Mazel Tov!

Well everyone, I had my bar mitzvah one week ago and it was amazing! Here are the deets:

I went to bed Friday thinking that tomorrow was a normal day. No trouble falling asleep whatsoever. However, I woke up in the middle of the night. After that, I couldn't fall back asleep. I got a total of 5 hours of sleep, but I was wide awake. I get to my temple about two hours early for pictures, getting prepared, etc. I'm somewhat relaxed, but surprised that the day is already here.

As I was getting pictures taken in various poses, my adrenaline was rising. Luckily, my usher, who happens to be my best friend, had walked in. He is so supportive and helped convince me that I'd do fine. At that point, I had to go to my rabbi's office to relax before the service.

I bumped into the cantor on the way to the office. She had her poker face on and strictly told me, "You know, if you mess up, we kick you out and your bar mitzvah doesn't count." She had the straightest face ever and it got me scared, but I knew it was a joke. It wasn't a good time, because I was already freaking out.

So everyone is sitting, chillaxing in the office while I'm hyperventilating. "I can't do this... I can't believe it's here..." I would say. My parents somewhat calmed me down. After the meeting in the office, we departure for the service. Right behind the door where I walk in is where we stand. The rabbi checks to see who is there. He tells us about 50% of the people that are supposed to be here aren't here yet. It is already 5 minutes past when we were supposed to start, so the rabbi says we have to start anyway. At this point, I'm freaking out, about to die.

I walk in. I examine who is sitting where and who IS here. I think to myself, well, I know everyone here. Okay, Michael, you're breathing steadily. Keep it up. I take my seat. The cantor sings the opening hymn, and I'm up. I walk up to the podium. I think, the way I say this first like determines how my stage fright will be throughout the whole service. "Our service continues at the top of page 288" I say. It comes out perfectly.

I conduct the service as I've practiced, and everything comes out fluidly. Halfway through the service, I'm like, hey, this ain't so bad. In fact, this is FUN! I try to savor the moment, thinking, this is the only chance in my life that I will be able to do this. As you can tell, a lot of thoughts are going through my head. Throughout the service in between songs, the cantor and rabbi would stop next to me and whisper in my ear, "You haven't messed up" or "You're doing great." I knew I didn't mess up and I knew I was doing great. Everything seemed like second nature to me.

After the service, I shook every one's hands and they congratulated me on a job well done. All of my hard work had paid off. Now, it was time to PARTY!!!!! I won't go into detail about the party, but it was a blast.

When everything was over, we packed our cars and bags and went home. At home, I immediately begin opening cards and endorsing all the checks. Let me tell you, a bar mitzvah is a MONEY MAKING EXPERIENCE. I'm not going to say how much I got because you'd probably be jealous, but I felt fantastic. I just had my bar mitzvah, I have tons of money, and my whole family is here to support me. Life could not have been better at that point.

The rest of the day however went by extremely slowly. I was so bored because I had nothing to work towards at that point - no upcoming school tests, no homework, no bar mitzvahs to study for, nothing. So, I wandered the house looking for something to do the rest of the day.

My bar mitzvah was amazing.

This will be the last of all posts about bar mitzvahs. Next week, expect normal posts again regularly every Saturday!

Today's The Day!

TODAY IS MY BAR MITZVAH!!!!!!!

Mazel Tav to me! I've made it! I'm a teenager, I am a bar mitzvah, and I got a lot of money! Life right now is amazing! Thank you everyone in my life for supporting me through my 13 years of living! I'm so joyous right now!

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It Is Upon Us!

Uh oh! I'm so nervous for my upcoming bar mitzvah on March 24th! My next blog post will be scheduled for the date OF my bar mitzvah. I'm really concentrated on it right now, so I'm not really able to work on posts very much right now... But I'll try my best!

Also, I'm sorry that most of my posts lately have been about me and my upcoming bar mitzvah, but it is really hard to get it off my mind right now.

I have been trying to avoid the thought of having my bar mitzvah a week from now, but it is terribly hard. To help me, I think how very bright it will be afterwards.

First of all, I'm going to be a teenager! Yes, the posts you have been reading have been coming from a 12-year-old. Teenager you say? Yes! Now I can be stereotyped as very moody and crazy! Delightful! Also, as some might now, people get a large wad of checks. It is polite to send checks in multiples of 18, as it is considered a lucky Jewish number. I have already received a couple of checks, but all of my checks coming from family and friends will be collected on the date of my bar mitzvah. I have ALREADY gotten a lot of money... and not to mention how much but... - cough - over a thousand! - cough cough - It probably doesn't seem as much to adults, but to teens, it's a whole different perspective. Imagine how much I'll have AFTERWARDS!

To be completely honest, I am excited for my bar mitzvah, but nervousness has wrecked the experience. However, every time I rehearse with my rabbi, my stage fright skills seem to be more controlled. I'm learning how to deal with messing up, because I am awfully hard on myself.

So my question for this week is...

Have you ever been to a bar/bat mitzvah?

Sleepy Potion

Ever have trouble falling asleep? I have been losing sleep because of stress and pressure for my upcoming bar mitzvah. What calms me down and helps me fall asleep is a nice cup of what I call, "sleepy potion." Here is how to make it:

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You will need:

1 Tablespoon of butter

2 teaspoons of sugar

1 cup/mug full of milk

1. With the milk in the mug, place the butter right on top. Place in the microwave for about a minute and a half. You do not need to mix the butter in to the milk.

2. Take the milk out of the microwave and add the sugar. Mix well.

3. If the drink is too buttery or too sugary, fix it by adding more of one or the other. Also, if it is not heated enough, heat the mug longer. Enjoy!

