The first couple of days I hyperventilated over grocery shopping. It looked like a supermarket but I couldn't read anything. I can read PRINTED Hebrew but now Hebrew SCRIPT. I gasped at the difficulty to distinguish between milk, soy milk and finally, thankfully, discovered soy milk. Aha!
I went into a place and ordered breakfast food and THEN realized I wasn't sure if the place had a hechkser (proving its Kosher-ness). Turns out later than it did when Yehuda checked it out but everything was in Hebrew so I had no idea what was what. Instead, I bought food at the place that said KOSHER in big letters and ate delightful food.
Ug, two days later, the food was not so delightful. Everything I ate came back out rather quickly. Stomach cramps. Water tasted funny. Everything tasted funny. At least, I was about to enjoy a Kosher Burger King whopper before and after that.
I went to a big fat Jewish wedding. LOUD is the best word to describe it all. Megaspeakers. Flowers everywhere. Tons of dancing. Good but painful food.
Note: Tel-aviv is HOT and HUMID. Jerusalem has pppppppperrrrrrrrfect weather. Thank G-d. I've been feeling physically better thanks to that. Hooray!
Aliza Hausman is a first-generation Dominican-American Latina Orthodox Jewish convert or “Jewminicana” who discovered she was born Jewish of Sephardic Jewish Turkish ancestry post-conversion. She is also a writer, blogger, educator & speaker. This blog chronicles her thoughts on being Hispanic & Jewish, focusing on identity, Judaism, Jews of colors, Latinos, diversity, race, ethnicity, conversion to Judaism, culture, multiculturalism, illness, disability, books, films, news & more….