The Last Few Days

So it wasn’t until after I landed that I realized there was one specific thing I hadn’t noticed before about the difference between American and European mentalities. While in JFK I started to get a headache, but didn’t have enough dollars left to pay for the overpriced Tylenol or Advil from the overpriced airport shops. After we landed in Amsterdam I was feeling full-on sick and started wandering around the airport shops looking for something for a headache. I couldn’t find anything in any shop so I asked a worker who directed me to first aid where they gave out medication for free.

My last shabbos in New York was in Brooklyn where I had a shabbos lunch at Moshe from Insanity Now, Serenity Later. Two nice write-ups were done by Child Ish and Frum Skeptic, also in attendance were The Babysitter and Moshe’s friend, Allen, who sometimes contributes to Moshe’s blog. It was an… interesting meal. I thought the cholent was fantastic, but I think Moshe needs to let go of his Russian foods a bit. You’re in America now, no need to still eat raw fish. It was a fantastic meal though, lasting almost six hours fueled by conversation and Moshe’s world class alcohol collection. I don’t want to drop too many hints, but I hope The Babysitter doesn’t drink like that when she’s watching the kids! (I’m kidding, she’s a teetotaler, I swear.)

The flight back was much better than the flight going. This time I got an aisle seat instead of being in the absolute middle seat in an cramped economy row of ten seats. I even got an empty seat next to me, two pillows! And this time they gave me my kosher meal instead of giving it to a random passenger. Because we were flying forward in time we were served breakfast only three hours after dinner. I got my kosher breakfast and put it next to me to save for later when I would actually be hungry. Then a minute later when they gave out the regular breakfasts they placed one in front of me as my tray was empty. I was about to give it back when I noticed it was just a muffin and juice box, and both had OU’s. Kinda makes you wonder what the point of the kosher breakfast is.

Once the screens in front of us were activated, about a half hour into the flight I decided to watch ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ first. It was a weird thing to watch, as it’s a decidedly adult movie, so I’m torn between laughing at the comedy and cringing because I knew my fifteen year old sister had seen it when it came out and now knowing what she’d seen made it uncomfortable to watch. After that I needed to clear my mind with some more family friendly stuff, so I watched the new Indiana Jones. I’d heard it wasn’t that good but I enjoyed it. Then again, I haven’t seen any of the original Indiana Jones movies, so maybe in comparison this is like Star Wars Episode One. It was odd at the beginning, because Harrison Ford is now old and looks it, so every time he gets knocked down or something and the camera pans to behind him, its too clear that its a stunt double as the real Harrison Ford would probably hurt his back falling like that these days. It was a fun adventure movie once it got going for good.

I could probably write more, but I’m still running on an American bodyclock so I am, as they say here, knackered.

Edit: Also, on September first my blog was listed on WordPresses “Growing Blogs” list. Number 38. Just didn’t have time to mention it while I was away, as I had to be quick with every post.