Susiyah. Shabbos and such.

So, the school offers us optional shabbatons to interesting and exciting locales, like random kibbutzim, and I always sign up. It's nice to see sides of Israel I'd never see on my own. (On my own I've manged to see lots of Beit Shemesh. And Efrat, once.)
So, this time it was Susiyah, this random yishuv south of Hevron and Yattah. There was a town there, an old Jewish one, built around 400 years after the destruction of the second temple, and it grew to prosperity in Talmudic times before becoming suddenly abandoned for unknown reasons. There are archaeological excavations still going on there. The yishuv is right over the next hill, and they share the name.
So we got on the bus around 10:30 in the morning, and we stopped at the old site first and got a brief tour. It was really cool, different biblical and talmudic references existed for these people. There were holes for mezuzot in the walls, and a burial cave that was something referenced in a story in the gemarah (all of this was so cool).
The shul is one of the most amazing finds. The archaeologists originally thought it was a church (before they figured out it was a Jewish town, clearly) but then they found it was facing Yerushalyim and when they got to the floor they found mosaics of menorahs and the beit hamikdash and other clear Jewish symbols. It's pretty big and the shul in the yishuv is modeled directly after it. (A little frustrating, as the original didn't have a women's section, so the women's section just got added to the back, and it's was a tight squeeze when we were added to the local population in shul)
Then we went to the oil press, which was really cool, and we talked about how the oil that was used for the menorah in the Beit Hamikdash was made for a bit. Then we haded back to the bus for a 2-minute ride back to the yishuv proper. Then we set up in our rooms (I was with Miriam, Shoshi L., Michal and Eliana L. Awesome room. We stayed up far too late talking) and prepped for shabbos. We stayed in a visitors center. I don't know what the proper name is, but every smaller community seems to have one. It's youth hostel-like, with rooms packed with beds and a yard and a communal dining hall.
The shul was lovely, even if it was squishy. The community is very idealistic and has been slowly building up the shul as funds come in. We all had dinner together, and there was a talk afterwards about Susiyah and what makes the community so great. (Michal decided that if she ever makes aliyah, she'd like to move there.) Rav Br. and Rav Finkl. both came with their families, which was really nice.
Shabbos day was laid back. There was some optional stuff in the afternoon, but I just napped after lunch (along with Michal. The rest of the room trickled in over time.) I should mention that this weekend was cold cold cold. And I love the winter, but the heat in the room (which was on 30 degrees celcius) didn't seem to have any effect, and we all huddled under multiple blankets. Before Shabbos our madrichah came into the room to turn down the heat because she thought 30 degrees would be uncomfortably hot for us and we chased her out, yelling.
After shabbos we caught the bus back, and Michal and I went out to meet up with Avishai and Nate at Emek R'faim. (It's actually a long story, which I'll try to sum up. A few weeks ago Avishai called me Saturday night and invited me to see Juno, which had just started playing at a little independent theater in Yerushalyim. I invited Michal, and Michal and I went to Emek R'faim to hang out before the movie. Then we found out that the theater was sold out. So Avishai came to meet us and we were walking up and down, talking to each other and trying to keep warm, when we bumped into Nate. We were having a fun time hanging out and freezing the tips of our ears off, and we decided to try and go see Juno another week, all four of us. Then shabbos started getting later and our schedules are hard to coordinate, so we elected to go out to dinner instead.) We went to Tal Bagels, my first time, and just stayed there until Nate and Avishai HAD to rush to the Central Bus Station to catch the last busses home, and Michal and I headed back, exhausted, but plenty before curfew.
So in one weekend I managed to have a great shabbos and socialize. And make it to shiur the next morning on time! (I really miss Sundays sometimes...)