In keeping with the theme of Chanukah, this past week involved eight firsts.#1: It all began with my first power outage. At around 9:00pm on Wednesday, moments before I was to leave my apartment for my second (yes, there were some seconds, too) tango lesson, boof! Lights out! I of course broke the number one rule of Chanukah—i.e. "and we do not have the permission to use them except to look at them"—by lighting every Chanukah candle I could get my hands on...but it made the whole miracle of light business that much more meaningful.
#2: My very first live karaoke performance! No, I didn't perform (there's a fine line between humor and ear-shattering noise). Seriously, people, you have not lived until you have heard M.C. Hammer's "You Can't Touch This" performed in a heavy Israeli accent by a prematurely balding bloke in tapered jeans and a striped polo shirt... the antithesis of Mr. Hammer, and I'm not just talking about the legwear. Breathtaking.
#3: My first hexalingual Shabbat dinner. Yes, hexa as in six. I was invited to light the last candle of Chanukah at the home of Jonathan and Helen, close family friends (and my surrogate Jerusalem parents!). Now, I knew I'd be among interesting company, but I didn't expect the United Nations! Seated around the table were: our hosts, the German cultural attaché to Israel, two French cultural representatives, their spouses, one eight-year-old boy (who alone accounted for three languages: French, English and Arabic -- thank goodness my cab driver had just taught me four different ways so say the word "lion" in Arabic so that I had something to show off to the brainy pipsqueak!), Jonathan's mother, who is 93 years old and may not hear well but is still the paragon of British wit and eloquence, and little old me. Between Helen's French-Hebrew-Italian hybrid and Jonathan's multilingual explanations of the food (an array as international as the guests, with everything from herring salad to salmon sashimi to chicken tikka masala), there were, indeed, six languages represented. Oh, I almost forgot, that dinner was responsible for first #4: Vacheron Mont d'Or cheese. OH. MY. LORD. The Frenchies almost wet their pants, they were so excited.
#5. My first Israeli date. The formula? Tango lesson #2 --> date #1. Won't elaborate just yet, except to say that the tapas restaurant we went to was also responsible for #6, my first Israeli mojito, which was delightful.
#7: My first time putting flowers in an empty pickle can. Nothing earth-shattering, but it put a smile on my face.
And finally, just today, #8: My first academic lecture in Hebrew! I met a lovely Israeli professor at a conference in Berlin in October, and he invited me to give my talk before the Yiddish literature department at Bar Ilan University. I didn't think twice about accepting, having assumed, of course, that he simply wanted me to repeat the lecture I gave in Berlin. The formal invitation that I received per email last week, however, informed me otherwise. As the Thai tourist industry puts it: "Same same...but different." Oy vavoy. Talking about Yiddish poetry in Hebrew was a challenge, for sure, but I did it! I highly doubt I'll be winning any awards for my oratorical skills, but I was proud of myself for standing up to the challenge. My audience was very warm and responsive. They numbered 12, so perhaps it's not a full notch on my academic belt, but a little scratch at least.
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