A very Jewish welcome to the US

If any of you saw me this summer back in the UK you probably noticed the range of emotions i was exhibiting, and my fairly incessant grumbling that i should've organised to spend longer than 3 weeks in the UK before moving to the US. Way way back i'd organised to attend a 'Queer Talmud Camp' outside of chicago for a week in August. Not knowing where i'd be at the time it seemed logical and by the time i knew i'd be staying in the US it kinda made sense. But then came the packing and the prepping and realisation that i'd be doing a fairly intensive week of study just after moving country and before starting an intense job, either way i started to panic, maybe i should cancel and do this next year, but I'm incredibly glad that i stuck it out and went because I was lucky enough to have one of the best weeks of my life at that retreat in the Wisconsin Dells!

So let's unpack it because at least 1 of those words might not be clear to all. "Queer", generally used as a term to describe the LGBT community, reclaimed from the pejorative it is generally used as a more inclusive term as it doesn't determine sexulity and gender by labels and binaries. The use of the word Queer in this case goes one step further and the camp ran with the idea that queer is about generally challenging the norm.
"Talmud" for those non-jews or jews with less traditional educational privillege the Talmud is both the oral law and the commentary on said law, collated and commented on through various generations of priests and rabbis it is both a key Jewish text as well as a snapshot of a historical period of Judaism.
"Camp"... okay maybe it was more of a retreat but it was run by a summer camp director, we sang round a campfire and had smores so it totally counts!

Svara - A queer yeshivah (jewish house of study) in chicago runs this camp. The Rosh Yeshiva is a rabbi called Benay Lappe, She has pioneered a method of talmudic study surrounding her 'crash theory' - I would recommend either of these talks for a brief understanding https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBWIEAR_GQY  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTdeIFK7VSc
I have to admit, i wasn't completely taken in by the camp at the beginning. Crash theory just looked a lot like queer theory to me, and there seemed to be a little bit of a cult of personality around Benay. The Talmud study itself seemed fairly traditional, we were studying in hebrew, memorising. Svara calls itself a 'Traditionally Radical Yeshiva', what was so radical about this?

My amazing Chevruta (traditional style of jewish
 learning in pairs/threes) Amir and Jamie

It took till about the third day for me to get it. On the third night one of the electives (which we had about twice a day as extra sessions) was 'stories from our queer elders', it had been organised by Benay as an opportunity for anyone who self defined as an elder to tell their story. Ultiamtely it was about 20-30 Queer people 50 and older telling stories of their queer lives. Of struggle and victories, of love and loss, of community and family. It was a reminder of the incredible victories that have allowed me to be in spaces, the fights we have yet to fight, the nature of our queer community where history is passed down not through family, but through peers. That we might disagree with our elders on some things but we still have a bond with them and can always learn.

Beit Midrash (house of study) in full flow, Benay at the front -
Whenever anyone did recitation, no matter how short
we would applaud them, incredible genuine affirmation of all learning abilities.

One example, and it really doesn't do justice to only tell one, a couple told their story. Each their own story and then leading to how they'd met. One was a rabbi and he'd been fairly vocal and a few people knew him, almost no one knew his partner who'd stayed fairly quiet and reserved the entire camp. He had a heart wrenching story of repression of his identity, and even when he admitted his identity he believed he would be alone forever with it and could never be happy. Even in his loneliness he decided to do something to help others. As a photographer he used his skills to go around interviewing queer people and turning their stories of self acceptance into an exhibition into a book, hoping to allow young queer people to see that they could and did exist. at this moment one person in the group (about my age) turned around and said, wait i read that book when i was growing up, it helped me so much, murmurs of similar agreement rose from the crowd. The whole evening was indescribably powerful.

