So, for those of you goyim (Yiddish for non-Jews) out there reading the blog, Yom Kippur just ended at sundown today. Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement for Jewish people, who refrain from eating, drinking, bathing, washing, wearing leather shoes, using money, or anointing themselves with perfumes or lotions. I am one of these Jewish people, and today I observed the holiday alone here in Panama, as I did during the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. Where Rosh Hashanah is the celebration of a New Year on the Jewish calendar, when we ask to be written into the Book of Life for another year, Yom Kippur is the action that makes it happen: by cleansing ourselves through the above actions, we are ensuring that we enter another year free of sin and ready to turn over a new leaf.
As a personal sidenote, this year is the first in my life where I have not attended services at a synagogue. It was also the first time that I haven’t celebrated without my family or friends, and it was extremely difficult for me. Panama as a country has over 10,000 Jews, but when I was researching synagogues, the only ones I found were Orthodox and demanded proof that I was born of Jewish parentage and was ordained in the Orthodox Jewish community (which I’ve never belonged to; I was raised in the Conservative Jewish sect). Thus, I could not find anywhere to worship for the first time in the twenty years that I’ve been alive.
However, this forces me to find beauty in the people around me, and I’ve been blessed to be living with eleven other people who were extremely respectful of me and my culture during this rough time. They definitely helped me to find God in places where I hadn’t looked before, and for that, I am truly grateful.
Monday, September 28, 2009
terapia
we all kick it in the crib
doin hw,
or not
were movin soon
and we jus got settled in,
to these ac'd rooms
we got BP3 goin:
got folks on phone
and skype
facebook
meeting with new friends to study
bein stoodup by groups
is not something we want to bring back to the US
but everything else,
like the panaderia
and fruteria where adam buys me gummie candy cuz im cute,
and on muletas.
well bring the estacion of policia jus so we can say where our street is
and the Super 99 or El Rey or Zaras
maybe el Chino and a single slice of cheese
the On The Run and half the JJ's
a calle sin salida
Coco Red:
stickers to put outside our cribs over the adresses
doin hw,
or not
were movin soon
and we jus got settled in,
to these ac'd rooms
we got BP3 goin:
got folks on phone
and skype
meeting with new friends to study
bein stoodup by groups
is not something we want to bring back to the US
but everything else,
like the panaderia
and fruteria where adam buys me gummie candy cuz im cute,
and on muletas.
well bring the estacion of policia jus so we can say where our street is
and the Super 99 or El Rey or Zaras
maybe el Chino and a single slice of cheese
the On The Run and half the JJ's
a calle sin salida
Coco Red:
stickers to put outside our cribs over the adresses
Calypso
the toilet flooded ayer
DO NOT blow your nose and boo boo at the same time
not a good look for the plumbing
Tomorrow we have an assignment for Afro-Pan class to make a song with ascending and descending harmony (or as Dom says an ASCENDING AND DESCENDING BOOTAY). Lowkey last week when we had to come up with rhythms only, D-Nast made a complete song called Supernova. It was reeeeal nice! lol. Forreal tho, ask him bout it. In the Afro-Pan class we are learning about Calypso right now. Leslie is our profe. He's the bomb. Every class he be bringin his keyboard and Kelsey sneaks a couple songs on it during breaks. Shes the bomb too. lol.
Mon. - 11am People and Nature course
Tues. - 2:30pm Estadistica & 5pm Afro-Pan course
Wed. - 11am People and Nature
Thurs. - 2:30pm Estadistica & 5pm Afro-Pan course
Those the classes offered by FW with the hired profes. We take em at the USMA campus.
We not all in every course though. Everyone is in the science course but Allen. And the statistics course is Sofia, Dom, Kim, Allen, Ben, Adam, Blaire, and Me. And the Afro-Pan course is everyone but Allen. This is by choice. The reason they got profes to teach is to have courses that are taught by the UW syllabus that will directly fill the basic requirements some of us need. This is real caterin but its good lookin for us who needed these basic requirements. Next sem. th going to be a similar thing offering QRa and another science course, i think. Aside from these courses there are the ones we take at our respective Unis (universidades).
K off to make this song tho.
DAle.
DO NOT blow your nose and boo boo at the same time
not a good look for the plumbing
Tomorrow we have an assignment for Afro-Pan class to make a song with ascending and descending harmony (or as Dom says an ASCENDING AND DESCENDING BOOTAY). Lowkey last week when we had to come up with rhythms only, D-Nast made a complete song called Supernova. It was reeeeal nice! lol. Forreal tho, ask him bout it. In the Afro-Pan class we are learning about Calypso right now. Leslie is our profe. He's the bomb. Every class he be bringin his keyboard and Kelsey sneaks a couple songs on it during breaks. Shes the bomb too. lol.
Mon. - 11am People and Nature course
Tues. - 2:30pm Estadistica & 5pm Afro-Pan course
Wed. - 11am People and Nature
Thurs. - 2:30pm Estadistica & 5pm Afro-Pan course
Those the classes offered by FW with the hired profes. We take em at the USMA campus.
We not all in every course though. Everyone is in the science course but Allen. And the statistics course is Sofia, Dom, Kim, Allen, Ben, Adam, Blaire, and Me. And the Afro-Pan course is everyone but Allen. This is by choice. The reason they got profes to teach is to have courses that are taught by the UW syllabus that will directly fill the basic requirements some of us need. This is real caterin but its good lookin for us who needed these basic requirements. Next sem. th going to be a similar thing offering QRa and another science course, i think. Aside from these courses there are the ones we take at our respective Unis (universidades).
