Wishing you a wonderful Shabbos!

We are doing well here, Shabbos-wise, all things considered. This is due in no small part to me waking up in the wee hours of the morning to start the kugel and the soup. Mendel was absolutely thrilled to have fresh kugel for breakfast. I just hope there is some left for Shabbos. I made two pies, which Mendel was eying eagerly. I hope they are still around when I get back to the house. As far as guests - not really sure yet. As usual.

I misplaced (doesn't that word sound so much better than lost?) my registration card, which one recieves upon setting foot on the holy soil of Russia, and is supposed to hold on to until departure. Oddly enough, I have everyone else's cards, and our papers that we received about registering our presence in Vladivostok.

So, of course, there is a procedure to be followed when one loses a registration card. It must be reported within three days, and a new card can be obtained at that time. So today, I went with our secretary to the immigration offices to obtain a new card. It was a relatively painless procedure, although we did get yelled at by various secretaries, as per the norm.

I am now the proud owner of a new registration card. That means that I should have no problems leaving the country next Wednesday. Please G-d.

Have a great Shabbos!

Of Hopes and Efforts

So, as everyone knows by now, the judge, a sour faced, middle aged woman, ruled against us. Yisroel was kicked out of the country, and we need to pay a fine. But he doesn't need to leave yet. She didn't even take out arguemnets of witnesses into account. So we are appealing, and praying really hard.

It's really strange - on one hand, we dont know if we will be here in a few more weeks. On the other hand, we are continuing to do what we came here to do. Which means that we are hosting lots of people, for meetings and chassidic gatherings and Shabbos meals and stuff. Catered by yours truly. And I am working hard on our next Women's Club, scheduled for February 2nd. English school is growing. The kids are learning tons ofEnglish, and about Judaism too, and I am thrilled to be teaching again. I forgot how much I loved teaching. Friday brought us a huge snowstorm, which Vladivostok was entirely unprepared for. So we had a small crowd in the synagogue on Shabbos. I was the only women, which was pretty lonely. But there were 6 men, and they really got into it. Lots of dancing and singing. Joy breaks through all boundries, as the chassidic saying goes. They want to organize a miyan for next week.

We are planning a big community gathering for next Sunday. We are going to ask people to take on mitzvos, in the merit of which, we hope, the court decision will be reversed.

It should be a busy week.

Week(s) in Review

Quick one, because I got to get home and make dinner.

1. We spent last Shabbos in Birobidzhan. Really fun trip. We flew to Khabarovsk, and then drove to Birobidzhan, usually a 2.5 hour ride, but, due to snow and icy weather, and lack of street cleaning and a car without snow wheels, it took us 5.5 hours. Then we raced to get dressed and go the bar mitzva we went in for. The have a beautiful Jewish museum there, made by the rabbi and is wife. (Well, mostly his wife who is an amazing artist.) Maybe some other day I'll post pictures.

2. I attended synagogue this past Shabbos. I've been going lately, but this week I wasn't going to, becuase only one woman shows up, and she was out of town this week. But then I went. And two ladies came! And one of then was youngish! And close to a minyan of men. And good food, including chicken soup. (Did I ever mention that our chicken came for Shabbos? We are now chicken-eating people again, haivng gone for three months without)

3. We had guests over Shabbos day - first time in a while. It was a bit draining, but really nice.

4. English school is going well. The kids really like it. I have discovered that, despite my fears, I have not forgotton how to teach. We are searching for a new place to hold it, as it is difficult to do it my living room, and another teacher.

5. Yesterday, we hosted out women's club for Tu B'shvat. A doctor came and spoke about spices. Espcially which ones are good for health, and which ones are not. Pretty boring for me, since I didn't really understand it, but the ladies really enjoyed. We sold some old copies of Mir Evreiski Zhenshina, a Russian Jewish magazine for women. So some people read the magazine during the doctor's speech, but they insisted that they enjoyed anyway. About 15 people showed up. Then we played a fun game. And everyone's really excited about our next club, which is in 3 weeks! Time to get cracking on that.