So how did this affect my view of studying Talmud. Well this certainly goes back to my own experiences of Jewish study, I never quite felt that Jewish texts were mine to study, as a woman, as a queer person, as someone with radical politics. But the environment at Svara was one that said anyone can learn, anyone can contribute, in fact our queerness provides us with a unique insight into the detail of law, life and community and the debates of the talmudic rabbis, as well as an impetus to use this study for good. 
After that night some sort of barrier had broken down, age didn't matter anymore, educational background didn't matter, we began to truly learn from each other, to affirm each other in a way that i have never seen in an educational space before. Our learning became more than just paraphrasing the words of old dead men, but opening ourselves up to our most vulnerable places and choosing to build ourselves up again with the help of a community. 

My Friend Gray annonated their talmud with our discussions from our final shiur.
It's a beautiful summary of 5 radical days of learning.

For many years I've said that my Jewishness and Queerness are important to me, both innate parts of me, and that they cannot exist without each other. My experience at Svara allowed me to begin to explain that they are actually the same thing! 











How Could I possibly move on from those days, well I was lucky enough to spend a Shabbat in Chicago with lovely Svaraniks, I got to go to Mishkan Synagogue which is a lovely welcoming community. and then off I headed to Boston for some R and R. I was lucky enough to spend some beautiful days with Irene chilling out and processing everything, as well as watching the olympics, chatting about family and life. I also got to see Claudia and Marg and generally enjoy Boston suburb end of summer. 

Some Brits finishing up/starting Adamah (Jewish farming fellowship)
on the farm, we spent a great shabbat together

I then had a long weekend before starting Avodah in NY. My original plan was to head to DC but it seemed complicated and far away by that point. The other amazing thing about Svara was that it had put me in touch with an incredible network of queer and radical Jews, and one of them, Zev invited me to Isabella Friedman farm in Connecticut for Shabbat. There was a singing retreat happening as well, and we worked out that i could do a day of looking after kids in exchange for not paying for the retreat. So up i turn and discover yet another amazing community of singing lefty Jews mostly from the New York and Boston areas! 


The singing retreat was called 'let my people sing' and was started by 5 young jewish activists/educators, 3 of whom had been at queer talmud camp. It was a different area of Jewish music than i'd ever be exposed to before, moving beyond the traditional American Reform liturgy to bring in all sorts of different heritages, music from jews of colour including gospel and sephardim, as well as much more traditional music and classes on how to teach it in an inclusive manner. 
I also discovered new types of services, particularly traditional egalitarianism which blends orthodox liturgy with radical egalitarianism. 

I left Friedman and Svara heading into a year in New York with new friends, Jewish connections and my judaism feeling nourished and energised and excited to explore all that New York Judaism has to offer. I could not have asked for a better welcome.

New York City life part 1

I've been meaning to write this update since I left the UK, and then since i started Avodah, and then since i started work but will all the business and exciting things i've been up to I haven't really had a chance. However this weekend i've been ill in bed with a cold which although not overly pleasant, has given me a chance to catch up on a few things.

For those of you I haven't spoken to since I left the UK, I spent a wonderful few weeks at the end of August on a Queer Talmud (jewish text study) retreat outside chicago, then a wonderful week or so in Boston, followed by a shabbat on a singing retreat at a jewish farm in rural Connecticut. (more detail about these another time - safe to say it was a wonderful welcome into the US Jewish community).

Then Avodah started in the last week of August. For those I haven't properly explained to, I'm on a program called Avodah for the year. This program is an intensive year where you work in a non-profit job, live with other young jews doing non-profit work and have an intensive program of jewish learning throughout the year.

Avodah cohort of 2016/17 from all 4 cities

For the first time ever Avodah started with a national retreat in upstate NY, 4 cities have avodah groups and all 4 came together for this retreat. We did an interesting mix of learning on everything from different Jewish practices to anti-oppression training. I'd say it was about 100 people in total, all with different backgrounds and experiences. Avodah also brought in a few speakers including Ruth Messinger (President of American Jewish world Service) and Yavilah Macoy, an educator and musician and organiser for Jews of colour and around racial justice. These people were really inspiring in terms of the ceilings they had shattered and the way they viewed activism with a beautiful mix of pragmatism and beautiful visions at the same time.

