A Glimpse

From the rise near the old Town Hall, I look back over the Old Town and spy several gleaming glass towers. The 21st c. exists across the river from this sleepy sunwashed antiquity. I quickly head past the market back to Zydu.

Yiddish storms in and out of my brain. When I’m on a roll, the letters fly out of my pen and phrases and sayings rush in to mind, complete with faces and voices of family.

Ode to Joy and the Brahms German Requiem are the soundtrack in class. More German than I thought, Yiddish even uses only certain letters for Hebraic words – to keep them holy? The rest of the alphabet (aleph-bays) is free to form the nearly vowelless words of Slavic and Teutonic origin.

Oh yes. When I am not on a roll Ich fargessen gantze – I forget it all, can’t read my writing or my work book with its eye destroying tiny print.

Between our two 1 ½ hour classes we have a lovely coffee break under huge umbrellas in a pretty courtyard. The courtyards of the University and the residential area nearby contain a labyrinth of courtyards, porticos and new courtyards. Entering from the street, the environment is MC Escher meets babushka doll.

I have become buddies with a few women my age, American and French and we sit in a cafe and study together, which helps to mitigate the intensity of this immersion program. Yesterday’s lunch was with a few of them in the artists’ colony nearby. We sat outside and ate herring on the banks of a noisily babbling brook.

The French women are lovely, tres gentille and quite fluent. They are ready to help.

Michael the Schnorer- a local panhandler - appears every other day. His line is “do you speak …English, Deutche, Francais, etc. and he then proceeds to ask for bus fare in your language. He’s persistent and will show scars and bruises to try to convince his prey. We are convinced he’s a junkie.

And then there are classmates. In addition to my teachers Ber Ber and Anna, and my friends and the lovely Martina from Venice, are several Austrians, including the young carrot top, Bertie (Adalbert), several young German women, and two lesbian women. One a self described “hairy lesbian” whose close cropped hair belies her handle. Daniel Aleph seems to have landed one of the 2 young Parisiennes. Daniel Ein (1) is quite friendly with Martina since his Swedish girlfriend left. He’s a tall super thin Jew from London, about 25 and a self-described Anarchist. We may go to Kaunus with them. He reminds us that is the birthplace of Emma Goldman. Alan is a middle aged Jew for Jesus from Berkley. Joshua is a silent Yiddish Jedi Master who in real life is a Yale Law School Student. Sharon is right. This is the Island of the Misfit Toys.

Indeed, I have the great escape.