JoelNothman.com

What do you wear in -20°C but calm, partially sunny weather? Long underwear, or not? Argh!

Nearly a month late, I thought I’d take the opportunity to wish people a happy 2007, and tell you a little bit about my New Year’s excursion to DC. I think, though, that unless I want to keep lagging behind on my tales, I might need to do it in summary form (nup- didn’t succeed). I could just ignore it, but one of the main reasons I blog about my travels is to save some memory of them, a little like a diary, only more public. And then I wish I could blog about every week of life here when something new happens, but it’s not as distinct as when I am travelling, and much harder to keep track of and find time to write about.

So I arrived in DC on the night of Wednesday the 27th of December, 2006, off the Greyhound bus and into the care of Naomi and her family, still carrying the cookies left with me from Philadelphia. (more…)

Snow storm is an oxymoron
One is subtle and quiet
The other raging and thunderous
Together, the snow floats (or pours) down
In heavy washes of tiny drifting specks,
Building white, wind-swept dunes

This used to be a city with gutters
But the scattererd spatterings of silty white
Amass to envelop and elide
The distinction between road and path
So that cars slow to a stroll so unlike autumn’s rush
It silences the sounds, the steps,
Each stride only deepens and imprints the soft
Snowy coat upon the pavement, upon the streets
And it keeps piling, turning the once-green once-red brown hills white.

Now, as winter break is consigned further and further to the annals of my memory, I will try and pull out a little more of it to relate to you, faithful reader.

My stop in New York (on Christmas day) this time was just that. (more…)

Yes, I am still in Montreal till April. I am here for a second semester, so if you happen to be visiting this side of the earth (and, for instance, your initials are JM) you should give me a call on

+1-514-659-4506

And don’t leave a voice message. I still can’t check them and even when Fido resets my access code it doesn’t work, and I’m waiting for them to get back to me…

I was using the siddur (prayerbook) “Mizkeret Yerushalayim” for a change this morning, and came across the following line in Psalm 100:

דְּעוּ– כִּי יי, הוּא אֱלֹהִים: הוּא עָשָׂנוּ, ולא (וְלוֹ ק’) אֲנַחְנוּ– עַמּוֹ, וְצֹאן מַרְעִיתוֹ.

Know that the LORD, He is God; He made us and not (as written; read instead: His) [are] we, His people, and the flock of His pasture.

(more…)

My trip to Boston began by being late. I was finishing my couscous and chicken lunch on Thursday (21st Dec 2006), and farewelling Jawina, and hadn’t even got as far as packing for our 3:45 bus (for which we had not bought tickets, which meant we were meant to arrive early enough to buy them at the station and get a seat on the bus). (more…)