Exploring Washington heights with fellow avodahniks

After about 4 days we split up and headed back to our respective cities for a week of city orientation. This included moving into our apartments and exploring our local areas. NYC has two cohorts, one in Bushwick, Brooklyn and the other in Washington heights which is uptown manhattan. I'm in washington heights and we have two adjacent apartments where we use both the spaces. Orientation was a bit intense but also fun, we got to go to the NYC museum and learn about various change making movements and key periods in the city's history. We got to visit congregation bet simchat torah which is the largest lgbtq synagogue in the world, as  well as meet more interesting people from the jewish and non-profit world across the city. 

Most of my Avodah house by the hudson river

We had a great Shabbat together and I began the first of my shul hopping across NYC adventures with attending 'fort tryon jewish community centre', it's a traditional synagogue in terms of its practice but radically progressive in terms of its politics, so women leading and in talitot (probably more than in most reform shuls) but an orthodox service structure. I was invited to do an Aliyah on my first visit, and the rabbi came up and chatted to all the new people there. It was an extremely welcoming environment and a different style of community to anything i've experienced before.

The next week I started work. I'm working for the Urban Homesteading Assistance board. A bit of history is needed to understand UHAB, best to look up; 

red-lining http://liberationschool.org/red-lining-and-the-historical-roots-of-housing-segregation-in-new-york-city/  

http://www.brickunderground.com/blog/2015/10/history_of_redlining  

white flight/Bankruptcy of the city http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/05/nyregion/recalling-new-york-at-the-brink-of-bankruptcy.html 

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/07/white-flight-alive-and-well/399980/ 

https://www.thenation.com/article/legacy-1970s-fiscal-crisis/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Bronx#1970s:_.22The_Bronx_is_burning.22

The view from outside my office building (my office is on the 20th floor)
that's the brooklyn bridge and brooklyn.

So in a nutshell (white) people were abandoning the city, and landlords were abandoning buildings in the 70s but communities of colour still remained and needed places to live, my organisation came into being to solve the problem by giving communities control of their own buildings. It came under a state law known as sweat equity and beget the creation of HDFC coops which are community run low income coops.

These are most commonly formed out of the TILL (tenant iniative something something ahhh acronyms) program which used tenant associations to form coops, whilst renovating dilapidated buildings. Since then my organisation has been working to maintain these coops, create new ones and generally push for better more affordable housing across the city.

Of course the organisation looks a little different today, and when the programs and organisations were formed in the 70s no one ever imagined the housing boom that would exist in the city today, particularly the gentrification of certain areas. Primarily there are 3 areas of work in my organisation:

 My new bike, and the cycle path I go to work along

Tenant work - organisers who work with communities to organise them into tenant associations and unions to fight for their rights and create strong neighbourhood ties amongst all residents.

Policy and Coop development - How do we create new coops and affordable housing in a different housing market? how do we react to constant changes in housing, ie the introduction of Air Bnb and their effects on affordable housing. Most recently Uhab has been accredited as a developer and acquired a revolving line of credit for the purpose of funding the transition of buildings into low income coops. 

Member services - Once buildings are coops how do we support them, organise them and help maintain them as affordable and equitable.

I'm in the member services team so work primarily with existing residents. We're working with residents on sustainability, democracy and resident advocacy. However i'm already discovering one of the great things about this organisation is everyone definitely works together. I'm partnering with the policy team to help influence the new housing policy on coops the city is currently releasing, as well as learning organising techniques from the tenant organising team to bring into the membership team. It's all fascinating, this alongside the huge diversity of backgrounds and experiences of both the staff as well as the communities i get to meet. In the last two weeks i've been to a training in the bronx, a meeting on the upper west side, a day of meetings in harlem, a tenants union meeting in crown heights, brooklyn (organisers among you look up crown heights tenants union as an amazing example of successful organising).

Leafleting and training in the bronx

I'm certainly excited to learn more from the people around me and be part of such a dynamic organisation.

