A different kind of rosh hashana

Picture this: surrounded in an ocean of black and white (and the occasional gray) clothing, on the second day of rosh hashana, and here you are, wearing the brightest and most colorful skirt in your closet, in the most charedi neighborhood you've ever been to in your life.
All eyes are on you.
Yes, my friends, that was me two days ago.
I'm sitting on the other side of  the berlin wall mechitza, which is also in a separate ROOM than the men.
It was a different universe. 
Fortunately, after being inundated with Hebrew babbling 24/7, with the occasional few English words interjected for me, I'm becoming quicker at ivrit. Oh, wouldn't Mrs. Grun be proud. 
But what I'm getting to, the redeeming quality of yom tov, was the food. I'm going to be dreaming of bourekas and spicy matbucha while I eat peanut butter sandwiches for dinner over the next month. And the cheesecake-nothing like the American stuff. Earlier this week I made cookies- the same nestle tollhouse recipe I use ALL the time at home, and when I tasted them, I couldn't believe they were the same recipe. Weird. Still trying to figure out why the water tastes like ashes and the flour is more floury.