Monthly Archives: May 2011

Opening Day

Occupation: Student at the University of Maryland
Performance Date: April 28th, 2011

“The sights and sounds of summer are approaching, and with them come hot, long days and more lacrosse jersey-clad people than you could have possibly known existed. The warm spring air has lazily descended on our lovely campus, and accompanying this seasonal change is my favorite day of the spring semester. Not only is it my favorite day, it is also one of the great traditions at this university: the opening of the outdoor pool on Maryland Day. It is a glorious day, when students from across the campus and beyond come to unwind around and in the shimmering pool.

It is almost as if students hear a voice calling their names, telling them to drop everything and come bask by the chlorinated water. Students abandon their books, researchers leave their lab coats and goggles in the lab, athletes ditch their pads and sticks, and homework assignments are brought to be completed at the pool on North Campus at the Eppley Recreation Center.

Seeing the pool on a spring day is a pretty amazing sight. At any given moment you can see people doing crazy acrobatics on the diving board, more girls in bikinis than Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit edition and me throwing down dunks at the pool basketball hoop on unsuspecting defenders. There is music pumping from the speakers as friends reunite in the water, new friends are made and crushes develop. The pool reaches capacity and, soon enough, a line forms. The unlucky outsiders are left with the same feeling of injustice as the Butabi brothers had while getting rejected from nightclub after nightclub in A Night at the Roxbury.”

Since the University of Maryland is a cold climate most of the year the chance to lay by the pool must be very exciting for the college students.  This tradition must symbolize the start of summer and more outdoor activities.  It is also clearly a social activity that brings people together who might not have mingled together otherwise.  Perhaps this is a chance to spark new love or create new friends with a different mix of people.

This article was written by Cory Kutcher and can be found in the link below:

http://www.diamondbackonline.com/opinion/opening-day-a-wet-and-wild-tradition-1.2210715

Israeli 70’s Slang

Nationality: Israeli
Age: 56
Occupation: Dentist
Residence: Irvine, CA
Performance Date: December 15th 2010
Primary Language: Hebrew
Language: English

Old and New Versions of Street Signs

Lehizdangef- ???????

/Leh HEE zdaan gef/

To Dizengoff oneself- to stroll down Dizengoff street

My mother, Aviva, told me about this slang, in one of our visits to our home country, Israel.

Aviva was born in Tel-Aviv, Israel, and is the 7th generation Israeli from her mother’s side. My mother grew up in Israel and had immigrated to America in the last couple of years.

As any other Israeli girl, who lived in the vicinity of Tel-Aviv, and born in the city itself, I was very familiar with Dizengoff Street, a major street in the central part of Tel-Aviv, named after the first mayor. I used to spend time in the mall that is located there, looking at the new Israeli designers’ boutiques that seem to multiply towards the northern part of the street, and eating Cholent on Shabbat in “Batia” (/But yah/), the best cholent restaurant in town.  The street is old, never had it occurred to me that it is more than just an old street in the old part of the city.

This changed when we paid the desired visit to “Batia” restaurant while visiting Israel this past year. After we were done with the heavy dish, my mother told us, in Hebrew –“Bo Nelech Lehizdangef” (Let’s go Lehizdangef). As a girl born in the 90s, I started laughing and complimented my mother for her lingual creativity, only to learn that this was definitely not the case. And this is what my mother told me:

“When I was a teenager, most of the social life of my age group was about spending time together, either at someone’s house or strolling together. The most exciting street to walk was Dizengoff Street in Tel-Aviv, which was back then considered the Champs-Elysees of Tel-Aviv. It was a long, quite wide street, with many shops, boutiques, and popular restaurants and coffee shops, and also close enough to the beach. Everyone strolled down this street; hence it was the “right” place to be seen in, and a good one to meet new people. It actually became an “institution” and so popular it was that strolling down Dizengoff Street created a verb in the spoken Hebrew- Lehizdangef. The street was so popular, that in 1979, a movie called “Dizengoff 99” was created, which described life around this famous street. During the years, starting at the 70s, the street gradually lost its popularity to the modern parts that started developing in Tel-Aviv, but the verb still exists, and is also used to describe strolling down the streets in Tel-Aviv, mainly for window shopping and coffee drinking.“

The story fascinated me, as I love to hear tales about the way Israel was in the past, as a new developing country. It seems to me that this period, when people really spent time together not via facebook, and enjoyed a more genuine way of social life, was a much happier one.

Charoses

Residence: Illinois, USA
Performance Date: April 26th, 2011

“While the Haggadah, the symbolic foods of the meal and seder plate remain fairly consistent (and have for hundreds of years), the main course and side dishes are based on family traditions and preferences.

Take, for example, one side dish that we ate—charoses. It symbolically represents the mortar the Israelites used to bond bricks when they were slaves. But that’s where the symbolism ends and family tradition comes in. My friend’s version had apples, golden raisins, honey and cinnamon. Another guest of the meal brought charoses made with mango and cranberries. Both were absolutely delicious. Many versions include other fruits, walnuts or almonds.”

Since chorses represents the mortar that the ancient Israelites used to make the pyramids in the story of Passover, the food can be made of any stable.  While fruits and nuts are common, the type of fruits and nuts used usually reflect the most popular fruits and nuts in a given area.  The guest who brought charoses made from mango probably comes from a tropical place where mangoes are a staple fruit in most people’s diets.  The author is from Illinois so apples, golden raisins, honey and cinnamon must be common.