On a social side i've spent a long of time hanging out with my avodah cohort, there are 24 of us so we're a fairly diverse bunch and it's been great getting to know lots of different people. I've been to a few different Jewish community events of different denominations, 'romemu' which is a large renewal community, on Shabbat a ton of brooklyn shuls are coming together for seudah, havdallah and selichot with an incredible jewish musician called joey weisenberg, so very much looking forward to that. 

Anyway that's most my news so far, what with quite a few evenings working and avodah obligations it's been a little hard to get totally settled in the city, but that should even out fairly soon. NY, much like London seems to have too much to do at all hours of the day, but as per i'm enjoying not stopping and taking in all there is around me.

Exploring 'Smorgasburg' an overpriced food festival in Williamsburg Brookyln with avodahniks! Yes the bagels here are obviously up to my standards!

A Tribute to Couchsurfing

Solo travelling can be pretty hard, especially when you're in a country like the US where there aren’t the same backpacker circuits that you might find somewhere like south east Asia, Central or South America. It's also relatively expensive here, and when you’re own it's hard to buy in bulk or split costs.

When I set off on my travels I had to be clear about what I wanted to get out of my time, for me this was; meeting interesting people, learning about organic farming communities, seeing family and outdoor adventures. Woofing has allowed me to learn about organic farming communities, and family is a given but the others have only been possible in a large part to couchsurfing. For those who don't know couch surfing is more than the term.  It's a website that connects travellers and spare rooms/beds/couches for free, it works on a pay it forward basis unlike Airbnb (it also existed long before air bnb). As it’s developed over the years it's added new features including events, discussion groups and connections to other travellers in your area. Although I've met people through all sorts of different ways on this trip I think there is something unique about the Couchsurfing and traveller community it creates that deserves special mention.

Disclaimer

Some people are skeptical of couchsurfing, and of course travelling with people you don't know can always be risky. Although the biggest risk is by far the fact that you end up with a ton of uncomfortable silences rather than any real danger. Couchsurfing works on a reviewing system and is overwhelmingly safe, arguably more so than meeting random people in hostels. CS is always trying to improve things and the more of us that use CS the better it will be.

CS (Couch Surfing) Honolulu

When I arrived in Hawaii I was excited to spend time in this beautiful place, but also unsure how I might go about meeting people over the next month, staying with my aunt and uncle meant I didn't get the social scene of a hostel and although Hawaiians are very friendly Honolulu is a big city that can feel fairly distant at times. 

Luckily Couchsurfing had the answer, a meet up on first Friday (a big night in downtown Honolulu) to check out cool art spaces and local bars, organised by two students. The people at this meet up became my go to buddies for the next month. They included Miguel (also a traveller) with who I went on food truck adventures up to the north shore and found some excellent parties to go to. Miguel then introduced me to yen who took me to all the best hiking spots on the island. Frances, who I shared many a story and coffee with. Francine and the Brazilian crew we gathered together to go jumping off waterfalls.

They all made my time on Oahu so excellent and interesting and I know the meet ups have continued since that original one hopefully providing a cool space for other travellers passing through Honolulu.

             

Big island adventures

To get around the big island of Hawaii (Called Hawaii) you really need a car and the notion of renting one myself seemed rather expensive. I posted on CS that I was heading to the big island and was contacted by Aaron, who in turn introduced me to Mei , who in turn introduced us to roman all via Couchsurfing. 

We split the cost of a car and became a somewhat dysfunctional family with which to explore the volcanoes. There's something pretty unique about wandering down an old lava flow looking at ancient Hawaiian markings while roman (a militant atheist) argues with Aaron (a Buddhist hippy) over the nature of religion, followed by potluck dinner in a rainbow family/hippy commune that Aaron had come across and invited us all too.

Mei and I also wanted to find a host on the big island and we ended up staying with Sharon who we affectionately dubbed crazy jungle cat lady. She is a retired police officer from Arizona who lives down a dirt track in the jungle on the wet side of the island. Although Sharon claimed not to like people she clearly enjoyed having travellers as she’d built a rather nice guest quarters which, despite being outside, were completely waterproof and had a large bed and plenty of space. She herself lived in a shipping container she'd turned into a house with her many cats. 

