I've noticed I get this crazed look in my eyes when I take photos of myself. Hum. Strange.

Hey Hey Hey Day Part 2

Okay... so I didn't finish letting you all in on the Hey Day secret. Why on earth was this days one of the best at penn? (Aside from the fact I got a little bit intoxicated...) After the picninc cam to an end, we had danced and taken many many photos, the Penn marching band assembled and began to play, rounding up all the juniors and leading them in a procession across the campus.



Now, we walked across the Quad, waved our canes, and braved the walk... We had some idea of what was ahead of us, and we dressed appropriately... I took off my watch and jewellery, and wore my worst clothes... The guy in the yellow hazardous-material suit took it to the next level...
Even Ben Franklin got into the action!




























And then came the mess. A tradition in this hazing process was the juniors' 'gifts' from the seniors - in the form of thrown shaving cream, eggs, flour, mustard, bbq sauce, ketchup, and in some cases fish sauce hurled at us... Since I was armed with my disposable camera, I could take some really great shots of our initiation...

Hey Hey Hey Day

I guess I'll start writing... It's the best method of procrastination... I'm in the middle of what Penn calls 'Reading Days' - though I haven't done much reading. It's basically SWOTVAC or however it's spelt. I have papers due, and, yes, that's right kids, MY FIRST EXAM IN MY ENTIRE UNIVERSITY CAREER! Uh huh! My first exam EVER! So excited/anxious/can't be bothered studying even though i know i really should.... oh well.

Well, they were right when they said that spring semester in the best to come on exchange at Penn. Actually, the people at Melbourne Uni's Study Abroad office didn't say that - they had no clue. The people I meet here, they first told me that this is THE best time to come, and that when people study abroad, they always make sure to travel in the fall. I mean autumn. I hope my accent hasn't changed that much. Oh god. Please please don't hold it against me! I live with them! I'm friends with them! I can't help being completely surrounded by Americans! Arghhhh!

So, why is spring the best semester at Penn? Well, the transition from the absolutely freeeezing cold to lovely sunny and warm spring days is always a pleasure to experience. But so what? The season's change all over the world...
Well, this semester contains Spring Break, Spring Fling, and Hey Day. Now, you've seen the great pics from both Spring Break and Fling (and now my parents think I'm an alchoholic!) and so here are the photos from Hey Day....

What's Hey day, you ask? I have no idea where the name comes from, but it's a great excuse to get drunk (again) and have a food fight. What? What's the point in that? (And now I'm really sounding like an alcoholic!) It's a hazing process for the juniors (third year uni students) and through it they become seniors (fourth-years/graduating students..like me). I cheated, since I'm a senior, but I'm an international student, so I can get away with anything!

Hey Day juniors buy red tee shirts and styrofoam hats and canes and have a big picnic in one of the fields on campus. There is free food/barbecue, and music for those who want to dance. In the morning I went to a friend's champagne breakfast, where we dined on pancakes, fruit, pina coladas and mojitos. Love it. But my aussie friends and I (Amma and Maija and I) saw that we weren't dressed appropriately (we were dressed nicely.. boy was that going to be a mistake). We were urged to go down to the picnic and buy a red t-shirt and then go home and change into our worst clothing and take off all jewellery, watches, and we were even recommended to buy disposable cameras so as not to damage our good digital snappers. Uh oh! After I went home and changed, I went to another party held in Anna's (another editor of FIrst Call) room. There I was convinced by my mexican friend Krystal to share some of her tequila... Uh oh......

That's Krystal and Lauren (the exec editor of First Call)...

That's me having a shot of tequila by myself in the corner... by the time I had arrived at Anna's, everyone had already been drinking for an hour... I had to catch up....

Then Krystal and I decided to go to a mexican restaurant Mad 4 Mex for some Margeritas and Nachos. And that put me away for the afternoon... whoa. Mad4 has these margerita's called Big Azz margeritas.... mmm and they are huge! Filled with a lot of tequila as well... If it wasn't for those drinks, however, I don't know how I would have stood for being covered in crap during the Hey Day procession down the main thoroughfare of campus.. But I'll get to that soon....

So these are some fabulous photos I took with my disposable camera at the Hey Day picnic. I'll label them at the bottom...

The tradition is to bite your friend's hats (its made of foam) but we don't eat it or anything. So, here I am with the class of 2007! Woo!
Pic 1# Me and Krystal Pic #2 Me, Anna and Lauren (First Call buddies!)

Pic #3 Kristin (the girl who had the champagne brekkie) and myself Pic #4 Maija, Amma and Me (Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!)
Pic #5 Me, Krystal, Beth and Michelle and another random girl Pic #6 Me, Kim and Kyle (Basketball buddies! Go intramural!)

