cereal-instead-of-lunch (which I didn't get to have yet):

Hi, amych!

your being there is making her transition to the new place much friendlier.

That's what she's saying. She's a sweetheart.

Does she at least like her new job

She didn't start it yet. It's a job she wanted very much - she interviewed and tested for almost six months in order to get it - and it's supposed to be very good. So I hope it's going to be good for her, as well.

this has been a learning experience

O, I can imagine. Both one of my roommates and I prefered to clean the apartment for Passover last year (which is a lot of work, way more than the regular weekly cleaning, something like an annual "spring clean"), in order to be able to stay in the apartment during the week of the holiday. For me, it was mostly being able to have a room of my own, not invade my sister's for a whole week.

compelled me to exercise

Yay! Are you already in the stage that exercising has its own momentum?

I have a paper to write for both of my classes.

How can you have papers for classes which didn't start yet? Are they a continiation of the former semester's?

Oy. Was there a time with only one healthy adult? Also, are you all all-better now?

Yes, there was, thank goodness. Chris was sick first. Then Julia and Ben were slightly sick. Chris got better. Julia and Ben got better. My mother left for her sister's and promptly got sick (I think sicker than any of the rest of us). Ben relapsed and was sicker before. Scott got sick on New Year's Day. I got sick the day after.

It has its rules and the things you have to keep during it, but they're more relaxed than in any other holiday. And there are eight days of it, each exactly as imposrtant as any other (as opposed to one or two holiday-er days, as it usually is in the longer ones), so you can get to spend it in all sorts of ways - with family, with friends, different groups of friends, and even curled up with a book (though, this year, I didn't have enough time to get that). The very best holiday.

That's how all holidays should be, I think. The kids learned the Dreidel Song in their school music class. They also learned silly verses to it, such as: Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of ice. It melted when I spun it, which wasn't very nice. Chris and Julia both got dreidels in school too, so they had fun playing with it.

The holidays were hectic as my parents have been here visiting. I haven't spent so much uninterrupted time with them as an adult ever. The last time I saw both of them together, we were in a forest in Wyoming and Lori and I ran away after 3 days. So this has been a learning experience.

I know I need my alone time. My mother has been staying with us since about October. She's been great, and it's gone pretty well, but I found myself staying up longer, just to be alone for a little while. She doesn't bug me when she is here either, so I think it's just a me-thing.

Hi Nilly! I'm excited for you to have your cousin nearby -- and think of it this way: your being there is making her transition to the new place much friendlier.

Yes, what amy said.

Are you already in the stage that exercising has its own momentum?

HA! no. I'm queen of inertia. exercise never has momentum for me. What does work is for me to go every day and do the thing I plan on doing without navel gazing. So taking a day off is usually a bad thing. I had planned on taking today off, but I think I will either ride my bike or just go to a 7:30 class even though I said I wouldn't because going every day appeals to my obsessive nature.

How can you have papers for classes which didn't start yet? Are they a continiation of the former semester's?

All of the classes I've had so far have advanced reading we need to complete before the first class. We get the syllabi early enough that they assign reading and writing before the class begins. Crazy, huh?

I got sick the day after

And how are you now?

Were the kids upset that they were sick during a vacation, missing on fun instead of school?

reidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of ice. It melted when I spun it, which wasn't very nice

Oh, that's a funny one. I'm trying to translate it in my head back to Hebrew.

I found myself staying up longer, just to be alone for a little while

I think it doesn't say anything bad about the people around you. I think it's less about not-wanting-to-be-with-them and more about I-need-some-time-with-only-myself. At least, that's how it is for me.

I remember that last year, before coming to the USA, I was worried that one of my generous hosts will be deprived of just that sort of time. Not because they didn't want to have me, but because they needed to have their privacy.

to go every day

Wow, every single day? Go you!

Crazy, huh?

Yup. Especially with the writing. If it's something you can do with just the reading, none of the actual listening-to-the-lecturer stuff, it feels strange to me. There has to be something extra that you get during the class, which you (not personally, a general "you") can't do on your own. Otherwise, why notjust buy a book and read it?

why notjust buy a book and read it?

Well, yes. I totally agree with that. But, I think that they would like us to be prepared with some reading and have thought about the reading as demonstrated with writing so that class discussions can be discussiony and not just lectures.

Yet, totally irksome.

so that class discussions can be discussiony and not just lectures.

In one of the "history and philosophy of science" classes I took last year, most of the work was reading. The first lesson was an introduction, and in each lesson afterwards one of the students had to prepare a sort-of talk/points for discussion about the assigned reading. So the professor made sure we did the reading, but in a way that was supposed to open a discussion. That made sense, to me. But yours is, indeed, irksome.

What are the classes about?

[Edit: 7*6=42.]

That's crazy. I don't usually even buy books until after the first class! Of course, we usually can't get a fully up-to-date syllabus until then, either.

I can't believe how much I hate getting up for work every day. And I hate being late, when it's not on purpose -- my commute here usually takes around 45 minutes, except today it took an hour. I was totally going to be on time! But no. At least no one else is really here yet, either. Still.

I have one class on the Silk Road, which is totally fascinating to me. Especially now that I'm reading and since i've travelled to Central Asia and would love to go back.

The other class is Cervantes. Not just Don Quixote, but his world and his works' place in ours.

I don't mind the papers because they are each only 2 pages and therefore they would each take about 30 minutes to knock out. If only I would close my browser window and focus. Which I will do later today. I think. They aren't due for a couple of weeks so I have time. But if I finish them, then I can go play next week with little guilt and I can continue reading ahead which is my current plan.

That's crazy. I don't usually even buy books until after the first class

I even got by in a few classes without buying the books at all.

Jesse and Nilly, the other ish is that we only have 6 class meetings all semester so the first class can't be an introductiony thing. It has to be an actual productive class. My friend who was working on a doctorate in history tells me that it was SOP in his classes too though, so maybe it's a fuzzyheaded humanities thing?