Freckles on my lip, freck freckles on my lip

I forgot to post this...without further adieu, my Rosh Hashanah post.

Two nights ago Rosalish and I went to our host family for Rosh Hashanah dinner. I'm really glad I went with her because I wanted to see how holidays were done here, plus I knew I would have fun going with her in particular. And, as expected, the dinner was very enlightening and Rosie and I were very...American. 

Once we actually sat down to the meal after waiting for the men to get home from synagogue, there were many toasts for a good, blessed, and sweet new year. Or so it sounded like...they weren't particularly zealous about translating what they were saying to English. There were loaves and loaves of homemade challah, which was absolutely delicious, and a bunch of little dishes with things like honey, apples, pomegranate seeds, etc... In Israel, they have a certain order in which you eat these things. First we dipped apples in honey, then we each ate a fig, then pomegranate seeds, then I forget the order of the rest, but it included carrots, a raw fish head (which I did not partake in), an eggplant/pumpkin/green bean ritual, and dipping the fresh bread in various sauces.

Then they brought out cooked fish and a bunch of appetizer-y things...only I didn't know they were appetizers so I made sure to fill up on them. That was not a good idea. By the time the next two courses came out, I could literally not put a single extra bite in my mouth. But the food was absolutely delicious. There was chicken and lamb and meat things with a cinnamon stick in it, and then spaghetti, potatoes, rice, and tons of veggies.

And then, after all this, and before the huge dessert spread they brought out, were sunflower seeds, nuts and beans. It's a surprise that Israelis stay so skinny if they eat like this all the time.

The main thing that was different between Rosh Hashanah here and Rosh Hashanah at home is that a.) here, they don't sing songs about dipping apples in honey, which I find ludicrous, and b.) they toast about 100 times throughout the meal. Also, they didn't know we were Jewish so they kept saying really obvious things like "Now we're saying a blessing over the wine," or "Now we thank god after the meal we just ate." And we were like...dudes, we know. They also kept propagandizing us like "I hope you see that Israelis are good people..." To which we also responded...dudes, we know.

But about them not being zealous to translate things into English...this meant that Rosie and I spent a good portion of the dinner talking mostly to each other, which as usual meant that hilarity and inappropriate behavior ensued. Like when the father was making a toast, but I didn't know and so I turned to Rosie and said "I have two freckles on my lip" and then rapped about having freckles on my lip (see the title of this post). There were a lot of similar moments that wouldn't be funny unless you were there, but at one point one of the Israelis next to us said "They laughing again??" Apparently banging the table from laughing so hard is not a Rosh Hashanah tradition in Israel...for some reason.

I'm really glad I went and the family was genuinely nice. Oh and the apartment was amazing...you walk from the apartment hallway through their door and immediately onto this beautiful rooftop with the most stunning breeze. I'm not sure that this is the family I'll want to be with for the remainder of the year, but I had a great time. I just hope we didn't give Americans too bad a name. But if we get a bad name for having a good time, then I'm fine with that.