By October 5th, I was getting the hang of this whole Cork thing. That Monday, I went to fencing club for the first time. I was totally nervous - I hadn't picked up a blade since my foot surgery the previous November - and I KNEW that inevitably I'd do a million things wrong. Lucky for me, it was still early enough in the semester that tons of people were showing up, which meant that I was able to avoid doing any actual sword-work that day. Instead, after warm-up I did lots and lots of footwork and coordination drills. For me, this was excellent - a chance to get my feet advancing and retreating again without worrying about swords, and a chance to get back into the level of concentration that's supposed to be maintained in fencing. I did fairly well in the coordination and reflex drills and knew that I needed to work on my footwork (at least some things are consistent across sport-lines - I never wanted to move in tennis either!). It was lots of fun and best of all, one of the girls from my early start class was there, so I wasn't entirely alone!
Tuesday was supposed to be Chorale Society, but I had to skip it - having missed an IFSA dinner while on Inis Meaín, I definitely wanted to go to this one, since it would be my first opportunity to meet Maria, our new advisor. Unfortunately, I ran a little late and ended up sitting at the opposite end of the table. It was nice though - I sat with some of the IFSA kids who didn't do early start, who I had not yet had the opportunity to meet. I also sat with two of the early start girls I didn't see very often, so it was nice to catch up. I heard all about their adventures at Oktoberfest, which made me glad I hadn't gone, since they had been so excited about it and had had such a miserable experience.
On Thursday, I again had lunch with Hope - we had figured out that our schedules worked out really well for meeting up for lunch on Thursdays and it was a nice way for me to start my weekend.
Friday, I found myself again on campus, even though I didn't have class. I was meeting Janusz (and Cliona, though I didn't know that yet!) for coffee to talk about the Jewish Cultural Night and Jewish Cultural Festival that Iona (the chaplaincy on campus) was holding the following week. I had met Janusz at the Society Fair, but was nonetheless surprised to actually hear from him. We talked about ways for both Cliona and I to get involved (she was going to help organize and cook and I was going to teach a couple Israeli dances and maybe a song or two), but eventually we ended up talking about the Jewish community in Cork and community feeling towards Jews and Israel in Ireland. Now, it's important for me to mention that Janusz, who's from Poland, isn't Jewish, even though he was organizing both the Evening and the Festival and Cliona, who's actually from Cork, is planning on converting, and currently learning Hebrew. Technically, I was the only Jewish person there. Janusz plays klezmer music, which is how he got involved - he had actually started the festival the previous year and he told us about how he didn't know what would happen to it when he leaves, since what little Jewish community exists at UCC isn't very involved. Cliona and Janusz also talked about the bias they felt Irish media exhibited when discussing Israel - Janusz in particular compared it to coverage in Poland and the States, where they both considered media was more neutral. We ended up talking for a couple hours and I really enjoyed myself - I was definitely looking forward to the events.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Yom Kippur and the rest of that week
Monday I woke up, having decided that I would try to fast. Normally, it's not a big deal, but because I walk about a 5k on Mondays just going to and from classes PLUS set dance and step dance classes, I didn't want to faint or anything trying to fast. I wasn't comfortable skipping classes to go to services, so I decided to try to make 'it 'til at least I got home from classes, at which point, I could see how I was feeling. I made it through classes ok, though I was drinking water.
I went to closing services that night along with one of my flatmates. Again, we went up to the balcony and sat through services. It was really interesting - the man who at home would be the president of the synagogue (I don't know if he has an official title here) spoke during services about the future of their congregation - basically, that they didn't have one. He spoke of a day, not far in the future, when they would no longer have the money to turn on the lights, when they would no longer have even HHD services. What was so shocking to me was the way he spoke of this: as an inevitable fact, sad, but not something that could or even should be fought. I couldn't - and still can't - imagine the Jewish community back home being so accepting of this, but here in Cork, it was simply a sign of the times, of people moving on and leaving for better places. Since Yom Kippur, I've learned more about local opinion towards Jews, which in Ireland, is intimately connected to feelings on Israel. A lot of media attention here comes down in condemnation, at least to some extent of Israel, probably due to Ireland's awareness of its own history. What the man was basically saying was, how could they expect their children or grandchildren to remain in a community where they couldn't be among other Jews and live Jewishly? It seems obvious, but where I would expect people to stand up and fight for their right to stay, the Jews in Cork don't seem to feel a need to encourage the young people to come back - rather, they seemed to encourage them to go forth and live where there were greater opportunities. To me, the whole situation seemed very sad - as though I were witnessing the death of a community, which, I could have been.
