Shabbat Shalom

Hey all, welcome to post number two! You guys all read the first post I hope, so I'll just cut right to the chase and start off right where I left you all hanging after most recent installment. So the next day after I left off, we had our second legitimate job.  Well, it was actually more like a hazing. After buying a few house necessities (including a new hookah) we headed over to Herzel Street to "do some gardening." We ended up in front of the residence of some senior (25-30) Oranim program members. We cleaned their yard, trimmed their trees, and pulled stumps out of the area in front of their house, while they sat around, smoked hookah, had a few beers and told jokes. (Ya know, with most of us being freshmen next year, a little practice couldn't have hurt any of us.) All of us young-uns hung out at our pad (Weizmann 18, the best) later that night. Well, the next day was quite an adventure. We woke up at 5:30 AM, IST and met at seven at the same yard we had cleaned, and headed off with the older kids to meet up in Jerusalem with some other Oranim peeps from all around Israel. We then began one of the most mind-blowing tours I have ever been on, with a charismatic, hilarious, and insane tour guide named Ron, who I am convinced could be the next Steve Irwin (for those living under a rock, that's the Crocodile Hunter, may he rest in peace). When I can get my hands on it, I will attach a video of his presentation to a later blog post. He gave this presentation from a beautiful place overlooking all of Jerusalem, including the Old City, which he gave us the entire (albeit fascinating) history of. We subsequently boarded a bus (complete with our personal armed bodyguard) to around the Old City itself, in its full, historically charged splendor. We visited a bunch of ridiculously relevant religious (the new Three R's) sites, the first of which was King David's tomb (yes, the same shepherd young, he who cheers both heart and tongue, for all you Waldorfians). The next was the room where Jesus consumed his last supper with his twelve homies/apostles. After a falafel/shwarma break (nom nom nom), we spelunked (is that even a word?) with the aforementioned Ron through the underground city water tunnels, which the old-school Hebrews (i.e. from 5000 years ago) constructed without a GPS, or even a map. It was reminiscent of the California Caverns. After drying off, we went to the Wailing/Western wall, where I donned a kippeh, said a couple of prayers, and got as close to a spiritual high as relaxed old Dre is ever going to get. It was the first non-jetlagged experienced I had at the Real Wall (my apologies to Pink Floyd). Boy was it something else. Anyway, after that, we took a bus back to home sweet home in Ramla for a quick nap and dinner. At 10:30, we headed to Tel Aviv for some clubbing. For all of you that have clubbed before or like clubbing now, you haven't lived. I mean, that place was POPPIN'! Absolute insanity, complete with techno, vodka, and beautiful females. Anyway, when we got back at 5:30 AM (a full 24-hour circuit), we slept like  rocks. The only event worth mentioning the next day was when a few apparently love-stricken young men buzzed our door and booked it after leaving a roses and a note for my roommate Shuly saying "Here or som flowers for beautiful gurl" [sic]. Cute, cute. Anyway, I went for a run later that day, and we ate dinner together. That is all. The next day was Shabbat, which means Friday. That afternoon, we all went to services, and then paired up and all had post-service dinners with some families from the shul that we were at. Me and my roommate Kerry went to the house (really close to ours) of a very nice couple with three children. My roommates Olga and Sam went to the house of the rabbi and his wife, who have ELEVEN KIDS. ELEVEN. Wow. Anyways, we crashed, woke up at around 10:30 AM and a little later went to the house of Kerry's grandparents and ate Sabbath lunch. We then took a van taxi back home. Which leads me to now.

Anyway, ta ta for now, and remember the next one is coming soon! Bye. Love to all.