-flinger said, “I don’t answer to you; I answer to a higher power”), but they are rarely ejected. “They really don’t know why they shouldn’t do it,” says one zoo volunteer. “They think they’re doing a good deed. I can’t say they like it when I tell them to stop. My answer to them is to take it to a shelter.” Other volunteers aren’t so tolerant. “If we see them do it, we should either frisk them for food or throw them out,” insists one.
But Yula Kapetanakos, an assistant curator, notes that the observant visitors don’t throw anything that bad. The real risk for the animals in eating too much people food is that they will get fat and lazy. Often the monkeys become so sated after their pre-Passover feast that they won’t go inside later for dinner.
Rabbi Moshe Elefant of Orthodox Union says there’s no religious imperative to give the food to animals. Still, “our tradition is not to waste food,” he says. “If we could give it to some animals to eat, that’s the best.” And since the run-up to Passover is so busy, Elefant says, the zoo’s just convenient. It’s more common for Orthodox families to go to city zoos in the middle four days of Passover, when the kids are out of school. Kapetanakos says the main things thrown by the big crowds then are bananas and matzo, that Passover staple. But Rabbi Elefant says, “I’m not sure how many animals are up for matzo.”
Cause everyone needed a chuckle... Cheers & Good Luck, 'VJ'
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