6. Some great friends of ours are making some problems for us, and insisting that we have an improper visa. The court case is on Wednesday, 3 PM. Pray for us.

A quick shout out

Hi, still here. Been really busy, with, oh, all sorts of things. Like my two adorable and very time consuming kids. And a new English club that we started, taking place every Sunday, and taught by the most qualified teacher in town (yup, you got it, that's me). And working on our ever growing and more successful (Thank G-d!) women's club. And making bread. And cutting up chicken, because, hooray, our chicken arrived from Moscow! 300 kilos of it! And writing articles, in the hope of making lots of money and winning a trip to New York for the International Shluchos Convention.

So that's what's going on with me.

In the synagogue now came to prepare for English class. I'll be getting home 1/2 hour before Shabbos, and I am about half-cooked there. Meaning, I still need to take a shower and cook about 4 hours worth of things.

So wishing you a very wonderful, happy, successful Shabbos!

The White Stuff

It snowed here for the first time yesterday.

I am trying to figure out why it never snows in Vladivostok. I don't understand it, because in the spring there is so much precipitation here, that it rains almost every day. I have asked everyone, from my babysitter to my friends to our secretary to the ladies at my women's club. The only answer I received was that it has something to do with the climate here and the geographical location. Then again, this answer was in Russian, so I may have not got it all.

So when it snowed, my babysitter and I agreed that it was especially for me.

They don't bother to plow the streets here. 2 inches of snow get driven over by thousands of cars, or walked on by hundred of feet, depending on the location. That flattens them down to just a thin layer of really slippery snow.

Since it doesn't snow that often here, the event gets blown out of proportion when it does. We began our STARS group again on Sunday, which was well recieved and decently attended despite the weather.

Mendel and I had blast with the snow today I showed him how to make snow angels, and I'm lucky saw, because the Russians are terrified of anything resembling cold. The snow wasn't wet enough to make snowballs, though.

A success!

Thursday was my Women's Club. That is not a grammatical mistake. My entire Thursday centered and revolved around my club, which was, thank G-d an unqualified success.

Plenty of people showed up - in fact, given that the event took place in my living room, I don't think we could have handled more. The atmosphere was just amazing, really warm and bonding. We learned about (drum roll here) mezuzah (never would have guessed, huh?) which was, apparently inspiring enough for 3 women to take out their wallets and purchase mezuzahs for their home. We gave charity and prayed for the Jewish people in Israel, and the soldiers fighting for them. And then we sculpted. That was really awesome. This sculptor is a big professional (despite her lack of professionalism as evidenced by taking on a lecture that was supposed to happen the same time as my club, forcing us to push off the club for an hour, and then nevertheless arriving VERY late) whose pieces are found in museums. More importantly, she knows how to teach, so he showed us how to sculpt mezuzah cases, gave lots of tips and advice, and then sat back and let the ladies have fun. I was the bad student. I was really busy talking to everyone, that I missed all the instructions. Then I had to get up, and say goodbye as the first people left, then take care of my kids . . . My mezuzah case came out ok considering all the mediating factors.

But the program was REALLY successful, and everyone is talking about how they can't wait for the next one (which is, thank G-d, a month away).

My only regret is that our camera went missing in action, and I have no pictures to prove to you just how amazing it really was. You'll have to take my word for it on this one.

Women's Club Hopes and Plans

Mezuza is the theme for Teves/January.

Unfortunately, at the last minute, we decided to change the date, because it turns out that on January the 11th, the original date,will be a 'working Sunday'.

Working Sundays are a Russian phenomenon. If there were many vacation days in a said week, Sunday, or worse, Saturday, are turned into working days, and EVERYONE goes to work or school.

So we changed the date to Thursday, which is, gulp, tomorrow.

But this is the thing. We have an awesome activity. We are sculpting mezuza covers at a sculpting place with a famous and professional sculpter.

The only thing is that no one knows about it yet. And we are charging for it. So we will see.

Hope to report on here in a few day with really awesome news about how successful the program was.

The neat looking flyer above was designed by Der Bahelfer.