Closing Time once more

Tomorrow we are returning to America after being here for ten days. Dang, ten days is short. Too short.

I didn't realize how much I missed this place until I got here. I feel free. I feel that I'm doing enough. It's nice to feel adequate again.

Today I bade goodbye to many of my friends and much of my family. (A fuller description may follow.) It's very strange. Honestly, I really don't want to go back. America is work and the weight of obligation and constant insanity in comparison with here. I'm going to miss it so much.

But if there's one thing I've learned, it's that you can't dwell on where you aren't. For the next few hours I'm here, and then I'll be somewhere else, and that's that. No point aching when there's nothing to be done.

So now that I've been sufficiently restored, and now that I've gotten my crazy back, I think going back is gonna be okay. I'll learn, I'll work, and then I'll come here and feel better. I suppose this will be my natural cycle from now on. And I guess that's okay.

Le fin du voyage

I suppose this was always coming.

But now I'm not typing from our living room in Tel Aviv but from our (notably larger) living room in Newton.

It's strange being back, and I'm not really sure how I feel about it yet. Weird. Now I won't have to put the tag "Israel" in the labels...

I just don't want things to be exactly as they were. I want that time in another place to matter.

Anyway - here goes for summer! If you're American, happy fourth of July! If not, happy fourth of July anyway!

(The French title means "the end of the journey.")

Silence and the End of Some Things

Ballet teachers will yell, some more than others. It is simply a fact of life.

However, today my teacher lost her voice. The class was literally silent between exercises. No one spoke at all. We communicated via hand gestures.

It's strange, but when someone in the room doesn't speak and uses hand gestures to communicate, we often feel the need to stay quiet. And today, there was no yelling, and barely any speaking. Just music and concentration. I came out of the class feeling relaxed and with a huge grin on my face. There's nothing like silence to help you get centered. It was almost like yoga.

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Earlier today, I had my last geometry class of the year. And as usual, I was being loud and calling out and screaming answers. Of course, my math genius friend got everything first, but I got it shortly afterwards. Then, the teacher handed out the class placements for next year. If I were to stay, I'd still be in the highest math class - א'1 or I guess A1. You see? Calling out does pay.

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I think I'm going to watch an episode of Doctor Who now and eat some ice cream. What a wonderful evening.

(By the way, see The Vampires of Venice - Season 5 Ep 6 – as well as The Big Bang - Season 5 Ep 13 – for the Doctor Who reference in the title.)

Ode to Homework

Homework, O Homework,
how I despise thee
with your dastardly questions
and time-consuming monstrosities,

and projects and studies
and diagrams and tests.
I'd light you on fire -
you annoy at best.

And though teachers say
that you're easy and fun,
wherefore, oh wherefore
hath anyone begun

to torture us children,
poor beasts as we are
with assignments and workbooks -
when did they start?

Homework, O Homework,
please do go
to the remote mountains
of ice and snow

or volcanoes and fire-pits -
doesn't that sound lovely?
If you went, I'm sure
that we'd all love thee.

And maybe, just maybe,
we'd all be friends!
Homework, O Homework,
I beg of thee, END!