First Shabbat

So Friday evening, I took it easy. Read a little, wrote my last blog post, and showered. After that, I went with my roommate Nathan to Shabbat service at a synagogue not too far away. After kabbalat Shabbat, we came back to share Shabbat dinner which Nathan generously cooked. I bought dessert when I went grocery shopping with Keren. We shared some delicious food and conversation. My other roommates, Gideon and Jake (who is studying at the Conservative Yeshiva with Nathan) came back from their Shabbat dinner. We hung out for a little when Ben, the guy I'm subletting from came over to move some stuff out of my room. After he left, I unpacked my sheets and pjs and went to sleep. I stayed up till 11! Unfortunately, I slept 14 hours that night, right through Saturday morning services and the lunch plans I had with my roommates. I guess I was tired. The rest of the day I spent cleaning and unpacking my room. I got everything put away and organized (for now). I went to sleep around 1am Saturday night and set my alarm for 845 so I could get up on time to go to HUC for my campus tour. I woke up a few hours before my alarm and laid in bed reading my book because I didn't really want to be up at 630 in the morning (I guess those 14 hours, while they were lovely Friday night, messed up my sleep schedule for Saturday). But I got up, got ready, and made my way to HUC (by myself and without any mistakes!!) There, I met intern Bess and a bunch of classmates for our campus tour. I didn't really learning where anything was on the tour because we just went in a big circle and all the hallways look the same. But we'll see what happens come orientation this week. After the tour, a few of us went to go find a place to take passport pictures which we needed to get student ids and such. Then we headed back to HUC so that we could register for our health insurance and fill out some paperwork for the school. That took about two hours because the lady handling the paperwork could only see one of us at a time and the individual meetings each took about 20 mins. But I got to get to know a few of my classmates a little better while we were waiting in the hall. After that, I came home, made some dinner and went to sleep. Today was Rosh Chodesh Av (The start of the new month Av). Every Rosh Chodesh, the group the Women of the Wall meets to pray at the Kotel (The Western Wall). You may have heard some recent news stories about them as the protests from the haredim have gotten worse since the courts allowed the Women of the Wall to pray at the Kotel with their tallisim and tefillin. I know that a bunch of my classmates went this morning to the busses to get to the wall, and I wish I would have gone with them, I just felt uncomfortable going by myself and not having a functioning cell phone yet, I couldn't connect with anyone to meet me somewhere to walk to the busses together. Hopefully, after orientation this week, my sim card will have arrived and I will be able to make plans with my classmates so that I am not alone. Tonight starts orientation. We have a schmooze session with a welcome from the director of the year in Israel program (YII), a group session to get to know each other a little better, dinner, and services. Well that's all for now, I'll update you later in the week!