How simple is that?!!? Try it! Milk that is warm has an ingredient called tryptophan which is a compound that helps to produce serotonin which helps you sleep. The sugar will not make you hyper like you may think it would. All of the ingredients together make a really great tasting, soothing drink.

My question for this week is...

Did it work for you to calm you down?

¡Hola! ¿Cómo Estás?

Spanish is such a helpful language to learn since so many people around the world speak it. I take Spanish at my school and this is my first year of taking it. I am very good at it and my grades show it. I currently have a 99.76% (rounded up to 100%) in Spanish and I love learning it. I thought that I could teach everyone some basic spanish in case you encounter yourself in a Spanish-speaking country such as Puerto Rico. Here are some of the basics:

Before even starting, you'll need to know how to pronounce Spanish. I recommend Googling how yourself or using this website to show you how (notify me if it does not work).

Now first off, you need to know your articles...

In English, we have "the," "a," and "an." To pluralize them, we say "the" and "some." For Spanish, every noun has to be conjugated into masculine nouns and femenine nouns. Examine this chart of definite articles:

I've organized it into masculine/feminine and singular/plural because in Spanish, nouns always have to agree in number and gender. Here are some examples:

- un cuaderno (a notebook)

- una regla (a ruler)

- unos deportes (some sports)

- unas frutas (some fruits)

Now, let's take a look at the indefinite articles (the):

This is organized in the same pattern. Here are some more examples:

- el libro (the book)

- la pizza (the pizza)

- los juegos (the games)

- las mesas (the tables)

Let's take a look at the definite articles again. Notice how when a word ends in "o" that the definite article is masculine? "Cuaderno" is masculine because it ends in "o." The same thing applies to feminine words; instead of "o," it is an "a." Look at "regla" for example. It ends with the letter "a" showing that it is feminine. Now if you were to pluralize these, you either add an "s" or "es." "cuaderno" to "cuadernos" and "un" would be changed to "unos." "unos cuadernos" is a complete phrase because it agrees in number (unos cuadernos) and gender (unos cuadernos). Get it?

However, not always will a noun end in "o" or "a." Take a look at "unos deportes." The singular form of this is "deporte." How are you supposed to know that it is masculine? You just have to know. There is no trick to knowing. When in doubt, just use the masculine form.

Now let's take a look at the indefinite articles. Everything that was stated before applies with the indefinite articles. "el" and "la" are singular. "los" and "las" are plural. "el" and "los" are masculine and "la" and "las" are feminine.

Second, we will learn what the personal pronouns are.

There is not much explaining needed for this if you look closely. The black indicates the Spanish word and the green indicates what it means in English. I have it organized in a certain order and you'll see why soon...

Next, we're going to learn how to conjugate verbs. When saying a verb in Spanish, it needs to be conjugated to direct who you are saying it about/to. For the verb, "cantar" which means "to sing," there are six conjugations for that verb. Let's take a look:

See how I have it organized in the same pattern as the personal pronouns? I showed you that "yo" means "I" in Spanish. It was located at the top left of my diagram. Now, if we look at the conjugations of "cantar," we see that "canto" matches the same spot. So, if you say, "Yo canto," you are saying "I sing." Look at "canta." Three words can go along with it. If you say "Ella canta," you are saying "she sings." With "canto," only one word matches it - "yo," which means "I." You could say just "canto" and people will know you are saying "I sing" because it has only one matching word. However, with "canta," there are three possibilities - "él, ella, or usted" (usted is the formal version of "you" and is usually used with someone like a professor, elder, someone older than you, etc.). For this conjugation, you MUST state if it is he, she, or you sings unless it is obvious who you are talking about (like if you were pointing at them and you say it). If you take a look at "nosotros" and "nosotras," they each have the "o" and the "a." Can you take a guess what that means? Well, if you said that they refer to different genders, then you are correct! If you have a group of females, say "nosotras." If you have a group of males OR a group of males AND females, say "nosotros." It works the same way with "vosotros" and "vosotras." Just remember never to use those unless you are in Spain because other Spanish speaking countries do not speak using "vosotros/as." To summarize what I just said, look below:

Most other verbs follow the same pattern:

nadar (to swim)

nado (I swim)

nadas (You swim)

nada (he/she/formal you swim)

nadamos (we swim)

nadáis (you all swim (in Spain only))

nadan (they/you all swim)

bailar (to dance)

bailo (I dance)

bailas (You dance)

baila (he/she/formal you dance)

bailamos (we dance)

bailáis (you all dance (in Spain only))

bailan (they/you all dance)

querer (to want)

quiero (I want)

quieres (You want)

quiere (he/she/formal you want)

queremos (we want)

queréis (you all want (in Spain only))

quieren (they/you all want)

necesitar (to need)

necesito (I need)

necesitas (You need)

necesita (he/she/you formal need/s)

necesitamos (we need)

necesitáis (you all need (in Spain only))

necesitan (they/you all need)

...Those are only a few of the million of verbs you can use.

Finally, it is time to create sentences.

Necesito un lápiz. - I need a pencil.

Él quiere la pizza - He wants the pizza.

Ellas necesitan unas frutas - They (feminine) need some fruits.

See how it works?!!?

Hopefully, you figured out by looking at my diagrams on how to speak a little bit of Spanish. Here is a little extra in case you just want to know more:

Hola - Hello

Me gusta - I like (I am pleased with)

¿Cómo estás? - How are you?

Estoy bien - I feel (am) good

¿De dónde eres? - Where are you from?

Soy de _____ - I am from _____

Hasta luego - See you later

My question for this week is...

Do you get it? Would you like me to make more Spanish teaching posts?