Let me step back a little and catch you up on the holiday season. Most people think of the holiday season as December, when in reality the lalapolooza of all holiday seasons would be the beginning months of the Jewish calendar. Starting off with Rosh Hashana, the new year followed closely by Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Five days later is Sukkot, which last for 7 days, wrapping up the holiday season is Shmini Atzeret and Simhat Torah. For nearly a month there is no school, shops are closed, no one goes to work, and my friends, I found it glorious. Laurel got bored a lot, but she doesn’t appreciate sleeping in and doing nothing as much as I. My kind of a As we are fast approaching the end, I will recap some of the highlights.
Rosh Hashana was spent at the Sareet’s family’s house. For Laurel the High Holy Days are synonyms for sending a day in synagogue. Rosh Hashana for many Israelis is a time for family to come together, a day off of work, and a time to relax. Much like a family would come together for Thanksgiving in America, so is Rosh Hashana celebrated in Israel. At 6am on September 29, (Laurel’s 23rd birthday) we took a bus to Hod Hasharon a suburb of Tel Aviv, where Sareet and her cousin Tom picked us up at the bus stop. That evening there was a huge dinner for 25 of Sareet’s relatives, and Laurel. I was too shy, and stayed upstairs. The next two days were spent lounging around, reading books, and watching TV. The TV was a big deal, because we do not have a TV in Laurel’s apartment, and it had been about a month since I last saw reruns of Gilmore Girls, which oddly enough is an Israeli favorite.
Going back to Jerusalem was a truly Israeli experience. The autobuses, or coach buses in Israel do not have a maximum capacity limit. If you want to get to another town, the autobus is the best way to go. You better push and shove to get a seat because when they are all taken the only spots left are standing room only in the aisles, which is exactly where Sareet, Laurel, myself and Sareet’s new fish Mishuggy ended up. For the first ½ hour Laurel stood in the aisles, and the rest of the trip she sat on the floor in a puddle of fish water that had sloshed from Mishuggy’s traveling case. I was safe and sound in Laurel’s overnight bag.
- Mo the Shalom Gnome
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