Sunday
I spent Sunday at the Weisberger’s with Angela getting ready
for Sukkot. We made tons of food, including victory buckeyes (I didn’t help
make them but I definitely helped eat them). The holiday started Sunday night,
and we were all ready and excited to eat and sleep in the sukkah. These dreams
were crushed, however, when we started finding tics in the sukkah. We decided
to make Kiddush and Motzi (the blessings over the wine and bread) in the
sukkah, and then move inside for dinner and sleep.
Monday
Monday was a relaxing day because it was still chag. We
spent the day playing games, and Elizabeth almost beat us all in monopoly,
until Angela made an amazing comeback. Other then playing games we spent the
day laughing at all of the shenanigans Rina got into. She would always come out
of nowhere and be wet or covered in marker and no one knew how she got that
way. The best was when we look over and she was standing on the table holding a
bowl of powdered sugar, grabbing handfuls and sprinkling them on the floor. It
was hilarious. After Sukkot, we headed back to Jerusalem to get ready for our
trip. We were scheduled to leave at 6 am, so everyone wanted to head to bed
early. Just as we were all stressing about the fact that it was so late we got
a text from our director Yossi informing us that due to a heat wave we didn’t
have to be up until 8:30. Everyone in the building started cheering. It was
amazing.
Tuesday-Thursday
(Desert Survival)
We headed out Tuesday morning for the Negev, for our desert
survival trip. We spent the three days hiking and camping. In total, we hiked
25 kilometers, which is about 16 miles. The two nights at our campsites we
could sleep in a tent, but I decided to just sleep under the stars. It was a
gorgeous, and I’m so happy I did it. The trip was incredible, but the only down
side was I got the most intense sunburn I’ve ever had. My entire body is bright
red, and I literally look like a tomato. Luckily it’s not too painful for right
now; we’ll see how it is in a few days. When I got back to Beit Nativ I found a
letter from my best friend Shannon waiting for me, which really made my
day.
Friday and
Saturday (Shabbat)
This Shabbat was one spent full of thinking for me. As you
may or may not know, I have been keeping Shabbat since I’ve been in Israel.
This means not using technology of any sort, or writing, or doing various other
things from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. I have been thinking about this
a lot, because I didn’t keep Shabbat at home. The issue I have been dealing with
is consistency. It is easy for me to keep Shabbat here, because I am in a
community where a lot of people do it, and in a country where not much goes on
on Shabbat. When I get back to America and start college, however, this will be
much more difficult. As much as I want to tell myself I’ll keep Shabbat in
college, I know I want. It will take away from my social life, and it doesn’t
even mean that much to me. With that in mind, I decided that I will no longer
be keeping Shabbat. However, I don’t want to go back to completely not keeping
Shabbat. For the next few weeks (maybe even months) I will be trying to find a
happy medium. My own personal way of keeping Shabbat, that will work both while
I’m in Israel, as well as at home in America.
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