One thing that didn't strengthen my ability to make first impressions, my shirt, particularly the unnecessary amount of wrinkles in my wrinkle-free shirt.
After a weekend of shlubby appearance, I would like the people at Van Heusen to explain to me what they mean when they advertise their clothing as "wrinkle-free." Three years ago, I bought a white shirt from this company under the impression that I could fold it in any direction, crumple it up as much I want, and roll it into a ball to fit it in my backpack, and the shirt would look like it just came from the cleaners.
Au contrare. Take a look at what I was forced to wear this Shabbat.
It's not like I didn't recognize there was a problem. When I pulled the shirt out of my backpack after arriving at my Shabbat destination, I asked everyone I could if they knew any secrets to unwrinkling white shirts.
One person told me that steam takes the wrinkles out of clothing. So, I turned the shower on as hot as it could go, closed the door to the bathroom, and put the shirt on a hanger. I also decided to stand in the make-shift steam shvitz as my shirt unwrinkled (As you might know, I can't end a week without going to the shvitz or, when I'm in Israel, springs are also acceptble). I stood in there with my shirt for 20 minutes to monitor its progress. Let me just say that there was little progress to monitor, aside from the accumulation of sweat beads on my body. Here is a photo of my shirt after it was in the steam room for 20 minutes.
Do you notice any difference? Neither do I. Actually, I think that the wrinkle over the pocket looks worse after I steamed it.
Lessons I learned: Shirts might be wrinkle-free but once they become over saturated with wrinkles, they become creased. And no shirt is crease-free (that gives me a new idea for shirt technology, if only I was a fashion engineer).
Ironically, I took 30 minutes out of getting to meet people on Thursday night to go back to my apartment to pick up a belt to avoid looking like a shlub this weekend. Hey, at least I was wearing a belt with a wrinkled shirt, which is better than wearing a wrinkled shirt without a belt.
Do you know. . . .?
As you might expect, the opening weekend of the Yavneh Olami program turned into a massive game of Jewish Geography. Anytime you bring together 120 American Jews, the phrase "oh, you go to _____ University, do you know _____" is bound to make an appearance.
At one point, some of my friends started to create a scoring system for Jewish Geography but because we couldn't write it down (Shabbat), we didn't put it on paper or figure out the logistics. Before this weekend, I didn't know that the community of religious American Jews between the ages of 18-24 was so well connected.
Dropping names of people who went to yeshiva, seminary, and universities in New York City, I was able to establish a link with more than half of the kids on the program. And from these connections, strong friendships might develop over the summer, and more importantly, more names for future games of Jewish Geography.
Watersmeet in the Golan
Keeping in line with other travelogues and to help me remember what I did in Israel, I will go through a summary of my weekend from a more logistic point of view.
On Thursday afternoon, I took a cab to Bayit Va'gan (a neighborhood in Jerusalem that is not in walking distance of my house) to attend the orientation for the Yavneh Olami program. After saying that he knew where Yeshiva University in Israel campus was located, my cab driver revealed to me (through his actions) that he had no idea.
Just a note: for lunch I bought a loaf of bread and a container of hummus.
Since I am not living at the YU dorms, I hung around the main building at the campus until the orientation began. After the welcoming speeches and ice breakers, we had a cook out on the lawn (considering the landscape, you don't really have to say more than "the lawn" for people to know what you're talking about).
I spent the night on the floor in Ari's apartment (I hear that sleeping on that type of surface is good for your back) because the bus was leaving at 7:45 S.G.T. (Standard Group Time [for official departure, add 45 minutes]).
We drove north to the Golan Heights and visited some places of interest in the area. First, we went to Nimrod's Fortress (You remember the Watersmeet Nimrods from ESPN fame or Nimrod from the Bible, I don't know which one came first). We ate lunch of hummus and pita at the same picnic tables that Nimrod would eat hummus and pita, I think. Well, maybe not.
After lunch, we toured the ruins of the fortress, which was not actually around in the time of Nimrod. It was a crusader era fortress that does not have any of the marks of a crusader fortress. Most notable event from the tour: instead of calling it a bathroom or water closet, the parks service calls the medeival can (or as like to call it, hole in the ground) a convenience chamber.
After Nimrod's Fortress, we walked around the Banias. Did you know that the name Banias derives from the fact that there used to be a temple to the god Pan on that sight?
Air Conditioning? Who knew?
For Shabbat, we stayed at the guest house at Keshet, a moshav in the Golan Heights. For the first time in six weeks, I slept in a room that had air conditioning. Air conditioning in bedrooms = genius idea.
We held services in the guest house's bomb shelter. Things that I can now check off my list of stuff I hope I don't ever have to do again: I exitted a bomb shelter through a emergency exit.
On Saturday afternoon, we walked up a hill that looked down on the moshav and much of the Golan. Our tour guide told us the history of the settlement (how it is undergoing a major privatization) and pointed out sights of interest on the horizon (Mt. Hermon and the lack of snow on top, the Kinneret [Sea of Galillee], wind power plants, and the Syrian border). If you can't tell from the photos from Nimrod's Fortress, the Golan is a beautiful area.
2 comments:
I would have to say that aside from the obvious novelty and holiness of the big J, the Golan is probably my favorite place in Israel. Definitley some amazing hikes. We went on one that exited through a field, and in the middle of nowhere there was an Ice Cream truck. who knew.
yoni, I think the white wrinkled shirt look is very Israeli.
you fit right in
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