Shabbat

This morning I attended a nice Shabbat service at the Grand Choral synagogue, which is around 2 blocks away. It's beautiful inside, with newly painted pale yellow walls, a huge chandelier, and a large Ark with three Torahs locked up with a parking garage gate. Most of the nusach (tunes) was pretty familiar, but there was a choir in the rear and the cantor's voice really filled the vast space inside. He looked (and sounded) like Pavarotti. Chabad pretty much runs the show there, but most of the congregation was in the 60+ generation and seemed to divest itself from actually taking an active role in the activities. I guess there's a free meal at the end so that's why people come (but that's not different from a lot of places though). The rabbi gave me an Aliyah, which was very nice.

I had lunch this afternoon at the home of Menachem Lepkivker who is the head of the JDC here in St. Petersburg. The cholent was excellent, preceded by a whole plethora of different salads, most of them cabbage-based. I guess this is something i'm going to have to get used to. His family lives in a beautiful apartment (with a picture of the Rebbe inside, of course) right off of Nevsky Prospekt (the main drag). His son at home was around 8 years old, speaks fluent hebrew and russian and even a couple words in English.

I've made another new discovery about my host babushka. Not only was she a nanny for orthodox families in Israel, but one of them happened to be in Kiryat Arbeh in the territories. She showed me two entire albums of her 5 years in Israel. After getting an earful of Russian explaining them all, I was ready to take a nap.

My First Night in St. Petersburg

After a long long flight and a 3 hour wait in what must have been the shabbiest part of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport I have arrived at my host family's house in St. Petersburg. I live on Ulitza Dekabristov in pretty much the heart of the city, right near the Mariinsky Ballet (formerly the Kirov Ballet) and Theater Square. This summer I'll be taking 4 classes a day at St. Petersburg State University.

My host family is a babushka probably in her 50s or 60s, her son, and his wife. The first hour and a half was spent trying to get my internet connection up and running, and now it finally seems to be working great. I had some potatoes and cole slaw for dinner, along with a granola bar and a PB&J sandwich. Natalya, the babushka, spent 5 years in Israel as a nanny for an orthodox family so by the time I got here she had separated the silverware into milchig and fleishig for me. It was really nice of her. I also made it to the market down the street where they have lots of things that I hope to try out based solely on the picture on their labels.

Today I'm going to the Choral synagoge, which was recently restored a couple years ago, to have lunch with the two JDC (http://www.jdc.org/) volunteers here in the city and with their boss. It should be interesting. I hope to help them out with leading a discussion group after they leave in 2 weeks, and I think it'll be a good way to meet people here in the city.

DISCLAIMER: This is the first time I've ever tried this blogging thing, so bear with me as I find my 'voice'.

My first post

This is my first post. I am in Paris. In usual form I have found my way into a Swiss Air business lounge and have highjacked their internet connection.