I have a few stories to tell you and I'll have to see if I can remember everything, because each week here is so intense right now.
First of all, learning is still going strong. I thought it would be harder since the classes wouldn't be as exciting, but the material is still new and the teachers here are really fantastic. I am finding myself getting slightly dependent on coffee, though. It's amazing to have a year all to myself, but I feel as if I have so many priorities, it's hard to keep up. I have my learning, my fitness, my eating (which I still have to do sometimes), my music (which includes planning choir), and keeping up with people at home. It doesn't sound like too much to handle, but when nine and a half hours of your day are taken up with the learning part, it is a lot.
Choir is almost underway, it seems as if we'll have about 25 members, but everyone is very competition oriented, so I have to cater to desire to be competitive, and not just sing for fun.
This week we had roommate-discussion time, where each room had to talk about the roommates individual needs and certain rules that should be set up. My room didn't really have to talk at all, we all get along well (this includes me, Karen, Rena, Nikki, and Tamara - just FYI), have similar living habits, and respect each other. I'm really glad that's working out.
Then, the next day we had an information session about the Sukkot break - which I really need to plan, because I can essentially go anywhere, as long as I tell them where. At the end of that session, the head of the seminary gets up and says, "Oh, by the way, you're going to the beach today." We were all shocked! So they took us to the beach for the afternoon, and then we had a picnic dinner at the park. It was adorable. We hung out, we sang, we went in the beautiful Mediterranean water. I really enjoyed myself.
This Shabbat, I went with three friends (Ariella and Safira from Baltimore, and Stacey from Queens) to a town called Maleh Adumim, using a program called Anywhere in Israel. You call them and tell them how many people you have, and they place you somewhere for Shabbat. We were in a fully functional basement apartment of a young family, but we were really on our own. At least it was mostly functional - we did have to manually fill the toilet tanks, and there wasn't any hot water - but it was still amazing. We decided to bring our own Friday night meal, by getting takeout before we left. So Friday night, we went to a Carlebach synagogue, where they sing the entire Kabbalat Shabbat (the prayer service welcoming in Shabbat), and that was gorgeous. Then we slowly walked back and made our own Shabbat meal, talked until late at night, and slept four of us in two twin beds smushed together. It was quite an adventure.
On Saturday, we went to a Midreshet HaRova alumna's apartment, where she lived with her husband, for lunch. They were a very sweet, welcoming, young couple (who also, of course, liked to sing), and we loved asking her questions about her experience here. Also, her food was delicious. We then walked back to take a nap and read, and then went to a teacher's house for dinner. The whole thing was really enjoyable, and I got to know the girls I was with well, and they got to know me.
We're now entering a time of self-reflection, because of the high holidays. It will definitely be intense, but I'm looking forward to it. Speaking of which, I have midnight prayer services to go to, in preparation for Rosh HaShana. I definitely won't do it all week, but I figured I could try the first night, at least. Speak to you all soon! If not before this weekend, have a happy new year!
Love,
Gabriella
No comments:
Post a Comment