Realization 1/2.5

I've had two and a half realizations over the last couple of weeks.
The first is how incredibly secular the city of Haifa is.  It's not that no one warned me before I came here; I just didn't believe what I considered to be unwarranted pessimism.  Suffice it to say that you Negative Nancies were right.  This time.
Please don't misunderstand me, though: I love Haifa.  It's big enough that it feels free, but it's small enough that it's not overwhelming.  It's comfortably cosmopolitan, and there are enough cozy cafés here for me to feel more than content (for any who don't yet know, my ideal afternoon consists of sitting in a quiet café in the middle of a bustling city, book in hand, cappuccino at lips).  The bus system is user-friendly, there is a marvelous selection of falafel shops, and the store owners have more patience with Hebrew-attempting Americans than their counterparts do in busier cities.  And the fact that it is so secular means that the buses run on Saturdays, an important ingredient in many weekend plans.
Still, though, I won't hide my surprise at the apparent lack of any religious Jewish life on the University of Haifa campus.  Rumor has it there is an orthodox shull a long walk away, and a conservative one slightly closer, but so far almost no one on my program has expressed any great interest in making the journey.  It's strange to find myself on a secular program in the Holy Land.
I did have one very meaningful Shabbat experience this weekend.  My friends and I decided to make a potluck Shabbat dinner: the boys made pasta (two kinds!), Abby made quinoa, Orli made salad, Cayla made tuna, someone made veggie schnitzel, Doreen brought ice cream, I can't remember the rest, and I made rice and brought the siddur.  Jeremy made kiddush, I made motzi, and we all dug in.  After dinner, we attempted some shabbat zmirot (I think it's safe to say it was the thought that counted there).  There were a number of special things about that night: it was my first time this trip to open my siddur (in my mind, praying in Israel is always something extra special); the spontaneous decision to hold a shabbos dinner--despite the secular environment, the less-than-optimal kitchen set-ups (double hot plates with plates that seem to shirk heat at all costs), the need to walk our dishes down numerous flights of stairs, the lack of anyone willing or able to cook a meat dish--succeeded against all odds; a group of young Jews, all from different religious backgrounds, came together to perform this ancient Jewish tradition, unasked.  There's something beautiful and humbling in that.  I hope that we hold more such dinners over the course of the coming semester.

Realization number two will come later--it's already 1:10 in the a.m., and Ulpan's bright and early as always.
Tootles