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1. Our first tiyyul/seminar was an interesting experience. It's the one thing that JTS and AJU students are doing together, so I finally met them, and got to know some of my classmates a bit better. Getting to know them and to feel a bit more part of the group and socially accepted was a real highlight of the trip for me. I have generally felt very much on the outskirts, and this experience gave me some more connection- somehow people's actions felt more friendly and welcoming. Perhaps that social system will actually become more comfortable for me this year after all, for all my skepticism. The actual activities had their ups and their downs- I had a few freak outs in relation to going down stairs where I could see the bottom- we went down into what had been a cistern under Masada and had a whole discussion down there, and while parts of the discussion were very interesting, the stairs down were Not a pleasant experience, and the bottom of the thing was all chalk dust, making it both very dirty and rather hard to breath. A number of people slowly made their way back up before hte program was finished, myself included. Getting up absurdly early to hike Masada wasn't as bad as I thought it would be- we went to bed early, and sleeping in a large tent was not so pleasant that I was sleeping really well anyways. (Also, after assuring us that there would be separate sleeping arrangements for men and women, it turned out to be different sides of the same tent, which felt a little awkward until they put the lights out. I was hoping for at least a curtain, but oh well... That was probably my biggest gripe of the couple of days. THe food, although pre-packaged in frightening quantities of celophane, was actually both plentiful and tasty- if with a very strange notion of what one eats for breakfast. Cola is Not a part of my image of breakfast.
2. Shabbat, for all the helter-skelter preparation, turned out to be quite lovely. I didn't make it to shul at night, as I decided that it was more important to finish up a conversation I was having with my roommates about our dynamics (we have Very different presentations of self and manners of interaction with other people) and to be calm and focused than to run off to shul and not be able to focus on it because I was still thinking about the conversation that I left half-way through. So I davened at home, and then we had dinner guests. It was an interesting mix of the JTS world- the three of us from the apartment, two cantorial students, and another classmate of ours. Another classmate was supposed to show up but never did- we don't know if it's because he slept through or if he couldn't find his way to our place. The conversation was dramatic, amusing and often delightful. The singing truly was delightful- the best I've had at a shabbos meal in ages.
I realized on my way to bed, that I had neglected to write down where lunch was, much less how to get there. So I freaked out a bit, but decided that I'd either figure it out one way or another, or have lots of cookies (my contribution to lunch- I did cinnamon shortbread, since I'd been assured that it was easy, and didn't require many ingredients) for lunch. Luckily, as I had guessed, two of the other lunch guests were at shul with me, so I just walked over with them. (Shul itself was quite nice, and I got asked to lead shacharit in two weeks, since I'm planning to be away next week- time to brush up a touch, I haven't lead shabbos shacharit in a bit.) The lunch itself was delightful- wonderful people, good food (and tons of it), and people appreciated my cookies. We did some more singing as well, spanning a quite random selection of songs. Between that and conversation, we stayed until we had to daven a quick mincha because time was almost up, then walked home- I got home just as shabbos went out.
Tomorrow is the first day of school. I am rather nervous about how it will turn out- I know almost nothing about my teachers, and I Really want to find reasonable chevrutas this year (my Talmud chevruta last year was wonderful, but I've done halakha primarily on my own for two years, and would really like to have someone to learn with this time around- it helps my memory, and it's more fun and far more inspiring...) Sunday is my longest day of the week this semester, so I should be starting the year with a bang.
2. Shabbat, for all the helter-skelter preparation, turned out to be quite lovely. I didn't make it to shul at night, as I decided that it was more important to finish up a conversation I was having with my roommates about our dynamics (we have Very different presentations of self and manners of interaction with other people) and to be calm and focused than to run off to shul and not be able to focus on it because I was still thinking about the conversation that I left half-way through. So I davened at home, and then we had dinner guests. It was an interesting mix of the JTS world- the three of us from the apartment, two cantorial students, and another classmate of ours. Another classmate was supposed to show up but never did- we don't know if it's because he slept through or if he couldn't find his way to our place. The conversation was dramatic, amusing and often delightful. The singing truly was delightful- the best I've had at a shabbos meal in ages.
I realized on my way to bed, that I had neglected to write down where lunch was, much less how to get there. So I freaked out a bit, but decided that I'd either figure it out one way or another, or have lots of cookies (my contribution to lunch- I did cinnamon shortbread, since I'd been assured that it was easy, and didn't require many ingredients) for lunch. Luckily, as I had guessed, two of the other lunch guests were at shul with me, so I just walked over with them. (Shul itself was quite nice, and I got asked to lead shacharit in two weeks, since I'm planning to be away next week- time to brush up a touch, I haven't lead shabbos shacharit in a bit.) The lunch itself was delightful- wonderful people, good food (and tons of it), and people appreciated my cookies. We did some more singing as well, spanning a quite random selection of songs. Between that and conversation, we stayed until we had to daven a quick mincha because time was almost up, then walked home- I got home just as shabbos went out.
Tomorrow is the first day of school. I am rather nervous about how it will turn out- I know almost nothing about my teachers, and I Really want to find reasonable chevrutas this year (my Talmud chevruta last year was wonderful, but I've done halakha primarily on my own for two years, and would really like to have someone to learn with this time around- it helps my memory, and it's more fun and far more inspiring...) Sunday is my longest day of the week this semester, so I should be starting the year with a bang.