Rosh Hashanah and spending money

So tonight we're all having Rosh Hashanah at Amanda's house. She's making noodle kugel, and Melissa and Ariel are making latkes, and we might also have honey cake. We will eat apples and honey. There will be prayers, candles, and nice clothes. Should be a good time. I was wishing I knew more about the Jewish new year so I could explain it to my host family, but maybe after tonight I will. In a slightly related vein, Amanda told me today that her family puts an orange on their seder plate because at some point some rabbi apparently said, scoffingly, "A woman should be on the bimeh like an orange should be on the seder plate." I thought that was cool. (Profound apologies to anyone who knows my hebrew spelling is completely wrong... I'm just guessing here.)
Today I spent an awful lot of money. Probably $40 American at least. I bought books though, with part of this huge fortune! I'm excited. I got the first Harry Potter in Spanish, and a book of short stories about single women, including works by Flannery O'Connor, Oscar Wilde, and Chekhov. I'm over halfway through the 800-page Mario Vargas Llosa book I started before I left, and loving it now that I no longer bother to dash to the dictionary every other second, and instead just kind of ignore any words that I don't know. Yay for reading in foreign languages for fun.
Katie Harris passed along some really encouraging news today: apparently a group of New England states is banding together to try and bring things into compliance with the Kyoto protocol, in valiant disagreement with our lovely government. Way to go, New England. I knew there was a reason I loved being there.
Tomorrow morning at the godforsaken hour of 5:30, which I normally only see if I have practice (and it's godforsaken then too, believe me), we are getting on a bus to go to the Amazon jungle, to Manu national park. Sure to be another mind-blowing, beautiful, fascinating trip. I can promise a lengthy update when we return.
Be healthy!
- Emma