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)
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