a gutn sof vokh

Where do I even begin, this was quite the weekend, and three days felt like 3 months.

I guess the easiest thing to do is go in chronological order.

Frytik:

I had my E. european survey class down at YIVO HQ from 9-12, which was good. After the class, I did some heimarbet (homework) in a starbucks on 18th and 6th ave (i think), then went and met a friend from class to see a film on Sholem Aleichem up on 66th street. My friend David goes to Brandeis, and he brought along his girlfriend, and another friend of theirs who also goes to Brandeis. Turns out this girl is from AZ and is good friends with the Zitmoer family. And if that wasn't enough, she went to OSRUI and knew plenty of my friends. Needless to say, there was plenty to talk about.

After the movie, I split off and went back to my apartment for a few hours, then met Jeremy down back near YIVO HQ for dinner at a mexican place. Turns out the chef was a challenger on Iron Chef. The food was very good, but I wouldn't say Iron Chef good. It was raining quite a bit on friday, and I think after dinner we called it a night and headed back in the direction of my place.

Shabes:

I got up around 10am and did a couple hours of heimarbet in the morning. When Jeremy woke up (around 12), we picked up and headed from SoHo. Jeremy was doing some "research," going in and out of countless stores to see if they could potentially fit in at the new mall. This was my first experience in SoHo, and I was amazed at how much was going on down there. It seems like the hip fashion capital of NY at the least. Yet, high prices come with that territory. We're talking 80 bucks for a tee shirt in some places. Let's say "just browsing" was a well used line that day. I split off from Jeremy in the middle of our excursion to go explore the Lower East Side (LES) and hopefully find a spot to get some more work done. I'm well aware that the Jewish presence has faded significantly from the LES, but I didn't really understand fully until I was walking along the famed "Hester Street." The old movie titled "Hester Street" chronicles a Jew who is convinced that getting out of the LES "ghetto" is the way to make it in America, and I think to an extent he was right, but of course there is a lot of cultural baggage that gets left behind.  The picture below is the Hester street back in its Jewish heyday.

When I was down there, the street was very similar to the picture, save for the fact that everyone was asian and speaking chinese, not Jewish and speaking Yiddish. It was a cool experience nevertheless. I felt like I was in the heart of a midsize metropolis in China. After my walk down Hester, I found a coffee shop on Orchard street to do some work at. Jeremy met me there soon there after and we went and ate some dinner in little Italy. Little Italy was a very cool area. Looks just like it does in The Godfather. We ate outside at a restaurant, and it turns out that the people we were sitting next to were originally from St. Paul. a kleyne velt! We got to talking, and when the guy noticed we were only drinking water, he called the waiter over and ordered us 2 beers. Saying "You can't be in Little Italy and not drink a Peroni!" We walked all the way up to colombus circle after dinner, then took the unterban (subway), back to my apartment.

Zuntik:

Today was a langer tog as well, but very interesting. We goal was to go find some yiddishe kinder bicher (yiddish childrens books) to have for reading practice when I leave NY. We went into Williamsburg, Brooklyn around 12:15 and headed to Satmar Hasid land. These guys aren't just the "orthodox," their quite fanatic, and most of the kids don't know a lick of english. They have their own everything in the city, living in a sort of bubble away from the rest of society. Anyways, we walked into the first store we saw, I found some books, and that was that. After, we walked around Williamsburg, taking in the surreal sort of life that they live. I wasn't particularly overcome by the "yididshkeyt" in the city. Everyone pretty much kept to themselves, and there wasn't any sort of hustle-bustle atmosphere. Perhaps Crown Heights is different, where the HQ of the chabad-lubuvitch movement is located, since they are known for their outreach, and more vivacious style of life. We took the unterban back to manhattan, and made a stop in the LES at the one and only kossar's biali store. We both got garlic bialis, which of course were very good. I think the difference is because their always fresh.

Around 8pm, I grabbed a sandwich from a store down the street, and Jeremy went into midtown to meet a friend from high school who was in NY for the week.

That's the weekend rundown. mazl tov if you made it through to the end of this post.
Looking forward to a challenging but informative week!

zie gezunt!

moishe