This article was written by Kristin McCann and can be found in the link below:

http://downersgrove.patch.com/articles/a-taste-for-tradition

French Proverb

Nationality: French
Age: 20
Occupation: Civil/Environmental Engineering Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: March 22, 2011
Primary Language: French
Language: English, German

“Loin des yeux, près du coeur.”

“Far from the eyes, close to the heart.”

Helene goes to school at the University of Southern California.  She is a Civil/ Environmental Engineering student and is diligently working towards her bachelor’s degree.  She is considering going to law school after she graduates in order to ultimately practice environmental law.

Helene told me that this proverb is equivalent to the American proverb: “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”  Helene was born and raised in France with her with her sister and her mother; her father currently lives in Toronto, Canada.  She came to America for the first time in 2008 when she was moving into her dorm room at USC in Los Angeles, CA.  She says that this proverb is very popular in France, and she does not remember exactly where she heard it from.  She believes she was around ten when she first heard this proverb, but does not remember the context in which it was first said.  Helene lives in Los Angeles away from her sister and mother in France and father in Canada.

Helene says that often, when she thinks of her sister and family, she thinks of this proverb.  She says that what it means to her is that even though she is away from her family and does not see them even nearly as often as she would like, her sister and family are still very present in her thoughts and that she holds them dear in her heart.  The phrase is often said in circumstances where one is forced to be separated from those he or she loves due to circumstances out of their control.  It is used to comfort and as a reminder that though they are far apart, their bond and love for each other cannot be broken or deteriorated.

While talking to Helene about this proverb, I found out that she and her sister both believe this proverb and both use it to explain their current situation.  They both know that no matter how far apart they are from each other, they will never love each other less and that their bond will only grow stronger with distance.  Personally, I both agree and disagree with her interpretation of the proverb.  She says that the French proverb is equivalent to the American proverb: “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”  I feel like this is true in certain circumstances.  I have first-handedly witnessed and experienced both instances that either prove this proverb true or subvert it.  I feel as though if two love each other enough or are connected to each other and share enough history together, this proverb is very true.  In other situations, I believe that the opposite is true, which is related to the proverb: “Out of sight; out of mind.” Distance between two people who do not have enough connecting them will ultimately result in the deterioration of the relationship. Unless there is history that bonds the people together, there will be nothing to hold the relationship together.

Indian Festival

Nationality: Indian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student at Johns Hopkins University
Residence: Nashville, Tennessee
Performance Date: March 15th, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic, B?ngl?, Hindi, Spanish

“Most people don’t know the mythological reasons of why Holi is celebrated, and only know that it’s the “Festival of Spring.” It’s a holiday in India that takes place usually around April. And basically everyone comes out in the streets to celebrate by wearing white and then throwing colored powder/ colored water on each other, some even bring water guns, to celebrate the arrival of spring. I’ve basically been celebrating it all my life. Personally it has no religious significance. It’s like Halloween, not that religious and mostly just for fun… I don’t know if that analogy makes sense. I guess I do connect it to my childhood, but other than that it has no great significance (nothing like Christmas or Easter, or other major Indian holidays like Diwali). It’s just ridiculously fun. You guys should celebrate it at USC.”

I had the pleasure of hearing of such festivities from Rohini when she came to visit one of my close friends here, who is also Indian, during Spring Break. Though Rohini lives in Tennessee, and goes to college in Maryland, she does not neglect these Indian traditions. Since Rohini did not know the real significance or any history of the festival I went and searched for information about it online, where I came across the holifestival.org site. This site was made in order to educate people about Holi festivals as well as other traditions that follow with the Holi festival such as recipes and other festivals. The fact that there exists an online website for the festival, along with Rohini’s explanation that it is celebrated for enjoyment mostly and that teens do not really know the background of it, makes me think that this festival has become very popular around the world and perhaps much more commercialized than originally intended. According to the website the Holi Festival was originally named Holika and has a religious aspect to it. The site supports my first impression that said the festival has changed in meaning over the years and apparently in the early years it was “special rite performed by married women for the happiness and well-being of their families and the full moon (Raka) was worshiped.” To add to this folk festival, there are several folk legends as to why this festival is celebrated, the official site speaks of one legend in particular, the legend of Hiranyakashyap; “Hiranyakashyap wanted everybody in his kingdom to worship only him but to his great disappointment, his son, Prahlad became an ardent devotee of Lord Naarayana. Hiaranyakashyap commanded his sister, Holika to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap. Holika had a boon whereby she could enter fire without any damage on herself. However, she was not aware that the boon worked only when she enters the fire alone. As a result she paid a price for her sinister desires, while Prahlad was saved by the grace of the god for his extreme devotion. The festival, therefore, celebrates the victory of good over evil and also the triumph of devotion.”

Although the site does present this historical and mythological context, it also shows the modernization by not only using the internet as a tool of education, but also due to the links found on the page that include “Holi SMS” and “Holi Gifts”, that latter one also suggesting the commercialization of the festival nowadays.

Holi Festivals are extremely known and popular and can be found all around the world, in Bangladesh, Guyana, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, South Africa, Surinam, Trinidad and Tobago, the UK and of course in the USA.[1]

[1] Society for the Confluence of Festivals in India. “Holi Around the World,Holi Celebrations Around the World.” Holi – Holi Day,Holi 2012,Holi Festival India. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. <http://www.holifestival.org/holi-around-the-world.html>