I don't like wide ruled paper

Well the countdown time to the start of school has begun and I am excited! My life here is starting to feel like a life, I am meeting more and more people and getting ready for school to begin. I picked up my bank card today and I won't lie, it is by far the coolest bank card I have ever and may ever own.Apparently though the bank saw it necessary to add an extra Hebrew letter in my last name. Instead of Rosin being spelled Reish Zayin Yud Nun (a family invention when I believe my sister was entering the third grade and had to spell her full name in Hebrew) Rosin is now Reish Vav Zayin Yud Nun (thank you Bank Mizrahi).

On the way to the bank I came across Blue Meanie grafitti. It reminded me of the Yellow Submarine mural I used to pass in the alley on my way to school in London.


This morning I went to the Southern Wall excavations with my friend Gary. Gary and I met in El Salvador in March and bumped into each other earlier this week at the Little House in Baka. The Southern Wall excavations is by far one of my most favorite places in Israel. I love the history of it all as well as the architecture itself. While there we met up with a tourning boys group who had just picked fresh figs from a fig tree growing near the base of the the Hudla steps. So there we were eating fresh figs (an already mentioned favorite) at the base of the stairs to the temple mount. It was a pretty cool feeling. Below is a photo of Gary with our figs:

This trip was my first trip to the Old City since June. I have been harvesting negative energy towards the actual Western Wall for a while seeing it just as a wall. Why pray to a wall? It's a wall. I don't mean to knock it for anyone who has had an emotional experience there before. But for me Judaism is more than a physical structure. If you are going to lament over the destruction of the temple why not look further than just the Kotel Plaza? Its often not widely known that all 4 walls of the Temple are still in existence. We choose the Western Wall because its the closest to where the Holy of Holies stood, but a building is a building and God is everywhere. For me its not a connector. It is different being here this time around. I am not concerned over anyone's well being but my own, sometimes its easier to take care of other people. It forces me to ask myself the hard stuff. Its not the question asking but the answers that I have trouble figuring out.

It seems to be a theme, question asking, in a good way. I would sum up most of my evenings as being spent over glasses of wine or beer and engaged in conversation about Judaism at large or Torah Talk. Here are two of my friends Daniella and Jay doing just that at my apartment this afternoon:


After the Old City adventure I made my way to Office Depot to buy school supplies. I was bummed that there was no college ruled paper in sight and compromised between a mix of wide ruled and graph--ok I'm odd, I like taking notes on graph paper. Now I am all geared up and ready to go.