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Back in RI
Aug. 1st, 2005 08:41 pmSo I'm back in Rhode Island. A summary of Drisha:
It was fun. I learned a lot. Though there are some things that were a bit annoying.
1. Gemara 2nd session: Though my teacher, David Goshen, rocks, he sometimes went off topic for days, and I got a little frustrated, especially when we once spent 3 classes not learning any gemara, but just doing midrashim about a subject that wasn't particularly interesting- the annanei kavod, clouds of glory, that G-d descended upon Israel in. Supposedly there are 7, and they get them from different pasookim. The way they're quoted is weird [like some they take 1 when 11 are listed, 2 when 2 are listed, etc] but I don't think we really needed to research each cloud. We're learning sukkah! And the whole point wasn't the clouds, it was Astheroth Karnai. We could have just said that sukkah could = G-d's presence on Earth and be done with it in an hour. That was painful.
Also, it was a bit annoying that we always ended 15 minutes late, sometimes 45 minutes late. He told us we could leave whenever we wanted, but I always felt bad and never left early, even if I was left with only 15 minutes for lunch, and 12 of them required to procure this lunch. That's one way to lose weight, though.
2. I still think we should have had an intermediate Gemara. I could keep up with advanced, but because we did so much other things, we spent little time learning actual gemara, and as a result my skills didn't improve as much as I'd like.
3. No one really got together outside of class, which was disappointing. We all lived in different areas, so it wasn't so feasible. But I'm comparing it to last summer at Pardes, where I always hung out with Pardes people after class and on shabbat. I miss that. I had to make my own outside social life, which usually only happened on shabbat [though I did get to watch a lot of Law & Order, and I got a lot of knitting done.]
As for the Heights, they were high. Shabbats were fun, though a bit repetitive, and no one in the community sings. Though I did enjoy my Shabbat afternoon walks in the park. And this week since Estie and crew were camping, I walked on my own, and got to do a lot of walking instead of sitting and tanning.
I also don't like the lack of eruv. I got dehydrated on Shabbat even with lots of drinking because I couldn't carry a waterbottle during my 2 hours in the park.
I don't think I could ever live in New York for an extended period of time. It's too confining. And all the girls are so much better dressed than I am, so I never look good [in comparison] on Shabbat, even if I'm wearing my nicest clothes. And I'm too colorful, apparently.
So now I have one shabbat and them I'm moving to my brand new apartment. Whee!
It was fun. I learned a lot. Though there are some things that were a bit annoying.
1. Gemara 2nd session: Though my teacher, David Goshen, rocks, he sometimes went off topic for days, and I got a little frustrated, especially when we once spent 3 classes not learning any gemara, but just doing midrashim about a subject that wasn't particularly interesting- the annanei kavod, clouds of glory, that G-d descended upon Israel in. Supposedly there are 7, and they get them from different pasookim. The way they're quoted is weird [like some they take 1 when 11 are listed, 2 when 2 are listed, etc] but I don't think we really needed to research each cloud. We're learning sukkah! And the whole point wasn't the clouds, it was Astheroth Karnai. We could have just said that sukkah could = G-d's presence on Earth and be done with it in an hour. That was painful.
Also, it was a bit annoying that we always ended 15 minutes late, sometimes 45 minutes late. He told us we could leave whenever we wanted, but I always felt bad and never left early, even if I was left with only 15 minutes for lunch, and 12 of them required to procure this lunch. That's one way to lose weight, though.
2. I still think we should have had an intermediate Gemara. I could keep up with advanced, but because we did so much other things, we spent little time learning actual gemara, and as a result my skills didn't improve as much as I'd like.
3. No one really got together outside of class, which was disappointing. We all lived in different areas, so it wasn't so feasible. But I'm comparing it to last summer at Pardes, where I always hung out with Pardes people after class and on shabbat. I miss that. I had to make my own outside social life, which usually only happened on shabbat [though I did get to watch a lot of Law & Order, and I got a lot of knitting done.]
As for the Heights, they were high. Shabbats were fun, though a bit repetitive, and no one in the community sings. Though I did enjoy my Shabbat afternoon walks in the park. And this week since Estie and crew were camping, I walked on my own, and got to do a lot of walking instead of sitting and tanning.
I also don't like the lack of eruv. I got dehydrated on Shabbat even with lots of drinking because I couldn't carry a waterbottle during my 2 hours in the park.
I don't think I could ever live in New York for an extended period of time. It's too confining. And all the girls are so much better dressed than I am, so I never look good [in comparison] on Shabbat, even if I'm wearing my nicest clothes. And I'm too colorful, apparently.
So now I have one shabbat and them I'm moving to my brand new apartment. Whee!