K off to make this song tho.
DAle.
Aura's 22
We (Sofia, Dom, n I) went to this water park for our friend Aura bday. It was tight. I mean, I couldn't water park it up but, it was cool. I got to feel normal in the water lol. 2 more weeks on 2 muletas. Then down to 1.
Anyways... MIRA las fotos.
Sofia, Dom, ME, Aura, Vicente, Jota, Walter, Kathie
Aura left Jota right
Sofaloaf, Jota, n Aura
Sofia: She soooo lazy.
This thang with all the water dumping.
And waterslides. Not that I could go on em. Friday, September 25, 2009
fotoos
yea she pushed me...down sum stairs
one of them was the pres...he waved
pedro finished my chips. :(
lol nhe trip me out.
he costa rican, thats not y tho
pan de oro. iglesia.q la pases
Sat. yes LAST saturday I (SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE: KIM ANH TRUONG HAS THE BEST HIGH FIVE) had a fieldtrip to the Canal museum with my historia de panama class. It was real intense. (SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE: KIM ANH TRUONG IS THE BEST) Turns out our profe is like the knower of all knowledge having to do wit historia de panama. We walked all thru the museum (btw Kim invaded my computer right quick) and profe was telling us all the history from memory. He knew his stuff. I couldnt pay attention tho it was like overload of info regardless of language barrier. So now next week Friday I have a big assignment due about the fieldtrip. We gotta use the pics and "notes (lol)" that we took.
What I NEED to do is go back to that museum and RElook at everything to take in another breath. Real talk it covered a large period of time tho and I was pretty impressed. From before the building of the canal to technological advances within the last decade or so.
BUT i think bout the assignment imma be good cuz u kno...I MADE A FRIEND! Aura is her name. She from Venezuela. Came here wit her fam and boyfriend. They left th country cuz her dad was basically blacklisted in Venezuela and so he couldnt get a job. Then they were living off they savings but those dnt last forever so they came to Panama. They started a restautante but then it didnt do too hott and the money se fue. SO they moved again, but Aura and her boyfriedn stayed here to finish school. Her fam of ma n pa n sister are now in the US, Florida. Its her bday manana and its her 1st without being wit her fam. They been gon bout 2 months now and shes only lived here en Panama for bout 2 yrs. Keep noted that folk here live with they padres til they marry or decide to move out. Not like home when we bounce when we go to college or just MOVE OUT cuz we think we grown.
SO Jota; whose name is JoseLuis; whose called Jota by Aura; whose name is the letter J but still spelled JOTA; who I called Jota Z; who is Aura's boyfriend and moved here to Panama with her when her family vinieron; who works for this cable compani that has there service lines from the US come here; who chats with Amuricans about there tech troubles; who was told to go back to Mexico; whose name is JoseLuis; who is NOT from Mexico; who requested his name be changed on the chat to Troy; who was complimented on his name; Troy.
HE planned a surprise bday for Aura manana. I think shes going to love it especially since she has been real down about being away from her fam. We goin to thia parque acuatico. and its only like $8.50. Yea Yea. Im used to oc prices for parks of amusement and such.
Shes pretty dope though. Dom n me n Sofia gon go. Estoy emocionada.
DALE pues.
What I NEED to do is go back to that museum and RElook at everything to take in another breath. Real talk it covered a large period of time tho and I was pretty impressed. From before the building of the canal to technological advances within the last decade or so.
BUT i think bout the assignment imma be good cuz u kno...I MADE A FRIEND! Aura is her name. She from Venezuela. Came here wit her fam and boyfriend. They left th country cuz her dad was basically blacklisted in Venezuela and so he couldnt get a job. Then they were living off they savings but those dnt last forever so they came to Panama. They started a restautante but then it didnt do too hott and the money se fue. SO they moved again, but Aura and her boyfriedn stayed here to finish school. Her fam of ma n pa n sister are now in the US, Florida. Its her bday manana and its her 1st without being wit her fam. They been gon bout 2 months now and shes only lived here en Panama for bout 2 yrs. Keep noted that folk here live with they padres til they marry or decide to move out. Not like home when we bounce when we go to college or just MOVE OUT cuz we think we grown.
SO Jota; whose name is JoseLuis; whose called Jota by Aura; whose name is the letter J but still spelled JOTA; who I called Jota Z; who is Aura's boyfriend and moved here to Panama with her when her family vinieron; who works for this cable compani that has there service lines from the US come here; who chats with Amuricans about there tech troubles; who was told to go back to Mexico; whose name is JoseLuis; who is NOT from Mexico; who requested his name be changed on the chat to Troy; who was complimented on his name; Troy.
HE planned a surprise bday for Aura manana. I think shes going to love it especially since she has been real down about being away from her fam. We goin to thia parque acuatico. and its only like $8.50. Yea Yea. Im used to oc prices for parks of amusement and such.
Shes pretty dope though. Dom n me n Sofia gon go. Estoy emocionada.
DALE pues.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
pegajoso
theres new things every(to)day was perfect
the air smelled like asking me to stick around
sun felt healing
while the breeze caught my curls
but i could only catch it in a $2 taxi ride to school
the air smelled like asking me to stick around
sun felt healing
while the breeze caught my curls
but i could only catch it in a $2 taxi ride to school
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