Room with a View

I wrote a really long great post yesterday, with photos and everything, but stupid Internet Explorer decided to cark it and I was told that there was an error in my 'session' and must end IMMEDIATELY! So now I'm using a different server... Man, sometimes I could smash this computer thingy. Well, it's not really its fault... more its microsoft.... grr Bill Gates....

Anyway! I'm going to be bored writing now, because it will all be for the second time... So, I shall entertain you with images of my new clean room... Clean and NOT MESSY! This was before (shame, i know!)
















And this is after (smiles all round!).. I also wanted to show you my dorm room from all angles... Enjoy :D

Passover's nearly Over...

This Pesach has been one full of experiences both unique and memorable - a time that I don't think will be replicated any time in the near future. Tonight I ate my last Yom Tov dinner at Chabad - it was only a week ago I was reading out of the Hagaddah in New Jersey. So let me get back to that...

Placed on the table was a bottle of Teal Lake wine - like, c'mon! Teal Lake! And a blue bottle of the lolly water we drink at home (very very bubbly sweet light white whine). Rebecca's family came for the seder - her mother's brother's family, and her grandmother. It was a bit different from our at home - there was far less people, but also the family read things out in English and skipped a lot of the Magid section. Quite a lot. We were finished the Seder by nine... Yeah.

I also realised that Mum makes a hell of a lot of food. And so does the rest of my family. Seriously. Both sederim I went to, didn't have nearly as much food as there is provided during our normal Shabbat meals. Crazy. (And they weren't as good as ours, either! I know I'm biased, and I'm allowed to be around here... this is my blog, and this is what I think. Now I sound like a three year old... So ner... man.) I was the only one who read Hebrew, so that was fun, and they're not used to hearing Hebrew being spoken in an Aussie accent.

After her cousins and brother went home, we sang echad me yodeah and other songs they knew in memory of Rebecca's grandfather who had passed away earlier this year in February. I was finally taught the tune to Chad Gadyah. Yes Ramler/Hecht family, we can finally sing it at the end of our Seder next year! Woot! Joy, I'm sure you're as excited as I am. Haha.

The next day I travelled to Boston to join my friend Judith and her family for the Second Seder. Boston is four hours away from New Jersey, and so I timed my train shedule to coincide for the time I was asked to arrive at Judith's house - six o'clock. Well... somehow I missed the train by five minutes, and had to wait another hour for the next one. That was fun. I read The New York Times cover to cover and eavesdropped on a mother/daughter duo whinging about the Seder they were attending that evening. Then the train was delayed in New York City.... I was so late already, but not late enough to cause worry. I couldn't contact Judith's family because they are a religious family, but I was ok with the time at that stage... Late, but not ridiculously so.

Well.. then we stopped. Completely stationary. We were still for about fifteen minutes, then someone over the loudspeaker advised us that there was something wrong with the brakes and that they were looking into it. Hrmm... even more late... And here I was, stuck. Nowhere to go. I was going crazy, stressed out completely, I was running so late... We were stationary for forty five minutes.....45 minutes! Arghhh... And I was powerless. After they partly fixed the problem, the voice over the loudspeaker told us passengers that we had to go slower because they didn't know exactly what the problem was with the brakes and they didn't want to take any chances. I understand.... But, you see, I was running really REALLY late!
By the time I arrived at the station, I was over two and half hours late... and then my cab driver didn't know where the street was.... Arghhhh x 2! We found the address together, and by then I was so tense and sweaty and stressed and I had no more fingernails left as I had bitten all of them off....

But no matter. I arrived. And Judith's family hadn't even started yet. But not because of me.
Her father and grandfather hadn't returned home from shule yet...uh huhhh...... Phew.

Judith's family lives in Brookline, a suburb fifteen minutes away from the station in downtown Boston, but unlike in Melbourne, where all the suburbs are part of the city, Brookline was a town all of its own, with its own police force, ambulance service etc. The houses are so so pretty, and suburb has very hilly streets - the family lived on a Terrace of a hill that overlooked Boston. But living atop a hill also has its negatives - especially when walking home from shule: what goes down must come up around there. It gave me a wake up call to start going to gym classes....

to be continued...

(this was completed at 1.56 am... time for bed

I have class early tomorrow)

This blog isn't really that different from all other blogs...

This year's Pesach was something (is something? As it is still happening? But it's not the same... Well, sort of. I have to keep strictly Kosher Le Pesach all on my own - no temptations allowed! And it's hard coz unlike being at home, here I am constantly surrounded by it...Hrmm) a unique experience that I will always remember. First, and foremost, this year is the first (EVER) of being away from home and the family during the Seder.

