Shanah Tovah!

I'll start with a quick rundown of my Rosh Hashanah. Friday morning was devoted to learning about the holiday. We all were able to pick three sessions led by our staff to attend. I found this mildly interesting, but nothing incredible.

UPDATE (I can't believe I forgot this, thanks Judah) In the afternoon, Josh, Judah, David, Seth, Tyler and I went out for pizza. We found a place on Rechov Aza where I think I ate before when I visited Navah on Nativ but I think it had a different name. Now it's called Pizza Panini and it was fairly good for Israeli pizza. After that, we headed over a couple blocks to a synagogue with a mikveh attached. We had decided that it would be an interesting experience to go for dunk before the new year, especially since mikvaot are so easily accessible in Israel. Only David seemed to have any idea what to do so we followed his lead. We paid 7 S"H to get in (which offended me a little), and then went into little booths to shower. All of the booths are open on one side, which leads to a hallway that leads to the mikveh. We waded in to the (surprisingly) warm water, dunked three times, and said the shehechianu. I hope we did it right. It was a pretty cool experience.

On Friday night all of Nativ met together in one of the rooms on -3 for Ma'ariv to start Rosh Hashanah. Yossi led Maariv and we all enjoyed davening together. At dinner I had my first ever Seder Rosh Hashanah - we said the lines for the various foods that we're supposed to eat on RH and then we ate them (including fish heads - yum). Dinner on the whole was better than average Agron food, but still not good. After dinner my friend David, my roommate Josh and I rounded up about 15 of our friends to walk with us down to Yemin Moshe. We sat under the windmill in Mishkenot Shaananim and sung songs for about an hour or so. We had lots of tourists watching us and taking pictures, but they werent too disruptive. When we decided to head back to base we all agreed that it was one of the best moments of Nativ so far.

The next morning was Yerucham's turn to take the long walk to Talpiot for RH services (Kibbutz would be going the next day). I davened with about ten Nativers at Moreshet Avraham (everyone else was at Maayanot - a small congregation that meets at the local high school) and I enjoyed the service a lot. It was clear that I had the better davening experience because the people at Maayanot hated it. For lunch we were assigned to host homes in the area. I went with two other Nativers to our friends Alexis and Charlie's for lunch. Alexis was my babysitter way back when so we've known them forever. I was there by design, but the other Nativers were random They have three little boys who are very cute and fun to play with. The food was delicious and it was great to see them. After lunch, we walked over to Maayanot for Mincha (at which I read Torah as I had been doing all week because it is Haazinu) which was nice because it was mostly Nativers. We got back to Beit Nativ and it was naptime. My friend Gabe woke me up for Maariv by tickling me - not at all a pleasant way to wake up and I was groggy all through services which were awful anyway because they were at Moreshet Yisrael. Dinner was again good but not great. That night I again went for a walk - this time with just Josh and our friend Jordana. We decided to walk south-ish, the one direction we almost never go from Beit Nativ. We wandered around for about an hour and sat for a time at a playground with a view of the Knesset. Then we started home and I got the chance to use my Hebrew to ask for directions (Ramzor [traffic light] is a word I was particularly proud for knowing) not that we were REALLY lost.

The next morning we got up and had the opportunity to go anywhere for davening. about 8 of us decided to go to Kehillat Kedem which was weird, but nice. They were very welcoming and very enthusiastic about their prayers which sometimes rubs me the wrong way, but in this instance it wasn't too unpleasant. Lunch back at Beit Nativ was the best meal I've had there yet, and then the rest of the day was devoted to hanging around doing nothing until Maariv. Dinner was eatable (my friends and I always check whats being served before deciding on dinner plans - it's just too expensive to go out every night) so we stayed in. After dinner we went out to Cafe Joe where we watched football which we'd all missed a lot and got dessert.

Yesterday it was back to class which was the same as always - equal parts boring and cool. For Jerusalem class we explored Yemin Moshe which was fun, but I didn't really learn much. Last night we were in for dinner again and then ten of us went out to play basketball. It was fun, but I wasn't too successful - my athletic prowess leaves something to be desired. Then it was back to base for a shower, some social time and bed.

I'm writing this now from the Rothberg courtyard. My text class isn't meeting today and neither is Jlem so we came to school for an hour and a half of class this morning and we have to stay for second semester orientation this afternoon (I'm going to try to use the time to write an essay).

That's all for now.

Talk to you soon,
Seffi