Sunday 3 June
The first day of The Etgar Aprentice, run by Liz and Josh. In all honesty, I didn't know what the Aprentice was mean to tbe, but we spent a whole week being quite confused as to how you're fired and still have to participate in the challenges.
We had our penultimate class of Hebrew where we finnished off learning new words and we recapped most of the work we had done throughout Etgar. We had a small party where I pretended it was my birthday and Alyson and I made new friends called Jeremies. We spent the rest of the day playing with the Jeremies and I took a lovely nap at the wrong end of my bed.
Much to my disapointment, I was woken up, moderatly rudely, by Liz to take part in one of these silly challenges that I really hated. This one was cleaning. I hated cleaning, because i always clean and no one else did and it really upset me. I was super tired and moderatly sick, so I didn't really clean.
The penultimate Hebrew lesson found us all sitting in the small hall trying to understand just what the hell was going on. You'd have thought we progressed, but not to the extent where we could fully follow along.
The penultimate Tanakh lesson involved a weird excursion to Jaffa gate to yell lines of the Tanakh at random strangers passing by. Josh and myself took it upon ourselves to tell people that the Temple was amazing. I unfortunately, the group of bewildered tourists didn't find us at all amusing and quickly scurried away with a hiss from their tour guide.
I thought it would have been a cultural experience for them.
We also figured out that there is no word in English to fully express Betaiavon, nor is there a word in Hebrew to express Penultimate.
Sprite Day 4 June
Our last Tachles History class with Mark Lazar found us all in the sweltering heat of the Beit Shmuekl roof at 10am. Josh, Dan Rattan and Rebekkah lead a traditional Ma'amad about the sights you cansee from the roof top. We heard all about Jaffa Gate, The Tower of David and the Old City walls.
Tara and I were next. We lead a less traditional Ma'amad, Netzer Style, including a discussion on Equality in the different sects of Judaism over looking the Kortel. I learnt a lot from leading on a trip like this, mostly about where to do the activity and leading a discussion. Writing down questions to ask is always a good thing, and I should have done that because I realise now, I'm not very good at just winging those kinds of things.
Next Shindlers Grave for a discussion about Heros in History and how people start off with bad intentions that end up being good, or visa versa. We spoke about Nelson Mandela and how he was able to do good things, when at first he hadn't started off too good, but I really dont agree wioth that and was too tired to really argue with them. Besides, Americans know more about my country than I do apparently.
The Tayelet for Naomis Peulah about the History of Jerusalem through a cute childrens story that started off with Giant Monster Feet.
Dinner at Mark Lazars house was AMAZING! We had good food, good wine and amazing music. I looked through all his records and all I wanted was to listen to the Beatles White Album. But Alas...All we got was hectic discussions about a secret rabbit and weather or not to do the peulah that night.
I took a walk with the Dans to /machon, and met Lily iutside at the bus stop. We taked for a while but got on separate buses, me home, and her to Family.
Back at the flat. the Aussies were prepareing for their Peulah. Gangashlach we soon found out, there were all sorts of fun challenges and silly questions. I made the worst sandwich in the history of sandwiches (without a plate ofcourse...)
After cleaning up the mess we had made in the living room, there was flour and sauce everywhere, we headed to the Old City to see the Jerusalem Light Show.
Tuna Tuesday 5 June
Our Reform Judaism class was all about how people treat Religion as a comedic thing. It was meant to be something deep, but I was too tired to get into it, and didn't find the comedian funny at all.
At Tnua Time, Dana lead a session about ideology.
She made us stand and sit on our chairs through the session based on what we believed in, and soon I found myself lieing on the floor, whole heartedly believing that what I belioeve in was exactly right and that I would teach it and tell people about it.
I'm not a huge fan of Danas Ideology sessions, because whenever she runs them it always feels as though she is telling us what is right and what to believe in and I just don't agree with that. She has no right to tell us that because we don't want to make Aliyah and that we don't think that all of Netzers Ideologies are exactly correct, that we don't belong in the movement. A lot of the time, she tries to indoctrinate us and it's not fair. We're people too, and we have found a place where we feel a little more comfortable wit ourselvces and can relate to the other people that are also in our movement, so why should that be a problem?
We also spoke about how we think affects our Ideological stnces. I like to think in a universalistic way, while some people like to gear their thinking more towards one specific topic, or through feminism.
Also, I hate the way that she thinks we shouldnt be able to change the ideology. If that were to happen, we wouldn't be a movement now would we.
Becca Winchel is an amazing girl. She has long dark hair that hangs, gently curling next to her face. She is as pale as a statue in a museum and has tired, scared eyes, so she always looks as though she is on the verge of tears. She speaks with her hands and has an odd sort of manner about her. She uses large words that would confuse most people. She speaks about 7 different languages and is the cutest little thing you've ever seen. If she wasn't so tall you would think her to be a really smart five year old.
That day we all sat on the grass in the Tayelet telling stories and doing imitations of eachother waiting for lunch to be delivered, pizza and salad as usual. It was her farewell picnic.
The corridors of Machon were even more dull than usual. People stopped smiling, and you could see panic cross their faces as they realised that they would never see her agian. Friends of hers frantically dialing her number on their phones, hoping to catch her before she got on her flight all the way back to America. I sat in the hall way trying not to feel empty inside, as Lily and Annie choked back tears at the thought of one less room mate to keep them company.
Oh Becca, you are dearly missed.
I had to be home for the finale of the Etgar Aprentice that night so I hoped on the bus and made my way home.
Plants Vs. Zombies theme night saw us making odd mascotts and playing silly games until Daron won against Rebekkah, and our team lost. All in all a great night, even though we were all exhausted.
Later that night, the Machon poeple came over to drown their sorrows in our living room, and headed to the Kareoke Bar at the top of Ben Yehudah.
I went to bed.
Wednesday 6 June
Tara lead a Tikkun Day peulah about all the different things we were going to do, and all the places we were to volunteer at bright and early on Thursday Morning.
We learnt about the chareidim and their different political stances. Not all of them are super right wing! Some even lean more to the left, and I'm quite pruoud of myself, that I know the difference.
Naomi told us about a place called windows for peace and Jeffrey introduced us to the book we were going to use whist teaching kids to read at their school.
The rest of the day was spent hanging out in the flat, doing nothing in particular, although we did watch some episodes of That 70's Show.