Life According to Lauren.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Sukkot 2.0

I have decided that Sukkot is my favorite holiday to celebrate in Israel.

Appreciating the simplicity of life. Showing gratitude for our blessings. Being in the great outdoors. Quality time with friends. An offensive amount of food. A reason for my family to say, "a week off from school? come home and get a job!"

What's not to love? :)

(Here's my post from last year's Sukkot)

Sukkot in apartments...

Sukkot at restaurants...

Our humble, cozy sukkah :) We even slept in it one night!

Putting up the sukkah. Sorry, Laura.

Making decorations! This is a paper chain made out of newspaper. Whatever, we're on a budget.

In other news, I look 12.

Roomies!

Pop quiz: Which self-portrait of my roommates did I make?

Friends from California invited us over for dinner in the sukkah!

Some of my favorite BCI little ones! I guess Aaron had too much Sukkot-fun.

Tait and Sarah... their first sukkot in Israel!

Is that YouTube sensation Andrew Lustig?

Yes, yes it is. He came to visit. As usual, he is making friends from all walks of life.

(PS- he's actually a YouTube sensation)

Our Talmud teacher, Leah (on the right), had our whole class over for a meal in her amazing sukkah.

She said that when her family bought the apartment, part of the appeal was the potential for building an awesome sukkah. I'd say, mission accomplished!

Family in Israel! My cousin Dan, on the left, and my Uncle Steve and Aunt Anita.

Dan is studying for the year, and his parents visited for their first time in Israel.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Picture Rewind

I was going through my camera, and realized that I never posted pictures from Kelly & Peter's visit to Israel in April! Silly me. Please excuse the fact that these are 6 months late.

Kelly is a dear friend from growing up, and Peter is her husband. Kelly accepted me as a friend back in the day, when I wore metallic white lip stick and thought that my Old Navy tech vest was my #1 stunner. It was great to reconnect with her in the Holy Land. We visited all over!

This is also a shame-less ploy to encourage other people in my life to visit Israel. You, too, can ride a camel and smear mud on your face! :)

Playing at the Dead Sea

Floatin'

Dead Sea giggling. After all these years, we still find simple things amusing :)

Kelly & Peter in the Golan Heights

Kelly on a camel! Look at that smile!

Sea of Galilee. Kelly & Peter loved the north!

Hostel in Tiberias. This was Kelly's first hostel experience :)
It was kind of like sleepovers when we were little, except with 4 additional strangers.

You can call me navigator. Or just Lauren is fine.

Kelly & Laura try to navigate the map.

Laura's feet, flying' free

Roomie and I in the Golan Heights. Please note the appetizing matzah on our plates.

Ba'hai Gardens in Haifa

Me and Laura in Caesarea, showing some Israel love

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Happy Bellies :)

With a week off from classes, and many meals and parties to go to, Na'omi 9 has been cooking up a storm! Here is a sampling of some of the dishes we made.

It was a real gift to have the time to prepare new foods and dishes, and even more of a gift to have the time to enjoy them with friends, both old and new.

No, I do not have a future in food photography.

Sesame-crusted tofu and mushrooms. Even the meat-eaters liked this one.

My roommate Emily is an amazing baker! This is a cheesecake with peaches on top.

Droooool.

Lentil-barley salad with feta.

This was the first Moosewood recipe that I tried. It was a hit!

Challah french toast casserole.

Leftovers never tasted so good.

Swiss-chard, mushroom, and feta crustless quiche. Yum!

Home-made granola. (Insert dirty hippy joke here).

My roommate Laura has been perfecting a challah recipe for the past few months. She graciously shared the recipe with me, and this was the batch we made together.

If this doesn't land me a nice Jewish boy, I don't know what will.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

The Distance Between Who We Are and Who We Want To Be

The morning before Yom Kippur began, I was on a mission to buy food for the "break fast" (specifically borekas and other assorted fattening pastries). The streets were pretty crowded as it seemed everyone had a last-minute mind like myself.

I walked past a woman who was holding a bag full of little toy animal crafts. She stopped me, and told me in Hebrew that she is selling these homemade animal crafts to buy books for her daughters to go to school.

While a compelling story, I said, "Sorry, not today," and kept going on my way. After all, I was on a mission.

As I bought my food and ran various other errands, I couldn't stop thinking of this encounter. My slightly-neurotic mind kept replaying the scenario, something like this:

Lauren, why didn't you stop and at least talk to her a little bit? But what if she was lying, and wasn't actually buying school books for her daughters? That's probably it. Maybe she didn't even make the crafts? Don't be a sucker. You were in a hurry, and you can't just help everyone that you see on the street. Besides, she didn't look like she needed help. You don't have a lot of spare money to give, anyway. Why are you even still thinking about this?

In the least likely of places, I was hit with my Yom Kippur "aha" moment, something I had spent weeks trying to cultivate.

Too often, I rush from place to place, not noticing what's around me. Too often, I focus on what I don't have, rather than the abundance that I do. And too often, I think too much with my over-active brain, rather than my heart.

I went back to the spot where I saw the woman, and purchased one of her tiny crafts. She told me all about her daughters, with a huge smile on her face.

The point of this story is not for you to say, "oh Lauren, what a do-gooder!" because more often than not, I walk past the person on the street. Also, the point is not to say that I should give to every person who needs, an obviously impossible charge.

But this was a unique opportunity to reflect on some resolutions for the new year: