Mid-Winter Break

This weekend the yeshiva had its annual mid-winter break. That means that the students have a long five-day weekend to relax and get ready for the next half of the zman. We started the break early though. On Wednesday evening we had the pleasure of attending the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. This was a special concert in regards to the selection of music that they played. The program for the evening was comprised of soundtracks from famous movies. The highlights included the following: Lord of the Rings, Mission Impossible, James Bond, Pink Panther, West Side Story, The Godfather, Harry Potter, Fiddler on the Roof, Indiana Jones, Star Wars and many more. The only curious addition to the program was "Yugoslavian overture for accordion." In the middle of the program, the director walks off stage and comes back with an accordion. He turns around to face the audience and then goes through a 10-minute piece. It seemed completely out of place but it was actually rather amusing. I don't think too many people expected that they would see an accordion performance.

On Thursday, we went out for Ilana's birthday dinner. Down Emek Refaim there is a Latin American restaurant called La Boca and we had read excellent reviews. It didn't disappoint. The food was fantastic and the ambiance was good as well. I enjoyed the dessert more than anything else: Hot churros with a side of ice cream.

If the first few days of the break were relaxing, Friday was a day of contrast. We had company for both meals. Ilana had agreed to have guests on the condition that I do all of the cooking. I enjoy cooking but I discovered that it is a lot harder than it looks. Fortunately though, I had a good menu and everything actually turned out pretty well in the end. It was also reassuring to know that we had Sunday to recover. Shavua Tov!