My Jewish evening

So this evening I went to the Christchurch synagogue. I ended up getting there about a half hour early so I just sat around until some other people with a key showed up. This turned out to be a couple (the man was from California and i think the woman was English) who were very friendly. Only a few people actually showed up. Of these, I think only one was actually from New Zealand. The rest of us were from English, American, Dutch, Argentinian, and Brazilian. It was a brief series (about a half-hour), then we had a brief Kiddush. They didn;t have grape juice, so I drank the wine, and instead of challah, they had these little crackers and hummus. (i know, I know, it;s disappointing). At the end of it all, this guy came in who I think was the rabbi for the Orthodox congregation that shares the synagogue, and told me about the Chabad house that was having a dinner. So I decided to go there.

I ended up getting a little lost, and almost wandered into this lady's flat before she stopped me, but I eventually found the place. There were a lot of people there, many of whom seemed to be Isrealis who were passing through. I ended up at a table with two Isreali girls, their father, and a Kiwi girl who said she wasn't Jewish but was trying to adhere as much as possible to the Tanakh. The first course was pickled lettuce, pickled carrots and a tomato dish that I didn;t try. Then all of the Isrealis and the Chabadniks started singing in Hebrew at the top of their lungs, pounding on the table. The guy who told me about this place said I'd be able to tell where it was by the singing and now I knew why. I also spotted Tamar, the other serious Jew in the IES group, and said hi. The second course was spicy potatoes and rice. It was quite good. It was a fun evening, but I left when the kiwi girl left because i didn't want to be totally surrounded by people speaking a language I didn't understand.

Tommorow I'm gonna go out to Lyttelton to try to see all the things I didn't see last week. I also finished reading The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, so I'm thinking about doing a post on what i thought of that.