I miss blogging everyday like I was when I first got to Israel, but I also realize that I don't want to blog everyday about the same thing over and over. So, this new setup I have works well enough. This week has been a great week. Classes all went well this week and we had great discussions and great learning. On Tuesday, I had a great meeting with the Director of Admissions of American Jewish University in Los Angles about college for me for next year. That night we had Erev Nativ and we previewed one of the two videos that would be shown on Thanksgiving. After that part of Erev Nativ we split up into groups and my group went and had a program that I have done many of times, including writing my own version of the program. We discussed Shirat HaSticker by Hadag Nachash. It is a song that takes different bumper stickers that you see in Israel and puts them all together to make somewhat of a controversial song about the politics in Israel.
Wednesday was a pretty regular day also with the exception of going out to a nice skewer restaurant for dinner. Wednesday night I spent a long time in the Beit Midrash of the Yeshiva working on Applications for college, which I now remember is a horrible process, but I need to just tough it out and get through it.
Thursday-Turkey Day I knew that Thanksgiving would not be a big deal in Israel because it is a strictly American festival. I also knew that Thanksgiving would be extremely different this year for me because I wasn't at Emtza Kinnus, which ironically was in Kansas City the year I wouldn't be there. It would be the first year in a long time that I would be able to get plenty of sleep, not get sick and eat pretty solid food, which is always a plus. I did just that. Thanksgiving for us on Nativ is a big deal. It is the one time of the year when Nativ all comes together for a festive meal and invites all Nativ Alumni and their respective families who are in Israel. We had lots of Nativers in the past who have made Aliyah and either live here with families, go to university, or who are in the army. It was a great site to see. We began the evening with everyone all together for a little intro ceremony in the sanctuary of the shul next door where we heard from Yossi, Nativ Director, Kol Nativ, Nativ's accapella group, and we saw a video that a few Nativers made about what we as Nativ 29 does everyday. It was a nicely made video and ceremony. After that we all headed to Beit Nativ for the meal. We were separated by track and then placed with past Nativ groups. We were in the main dining room with Nativ 1-23. Upstairs was Kibbutz and 24-28. As we walk into the dining room, there was a table with envelopes that had each of our names on it, so I grabbed mine. We all opened our envelopes and we discover letters that our families and friends had emailed to a secret account and our staff printed them out for us. For most people it was a tear fest, but I realized that I haven't had Thanksgiving dinner with my entire family in over a decade and haven't been home in 5 years for one. It was an extremely sentimental few minutes while people were reading their letters. I certainly enjoyed the letters that I received from my family. As we were all sitting down at the tables, Yitz Jacobson, the boss of the Fuschberg Center, brought out a whole turkey to carve in front of us. I went up to him and pointed to my piece, the turkey leg, and he saved it for me. I must admit two things about the dinner. 1. My father still carves the best turkey with the most precision of anyone I know and their is never any meat left on the carcass. 2. My mother still makes the best turkey I have ever eaten. With that being said, the meal wasn't horrible, it was pretty good for Beit Nativ standards. After dinner, my Nativ gathered in -3 for the big video that was put together by two Nativers that interviewed each of us asking us different questions relating to thanksgiving. It was a very well done video that was very funny at times.
After the video we had a few announcements from Yossi which included my evening plans. Thursday started an annual three week event of cultural arts events in Jerusalem. The one that caught all of our attentions was a Jazz music concert at the Davidson Center right next to the Kotel. We went and listened to some amazing Jazz music for about an hour. It was a great way to end a different yet great Thanksgiving. This morning(Friday), I woke up at 6:30am so I could skype with Emtza's Kinnus for about a half hour with a few other people from the region. It was nice to talk to the convention and advocate for Nativ. After that was done, I went back to bed and here I am now. Shabbat Plans Tonight I am going to go to shul somewhere and then I was invited out to dinner at a guy who studies at the Yeshiva every once in a while who was also a Nativ Alumni. I know his brother really well because he is a youth director in Chicago. So I am schleping a half hour to Talpiyot to go to dinner at this guy’s house which should be a nice meal. Tomorrow I will be going to shul again, but for lunch I will be going to another person from the Yeshivas who happens to be a Reb Student at AJU and a fraternity brother of my brother Corey's from WashU so that should be nice. A nice and restful Shabbat ahead of me. Shabbat Shalom
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