lost in translation

its 1am and i should be in bed, i have class at 8 tomorrow and have obviously not yet done the reading or homework. thats neither here nor there. 

 

this weekend was great, cooked a really fun shabbat/chanukkah dinner on friday night for some of my friends and roommates, and enjoyed the greatness of haifa. the festival on saturday was AWESOME, i hope to go back this weekend too, if im in haifa. and sunday (christmas eve) im planning to go to nazareth for a christmas parade and mass!

 

speaking of which, christmas in israel is great. for so long we were missing tacky lights and santa hats, and then we started hanging out in the arab christian neighborhoods and felt right at home again...except that the loud christmas music ocming out of all the stores is in arabic...but its still the same tunes... jingle bells, silent night, the whole shot...rewritten in arabic. sort of bizarre, but i really want those cds. i like christmas music, and i like arabic...so really, its a win-win.

 

the other weird translated song i encountered was today, during the chanukkah party at the shelter.  our shelter hosted the women and children from another shelter in haifa for a big chanukkah party which included lots of sufganiot and snacks, presents for the kids, and a goofy song-leader who really captured all the kids attention and was great. i mean, a total doof, but they loved it.  before he started playing all kinds of hanukkah songs, the cd he turned on to get the crowd warmed up sounded strangely familiar...in fact, it was bonnie tylers "holding out for a hero" from the footloose (and shrek 2) soundtrack... well while i was amused at recognizng the opening bars of the song and thinking it was a strange choice for a kids chanukkah party, i was astounded when the singer began...because it was in herew.  mexican food they dont have, but a hebrew translation of "holding out for a hero" is easily accessible to any average joe. amazing. i love israel.

 

the other odd translation semi-related instance was when carmella, one of the house mothers at the shelter, gave me a lift part of my way back to the university today (they call hitch-hiking and giving people rides "tremps"... i dont know why. but if she wanted to drive me 3/4 of the way back instead of waiting forever for a bus, ill take it). anyway, i was in the car with carmella, her husband, and her adorable 2 year old grandson, shlomi, whose hebrew is completely unintelligible.  shlomi started singing chanukkah songs, but didnt know any of the words, so carmella sang loudly with him, to teach him the words. one of the songs, the way i have always known it gorwing up, has a part wher eit says "bla bla bla bla bla ness gadol haya sham" and carries on. ness gadol haya sham means "a great miracle happened there" and that is what is written on dreidels in america/everywhere but israel. (well, the initials for that phrase are on the dreidel). anyway, thats how ive always known it. carmella was singing to her grandson and had a whole differnt set of "bla bla bla"s before she got to the "ness gadol haya PO" - a great miracle happened HERE. the dreidels in israel have a differnt last letter than everywhere else in the world...the great miracle happened HERE. while i was here last year over chanukkah, and even own a dreidel that has the PO (here) on it, it didnt really click until this little 2 year old was learning the song.... and they had no idea that everywhere else in the world we sing "ness gadol haya sham"... one of those "israel moments"

 

oh and i got 4 avocados for 7 shekel...which is about $1.70

 

i love israel. but dont worry, im still excited to come back :-)

 

happy chanukkah everyone!!!

-am

 

ps- many pictures were taken this weekend. MANY. austen and tamar made a menorah (well, a chanukkiah) out of a sweet potato. i made latkes from scratch. there are pictures. i dotn have them yet, but when i do... you will see them.