She was a total hoarder and the rest of her land was devoted to boxes of stuff, old vehicles and 50 odd chickens. She described in great length how she was prepared for a tsunami, and yes she had a gun and no the government weren't going to take it away from her. On paper she sounds like someone I wouldn't get on with but she was extremely interesting, she loved burning man festival and only stopped going because she moved to Hawaii. She also talked a lot about her time in the police force and her work setting up victim support for those who'd suffered rape and abuse (as one of the only women officers in her area). She also took us out to dinner, lent us camping gear and snorkelling stuff! I love Couchsurfing because you meet people who completely challenge all your preconceived notions of character types.

The green scene - my Portland Couchsurfing family

Most my time I spent in Portland I was woofing but on my days off I explored the city and its wonderful people. One day off coincided with a Portland CS meet up, I went along and generally has a great time with a mix of travellers and Portland transplants, as well as that moment where all the Jews in a room naturally and unknowingly gravitate towards each other.

Anyway at this event I met Brandi, 

the housemate of the guy who put on the event. We only chatted briefly but exchanged contact details on the off chance that we might meet on my next day off. We didn't quite manage but kept a conversation going, there are those moments when you just click with someone and you both realise it. Brandi said if I passed through Portland on my way down south I should definitely come crash, so I did! The house (or the green scene as it’s named) is in a beautiful part of the city and is completely set up for those on the road looking to experience all Portland has to offer.

Although I spent most the time with Brandi everyone in the green scene made me feel part of their home, whether it was going to the hot pools at the Kennedy school with Amber, making huge grilled cheese sandwiches with John, playing foozball and jamming with don in the epic party basement he constructed. Chilling with Harvey, the house dog. Drinking whiskey and late night chats with Taylor who then made me this -

(The oregon state motto - She flies

With her own wings)

And of course Brandi who took me hiking, exploring, to buy weed (it's legal in Oregon- a weird adventure in itself) and of course to meet many other eccentric and lovely souls that fill the community of Portland. If I didn't already feel like Portland is a place I need to return, the green scene made it so.

Yosemite with an Argentinian

I mentioned earlier in my post that CS has set up forums to discuss travel plans and get hints and advice from locals, one such forum is about Yosemite National park. I posted in the forum hoping to find some advice about places to stay, tips on hiking and other travellers planning to head there. I quickly got a message from a guy named Mauro about his plans to go to Yosemite as part of his USA roadtrip. He’d already rented a car and booked into a hostel (which happened to be the same one i was planning to stay in...there’s only 1 hostel near yosemite!). Our dates matched up so we decided to join forces and head out to Yosemite together. I met up with him in San Francisco a few days before our trip to plan and to an extent check out that we clicked as we’d be spending a fair bit of time together. I ended up also meeting his CS host in San Fran, a guy named David who actually used to work for Couchsurfing. Anyway, we sat and planned adventures and so on a cloudy morning in San Francisco he picked me up and off we went to Yosemite National Park.

You’d think that a 4 hour car journey (and subsequent 4 days spent together) with someone you’ve never really met might be a little difficult, and to be fair that can be a risk while travelling with people you met, but this certainly wasn’t an issue. We had everything to talk about, from LGBT life in our respective countries, to Mauro’s volleyball obsession, helping each other learn English/Spanish and singing along to Glee/Adele/Katy Perry in the car at the tops of our voices! We also made a crack team, Mauro led the driving whilst I lead the Hiking. I sorted out dinner while Mauro made packed lunch for the next day.

We were certainly both in awe of the beauty of Yosemite and both had a huge appreciation for the privilege we had to visit somewhere like this.

I feel incredibly thankful that I met Mauro and know for sure that I have a place to stay in Rosario, Argentina if i ever find myself there.

I'm not a rep for couchsurfing, although you can become an ambassador which seems pretty cool, but i'd really recommend it to any and all travelers and lovers of travelling all over the world.