Tuesday was the first meeting of Chorale Society, which many of my Copley Court friends and I were planning to get involved in. At rehearsal, we worked our way through 3 songs, one of which was a liturgical Latin piece and another of which was a choral arrangement of Lady Gaga's "Pokerface" - clearly, this was not a group run by Mr. Pressman! It was lots of fun, and we were all excited to be involved - the Christmas concerts in particular sounded like a blast!
Wednesday, I got home from classes and got a call about a movie party. I'm pretty much always game for movie parties and since it was still early, I figured I could go and still get to sleep at a reasonable hour. Of course, I had forgotten that when movie parties also involve having to choose a movie, they don't always start right away. Eventually, Across the Universe was chosen and everyone agreed NOT to sing through the whole thing (half the room was thrilled that the other half wouldn't be singing, the other half seemed somewhat put-out, but oh well), since I still hadn't seen it. We finally started watching the movie, which was truly beautiful, but seemed rather jumbled plot-wise. I got about part-way through before I realized I really should go back to my room and go to sleep. I still haven't seen the whole thing, so don't tell me what happens!
Thursday was sort of a landmark day for me. I had been hanging out almost exclusively with IFSA-Butler people up 'til now, but on Thursday, I went to lunch for the first time with Hope and Quinn, two of my flatmates. I can be kind of shy, to say the least, so it meant a lot that they asked me to come with them and seemed to really want me to go (Note that this was about 2 months ago and sounds rather ridiculous to me now, but that was then, this is now, etc.). I had a lot of fun and felt much less like the awkward youngest kid in the flat (which is only fair, since I'm not quite the youngest). Yay for flat bonding!
Friday, I had asked Kathryn to go with me to pick up my shoes for step class. She and Samm had gone together on Wednesday while I was in class. First, though, I had to print out my papers for Early Start that were due. Kathryn had classes Friday morning, so I was planning to go to campus to print out and turn in the papers while she was in class, so we could stop to pick up the shoes on the way home. As always when technology is involved, things didn't go quite to plan. I got to campus on time (having finished writing my papers that morning), but the first computer I tried to log in on didn't have a working mouse. Fine. I tried another computer, but it took me LITERALLY 20 minutes to log in and then wouldn't let me print out. I tried a third computer and it finally let me print. I was now running behind schedule and I had to find a stapler. I had forgotten that I would need to staple my pages after printing them out and, unfortunately, had left my mini-stapler (which usually lives in my purse specifically for occasions like these) in Los Angeles. I called Kathryn to explain why I was running a few minutes late - and naturally, her class had gotten out early. Lucky for me, it was a beautiful day and Kathryn was reading outside and in no rush. Relieved that for the moment nothing was irrevocably ruined, I dashed to the shop on campus and bought a mini-stapeler, stapled my papers, and dropped them off at Mary Breen's office. With the papers done, I had nothing to worry about related to Early Start until the final exam, which was still a couple weeks away. (In case you were wondering, one of the papers was an adaptation of my blog entries about Inis Meaín and the other was about the subversion of genre in two of the Irish films we watched in class.) It was all done, and I could finally go pick up my step shoes.
We got to the store without a problem. I wasn't sure which size I would need, so I tried on one size which seemed rather large to me and the salespeople. Unfortunately, they didn't have the next smaller size, but they said they could get it from another store if I would just wait 10 minutes, which I agreed to do, telling Kathryn that she didn't have to stay if she had things to do. She didn't so we just hung out looking at the other shoes in the store as we waited for the smaller size to arrive. When it did, of course, that size was too small, so I ended up getting the bigger size - which was the biggest size you could get and still pay the cheaper price for the smaller pair. Finally, a real benefit for being unfairly short - I saved 5 euros!
I went to closing services that night along with one of my flatmates. Again, we went up to the balcony and sat through services. It was really interesting - the man who at home would be the president of the synagogue (I don't know if he has an official title here) spoke during services about the future of their congregation - basically, that they didn't have one. He spoke of a day, not far in the future, when they would no longer have the money to turn on the lights, when they would no longer have even HHD services. What was so shocking to me was the way he spoke of this: as an inevitable fact, sad, but not something that could or even should be fought. I couldn't - and still can't - imagine the Jewish community back home being so accepting of this, but here in Cork, it was simply a sign of the times, of people moving on and leaving for better places. Since Yom Kippur, I've learned more about local opinion towards Jews, which in Ireland, is intimately connected to feelings on Israel. A lot of media attention here comes down in condemnation, at least to some extent of Israel, probably due to Ireland's awareness of its own history. What the man was basically saying was, how could they expect their children or grandchildren to remain in a community where they couldn't be among other Jews and live Jewishly? It seems obvious, but where I would expect people to stand up and fight for their right to stay, the Jews in Cork don't seem to feel a need to encourage the young people to come back - rather, they seemed to encourage them to go forth and live where there were greater opportunities. To me, the whole situation seemed very sad - as though I were witnessing the death of a community, which, I could have been.
