I had one already partially written up as I was trying to watch the live streaming of Auntie Mia's funeral, but someone exxed out of it. It was a really interesting post, too! it combined grand themes such as the fragility of life with small details such as eating Captian Crunch cereal with over-expired yogurt. But because of our terrible internet connection, I ended up missing the "real time" version of the ceremony anyway. I had to watch it two days later downstairs in the Student Village Pub (free, great wifi) where I was forced to question whether I was really crying or whether it was the hookah smoke making my eyes water. If I couldn't have my family with me, at least I had Katy Perry's Autotuned voice and a crowd of wiling Arabs.
I miss my aunt already. She was a real force. I'll never forget that story she told me of her Mike Tyson-look-alike boyfriend getting chased out of her window by Grandma Ingie with a baseball bat, or when she asked my sister and I if we minded her being naked in the hot tub with us.
I did go to a real funeral with flesh-faced people, not pixels, a week-and-a-half ago... Abba's funeral in northern Jerusalem. He was a really great friend. In my bedroom, I have an enlarged photo of me and him dressed in Mariachi wear at Sukkot in Chabad. It was eerie seeing his body simply wrapped in a tallit without a coffin. Maybe it's an Iraqi practice. Nevertheless, it was really comforting to see the Battats and other family friends there. May they both rest in peace.
Besides the past week of Debbie Downers and Solemn Solomons, I had a lot of intensely exhilarating days. Here's a rubdown:
- Gorgeous weather. The botanical garden is in full bloom. My drawing teacher takes us there and we sketch the fiiiine flora and fauna of eretz yisroel.
- Saw a live concert in Tel Aviv...an onstage collaboration of writer, Eshkol Nevo, and pianist, Shlomi Shaban. My two forms of expression combined! It was great!
- Made beautiful things in ceramics. Got an english-speaking friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend to guide me through the ceramics section in the art store.
- Saw "The King's Speech" at a movie theater which lets you have beer and popcorn as you watch (a ridiculously tasty combination). It was the first movie i've seen in israel, and I loved it. Every Israeli movie theater includes an intermission so you can, you know, get up, stretch, take a pish, get a nosh, give your two cents on whether this movie was worth your thirty sheckles, etc.
- made a screen print of Carl Sagan. It was incredible finally printing something that took forever to process. I might actually show up on time next class.
- dropped the worst drawing class ever with a teacher who looks like an ice mummy and makes us draw with transparent grids in front of our faces. In replacement, I took up a painting class with One-Arm. We have a nude male model every week!
- Spent the weekend in Tel Aviv with Naftali, Daniel Ho, and his eccentric Israeli grandmother. Went to the beach three times, freeloaded a lot of great, home cooked food, and watched "Eight Legged Freaks" on T.V.
-Went to a Food Festival in the Old City. It was filled with beautifully-lit carts of steaming hot, fried pastries, great live music, and free samples.
- I just came back from volunteering at a shelter for mentally disabled girls. Today is supposedly some national volunteer day in israel. It was incredible, except for the fact that I had to paint with giant rollers and without tape to make straight lines. They were so nice. They gave me pizza, and a candle they made in the factory they work at.
- I restarted Grapes of Wrath and I passed the halfway mark! Whoopee.
- it's raining.
- Passover is coming. I wish I was with my family, but hey...doesn't everyone say "Next Year in Jerusalem?" Well I'm here, Klal Yisrael, so suck my matzoballzzz, Diasporasswipes.
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