Travelling while Jewish and how I learnt to love LA

(In advance I apologise for the awful editing on this blog, writing on your phone can be a little tricky. I also didn't take many photos, so most are the Jewish murals on the streets of West Hollywood)

I hate LA, at least that's what I've always said. 

The idea of a sprawling mass of a city where you need a car to get around has always put me off. The few times I've been before I've done the touristy Hollywood things and didn't enjoy them much beyond the initial novelty.

I wasn't originally planning to visit LA on this trip beyond using it as a transit point, but open ended travel plans led me there on two occasions and I'm happy to say I'm slowly coming around to the idea that LA might not be the worst.

I should clarify that both reasons I ended up there were due to Pesach (for those who don't know, Pesach is a Jewish festival celebrated during the spring each year. It celebrates the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. Pesach involves something called a Seder where Jews, often families, friends and communities gather together to tell the story of Pesach, celebrate freedom and obviously eat.

My first trip to LA was with family. My lovely cousins who live in goleta, just north of Santa Barbara, invited me to attend Seder with them at their friend’s in Manhattan beach. This really meant a lot to me as for me Seder has always been a time to be with family, and I feel privileged that I can go many places in the world and have family to be with.

The Seder was lovely and despite not really knowing anyone there I felt like I fitted right in, the traditions all being familiar and loved the added political commentary about modern day plagues’ and the need to fight for liberation everywhere, albeit except for Palestine… Who apparently don't seem to deserve the same recognition. I recently learnt the term PEP (progressive except for Palestine) and this phrase certainly seemed to apply to the discourse of the Seder I attended.

Then at the end of the week I returned to LA for a few days because I'd been invited to a ‘lesbian immersive performance Seder’, (thanks for hooking me up with the invite Mikey). It seemed like a pretty cool event so I switched up my plans opting to spend a few days in LA. I grumbled about having to get lyfts everywhere for a few days but decided to make the most of it by brunching with old friends, doing some bouldering and yoga, and exploring West Hollywood (gay town).

On Friday night I decided pretty spur of the moment that I wanted to go to synagogue for Shabbat evening services. I googled the nearest reform synagogue to where I was staying which turned out to be in Beverly Hills, I saw that were doing a special end of Passover ‘songs of freedom service’. Despite my Jewish geography I didn't know anyone at the shul but thought I'd be able to turn up nonetheless. So that evening I put on a crumpled shirt from my back pack (who knew the thing i crave most on the road is an iron), and walked *insert LA gasp* to the temple in Beverly Hills.

One of the key teachings of Passover is about welcoming the stranger into your home, for we were strangers in the land of Egypt. With the fairly insular nature of the Jewish community I've always found this phrase slightly lacking in action, but I can say without a doubt that the temple Emmanuel of Beverly hills truly lived out these values. I arrived pre Friday night services and awkwardly sat down, within 5 minutes I was chatting to the guy next to me, Steve, a public school teacher in south LA, he told me all about the community. Hed travelled himself and we talked all about my trip and his previous trips to Europe. He's a lit teacher so the UK was his favourite place and he seemed to know far more than me about the historical homes of various writers across england. I also met the family behind me, one of whom had gone to camp harlam (the summer camp I went to on the East coast) what a small Jewish world.

The service itself was beautiful with a mix of traditional Friday night fare and liberation themed songs to celebrate the end of Passover. I recognised almost all the tunes and there is something indescribably heartwarming about hearing songs from home on the other side of the world.

After the service there was a dinner which everyone I'd met insisted I come to. By this point Steve and his wife Shauna had taken me under their wing and introduced me to, well everyone. I was immediately offered a place to stay by a number of people, future meals and a ride home! While we were eating the senior rabbi came round the tables to get people to  sign a petition for a ballot initiative for November on prison reform, as far as I could see most people were signing. It was so refreshing to see local politics as a normal talking point, and Jewish value.

Steve and  his family gave me a ride home with a detour around his favourite sights in West Hollywood and a brief history of the area. I could not have asked for a better evening.

