High Holidays, School Started, Still love the Bears

9/28/11: NOTHING HAPPENED!!!! THE WORLD LITERALLY STOPPED!!!!! (Also, it was Sivan S.'s Birthday. She turned 18. She is also sitting right across and is not influencing this at all. Happy Birthday!!!!) But actually, it was essentially an off day for us. The only things that we did was have a dinner and Maariv service. 

Rosh Hashanah: 

The First day was nothing too special in all honesty. I went to this really cool minyan which is basically full of really religious hippies that dance around the whole time, but I learned that that is definitely a minyan to only go to for a shorter service (i.e. Friday night) because, while fun, they drag out services. After leaving a little early, me and the people I went back with then took a very roundabout way back to base where we passed through this one neighborhood that I love going through. The buildings all have some blue in it, and it is as if it was made to be one giant garden. For the afternoon and evening services, I went with my friend to where his grandparents go and then went to dinner at his grandparents. A cool minyan, but nothing too special. 

The Second day was really enjoyable. Nativ sets us up for hosts with families in the area, on either the first or second day. I went with these two other girls to a really fun minyan. It was called Baaka Shyvuni. It had a mechitza, but was still egalitarian. I really enjoyed their tunes and the service as a whole. Plus the person I sat next to was very nice and one of the few Americans, so he was able to explain the minyan to me because it was a very new one at that. Afterwards, we find our host and she is super nice right away. She was also on Nativ 11, so it was a cool connection with that. We then meet her husband and 3 kids. Her husband runs a winery in Golan Heights, so obviously we had AMAZING wine for lunch. The lunch in general was also really good. It was 4 courses. First was this delicious cheese and crackers. I don't know what was so special, but the cheese was wonderful. Next was arguably the best soup I had ever had. It was a lintel, coconut, and orange soup. The mixture of flavors was wonderful. After was a quiche, carrot cake muffin kugel type food, and 3 different types of salad. Lastly was a great selection of fruit, apple cake, lemon pie, and chocolate covered pretzels made by her kids. It was a great meal, plus the company was great. They had 2 friends over as well and they were also very nice and interesting. 

Later that night I then went to Scott's friends for another great dinner. It was too bad because I was not that hungry, and due to that I don't remember what exactly was served. I do however remember it being very good and very good company. 

School: I started the regular semester that Sunday (10/2) with Evolutionary Psychology. I liked my professor immediatly by introducing himself as Amir, just like he was a normal person. He also had a pointer which I find hillarious. Best of all, he looks like a monkey. Now in most cases, that is probably an insult, but I feel that in a class based in evolution, that a professor looking like a monkey makes the class that much more legitimate. He also happened to write about half of the extra readings. It is also a good class because it is a 4 hour block, but not all lecture. It is 2 hours of lecture and 2 hours of us getting into groups and researching/presenting a topic from the lecture.

On Mondays I have 3 hours of hebrew followed by 4 hours of The Emergence of Biblical Israel. That is a very difficult time because I get really drained, but it is a super interesting class. We basically analyze the emergence of Israel as a people by looking at the bible from a historical perspective. 

My third class is Anti-Semitism from the 19th Century to the Present. It is twice a week so only 2 hours per day, but those two hours take a long time. The material is super interesting, but the professor is very quite and dry. In a way it is lucky though because the only two grades we have are not based on his lecture. It is a book review and then a term paper based on any topic related to anti-semitism. 

Yom Kippur: This was a really cool experience in Jerusalem. Kol Nidrei/Maariv on Friday night was interesting. A bunch of people went to the Great Synagogue of Jerusalem. The only way I can think of describing it is, that going to the Great Synagogue is an experience that I wanted to have...once. I will never go back. It takes way too long and I didn't like how they ran the service, however the synagogue itself is absolutely gorgeous. Afterwards, all of Nativ went out into the middle of the street by us which is a very busy intersection and starting singing songs from packets/booklets that we have and use ourselves on a normal Friday night, but going to that intersection for Yom Kippur has become a Nativ tradition. Singing there alone was cool, but what really made it amazing was that hundreds of other people ended up coming over and joining us from the city. While we were sitting in a circle, there were hundreds around us joining us in song. Truly unbelievable.
The next day, instead of doing the normal "go to services all day", me and some friends instead went on a "spiritual walk and sit" and ended up at an overlook that actually happens to overlook the Valley of Judgement. I found it much more meaningful. For the afternoon and evening services, I went with one person to the Kotel which was amazing. We helped start the minyan which was pretty cool. For Mincha (afternoon service) it was slightly disorganized, at least in our minyan, and the person who lead took way too long. But then Ne'ila was just amazing. All of the energy at the Kotel was unbelievable, and was one of, if not the best praying experiences I have ever had. O, and Zack D. fainted. In fact, he actually fell onto me, and because it was on me I was able to get him a chair to sit down in. He actually finds it super cool. 

There was then a communal breakfast at the Kotel where I had sooo much food. It was basic cakes, muffins and cookies, but even still, delicious. Later that night, me and Jesse go to this one place and have delicious hot wings. 

Tonight, I will be staying up til 5 in the morning. Gotta love having the Bears play Monday Night Football in the states, but me also not having class til 2:30 in the afternoon.