Rosh HaShanah - 2009

My head is spinning!  We've had an amazing few days...

London, Tuesday, Sept. 15th...Rent-a-Mum

     On Tuesday, Rick and I visited with Thelma Ruby Frye, our Rent-a-Mum.... In 1976 when I spent a year in Israel, a colleague of my father's contacted  friends of his to let them know that a young American would be staying on a kibbutz outside of Jerusalem.. Thelma and her husband Peter invited me for a picnic and it was love at first meeting.  Peter and Thelma promptly wrote to my father to ask if they might "rent" me for the year.  Dad was thrilled to have them looking out for me.  Throughout the year I'd spend weekends with them or they'd scoop me up for an adventure.  Since then we've stayed in touch and the rental agreement was long ago extended to a lifelong arrangement..

    Our visit with Thelma was wonderful.  We had a fabulous lunch and laughed our way through the afternoon, watching amazing home videos of the extended rent-a-family dating back to 1917.

London...Wednesday, September 16th...John Burgess

    On Wednesday, we visited with John, a dear friend that I met by happenstance in the mid-80's...He and his family have been members of ours ever since.  He lives in the London neighborhood of Golders Green with son Paul, wife Yanni and their kids Luca and Maya.  He's doing great and looking forward to an extended visit to the states this fall.

Thursday, September 17th...Viva La Roma!

http://homoeexchange.com/show.php?id=62900   

Finally, after months of planning, we arrived in Roma!  Our exchange apartment is amazing.. the link above is actually the apartment next door to where we are staying.. ours is just as nice without the piano..  We are near the central train station which is in the heart of Rome... On our first day we had planned to take it easy, but of course we ran right out and took a tour of the entire city...ancient next to modern, fountains next to obelisks and churches next to churches... some 900 in Rome alone!

     First meal:  Pizza!

On Friday, Rick ran us ragged... which he swore he wouldn't do.  We spent the morning at the Coliseum, where I swear he counted every brick.  Then after lunch we went over to the Forum and Palatine Hill, the Palace of Vestal Virgins and the Arch of Titus.  It was appropriate that we visited the Arch of Titus on Erev Rosh HaShanah.. as the Arch was built to commemorate the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.  I knew about this piece of history and that Jews weren't allowed to walk under the Arch until after WWII.  What I hadn't known, was that Titus brought back 50,000 Jewish slaves with him to Rome from Judea since the Jews refused to bow to Rome.  The Jewish slaves built both the Arch of Titus and helped in the building of the Coliseum.  As I chanted Kadish  (the mourner's blessing) for those long ago ancestors, I was amazed at the connection through the years.

By then the tooties were aching so Rick went off to crawl along every inch of the area while I sat and spent some time putting those art lessons to practice.  Michelangelo doesn't have anything to worry about, but it certainly adds an entirely other dimension to the experience.

After a quick bite, we hooked up for an evening tour with one of the Rick Steve's recommended guides...a young man* with a Masters in Roman art history from Yale.  He gave us a speed tour through Rome, including the Pantheon, the Piazza where Mussolini made his famous speeches, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps (which, as it turns out, were actally built by the French).  By the time we got back to our apartment, the feet were screaming and my hair felt like gum from the humidity.  

*Recommended Tour Guide- Jason Spiehler... toursofrome@hotmail.com 

Yesterday, Saturday, September 19th, Rosh HaShanah.. while I was chanting in Hebrew, Rick was chanting with de

ad people in the Catacombs.. He also traveled down the Appian Way and visited one of the Roman Aquaducts.  I slept, one of my favorite Rosh HaShanah activities.  I always celebrate the holidays in unusual ways.  This year was no different.  We wandered around the old Jewish Ghetto and sat in a nearby piazza drawing different aspects of the area.  It was beautiful out, perfect for enjoying the day with pencil and paper.  What a different perspective we are able to enjoy when we not only get to view the treasures of this amazing city but when we spend time capturing a piece of it through out eyes and hands. We topped the evening off by having dinner at a restaurant in the Ghetto, Giggetto's, enjoying Carciofi Judaica- a traditional Jewish artichoke dish. Sunday, September 20th Today, we ventured out to the National Museum of Rome - or Museo d' Wackem and Slashem.. a veritable treasure trove of ancient sculptures and mosaics.  My only question is where are all of the wacked off appendages (penies and schnozolas)... and I'm delighted to report the sighting of the original shmata worn as a headscarf' from some 2,000 years ago. Actually the mu

seum is really wonderful..  I was particularly fascinated with the mosaics... here we are trying to draw and they were doing it with itty bitty pieces of stone.  The artwork from 2,000 years ago, especially the statues are breathtaking.