There is something really beautiful about the efforts people and a community will take to welcome in a stranger, and it's certainly one of my favourite things about Judaism worldwide.

Saturday night brought my other favourite part of Judaism, radical queer Jews!!! I turned up to said queer Seder, and walked straight up to a costume making station where we had to dress our parts in the play + glitter, drag and feathers! 

People started arriving and although there were few like me who didn't really know anyone, most people were friends of the hosts, forming a somewhat patchwork communtiy of wandering Jews, radicals and queers!

Pre the main event we made charoset, built bricks to put them in, made 10 plagues finger puppets and fed grapes/compliments to the princesses of Egypt!

Then came the Seder, we were hosted by Bevin (God) and Dara (eliyahu the prophet)

Who had written a full hilarious play version of the exidous full of old jewish jokes (the character of great aunt ida poviding much of this), queer humour and radical political jokes (yes that is a thing), all under the banner of resilience.

We emulated the rabbis and sat up late into the night discussing Palestinian liberation.

We heard stories of survivors whose struggles for liberation from borders, patriarchy, heteronormativity and the gender binary brought everyone to tears.

We said blessings of thanks for a space where we can live as our true selves and prayed that this will soon be a reality for all, as well as thanking those that have fought in the queer struggle.

Our nirtzah (last part of the Seder whch includes many songs) was replaced with Jewish themed karaoke, we rocked out to drake, Neil young, bette middler, drake, billy joel and by the end some queen had got in there, though no one is quite sure how.

All this while nomming on chicken noodle soup, Cuban brisket and matzah smores!

I really hope to be able to recreate Seders like this in the future as it felt like a truly liberatory experience.

Formal events aside the night was also made great by the people I met,  Bevin, the host is a performer and creator of queer fat femmes! Dara used to work in union organising so many of her friends and former colleagues were there. I really enjoyed hearing about the various unions active in LA and wider California, it seems like a really interesting place to be politically active. I ended up on a table with Leon, who  runs a queer friendly suit company, as well as being a co founder of out-fest a celebration of online queer contributions. I also met Krystal who works in STEM (science technology engineering and maths) co-creating innovative curriculums with students, teachers, educators and universities, you can imagine we totally geeked out together of education. I met Melanie who has moved to LA from NY to co-parent with 3 other people. I also met April who I wrongly assumed was Jewish when she  knew all the Passover traditions, turns out shed just been married to a Jew. She and her friend dana there run a sex toy company, apparently you get to travel a lot through the job and we shared discussions over the best places to eat across the world.

So despite the awful traffic and a tendency to feel somewhat lost, LA has begun to grow on me, as with everywhere it seems to be the people that make a place, and there are certainly enough interesting people to maybe make LA worth a bit more of my time! 

Explorations in the Pacific Northwest: Vancouver, Seattle and Portland once more

The end of March to the beginning of April has been mostly on the road traveling through the region that makes up the Pacific Northwest. 

Vancouver
 
My first stop was in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (as opposed to the Vancouver over the river from Portland). 

I'd never been to Canada and everyone i know who's been has raved about how great a city Vancouver is. I'd met many Canadians whilst in Hawaii and several of them had invited me to come stay. So i hopped on a bus that took me across the border and said a shechechiyanu for a country i'd never been to before.

I was staying with Bridget and Shayne who'd id met at a hostel in Mauiu, we'd gone out hiking together, who are students at the University of British Columbia which is an absolutely stunning campus right on the coast.

They wanted to give me the ultimate UBC experience so we started out going to a dance show with all the student dance societies, followed by food and drink in the new snazzy students' union building (yeah i was totally comparing it to SUs in the UK), they had a nap pod and a climbing wall in the SU, We clearly missed a trick not suggesting these to the campus master-plan last year. It's always great to see vibrant campuses but especially ones which are so diverse as the majority of student leadership appeared to be from either Asian, international and First nations backgrounds, with white students actually being in a minority, with UBC being one of the top schools in Canada this was really impressive.

