"This year will be very tough!"

I can't begin to tell you how many times I have heard some version of that in the past few days...today in particular. My day began with the cantorial program orientation. You should know upfront that only the cantors have a specific orientation to go to. The Rabbis and Education leaders in the group do not have a session specifically geared towards them. Anyway. Cantor Tamar Havilio began the orientation with introductions. First the faculty went around and introduced themselves. They all sound absolutely wonderful! I can't wait to learn from them. Each professor/cantor brings something different to the table -- voice technique, repertoire, chazzanut training, Israeli music history, etc. The big "great" in the bunch is Eli Schleifer who has been at HUC for a very long time. He will be teaching us only one history class as he is going on sabbatical. However, he will be the cantor at the High Holy Day services and we will be in the choir so I will be able to get plenty of learning in from him as well. Rehearsals for the High Holy Days start next Monday! Talk about soon. Music theory (yuck) will also begin within the next few weeks in addition to our Ulpan program. Are you beginning to see the "this is not an easy year!" theme yet? Because of the nature of the cantorial program we have tons to do. I left the orientation feeling overwhelmed with information and expectations for the year. I think that once classes and a routine get rolling I will be able to fall in line with everything going on. I tend to work much better with a schedule.

After an insurance meeting I went home to try and relax a bit. I ended up going over to Jason's apartment (a rabbinical student) to eat pizza and watch Wall-e with a bunch of friends. If you haven't seen the movie yet you definitely should! It's one of Pixar's cuter creations. And they reference the movie version of "Hello, Dolly" which of course I loved! In fact, I think that if you hadn't seen the movie of "Hello, Dolly" you miss some fun connections. It was a very fun afternoon.

I also met up with Janice Jumbo from home (a long-time teacher from Beth Tikva B'nai Jeshurun in Erdenheim, PA). I had been walking to school yesterday and passed a restaurant and there she sat! It was definitely one of the more surprising moments I've had here so far, but I'm also beginning to discover that it happens in Jerusalem! It's like an enlarged version of Brandeis...So, Janice and I played phone tag with each other for the majority of the and were finally able to catch up for a half hour this evening. We sat on the steps of HUC and chatted for a good amount of time about Jerusalem and our experiences so far. Unfortunately, Janice is leaving Israel tonight so I will not be able to spend more time with her. It was wonderful seeing a familiar face though.

At 7 pm we had an orienation activity at school. After doing a little studying and discussing of different Talmudic texts the interns broke our class of 42 up into different groups of about 5-6 people in each. In our intimate groups we were able to tell the stories of our path to HUC and our chosen profession. I found the evening incredibly enlightening and touching. Many students shared some very personal stories and I'm honored that they felt safe enough to share them. I learned about lot about 1o of my classmates tonight and I can't wait to continue learning more from them in the years to come.

Also exciting today was the instillation of a router in the apartment which allows me to have wireless internet! Hooray! Let the skype chats officially begin! I hope you are having a wonderful week and I hope to talk to you soon!

My love,
Sarah