Freshmen on Campus
Sep. 28th, 2012 09:57 pmThings that have Happened:
1. Yom Kippur
2. Fall term started
3. WoW, Panda-version, is out
Of these, fall term is by far the most me-affecting. Buuuut, since we are going in chronological order of affecting me, we will start with Yom Kippur, also known as "that one Jewish holy day where nobody eats anything."
Actually, there is a trick. The trick is that the day before, you aim to drink about four gallons of water. Then, just before candle-lighting time, you eat meat. Don't go for lean cuts, either - you want your lymph system to be full of difficult-to-absorb fats. They make you feel full, for a long time. And, oh yeah, drink more water. You will have to pee a lot, but all that water slows food absorption even more. Basically, you knock out hours one through eighteen of your fast if you do this right. You only get really distractingly hungry in the last two or so.
So! Then I went off to Kol Nidre, which is both the name of the first prayer and the name of the first service. It is actually a legal statement that any promises that are made between this Yom Kippur and the next one are null and void. This was instituted during the Spanish Inquisition, because Jews might be forced to make vows which they had no intention of keeping, and this was a way of assuaging hurt consciences. Of course, it has no modern legal meaning. But it is Tradition.
Actual Yom Kippur, was not bad. I went to Chabad house, where the have a guy in the background reading the prayers so quickly you can't pick out individual words. In the foreground, we were praying interspersed with Torah discussion and anecdotes of wisdom. At no point was there any of the moaning, groaning, drawn-out long chanting known as Chazzanut. And that made me happy.
So then there was Ne'ila, the closing ceremony, during which you stand. If your cantor is doing chazzanut, this is physically painful and takes two hours. If he's not, as I found, this takes forty minutes from beginning to end, including the standard Ma'ariv prayers (which take five minutes anyway). Then, boom, Shofar blast and Rachel brought out the break fast. Not like the first meal of the day, but rather food you use to end a fast. Because we are Jewish, this was bagels.
That was Yom Kippur.
On Thursday, classes started. Now my bike paths are full of people who don't know how to ride a bike. Also, I will be TAing again, but I did this class last year as well so it should be a bit easier :D
Still. Undergrads.
Finally, JJ has begun to play a Panda. He will not shut up about it. It led to the following conversation:
JJ: So then he paired us up and send three mini-bosses that we had to beat.
Me: . . . were they hard?
JJ: No. With that many pandas running around, it was easy.
Me: You just said that. With that many pandas running around, it was easy.
JJ: :P
I love my awesome family.
Also,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
everbright come back! I did not mean to drive you away!
1. Yom Kippur
2. Fall term started
3. WoW, Panda-version, is out
Of these, fall term is by far the most me-affecting. Buuuut, since we are going in chronological order of affecting me, we will start with Yom Kippur, also known as "that one Jewish holy day where nobody eats anything."
Actually, there is a trick. The trick is that the day before, you aim to drink about four gallons of water. Then, just before candle-lighting time, you eat meat. Don't go for lean cuts, either - you want your lymph system to be full of difficult-to-absorb fats. They make you feel full, for a long time. And, oh yeah, drink more water. You will have to pee a lot, but all that water slows food absorption even more. Basically, you knock out hours one through eighteen of your fast if you do this right. You only get really distractingly hungry in the last two or so.
So! Then I went off to Kol Nidre, which is both the name of the first prayer and the name of the first service. It is actually a legal statement that any promises that are made between this Yom Kippur and the next one are null and void. This was instituted during the Spanish Inquisition, because Jews might be forced to make vows which they had no intention of keeping, and this was a way of assuaging hurt consciences. Of course, it has no modern legal meaning. But it is Tradition.
Actual Yom Kippur, was not bad. I went to Chabad house, where the have a guy in the background reading the prayers so quickly you can't pick out individual words. In the foreground, we were praying interspersed with Torah discussion and anecdotes of wisdom. At no point was there any of the moaning, groaning, drawn-out long chanting known as Chazzanut. And that made me happy.
So then there was Ne'ila, the closing ceremony, during which you stand. If your cantor is doing chazzanut, this is physically painful and takes two hours. If he's not, as I found, this takes forty minutes from beginning to end, including the standard Ma'ariv prayers (which take five minutes anyway). Then, boom, Shofar blast and Rachel brought out the break fast. Not like the first meal of the day, but rather food you use to end a fast. Because we are Jewish, this was bagels.
That was Yom Kippur.
On Thursday, classes started. Now my bike paths are full of people who don't know how to ride a bike. Also, I will be TAing again, but I did this class last year as well so it should be a bit easier :D
Still. Undergrads.
Finally, JJ has begun to play a Panda. He will not shut up about it. It led to the following conversation:
JJ: So then he paired us up and send three mini-bosses that we had to beat.
Me: . . . were they hard?
JJ: No. With that many pandas running around, it was easy.
Me: You just said that. With that many pandas running around, it was easy.
JJ: :P
I love my awesome family.
Also,
everbright come back! I did not mean to drive you away!