Passover is my very favourite of the Jewish festivals. While it's clouded by stress and arguments over the right way to clean a bedroom, this chag brings my whole family together in ways that no other occasion can. In my ideal world, its during our Seder that everyone leaves their baggage at the door for Eliyahu and engages (for the only time during the year?) in some discussion about their identity, their Jewish identity. And along with that, of course, our history. From exodus until today.

Being Jewish in the North Eastern states of America is a very different feeling from that with which I'm familiar at home in Australia. My professors have notified the class ahead of schedule of changes in the syllabus to cater for those who go home for the Passover holidays. The campus seemed a lot emptier on Wednesday afternoon as I was leaving to go to Rebecca's family's house in New Jersey. By then, most Jewish students had already gone home. Being Jewish here is so common. I'm not special anymore. I'm not the token Jew in my circle of friends. I don't have to explain myself and my dietry confusions to every person I meet. Even a movie that came out last week titled, "When do we eat?" has become some sort of mainstream. The Hollywood film takes place at a Jewish family's seder, and it follows all the conundrums that takes place during the event. You can check out the website here. Another cute thing I found on the net is this. It's great.

People around here actually know what Passover is. Amazing.

So yes, let me get back to why I love Pesach. Okay, it's not all about the food. Well, some of it is. I love the fact that EVERYTHING is different from the norm day-to-day things. Food, crockery, cleaning, and the general excitement it brings (you can interpret it as stress perhaps? However I like to think of it as enthusiasm) unlike other chagim.

Well, this year, all of that was thrown out of the window. For both the good and bad.

I missed searching for Chametz the night before with Dad and Alana - armed with a candle and an imcompetant feather (as if that will get rid of the crumbs), and burning it in the morning with Zaida: a tradition that has been going on for as long as I remember. I miss Nana coming over and helping out with the kneidlach. I miss the house REEKING of gefilte fish - it permeating my hair, my clothes, my skin (yes, I even miss that... well, perhaps I just miss Mum's gefilte fishballs?) And I miss peeling potatoes to my iPod (huh? what the hell am i saying? no way! But I do miss making Charoset with Nikki. And having the leftovers to last me a couple days after that.) But I miss our sedarim. The books Dad made ages ago that we still thumb through - all that preparation hasn't gone to waste. The different versions of Mah Nishtanah. The kid's performance of the plagues. And capping off the night with our rendition of Echad MiYodeah - Who knows one? Complete with the hand signals etc.
And it can't all be just about the food - but we all know (and now that I've been to other sedarim, I can tell you, those at the Ramler seder are spoilt like hell by Yvonne) that that's the best part of the night... I really don't know how my mother does it. Proud of making their own kneidlach and gefilte fishballs this year, I don't tell my hosts that my mother has made her own every year for as long as I remember - and that hers are some of the best. Mmmm mmm. No, I keep my admiration and pride of my mum to myself... But not here! In cyberspace, the truth really comes out.... Mwahahaha...

Okay. Now this post is getting weird. I've been rambling and whinging about all the things I miss about Pesach at home, and I should really inform you about the last couples days.

On Wednesday afternoon I joined Rebecca and a friend of hers, Ilan, to have the first night Seder at her home in Park Ridge, New Jersey. Rebecca lives in a 'gated community' called Bear's Nest, where you had to pass a guard at the gate to be let through the boom gate, and where the houses all look the same. It was such a surreal neighbourhood... A kind of upper-class Caroline Springs. What I found a shame though, was that none of their close friends lived in the suburb, and Rebecca's friends didn't live in walking distance to the neighbourhood either... I suppose it's just something I'm not used to.. But I guess we in Melbourne (and us Jews in Caulfield) live a surreal tight-knit family life as well - my grandparents are no more than 20 minutes walking distance, my cousins and aunts/uncles are at most another 20 minutes, and my friends live literally around the corner... Well, my highschool friends, anyway.

to be continued...

"And out came the sun and dried up all the rain..."

Like Eensy Weensy Spider, I have been enjoying this sunshine to the max! It's been since I've updated what I've really been doing (not rehashing stories and pics from Spring Break), and so I failed to mention that I think SPRING IS FINALLY HERE! While we do have our days of absolute freezing temperatures, most days are relatively mild (yet I still have to wear my down coat - mild around here is about ten degrees). The semester is coming to a close, and I can't help but reflect on these past couple months and thank my lucky stars I have had the most wonderful opportunity to meet some incredible people, made friends for life, and experienced things I will never forget. This semester is unique for it will be the first Pesach that I'm not spending with my family - I'm spending it with my roommate Rebecca in New Jersey. Far away from Mum's memorable seder at home. And far away from one of the biggest events in our family calendar.

