Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Aren´t the kids charming?
When I was applying for my current teaching job, it was not clear at the beginning, which ages I would teach. In the end as much as half of my classes are with elementary school (ages 6-11) Teaching such small kids is a challenge but also a lot of fun. The source of the fun is very often the fact that the kids simply say what they really think at the moment when the thought comes to their mind. If they think it is important, they just say it. After Kaja has informed me I had a mustache last Friday and Simon wandered if the white stuff in my hair was dandruff on Monday (see my previous post,) I thought there was very little that can surprise me more. Alas! I was wrong. Today, Sara(6 years old)came to me in the morning and huged me (as she often does before we start the morning prayer class.) Then she suddenly looked at my chest and said - "Gafna, you know what? You have really, really large brests." Well - awesome, that was sincere. Needless to say I took it as a compliment:-) However, guess I will think twice before I wear my today´s T shirt to school next time.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
More quotes
I still owe you a post from my trip to London last week. But before I do it, let me post a couple of quotes from the last weeks:
"Have a safe trip to the US. And please, say hello to Gearge Bush for me." (Lukas, 9 years old)
"What a jerk!" (David´s honest exclaim when he learnt what king David did with Bat Sheva - 9 years old)
"Gafna, have you ever noticed that you have a mustache?" (Karel, 8 years old)
"Is the white stuff in your hair dandruff?" (Simon, 10 years old - it was actually hair gell - never mind.)
"I have read some Erich von Daniken recently and I cannot help it - God is an astronaut, I am possitive." (Kristina, 13 years old)
"I have no idea, who your God is, I think we should not leave Egypt, I am very happy here, I don´t mind being a slave and stop interrupting me when I speak for G-d´s sake!" (Adam during our drama class - 9 years old)
"Gafna, you look exhausted. You should drop your Masorti job. I am sure you earn enough in the school to buy your skirts." (Irena, my friend from school - skirts...?!)
"Have a safe trip to the US. And please, say hello to Gearge Bush for me." (Lukas, 9 years old)
"What a jerk!" (David´s honest exclaim when he learnt what king David did with Bat Sheva - 9 years old)
"Gafna, have you ever noticed that you have a mustache?" (Karel, 8 years old)
"Is the white stuff in your hair dandruff?" (Simon, 10 years old - it was actually hair gell - never mind.)
"I have read some Erich von Daniken recently and I cannot help it - God is an astronaut, I am possitive." (Kristina, 13 years old)
"I have no idea, who your God is, I think we should not leave Egypt, I am very happy here, I don´t mind being a slave and stop interrupting me when I speak for G-d´s sake!" (Adam during our drama class - 9 years old)
"Gafna, you look exhausted. You should drop your Masorti job. I am sure you earn enough in the school to buy your skirts." (Irena, my friend from school - skirts...?!)
Sunday, March 11, 2007
She gmalani kol tov (who has bestowed to me all kindness)
Today in the shachrit service, I was honoured with the 7th alyiah (I was called to the 7th part of Torah reading.) This was the first time after I had come back from the States that I took part at an egalitarian minyan. Rabbi Hoffberg encouraged me to recite the Gomel, a blessing that we recite after coming back from a dangerous journey or after surviving a dangerous situation. I have always found it rather strange to thank for surviving a dangerous situation when nothing dangerous actually happened (which was the case of my US trip.) But I said the appropriate blessing and continued to follow the service.
Tonight, after the end of Shabbat, my father came with his car to pick me up in my flat to take me to my parents house, where I planned to spend the Sunday. We drove on a highway. At one point we came closer to a truck. My father started to overtake the truck in the left line. All of a sudden, the driver in the car behind him started to speed up, which is the common way of idiot drivers in my country to tell the other people on the road "how dare you drive so slowly in MY very left line?" My father overtook the truck, went back to the right line and as the mad driver overtook us, my father gave him a quick blink with his lights to say "I don´t aprove of how you behave." At this point we all were driving at a 100 km/h speed. The other driver, at this point cca 20 in front of us, went back to our line and suddenly stopped his car in the middle of the road. I have seen such behavior in movies, but I didn´t know there existed idiots that did things like these in real life. My father stepped on the breaks and so did the truck behind him. Luckily, we managed to stop about a meter behind the car. In what seemed to be ages to me I waited for the hit of the truck from behind. All of a sudden the expected noise came from the right as the truck, obviously unable to stop with its weight and at this speed, decided to overtake our car from the other side and hit our wing mirror.
My father and the truck pulled to the side, got off, looked at each others cars, inspected the broken mirror, calmly said to each other "Oh boy, what an idiot," and went back to the cars. At this point my hands started to shake, but I said "Thanks God nothing serious happened, it could have been much worse." My father nodded in a strangely calm way and said "Yes, you are right. I will have to have the mirror changed." We saw that the driver of the other car stopped 200 meters in front of us and looked in our direction to see what happened. He never came closer to us, he just looked. My father started the engine and slowly moved ahead towards him. In what I now realize was fear, we decided not to stop to talk to him and drove on. As we were passing him, I saw how he hesitantly waived at our car.
Human mind works in a very weir way, we came home and only then fully realized what happened. For an hour we sat in the livingroom realizing that we could have been - God forbid - squashed in our car from both sides. We kept repeating how glad we were not to be dead. In the end we drank a shot of vodka and for the first time in my life I have to admit I felt it helped to release the preasure.
I dont understand why anybody would want to stop in the middle of the road like this. I dont get why anybody would want to put the lives of 3 other people and his own under such a danger. I don´t.