More later...

Best Laid Plans

So of course, we have a whole epistle written, but the internet is not working in the apartment and the internet cafe can not read the document!

In the meantime, here are as few photos from London, with great friends Thelma and John and from Rome....With more to come..

We are having a fabulous time... running around and just marveling at everything.. We will post the original blog when we can.. Access is dodgy!

We are happy and healthy and wish everyone a happy Rosh HaShanah!

The Wedding

What a weekend! Whew! What is it about family that is so amazing. Born in NY, my family moved to Calif. When I was 3, for which we thank my Mother regularly. My New York relatives are nuts and we credit New York with their craziness. And yet we absolutely & totally adore our cousins. I am amazed by how close we all feel to one another.

We watched as over the years as my cousing Lisa and Don fell in love and became as necessary to each other as breathing, as Don became an integral part of our family unit. I was reminded of this today as I was hugging him goodbye and told him how happy I was that he was legally a part of the family - but also noted that if he ever hurt Lisa he’d be found at the bottom of the ocean. Without a pause he said, “Be careful what you say, with how neurotic your family is, there are days I might choose the ocean!”

I was reminded of the first time Rick was going to meet the entire family at nephew Maceo’s graduation from Yale. I kept asking Rick to find someone to marry us on the way to the airport. I was worried that he’d back out after meeting the family. But as he always says, “You had to come from someplace.”

So - back to the weekend. What more can I say than that I cried for three days. First and foremost for Don and Lisa who are so happy and who have reached such an incredible place in their life’s journey. We waited a long time to dance at Lisa’s wedding - and it was so worth it….their happiness and joy, the love we have as a family….the strengthening of bonds across miles and generations…the treasuring of our older generation and the shriek of the next generation.

I sometimes get asked why Jews have such huge parties for Bar & Bat Mitzvahs. “It’s like a wedding.” Celebrating these rites of passages celebrate each other, our love for family and ensures the ongoing bonds from generation to generation.

Lisa & Don - Here’s to you!!

5 more days!

We leave in 5 days for New York to start our trip. We've been finishing up art classes, figuring out what we can't live without and furiously trying to fit in as much work as possible before we leave...

This is Tracy's latest drawing. Virginia, our drawing instructor looked at this and said, "There is NO way you could have done this two months ago." It's amazing how much you can learn when you get over your fear of the blank page.

So now, all that is left to do is our run through packing (to make sure we have everything); celebrate Roshann's Birthday- the birthday is tomorrow but the party is Monday in beautiful downtown Elmira. We'll be 26 at the party and its only family members! And then figure out how to fit into the suitcase everything that won't fit.. we are committed to taking only carry on luggage- so forgive us if every photo has us wearing the same outfits!

Now Tracy is off to go prepare herself for the onslaught of neurotic relatives!

This is one of Rick's efforts.. we have really been having fun with our art classes. We leave two weeks from today..

Getting Ready

In a little more than two weeks it will be time to leave! We have been dreaming, planning, reserving and thinking about everything there is to do in Italy and before we arrive! We are nearing the end of our art classes and are amazed at everything we have learned.

Now if we can just figure out how to blog, this little side aspect will be a success!

August 7, 2009

It's Friday evening and Rick and I have just returned from a delicious dinner out on the town following our afternoon Drawing class. In preparation for our trip to Italy, we have signed up for two art classes- Beginning Drawing and Watercolor. Who knew there would be homework for art class!!! All of a sudden we are analyzing paper, shading, contrasts, vanishing points, horizon lines, and more. We both are pretty good humored about it all, though Rick wants to get everything to look as realistic as possible and I am challenged by "perspective." We keep hammering away though. I can proudly say that we both can now draw a pretty mean shoe! We hope to have some wonderful drawings of our trip as mementos, along with our photos and journal.

While we don't leave until September 10th, I wanted to set up this blog now as we will be gone for six and a half weeks in the fall. I figured that setting up a blog would be a great way to let everyone know where we are, what's going on and to see some photos along the way. We can then turn our memories into a scrapbook along with our photos and drawings.

This way anyone who is interested in following along our route with us can cyber-join us! More soon...