Tuesday was the first meeting of Chorale Society, which many of my Copley Court friends and I were planning to get involved in. At rehearsal, we worked our way through 3 songs, one of which was a liturgical Latin piece and another of which was a choral arrangement of Lady Gaga's "Pokerface" - clearly, this was not a group run by Mr. Pressman! It was lots of fun, and we were all excited to be involved - the Christmas concerts in particular sounded like a blast!
Wednesday, I got home from classes and got a call about a movie party. I'm pretty much always game for movie parties and since it was still early, I figured I could go and still get to sleep at a reasonable hour. Of course, I had forgotten that when movie parties also involve having to choose a movie, they don't always start right away. Eventually, Across the Universe was chosen and everyone agreed NOT to sing through the whole thing (half the room was thrilled that the other half wouldn't be singing, the other half seemed somewhat put-out, but oh well), since I still hadn't seen it. We finally started watching the movie, which was truly beautiful, but seemed rather jumbled plot-wise. I got about part-way through before I realized I really should go back to my room and go to sleep. I still haven't seen the whole thing, so don't tell me what happens!
Thursday was sort of a landmark day for me. I had been hanging out almost exclusively with IFSA-Butler people up 'til now, but on Thursday, I went to lunch for the first time with Hope and Quinn, two of my flatmates. I can be kind of shy, to say the least, so it meant a lot that they asked me to come with them and seemed to really want me to go (Note that this was about 2 months ago and sounds rather ridiculous to me now, but that was then, this is now, etc.). I had a lot of fun and felt much less like the awkward youngest kid in the flat (which is only fair, since I'm not quite the youngest). Yay for flat bonding!
Friday, I had asked Kathryn to go with me to pick up my shoes for step class. She and Samm had gone together on Wednesday while I was in class. First, though, I had to print out my papers for Early Start that were due. Kathryn had classes Friday morning, so I was planning to go to campus to print out and turn in the papers while she was in class, so we could stop to pick up the shoes on the way home. As always when technology is involved, things didn't go quite to plan. I got to campus on time (having finished writing my papers that morning), but the first computer I tried to log in on didn't have a working mouse. Fine. I tried another computer, but it took me LITERALLY 20 minutes to log in and then wouldn't let me print out. I tried a third computer and it finally let me print. I was now running behind schedule and I had to find a stapler. I had forgotten that I would need to staple my pages after printing them out and, unfortunately, had left my mini-stapler (which usually lives in my purse specifically for occasions like these) in Los Angeles. I called Kathryn to explain why I was running a few minutes late - and naturally, her class had gotten out early. Lucky for me, it was a beautiful day and Kathryn was reading outside and in no rush. Relieved that for the moment nothing was irrevocably ruined, I dashed to the shop on campus and bought a mini-stapeler, stapled my papers, and dropped them off at Mary Breen's office. With the papers done, I had nothing to worry about related to Early Start until the final exam, which was still a couple weeks away. (In case you were wondering, one of the papers was an adaptation of my blog entries about Inis Meaín and the other was about the subversion of genre in two of the Irish films we watched in class.) It was all done, and I could finally go pick up my step shoes.
We got to the store without a problem. I wasn't sure which size I would need, so I tried on one size which seemed rather large to me and the salespeople. Unfortunately, they didn't have the next smaller size, but they said they could get it from another store if I would just wait 10 minutes, which I agreed to do, telling Kathryn that she didn't have to stay if she had things to do. She didn't so we just hung out looking at the other shoes in the store as we waited for the smaller size to arrive. When it did, of course, that size was too small, so I ended up getting the bigger size - which was the biggest size you could get and still pay the cheaper price for the smaller pair. Finally, a real benefit for being unfairly short - I saved 5 euros!
Monday, November 9, 2009
On my own...the weekend!
