It's gonna be a soupy winter

I've been having a lot of dreams lately about being home and not wanting to go back to college, being in college and not wanting to graduate, having already graduated and going home. That sort of thing. This is officially the longest I've gone without going home. Wednesday will mark 4 months.

Saturday afternoon was a leisurely one. Max and I made tomato soup ... from scratch! I wrote a few letters to friends, and took a Shabbos nap which I think was more a product of the cold weather than of me actually being tired. Needing to get out of the house, Max and I borrowed our neighbor's dog Mishke and took her for a long and cold walk to the park. We had a big feast with our neighbors (Darja and Yishai) ... soup from our kitchen and an eggy casserole thing from theirs (it was more delicious than it sounds here).

Sunday morning I had a meeting with Presentense to satisfy my curiosity. They have a beautiful space, but I'm not 100% sure I understand what they do. As far as I can tell, Presentense is an umbrella organization which is attempting to equip the next generation of Jewish leaders and innovators with the tools and ideas and community they need to launch and develop initiatives that will inspire the global Jewish community and change the world. They have a summer social entrepreneurship workshop in Jerusalem which they are hoping to expand to a year-long program around the world, a fairly impressive magazine with a global circulation, and lots of programs aimed at creating a community of like-minded people. There are lots of ways I could get involved if I want to, but I'm really struggling to decide what I want the next few months of my life here to look like.

I had lunch at Tal Bagels with Max (we went because they have a Tav Chevrati!) and then scurried off to meeting #2 at the AACI-JELLY. In non-acronym speak, that's the Association of Americans and Canadiens in Israel - Jerusalem English Language Library for Youth. The meeting was a little bit of a disappointment. I had hoped I would be able to convince them to let me initiate some great programs, reminiscent of my One Book, One People days, but the library is run by several older, British ladies who are a content in their ways, albeit very nice. However, they have a lovely English language library for children which is in desperate need of some loving tape and I'm going to help them repair books. I may also be doing a story-hour at a library a little farther away. It's not what I want as my main volunteer activity, but I'm excited about getting to spend a few hours a week holed up with children's book. (I'm looking at it as research for the many children's books I will someday read and the few I might write.)

And then I did laundry. I jogged around the park while my clothes were washing, and read Portnoy's Complaint (which is beginning to feel repetitive) while they dried and watched an episode of Friends while I folded.

And now it's Monday morning. I just got an email back from a woman at A.H.A.V.A., which is an organization that provides quality English education to students in peripheral areas in Israel. I was so excited when I found the organization and when I received the response, but I'm feeling a little hesitant now. I did a little more research and realized that the students that AHAVA reaches, as of now, are only in settlements. I am very opposed to settlements, and I'm not sure how to reconcile that with AHAVA's work. It's not like I think that children in settlements don't deserve a good education. In fact, all my college-learning tells me that the more education they get and the more English skills they acquire, the less likely they are to have extremist views. But there's something about it that doesn't sit right with me and I don't know what to do about it.