on your journey, i will bless you...

The last day of 2010 was a busy one for Rebecca. I woke up early to call a car lot and my credit union, but apparently everything in town was closed yesterday. Everything, that is, except where I work, and we were actually pretty busy. From work I went straight to Shabbat services at the temple. The service was held a half-hour earlier than usual, and afterwards, a lot of us went to an interdominational prayer service/dinner at the Methodist church.

The prayer service was a little cheesy, but I enjoyed it. People from different faiths gave speeches about their religious traditions for the new year, and while one lady was talking about customs in Catholic Latin America, she asked if anyone knew the names of the three wise men. Rebecca owned that: Balthasar, Melchior, and Caspar. Somebody from the temple asked me how I knew that, and I told him it was because I went to Catholic high school (and I did) but it's really because I live with my name-obsessed sister. That's also how I know the names of Noah's three sons. In fact, I'd bet any amount of money Sara knows more about Biblical names than 99% of religious people, and she's not religious at all.

The dinner was mostly dessert foods, although there was cabbage and black-eyed peas, of course. Somehow, I wound up seated next to the mayor of our city! I didn't realize who he was until someone introduced me, and after I'd lost the opportunity to talk to him, I found out he speaks Cajun French! I didn't eat too much, but the food was very rich, so I felt sick later.

Today Sara and I went to CJ & Company's house to eat lunch and play games. Aunt Connie had cooked up a ton of food (pot roast, green bean casserole, "funeral potatoes," salad, black-eyed peas) and I ate too much, but I lose all shreds of self-control when I get near green bean casserole. Then I went bike riding with Eva and swinging in the park with Josh. As we were leaving, I found a mirror they were throwing out and brought it home to put on the back of my door. It's leaning against the wall now, and when Sable saw it, he sniffed and growled at his reflection! I was so amazed. I had no idea his eyesight was still that good. He hasn't paid any attention to his reflection since he was a puppy and thought his reflection in our dishwasher was his brother (whom he lived with before we got him).

I got a giftcard to the bookstore for Christmas, and I put it to good use. I got the two things I really wanted: a 2011 calendar and a Tanakh (a Jewish Bible). I went with another Emily Dickinson calendar like the one I had in 2010, and usually I hate repetitive calendars, but what can I say, her poetry is really growing on me. My Tanakh is pocket-sized, with very fine fine print, but now I'm all set to go to Torah study at the temple next week. The young woman who's holding it is named Rebekah and is almost exactly my age. :)

A Cajun blessing for 2011:
Je vous souhaite du bonne aventure, bonne fortune, bonne santé, et une bonne nouvelle année.

The school threw an elaborate party in the cafeteria for the boarding students last night. There was a disco ball, at least a hundred balloons, and music with a bass beat so loud it almost shook the school. And all the students wore costumes. I asked my morning class about it today, and they said that it’s a tradition for the school to throw a party for the boarding students before the February vacation. One student said that the theme for this year’s costumes was famous characters and that she painted her face green and went as Shrek.

The other assistants and I spent yesterday evening having our own little party in the kitchen to celebrate Chinese New Year. We all rolled up our sleeves and helped Sarah made Chinese dumplings, which was a lot of work (stirring, chopping up tons of raw meat and vegetables, rolling out so much dough that it covered almost the entire table). But making the dumplings wasn’t as hard as eating them with chopsticks; everyone could do it except me, and they found my fumbling attempts rather amusing. But Sarah kept saying that I was the guest of honor because this is my year (the Year of the Rat), and the dumplings that I managed to eat were surprisingly good, which was nice.

Funny Chinese Sarah Moments of the Evening:
Watching the French Vanna White on the French Wheel of Fortune… Sarah: Why do they have this woman? I think she is not necessary. Everyone else: *laughing hysterically*
Trying to eat with chopsticks… Me: I can’t do this, Sarah! Sarah: I think you can do it, because whenever I try to do something, you always tell me, ‘You can do it.’ Me: Yeah, but that’s you, not me. Sarah: I think is the same.

Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to think up a nice way to tell Nathalie that it pisses me off to no end when students come through the hallway where Marlene, Sarah, Heather, and I live. The door to our hall is clearly marked PRIVEE, but there’s a group of students who regularly visit Nathalie and use it as a shortcut to her office. And even more annoying is Nathalie’s son’s parade of girlfriends. I know for a fact that Marlene and Heather are pissed off by it too (Sarah probably isn’t, because the only time I ever saw her get anywhere close to mad was when I mistakenly said that Yoko Ono was Chinese. “She not Chinese! She Japanese!”) but none of us want to say anything because Nathalie does so much for us. But I’m not going to worry about that now, because I’m on vacation, and tonight Mariana is going to teach me how to make a piñata.

• The Bill of Rights (the first ten Amendments to the Constitution).
• The Declaration of Independence.
• Dimes.
• The Fourth of July.
• Inventing rock-n-roll.
• Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Landing on the moon.
• Louisiana.
• "My Country 'Tis of Thee."
• The Nineteenth Amendment.
• The Oscars!
• America's treatment of its Jews. Although American Jews have always faced discrimination (most states did not allow them to vote until the late 1800's), America has never passed the slew of anti-Semitic laws that most countries in the world, especially most European countries, have enforced at some point in their history. America has never outlawed Jews from owning property or forced them to live in ghettos, pay special taxes, or physically identify themselves as Jews by a sign or specific article of clothing. Nor has America ever had progroms, organized killings of Jews. (We did have lynchings, though. Minus one for America there.) From George Washington's letter to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island, in 1790, to George W. Bush declaring Jewish Heritage Week in 2004, America ranks close to Israel as one of the least anti-Semitic countries in the world.