Thursday I had no class. That night, Iona was hosting Folk Music Night - basically, a group of people were meeting to go listen to music at An Spailpin Fanach (pronounced Ahn Shpallpeen Fahnak). Kathryn, Emma (one of my flatmates), and I all decided to walk to Iona to meet up with the group, rather than just meeting everyone at the pub (which was closer to Copley Court than Iona) because we wanted to meet people and we KNEW that if we just showed up, we'd end up hanging out amongst ourselves.
When we got to Iona, there were already about a dozen people there. We shmoozed for a few minutes and then began walking to the pub. I met another girl named Kathryn who seemed really nice, her friend Gina, and a guy named Tim. We all found seats together and talked through the first band's set. The second band was louder, which made it harder to talk. By then, the rest of our friends from Copley had shown up and gotten a table together. At the end of the second act, I was told that they were going to get ice cream. I love ice cream - it's nearly impossible for me to turn down, so I said goodbye to my new friends and left to go look for Eddie Rocket's.
We went in completely the wrong direction - Eddie Rocket's was only a block or two from where we were but we wandered all over until we finally got to the right place. (Eddie Rocket's is the European branch of Johnny Rocket's like TJ Maxx and TK Maxx.)Anyways, so the group of us all enjoyed our American experience and then finally headed home.
The next day, Friday, I also didn't have classes (but unlike Thursday, when I normally do have classes, Friday I truly have no classes). My Copley Court friends were planning a White Russian/Mule party, but then we heard that Culture Night was that night, so the party got pushed back. Culture Night is a Europe-wide project to make culture available to citizens for free. It sounded very cool and, I figured, even if it wasn't, I could always leave. A group of us left Copley Court. First we went to watch a book being made, but we couldn't get inside and not everyone was as willing to peep through windows and watch, so we went to the Butter Museum. Yes, you did read that correctly and no, I am not kidding. Cork has a museum all about butter because Cork, once upon a time, was the center of butter sales in Ireland and Ireland produces a lot of dairy. The butter market was a big deal back in the day and now there's a museum that you can visit for 5 euros normally - except on Culture Night it was free! Obviously, this was an opportunity not to be missed. From there, we checked out some dance classes (but didn't participate because they had already started) and went to look at one of the many beautiful churches in Cork - I think it was St. Anne's. At that point, most everyone left and Kathryn and I continued on to the Glucksman Gallery (on UCC's campus) where everything was '80s themed. We put on costumes and took pictures and looked at the art and danced around to the fantastically, awesomely bad music that made up much of the '80s. It was excellent fun, but we were getting tired and knew that if we didn't go home soon, there would be no mules or White Russians left to drink! We turned around and headed home.
Once we were back at Copley, I went to my apartment and made dinner quickly and brought my dinner up to the party apartment. I just barely made it back in time to get a drink and then we all hung out for a couple hours and goofed off. An excellent start to the weekend!
Since I went to sleep so late that night, I slept in the next day and did nothing more exciting than watch Shakespeare in Love with Sophie. :) Shakespeare is ALWAYS a good way to spend an evening, as far as I'm concerned.
Sunday was Kol Nidre and I nervously went to services by myself to the one synagogue in Cork. It's Orthodox but because there are so few Jews in Cork, they ship in people from Chabad in London and elsewhere so that they have a minyan (Jewish quorum - in Orthodoxy, there must be 10 Jewish men present). This means that rather than the services being Modern Orthodox, they were Chabad-style. I sat in the balcony with the other women, which was definitely a new experience for me. I knew going in that I'd be sitting apart, but I expected to be indignant on some level, and I was surprised when I wasn't. It was all so matter-of-fact, that there was nothing to get upset about, almost. Looking back, I'm still kind of confused about it, but I'm definitely glad that I experienced it.
The services were no longer than the services I was used to, which surprised me a little bit. After all, they were Orthodox - surely their services would be super-intense and long? They weren't though, and I quickly figured out why. The prayers were said super-fast (much like when certain cousins of mine read prayers!) and there was very little pause for music in the way that I was used to. The whole service was efficient - there were no English readings, there was no extraneous music - after all, there were no instruments and few people, so there was no way to produce the highly musical services with which I was brought up. It was definitely different and I was left feeling unsatisfied - there just wasn't enough awe for the Days of Awe for me. I wonder if that's because Orthodox Jews are simply more accustomed to praying and so the whole experience of praying was in some way demystified, in a way that it's not for more liberal denominations. Whatever the reason, I just didn't get the approach to praying that they used: it didn't work for me, but I was glad I went, because I really feel like I learned a lot. It was really interesting to hear some of the same nusach (the musical mode of a service) as used at home and made the whole experience feel a little less foreign.
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