New Years and Miryam

Since I was unable to go to any of the raging parties back home, be they down in DC or at Schliss' house, I decided to check out the "Hebrew" Party my village was having on New Years. In Israel, NYE is called "Sylvester" and the best answer I've gotten as to why that is, is that it's probably named after St. Sylvester. Since most Christian saints weren't so great to the Jews, we were having a "Hebrew " party instead, and it just happened to be on the same day. It was a lot of fun. There was a bar inside and an outside tikibar next to the huge dance-floor.

Only a few people stayed in the village for Shabbat, so Boaz and I hosted everyone Friday night and for Shabbat lunch. So Friday Boaz cooked and I watched. I'm actually starting to learn some things in the kitchen. Not so much how to cook big things, but at least now I know what to do with garlic and other cooking stuff.

On Monday Miryam came down to Beer Sheva to hang out. It was really great seeing her and getting to catch up with a friend from home face to face. We grabbed lunch at Aroma and then she waited for a little bit while I met with Joel Peters who is working with David Newman on the book I'm helping him with. I took Miryam around campus, discussed how annoying grad school applications are and she was able to fill me in on all the latest gossip from home. I was going to bring her back to Dimona so she could see the village and Shoko, but we didn't have enough time. So instead I'm going to visit her for Shabbat. Should be fun.

Today in Benny Morris' class we had a guest speaker who fought in the War of Independence and has done extensive research on the conflict and collective memory. It was really cool.

Tonight we had a party in the village for everyone volunteering through Azrieli (that includes me). Everyone was supposed to make a type of food from a different country, but since Boaz and I both got back from campus just beforehand, we decided to throw something together from the two of us. So Boaz cooked and I handed him ingredients. We ended up making carrot and potato latkes that were really delicious. It must have been the way I cracked open the eggs. The party was a lot of fun and the food was delicious. We also played some improv games and everyone actually really got into it.

Now the Shoko Show: