Vocab

Postponed my journey into Jerusalem until Tuesday. At least I think it'll be Tuesday. I can't fucking figure out what day of the week it is at any given time, because this whole "Sunday is a workday thing" confuses the shit out of me. Today is Sunday, right? I keep thinking it's Monday. I think that even if I'm here for the rest of my life, I'll never get over the fact that Sunday is now a workday.

We postponed the trip until Tuesday because my friend is going on Tuesday and he wants to daven at the kotel--he would have gone today with me, but if I was gonna go to the kotel I didn't want to wear pants. [Edit: I did want to wear clothing in general!!!!! I meant that I wanted to go to the kotel in a skirt and not pants!] So we postponed.

Anyway, I have to share with you my vocabulary from today: engine, to enjoy, treatment, to agree, guide, because of, interior, to bring, to prepare, a form, poverty, stress, a craving, to divorce, a weekly paper, an atomic facility, to bomb, a bomb, to be bombed, to explode, the media, to photograph, to return something, intelligence agents, connection, to call, ceasefire, to announce, to release someone/something, a spy, rockets, cemetery, tombstones, border, region, damage, and the phrase "there were no injuries." Jealous any?

Edit: Also, (and don't read this is you take offense from everything) I forgot to mention that my friend and I came up with an acronym for this very nice Arab guy we talk to in the dining hall every single day. He studied in an Oklahoma high school for a couple years, and he walks like someone shoved a stick up his ass, so we call him our RAFFO: our Raped Arab Friend From Oklahoma.

Also, yesterday I went into an Arab village with three American boys. We wanted meat and everything was closed for Shabbat, so we hiked over to the nearest Arab town, the town whose calls to prayer we hear several times a day--they have two mosques, so we think the two mosques try to compete with each other over who can be the most annoying, loud and disruptive with the calls to prayer.
Most people were really nice to us, in terms of giving us directions and calling out to us "Shalom!" and saying nice things in Hebrew, but this little girl spat on me! (Well, to clarify, she tried to spit on the boys, but it landed on me.) First a Haredi boy spits on me, and now a little Arab girl spits on me! Seriously, is there somethign about me that just screams, "SPIT ON ME!" ???
Maybe if I could somehow introduce the spitting Haredi to the spitting Arab girl, they would fall in love over their mutual love of spitting on people. Peace would prevail. Single-handedly, I would solve all the problems in this region...

Anyway, we came back and had a good ol' traditional 'merkin bbq, with an oleh chadash from Miami grilling up for everone hot dogs that we threw into pita and drenched in ketchup. All of us--the Americans and the Germans, Russians, and Hungarians who joined us--were having a great time, but this boy from South Africa kept telling us how everything's better in South Africa, and how American BBQ's can't compare to South African bryers (or however you spell it). And all of us Americans got pissed off because you don't insult American BBQ! All the Americans are like, "what is this, are you like from Texas or something? Saying how everything's bigger and better in Texas? You're not in fucking South Africa anymore, so get over it!"

I think that's an important thing to keep in mind when in a foreign country--whether you're there for a long term stay or just a vacation. Wherever you're from, you're not there anymore so get over it!


P.S. I just looked up what the South African guy was talking about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braai
It looks fucking nasty! How could you eat that shit, and how could you call that shit better than a regular bbq???