Author: Sophie Jacobs
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Little Women: A New England Fairytale
This week I stumbled upon the 2019 adaptation of Little Women while browsing through Netflix. I eagerly clicked, wary of its 2-hour run time. Nevertheless, I pushed through with my ever-waning attention span. I couldn’t stop smiling as I was transported to a very specific nostalgia of my youth. While it felt like the characters…
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United in-flight food review
During my last flight to Israel nearly a year and a half ago I penned a piece entitled “EL-AL in-flight food review.” Please enjoy this companion piece and feel free to cross-analyze the two experiences. PRE-FLIGHT PRE-GAME Prior to boarding, I purchased a mocha coffee drink in a can and paired it with a blueberry…
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Taurus
I am a bull in a China shop when I speak Hebrew. It’s only fitting for a Taurus to thrash through a second language, ramming by and not thinking twice about the shattered shards of grammar and correct pronunciation that suffer. Perhaps the bull doesn’t mind because it is only a bull, not responsible for…
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I’m sorry
To the child sitting next to me on the bus from Jerusalem proper to pakmaz: I am sorry that my phone activity is so mundane. I know that you were expecting an interesting adult—especially a soldier—who browsed through newsfeeds with photos and videos. Yet you had the distinct misfortune of sitting next to me and…
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Jlem
The lady at Cofix kept responding to me in English. That hasn’t happened in a while. I also haven’t been in Jerusalem as a civilian in a while. The bus driver waited for me and then held my espresso as I sifted through my wallet for my rav kav. “What do you want?” he asked…
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Blissfully Vague
I recently presented a paper I wrote on the topic of military diplomacy. It was for an essay-writing competition within my unit, because unlike normal combat units, we don’t just krav maga until defeat. The prompt was vague, instructing participants to write about something military diplomacy-related, drawing on personal experiences but ensuring that the piece…
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Israeli Yom Kippur #4
I welcomed in Yom Kippur with shrimp, caviar, and corona; essentially beginning the holiday by creating new sins to atone for. Dinner started at 20:00, an hour after the fast was due to start, thereby declaratively sealing my decision to eat this year. When I arrived to dinner, I was told, “There’s corona in the…
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Base
I can draw a picture. The type you draw in kindergarten, then continue on until either you’ve honed the craft or given up altogether. It starts blank, a void of white. Like a child, I work my way from the bottom up. First is grass, but in this case there is no grass. In its…
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Things I really really really don’t understand about israelis
Why does the music always have to be deafeningly loud? This pertains mostly to within the realm of cars. There is no middle volume. It’s either there isn’t music, or the dial is turned until it can turn no more (note: the former is entirely theoretical, not anecdotal). One of my friends said that the…
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Breathing easier
I breathe better in Tel Aviv. It’s a difficult reality to accept, especially when my comparison point is paradise. I can breathe and I can run and I can be on my kibbutz, an Eden, but it isn’t the same as Tel Aviv. I went to Tel Aviv for the first time since the virus…
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