The Year 5750
on 24/10/09
It's been a long time since I've updated this blog, and I started the last two posts lamenting how long it had been. This time I think I'll skip straight to writing a long, mundane account of the last few months in Israel.
Beach season is nearly over. For most Israelis who are accustomed to the warm water, it was over about a month ago, but for a New Yorker who finds the chilly waters at Jones Beach at least pleasant, there's still some fun in the sun left to enjoy. Especially now that the beaches are less crowded and you don't need to navigate between the whips of Matkot balls just to get in the water.
If you're not familiar with matkot, it's exactly like the beach game we called "kadima", consisting only of two paddles and a ball. Except here it's not for lollygagging; matkot players usually whack the ball at high speeds, swinging about 75% of full force. On weekend days at the beach they line up all along the edge of the water, players from neighboring games standing back-to-back, so that the only way to get in the water is wait for a ball to veer off course and the game to pause.
We've also passed the New Year here: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It's the 5770 now on the Hebrew Calendar. Hard to believe it's been ten years since those swinging 50's.
Rosh Hashanah was nice. I spent it the evening of Rosh Hashanah at Irena's aunt's house. There isn't a countdown or a major event like our New Year's Eve, but you do think about resolutions and plans for the year ahead. I'm planning to stop aiming my laser pointer in people's eyes.
Yom Kippur left a far greater impression. Around 2pm on the day before Yom Kippur--too early to call it eve--the country shuts down. Stores close and the roads and sidewalks clear of traffic. The notion is that everyone should so concentrate on reflecting on the past year that they should not expend any energy or engage in even moderate activity. You do not even play music in your apartment; you do not use your phone anywhere in public. About the most activity you see are kids on their bicycles riding through the streets, the one day a year there is no traffic.
It's the most barren and deserted I've seen an urban scene since a snowstorm in February of 2003, when I was working as a fact checker at the Washington Square News at NYU. It snowed over 10 inches of thick, unnavigable snow on the morning that I had some special responsibility. I was up for fulfulling that responsibility, and was actually eager to see the city in such a blanket. I hadn't expected the streets to be so barren, though, that I could walk down the center of Broadway on my way to the office.
Need a funny way to finish this post. Ah, yes, a story from when I applied to work at the Washington Square News. Newcomers were eligible to be copy editors or fact checkers. Beyond the interview with the Editor-in-Chief, there was a 10-question test of politics and current events. This was around the time that North Korea was emerging as a nuclear threat, and hence also when the mainstream was introduced to the eccentricities of the North Korean leader. Apparently the introduction didn't leave a strong impression on me. One of the questions on that test: Who is the leader of North Korea? My answer: Kim Pyonyang.