I had the opportunity to hear Jonathan Safre Foer speak last week. I was smitten - he is smart, witty, a writer, and Jewish. Too bad he's married to another writer (Nicole Krauss of 'History of Love' fame) with a nine week-old son and internationally famous. He's even been impersonated by Elijah Wood. (JSF wrote Everything is Illuminated (but not the movie... and the movie he said, was an interesting experience to watch. He saw it in the cinemas during the day where the audience consisted of two other people other than himself.) and he also wrote Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) We don't get those kinds of speakers in Melbourne - let alone Melbourne University. Who would want to shlep all the way out to Australia? JSF lives in Brooklyn, a mere hour and a half away from Philadelphia, not a twenty hour flight across the Pacific.

Last weekend's events were just as interesting. I had hoped to go to Hillel for Friday night dinner, but I promised my roommate Jess that we'd go to the annual Penn fashion show to see her boyfriend pirouette on the runway. Beforehand, I joined Rebecca at the Hawaii Club's annual Lua. I wondered how many Hawaiians there are at Penn. I'm sure you couldn't get a more different culture between the two states. Rebecca's friend was performing in the Tahitian dance troup (okay, not Hawaii but certainly in the similar Pacific region?) and boy could those girls shake their hips! It was like they were detached from their torsos! Wow. We also had Hawaiian food for dinner (a little different from the oily chicken served at Hillel dinners) and enjoyed a Hawaiian band. But when Jess came round to the Hall to pick me up for the fashion show, she informed me that they had oversold the tickets, and those with a specific number on the paper ticket had to be refunded. So there was the end of my fashionista night. But no matter, I joined Rebecca and went to see a great show by a comedy/acapella group called Penn Six. They perfomed skits sending up the school and songs mocking the different sororities/fraternities and groups at Penn. Most of the group (coincidentally enough?) are Jews, so Jewish humour was also thrown in. A funny song though was to the Beatles song "Yesterday" - titled "Nick Lachey - all his troubles seemed so far away... Now it looks as if they're here to stay... Oh I love you, Nick Lachey." People at Penn like their acapella groups - there are over 50 clubs! But, as usual, only a handful are any good. Penn Six was a fun event.

This weekend was Spring Fling - an excuse for all students to get roaring drunk and engage in activities they will regret on Sunday morning. Some start drinking on Wednesday... but most begin on Friday... morning! I could never do that (seriously! In the morning? Gross!) Rebecca and I decided to be classy and make Pina Coladas and Mojitos - which tasted delicious. Rebecca, Maija and I then went to hear the John Butler Trio in concert. It was SO much fun! The crowd was really into the music, we were dancing, and John Butler is amazingly talented. What was really weird was when his partner came out to sing a Bob Marley love song with him. All of a sudden, Rebecca said to me, "Hey, she looks like you." And oh my, did she look like me... Or I look like her? She was even wearing an outfit similar to something I wear - a stripey long top with a belt, and her hair was the same style as mine... Whoa. It was a strange experience.
It was an awesome concert. These pics are (in clockwise order) of maija, rebecca and me.

Afterwards we went back to campus and headed off to Smokes (or Smokey Joe's), a pub/club a little like the Armadale, to dance the rest of the night away. Us Australians like this place because it isn't as sleazy as the other club on campus, MarBar, nor as grotty as the other pub on campus, Blarney's. These pictures are of a group of us that frequent Smokes - its made up of myself, Maija, Amma, Kate (a British exchange student), Laura (an American) and others who come and go with each night.














Unfortunately the weather was damn horrible the next day, raining and windy and freezing, which kinda spoiled the rest of Spring Fling - nobody wanted to go outside. Rebecca, Maija, Rania and I went out for brunch, which seemed to take up most of the afternoon - which suited us perfectly as we didn't want to go out in that rain. But later that day we did. Some bands were playing in the Quad, and we had to try the Spring Fling traditional food - fried Oreo. Surprisingly, it wasn't so bad, but you could only have one... Otherwise you'd feel sick. So much fry!















The photos are listed as follows: Pic 1# Spring Fling in the rain. Pic 2# Shreya (Rebecca's highschool friend who came from New York for the day), Rebecca, Maija, and Rania. Pic#3 Rebecca looking a lot like Kenny from South Park rugged up in the cold misery of a day. Pic 4#Rania and me. Pic#5 Maija, Rebecca, Rania, me and Shreya. Pic 6# Jess, Amma, Maija, me, Rebecca and Rania. Pic#7 Me and my roomie Rebecca.