Getting ready for Shabbat, I had a really chill day on Friday. I slept in until noon'ish, and spent the afternoon hanging out, shopping at the store down the street, showering, and talking to a couple of people on the phone. The plan for our program for Shabbat was to have an on-campus Shabbaton, so I didn't need to do very much prep for Shabbat. We were all told to be ready and at the main gate by 4:40 in order to get a ride to the house where we would be eating dinner. We split up into our two separate groups and made our way. We prayed Kabbalat Shabbat and Arvit at this Yeshiva in Ramat Gan, and the minyan was most definitely Ashkenazik. I made the FAT mistake of not taking my siddur with me so I had to suffer not only through the Ashkenazik tefilah, but through the Ashkenazik siddur as well. Super lame. I survived, though, and after tefilah we made it back to Meir (our informal education director)'s house for dinner. Dinner was totally great, and I'm pretty sure we all just had a really fun time hanging out together in the Succah. A while after dinner was over the people from the other house showed up, and we stayed and oneg'ed in the Succah for a little while. But, they came super late so basically half an hour after they came we headed back to where we live. I went to bed basically as soon as we got back because midnight is way too late for me, haha.
This morning we all woke up and congregated in the Succah, which is right outside of the guys' dorms, along with all of the Av and Em Batim who were around. We had a super nice meal, and despite the beating hot sun really enjoyed the company, the food, and all the discussions and singing. It is definitely important that I mention that there was a serious attempt to rep the Sephardic portion of our group during the singing, which was much appreciated. We took our time with the meal, and finished at about 2. Some people napped, some played games, and some just hung out... I read outside in the company of some people who were playing games, which was nice. We had a Seudah Shlishit, which was another great meal, sung for a while, heard a D'var Torah, then said Arvit and Havdalah together.
After Shabbat seven of us went to Meir's house for some Hoshanah Rabah learning and food. We discussed parts of Perashat Bereshit, which was interesting. Afterwards, we dropped off two of the guys and the rest of us went to a river behind the Ayalon Mall to do Tashlich. Done did after about thirty seconds, and we headed to a pool hall for a couple of games of pool. I played in the second game, and none of us were doing well at all so it was just about the longest game of pool I've ever seen. I used to be good at pool, but I guess I could probably get that back if I were to pick up a pool cue more often than once every two years. Haha. We'll see if I make any advances with that, though I doubt I will.
I should mention the following couple of things:
1) There's this guy named Noam on my program who has made it his personal life challenge to be mentioned in at least one out of every five blog posts of mine.. So when you see his name pop up, know that he's only interacting with me for the publicity. Haha.
2) A common theme of Shabbat is the words we say for Havdalah.. They basically talk about how we make a separation between Shabbat and weekday, between light and darkness, and between Israel and the other nations. Now, okay. I'm going to be honest, for a minute, about one of the biggest differences that I experience between Shabbat and the rest of the week. Here it is: Shabbat is the day that I see tens of aunts crawling nastily on my bathroom wall and I can't kill them. So maybe we can add that to Havdalah.
3) Sitting at the table in our kitchen is always an experience. Now let me tell you why... There's this weird raining thing that happens, but when I say raining I don't mean raining water. What I do mean is that it rains dead bugs. It's the most disgusting unnatural weather I have ever experienced. This stupid light that sits about the table apparently kills so many bugs per day that it is completely regular to experience a bug storm over the course of sitting for less than twenty minutes. EW.
4) After Shabbat tonight, I flipped the switch to turn on the light in our bathroom and the light bulb did this weird explosion thing... It made this fat popping noise, then shut off completely. I later discovered that the outlet next to the bathroom light switch isn't working, so I'm pretty sure that means that there's something happening with that fuse. But then again, I'm not totally sure. So we're going to talk to our Em Bayit about it in the morning. For now we're stuck using the bathroom in the empty apartment across the hall.
5) I want to take a brief moment to publicly recognize that Matbucha is one of the best parts of this country, and no one can deny that. It is totally my new personal mission to get real Matbucha to Seattle... It's. The. BEST.
6) Tomorrow starts Chag in Yerushalaim with Garce, her family, and the many of my friends who are also staying there... It's going to be so fun!
Read this:
If you are going to be in Seattle on October 28th you absolutely need to go to: http://www.runscared5k.com/ and sign up for Team Samurai, in memory of my brother Sam Owen. The team discount code is Samurai12, and it will get you $5 off per person. Rain or shine, get yourself to Seward Park and help make Team Samurai this biggest and best team out there!! The Run Scared 5K is truly a great cause, benefiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Plus, hello: you'll get an awesome t-shirt for signing up! Make it happen, people.
Shavua Tov, to all!
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