Ahoj! from the Czech Republic

So apparently the Czech Republic is as fond of Pirate Speak as the CJL is on Pirate Shabbat, because the way they say hello is "ahoj" (pronounced "ahoy.") But that's only hearsay, as I haven't actually started taking Czech classes yet. And because I only got here about eight hours ago, this post is less about Prague and the Czech Republic than it is about the process of getting here.

Monday night I had a final. Tuesday night I had a final. Wednesday afternoon I flew. Between Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon, I had wonderful friends who came to hang out with me and who helped me pack my entire room into the two bags I brought to Prague and the ten boxes that went into Princeton storage (special thanks to Anna!). Those wonderful friends also placed lots of surprise notes throughout my suitcase, which were really nice to read upon unpacking in Prague.

This picture is for Mom, who always likes to have pictures of Abby With All Her Stuff. This time it's not so much! I don't even have the backpack on my front... Luckily for me, I got to take the train with Julie and Michal. And Anna met us on the Dinky to say goodbye and Dylan ran from Cap for a movie-esque departure hug. You guys are the best!

Indian vegetarian food on the plane? Yes! (It was delicious--TwoD, it feels like I never left...).

This should give you a good idea of how empty the plane was. There couldn't have been more than 70-100 people total on the plane, and it was one of those huge jumbo-jets. Despite taking over an entirely empty row for myself to lie down on, I couldn't really sleep, but on my second flight I crashed before we took off and woke up only when we landed. So I got 3.5 hours total of sleep in the past 57 hours...does that seem right? Entirely possible that my brain functions are not working probably after the lack of sleep.

My layover was in Oslo. No, I did not sign any peace treaties. This photo was taken around 8:30am, and it was surprisingly light outside. I didn't get to leave the airport, but I did get to hear a decent amount of spoken Norwegian. Strange language, I tell you. For a while I was scared I wasn't going to be able to get to my plane, because the gate was at the end of a strange glass-walled pathway, and the glass door separating it from the rest of the gates in the pathway was closed and nobody was there to open it. When I traced the whole path back and found an airport employee, someone had apparently just asked her about it (in Norwegian) because her response to me was: "Well, it seems this is becoming a problem," after which she turned and walked away. Luckily, someone came to open then gate about 20 minutes later.

At the Oslo airport, this is how employees get around. I saw two gate-checkers race each other down the glass-walled pathway, which was awesome. It's not just for getting around, though--see the newspapers? They're on a rack attached to that scooter, and the guy carries them that way! And you wonder why America is obese...

Okay, so no pictures of Prague/the Czech Republic yet, but hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to snap some (including of our apartment). We started orientation bright and early in the morning, and have got some Shabbat-y things planned for the evening.

Headed Down South

I've decided to revive the blog for the summer, as I'll be in Jackson, Mississippi, which someone told me "is more foreign than Israel." So for her sake--and yours--I'll be sharing tidbits from the South for the next two months.

First, a bit about where I am and why I'm here: I'm a history intern at the Institute of Southern Jewish Life which is, pretty much, exactly what it sounds like. There are four other interns (including a Rabbinical Intern) who will be here as well, but so far I'm the only one down here. The post-college Education Fellows are in town already, and I'm staying with a few of them at their place tonight. Our orientation starts tomorrow, which is when I'll have a better idea of what I'll be doing. The history department, under the guidance of Dr. Stuart Rockoff (who picked me up at the airport when I arrived), works to document the Jewish communities of the South--a very broadly-defined term such that it includes Oklahoma, the state that our work this summer will be concentrating on, I believe.

To get here, I flew (Southwest, of course) from Chicago to Houston, and from Houston to Jackson. There were no problems along the way, though it did seem a bit silly to go all the way west to Texas only to go back eastward to Jackson. It gives me an excuse to put a shout-out here to my favorite Texans, Nicole and Claire!

I could have just taken I-55 all the way south, though, straight from Chicago to Jackson!

(Oh, and the title of this blog is a reference to the Bob Dylan song, song by Old Crow Medicine Show, "Wagon Wheel")