Shabbat

Mariene and I went to Shabbat again this past week, and it was really fun because three of my AEPhi friends were. I really enjoy going, but I've also discovered some MAJOR pet peeves of mine that I didn't previously know existed. Let me preface by saying that everyone I have ever met there is REALLY nice. However, it bothers immensely me when:

...People say they're from somewhere when they actually only live there. There was a whole group from Israel this week and we thought it was strange that they had such English English accents. Oh wait, we found out afterwards that they were English. I feel like it's not really an honest introduction if you leave out the place where you lived for most of your life, since that's what shapes who you are. Living somewhere doesn't make you FROM there unless you grew up there, in my opinion.

There was this other guy I met the first week I went who was really vague about everything, but who was only willing to say that he was from Tel Aviv, which was weird because for the most part, he definitely had an American accent. Only after a lot of prying was I able to get him to admit that yes, he grew up in Washington, which is what I, as an American, was actually asking when I first asked him where he was from. How hard is it to say, "I grew up in _______, but now I live in _____" ????

Another pet peeve: When people who for all intents and purposes are American (see: the guy above) adopt a light Hebrew accent when saying Tel Aviv. YOU'RE AMERICAN. YOU ARE ALLOWED TO HAVE AN AMERICAN ACCENT WHEN SPEAKING ENGLISH. Ugh.

Also, a new pet peeve that I only just discovered last week: There were about a million native American and English people there, who, when talking about Jerusalem IN ENGLISH, and to other native English speakers, who referred to Jerusalem as Yerushalayim. Just like that, totally nonchalantly mixed in with their other words in their native English. BARF. It happened the week before too with the two hot guys from New York. I WANTED TO THROW UP EVERY TIME.

As Lise often likes to say, "An-NOY-ing".