Shayne and Bridget are keen outdoors people and run the Women's outdoors club at UBC which encourages women and girls to get outside and have adventures. I got to take part in their launch event which was a huge scavenger hunt in the nearby national park, it was super fun and I met a lot of bad ass women! 

My last day In Vancouver I got a proper tour around downtown from Rowen who i'd also met in Hawaii, although the plan was to go round and see all the sights when we sat down we uncovered the fact that we both share an interest in postcolonial thought, feminist and critical theory which was amazing, so in the end we mostly ended up drinking beer and chatting about politics and the world. I did get to see great parts of downtown though and explore the beautiful Stanley Park.

Rowen also used to work for a sea plane company so managed to hook me up with a free 30 minute sea plane tour where i sat in the cockpit and chatted to the pilot about how the plane worked, oddly this was actually less scary considering my huge dislike of flying.

Seattle

4 hours each way from Portland and Vancouver lies Seattle, the main city in Washington State. A Port city known for its proximity to military bases, Defense industry, Microsoft and most recently Amazon.(See picture to the left - Amazon has bought up the entire area surrounding this lake, people have no nicknamed it Lake Amazon...)

However industry is only really a small part of Seattle's identity. Set between the stunning mountain ranges of the Olympics to the West and the Cascades to the East, with the ever visible Mount Rainer looming over the city, Seattle is a friendly and laid back northwestern city, the Portland before it was Portland perhaps? or the place you move if you can't deal with over the top Americanisms and don't mind the rain (There are certainly quite a few Brits here who say it feels like home). 

This was not my first time in Seattle as I have family here who I have visited on two previous occasions. My cousin Rachel (on my dad's side), her husband David and their daughter Maia live in the southwestern part of Seattle, I don't get to see them very often to it feels great when I have the opportunity to visit. Rachel and

David are both actors and it's always fab to hear about their projects, including a recent performance of Titus Andronicus that David directed and Rachel performed in! Whilst Maia is just about to start high school, and I really loved getting to know her interests, whether about twins, feminism or her upcoming trip to Peru. We talked lots of politics, especially Bernie Sanders and managed to get out for some lovely walks. I also saw my cousin Michael who is a slightly more distant cousin from the UK, we took a great hike out to little Si which was quite the hike with fantastic views.

I also managed to catch up with my friend Nozomi from the UK who moved to the US and Canada about 5 years ago, she's a drummer but has decided that a career in the sciences might be more useful so is getting a degree in chemistry. She took me out in Capitol Hill area which is the kind of queer alternative area, with rainbow zebra crossings which was fab.

A return to Portland

All the way along this trip I've been trying not to plan too far ahead, leaving space to go with recommendations and stay when i find somewhere I like, this is certainly been the case with Portland. During my first stay in Portland I went to a couchsurfing meetup and got chatting to lots of excellent people there. One of them was Brandi, who despite only having a brief conversation, invited me to come and stay at theirs when i passed through Portland again. Her house are regular couchsurfing hosts and have created a wonderful vibe for the house and guests. I feel like I should probably write a whole blog on how amazing couchsurfing is so I won't go into a huge amount of detail here. 

Portland 2.0 involved meeting more excellent people; Rachel, a woman with ALS who myself and Brandi cooked dinner for one evening, Julie an eccentric old hippy who gave us a tour of the Kennedy School (an old school that's been turned into a bar/movie theatre/ hotel/ hot pools/ restaurant etc), or Alice who I met at a party who works in a feminist non-profit which works to empower women of colour.

I also made it out to Forest Park, Tabor Mountain as well as the cable car with a pretty fab view over the city. I was also taken to buy Oregon weed which is fully legal... so it was a pretty strange experience walking into a store, showing your ID and then asking what kind of high you would like by two dudes who'd walked straight out of Harold and Kumar. Portland you have stolen my heart and I will be, without a doubt, returning as soon as possible.

Trains and Winter Rains

There probably is no more a fitting way to leave the pacific northwest than on a 17 hour train journey through the Oregon mountains, with the sun setting a providing an incredible view of mountains, lakes and forests.