Curiosities

October 26, 2001- God Provides
(photos: Surfer's Beach Police,
Surfer's Paradise,,
Surfer's Paradise Beach)

Tonight God sent me Arturo Holender so I would have something to write to you. He walked into services alone looking lost. He put a keppah on his head which meant he was either Jewish or had been in a synagogue before. As it turns out, Arturo is Jewish & from Sao Palo, Brazil. He is 23 years old & has a degree in civil engineering. He has come to Australia to improve his English & take an advanced degree in engineering or business. We had a good laugh about learning English here. He was going to the U.S., but Brazilian currency fell in value & Australia was more economical. He’d spent some time in the U.S. & has difficulty understanding the Aussie accent & slang.

We invited him out to dinner after services & had a hard time finding a parking spot since the Indy 300 (kilometers) is this weekend. We ended up at an Italian restaurant since Arturo doesn’t like spicy food. He’s staying at a home where the other student boarder is from Thailand. On his first night there, dinner was curried chicken. That was not his cup of tea. It would be great to have him join us for our Wed. night Thai dinners with the Bruces, but he’d have to order milder fare. He told us that the man where he’s staying is an Argentinean married to an Australian. The man hates the U.S. & is constantly making remarks about how the U.S. controls the world & keeps South America in poverty. It makes Arturo uncomfortable & he says he’s paid up for a month more & then will move. He’s made friends in his English class but they don’t know that he’s Jewish. One man is Jordanian & one is from Oman.

We have to introduce him to Daniel Bruce & others his age. David will call. They’ll want to meet Arturo & show him around. I’m sure they know some girls who’d be interested. Arturo said the Sao Palo Jewish community is about the same size as the one in the Gold Coast, but it’s an active & affiliated one. There’s a Jewish Club that sounded like our Jewish Center where young people meet. He said that inter-marriage is rare & Jewish youth groups & youth camping are strong. He’d been in the U.S. on a trip with other teens from Brazil several years ago. They went to Kutz Camp on Long Island & then went to their host cities. I remember that Akron had about a dozen kids.

October 27, 2001-Shlepping

We did ride a bus into Surfers for the Indy 300 Race. We were able to climb onto a low wall & see some of the cars go by in the qualifying trials. They didn’t seem to be going too fast, but after we left we saw on TV that there was a minor crash. The most exciting part of the race was the jet flyovers. It was cool the way they zoomed in a circle over the town. They were flying on their sides & low enough to count wheels. David looked up at the first one & said he hoped it was one of ours (Australia’s). We priced the general admission tickets & they were $A 60. Even in U.S.$ it was more than we wanted to pay. We stayed on our perch for a few laps then just wandered through the crowds. There were 3000,000 people expected.

We decided to walk home along the sidewalk that skirts the ocean. It seemed like a good idea when we started out, but by the time we realized it was a 3½ mile hike, we were too close to home to get a bus. David’s sitting on our balcony now recovering & watching the bikinis.

October 28, 2001-Questions & Answers

We went to the movies to see Lantana with Sue & Len Goldzweig last night. See it if it comes your way. It’s an Australian film about relationships, co-incidences, & the usual lack of connection between people who profess to love each other.

During the brown bag seminar today, a woman leaned over to ask me if David was a freemason. I was astonished, but just told her that he wasn’t. Afterwards, I asked her why she thought he was. She just said that she & her husband are & she thought he might be from some of the things he said. I know there’s some link with the Knights Templar & Christianity, but I don’t know a lot about it. I didn’t think Jews could be freemasons. She said that Catholics are allowed in now, but I’ll have to do some more research on this. Any help from you all? I feel like I’m on Millionaire & you’re one of my lifelines.

Speaking of Millionaire, I thought that Regis was annoying, but here they sometimes pause for a commercial before telling the contestant whether or not they answered correctly. I find that annoying and cruel.

The daylight savings time debate continues. In the paper today they said that hairdressers might band together to embrace DST. If they do, I have to call the guy who does my hair & ask if his shop is included in DST or not. I have an appointment in two weeks & don’t know when to show up.

Australian terms continue to plague me. Some refer to lipstick as “lippie.”

Learned today that in political elections voters choose preferences. This means they vote for who they want to win & also who they’d want as a second choice & on down for each office. If you vote a straight party ticket, & that party loses, the party gets to allocate their preferences. In other words, they pick who gets the votes that came to them. If you vote a split ticket & indicate your preferences & your 1st choice doesn’t win, your vote for that office would be applied to your second choice & on down. It sounds complicated but it might have eliminated the situation in Florida last election.

We ate lunch at the same café as last Sunday & were welcomed by a woman named Judy & her entourage. Evidently, they camp out on the upper deck of the restaurant every Sunday. From the looks of it, they just drink the afternoon away. They were three sheets to the wind when we arrived & we enjoyed teasing each other about our respective country’s idiosyncrasies. The flyovers before the race began & we all oohed & ahhed as the jets did their stunts. It was an awesome sight. As we finished our lunch, Judy wanted to pour us a glass of wine from one of the many bottles on their table. We told her that we appreciated that she wanted to “shout us” a glass of Shiraz, but we had to decline & get on our way. She was impressed with our usage of the lingo.

Toby