my first visit at the synagogue

Well, what can I say? On Friday evening I finally was at synagogue for the first time and it was simply overwhelming!!! It’s really hard for me to gather my thoughts, but I’ll try to give my best…

This was the second Friday I spent in my apartment since I moved to Frankfurt/Main, cause I used to spend the weekend with my family, but I decided that it’s kinda ridiculous that I live in Frankfurt and don’t spend any weekends at all here…
But let me get back to the actual theme… The whole preparation started about 2 weeks ago when an acquaintance, lets call her A, (she also wants to convert) and I agreed to go to service together. We then met last weekend on Saturday evening in order to get to know each other and so that we would recognize one another…
Then I called their bureau last Monday to ask how to arrange our visit. I found out we only had to bring an ID and be there a bit before 7 p.m. (in Frankfurt, in summer, service starts at 7). The nice lady also told me that we should be aware that there would be some safety measures.
Well, after that I started worrying whether my clothes were suitable - and probably got really on the nerves of some friends online about that, but in the end, I think I was dressed appropriately. Besides this, A and I made arrangements to get the exact time and place for when we would meet and another friend of mine, E, wanted to accompany us… Well, this didn’t work out the way we planned, cause E happened to hurt her feet that bad she didn’t fit into any of her shoes, so she couldn’t come with us…
I got back from my weekly visit at my parents’ around 3:30 p.m. cause I had some things to do before - you know, buying food for the week, dealing with my stupid (now ex-)gym etc. and then it was time for me to get ready. I just started dressing when I saw that my legs looked bad (red spots and stuff, no clue why, though). I was really mad about that, but in the end I decided it wouldn’t ruin my day (I’m somewhat precise about my looks, not always, but that day I was…).
When I finally had put on my black skirt - in the end it actually sort of did cover my knees even while sitting - and the light blue blouse I felt quite comfortable, though it was the first time in ages (other than carnival, that is!) I actually wore a skirt in public.
I left my apartment at 6 p.m., cause I supposed it would take me about 25 minutes to get to the subway station Westend where A and I planned to meet, but when I walked down the street I got a real shock, cause my bus already was very near to the bus stop, while I still had about 2 minutes to walk. I then ran down the street to get to the bus stop about half a mile from where I live, cause the bus line took a big curve - I caught up with it there and got to the station Westend without any problems. Unfortunately, A was not yet there, which didn’t really help my nerves to calm down. I’d been somewhat shaky throughout the day and to be honest, it got worse and worse the closer I got to getting there for the first time. I walked out of the station and back in several times to check on her, but I couldn’t see her, and I was really nervous when she finally arrived almost 15 minutes late.
We then walked up the street (not even a quarter mile). There we told the security guy why we were there and he asked us to wait a second so they could search us in a separate room.
While we were waiting some men arrived and greeted the security guy and talked a bit - and some of the men also talked to us, asked why we were there and what we were doing and so on. We then got to the separate room so they could search us and after we were done the second security guy told us where to go.
We were a couple feet from the main room when one of the men, lets call him F, walked up to us and talked a bit to us before he led us to the main room. On our way, he was really nice and asked whether we could speak French and that it was really important, that he’s a teacher for French and that sometimes it felt like he was send back from Paradise to promote the language. After that F gave us a bonbon.
Then F showed us where the younger people met and told us we could sit down wherever we wanted. But before he left he asked someone what time they started, and when he discovered that it would be half an hour later than the service in the main room, he showed us the way to the gallery and told us we could go down to the younger ones if we wanted as soon as they start.
So there we sat and when they started it was just sooo beautiful we completely forgot about going down again. Only when F waved us to come down we realized it must be time, so we walked down the stairs and he showed us to the room once again. There were lots of young people (though we only saw the girls) and after he left us we were so unsure of what to do. But luckily, one of the girls gave us some of their ‘leaflets’ with the whole prayers in Hebrew and the transcriptions. We didn’t really know what to do and felt really strange there, and more and more girls arrived. In the end, the girl who gave us the leaflets, K, waved us over to sit with her and she helped us read along the prayers and to get up in time and sit down again… It was sooo moving and I just let really at home there. I just can’t explain it, it justfelt wonderful, strange, like home and good - all at the same time…
When service was over, K talked to us, but since she is from Israel we had some troubles understanding each other, so we used English. She then invited us to a dinner all the younger ones went to. She was just so nice and waved us to walk along with her whenever we just weren’t sure about what to do…
We were about to leave the building when we discovered that it was raining and we all only had rather light clothes on, cause it was very hot the entire day - even though it was raining, it was still very warm. This caused us to run from one place to stand under to the next on our way to Sohar’s, the Jewish kosher restaurant in Frankfurt, where we were going to have dinner. It really nice cause we had the possibility to talk to K and her friend, another girl from Israel, on our way to the restaurant.
When we arrived there after about 10 or 15 minutes, we walked in and met even more young people. They all celebrated Shabbat together and after everything was arranged for all of us to have food, we went to wash our hands before we had Gefillte Fisch with Challah. While we were still eating a Rabbi who was visiting talked to us about ‘measurements’ in the torah and the Jewish life (I’m not sure, something about when a bottle of milk falls into 60 times the amount of actually kosher meat, then it’s still kosher, if I understood right).
After that we had potatoes, broccoli, carrots and, I think, chicken or lamb. Then they talked to all of us about what they’d been doing so far this year in their organization before we sang some songs. This was just so beautiful, all those people sitting together at one table singing Jewish songs and talking…
When we were done with singing, we had some strawberry cream (must have been parve, if you know the recipe, please tell me!) and head of the organization, E, sat with us and the two girls from Israel, whom we met during/after service and we talked a bit, well, A and I listened rather than talked, but it was interesting. Then we had the final blessings and slowly started to leave. At that time in was about 11:15 p.m. and the evening seemed to have rushed!!! But before we left, E said he hoped to see us around more often : ) And I have to say, he certainly will!
When I got home it was about 11:35 and I was still so excited I just couldn’t sleep. That’s why I completely overslept the next morning and couldn’t attend service again - I was really mad about that at first, but then - it was only the first one and there certainly will be more, so why should I worry?!?
I can only say it was sooo overwhelming, I can’t really explain what it felt like. There was so much and it was so great… I can’t wait to go again !!!