When I sat down to the computer now, I read the text of birkat ha-gomel again. It says: "Blessed are You O Lord our God ruler of the Universe, who bestows kindness on those who are committed, and who has bestowed to me all kindness." Perhaps it makes sense to thank God for His kindness when you are in a situation when something dangerous may happen and it actually doesn´t. It makes sense to say it even if you are not even close to it. It makes sense to thank for the fact that nothing happened. In a situation like the one tonight you realize that "nothing happened" is great and it is worth acknowledging.
Tonight, after the end of Shabbat, my father came with his car to pick me up in my flat to take me to my parents house, where I planned to spend the Sunday. We drove on a highway. At one point we came closer to a truck. My father started to overtake the truck in the left line. All of a sudden, the driver in the car behind him started to speed up, which is the common way of idiot drivers in my country to tell the other people on the road "how dare you drive so slowly in MY very left line?" My father overtook the truck, went back to the right line and as the mad driver overtook us, my father gave him a quick blink with his lights to say "I don´t aprove of how you behave." At this point we all were driving at a 100 km/h speed. The other driver, at this point cca 20 in front of us, went back to our line and suddenly stopped his car in the middle of the road. I have seen such behavior in movies, but I didn´t know there existed idiots that did things like these in real life. My father stepped on the breaks and so did the truck behind him. Luckily, we managed to stop about a meter behind the car. In what seemed to be ages to me I waited for the hit of the truck from behind. All of a sudden the expected noise came from the right as the truck, obviously unable to stop with its weight and at this speed, decided to overtake our car from the other side and hit our wing mirror.
My father and the truck pulled to the side, got off, looked at each others cars, inspected the broken mirror, calmly said to each other "Oh boy, what an idiot," and went back to the cars. At this point my hands started to shake, but I said "Thanks God nothing serious happened, it could have been much worse." My father nodded in a strangely calm way and said "Yes, you are right. I will have to have the mirror changed." We saw that the driver of the other car stopped 200 meters in front of us and looked in our direction to see what happened. He never came closer to us, he just looked. My father started the engine and slowly moved ahead towards him. In what I now realize was fear, we decided not to stop to talk to him and drove on. As we were passing him, I saw how he hesitantly waived at our car.
Human mind works in a very weir way, we came home and only then fully realized what happened. For an hour we sat in the livingroom realizing that we could have been - God forbid - squashed in our car from both sides. We kept repeating how glad we were not to be dead. In the end we drank a shot of vodka and for the first time in my life I have to admit I felt it helped to release the preasure.
I dont understand why anybody would want to stop in the middle of the road like this. I dont get why anybody would want to put the lives of 3 other people and his own under such a danger. I don´t.
When I sat down to the computer now, I read the text of birkat ha-gomel again. It says: "Blessed are You O Lord our God ruler of the Universe, who bestows kindness on those who are committed, and who has bestowed to me all kindness." Perhaps it makes sense to thank God for His kindness when you are in a situation when something dangerous may happen and it actually doesn´t. It makes sense to say it even if you are not even close to it. It makes sense to thank for the fact that nothing happened. In a situation like the one tonight you realize that "nothing happened" is great and it is worth acknowledging.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Back from the States
I returned from the States and I am back in my Prague routine - including my traditional late night Motzei Shabbat which usually creates a huge sleeping deficit and completely ruins the rest on my week:-) The trip to the States was a very interesting experience - and I really mean it. Meeting my old friends, seeing American conservative communities, visiting JTS, talking for hours to Marcus and spending a lot of time with rabbi Hammerman and his wife Sharon gave me a lot of food for thought. It is always helpful to leave your world and have a little bit of an insight from the outside. Sometimes one has to go over the ocean to see a bit more clearly what is in front of ones nose at home. But anyway, let´s not be so serious especially today, on Purim.
Let me just share a couple of things I learnt during the trip.
1. I can fundraise - I had no idea that I could.
2. "No fat milk" tastes like dairy dish water, "no fat horse-raddish cheese" tastes like plastic with horse-raddish flavor.
3. JTS is not what I thought it was, but that´s ok, because I should not have thought what I thought.
4. After fundraising in Florida I realised that the idea that "everybody should have the same" that I learnt as a child growing up in a communist country is stuck in my head more than I thought.
5. I miss my American friends.
6. I am prejudiced about Americans. I am ashamed of it.
7. Brooklyn bridge is atually quite short.
8. Some buildings in the US are really tall.
9. American Jews are crazy about Chinese food. That´s funny.
10. Drunk American undergraduates behave the same way drunk British undergraduates do.
And a Purim bonus at the end. This is a picture my friend Jana and myself from today´s purim megilah reading and carnival - I did not know what to dress up like this year so I brushed up my university gown - I wish I could wear it more often:-):
Let me just share a couple of things I learnt during the trip.
1. I can fundraise - I had no idea that I could.
2. "No fat milk" tastes like dairy dish water, "no fat horse-raddish cheese" tastes like plastic with horse-raddish flavor.
3. JTS is not what I thought it was, but that´s ok, because I should not have thought what I thought.
4. After fundraising in Florida I realised that the idea that "everybody should have the same" that I learnt as a child growing up in a communist country is stuck in my head more than I thought.
5. I miss my American friends.
6. I am prejudiced about Americans. I am ashamed of it.
7. Brooklyn bridge is atually quite short.
8. Some buildings in the US are really tall.
9. American Jews are crazy about Chinese food. That´s funny.
10. Drunk American undergraduates behave the same way drunk British undergraduates do.
And a Purim bonus at the end. This is a picture my friend Jana and myself from today´s purim megilah reading and carnival - I did not know what to dress up like this year so I brushed up my university gown - I wish I could wear it more often:-):
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