Too much to explain, so I'll sum up

Yom Kippur: We went to Kibbutz (No, I don't remember the name. It was more then an hours drive away) and the whole group split off to different minyanim, either at one of two Hesder Yeshivas, one in the Kibbutz shul, and one Sephardi minyan. I went to the Hesder Yeshiva on the main kibbutz campus, and it was wonderful. I didn't make it to everything (I was still feeling sick) but everything I was at was more inspirational then many minyanim I have been at. There was great singing, all of the guys were really into it, etc. There was only a half-hour break incorporated into the davening, and at the end we sang random stuff to stall for time until Maariv. Also, they sang every single line in Avinu Malkeinu, which was partially to stall for time, and partly the local custom, apparently. I wan't expecting it, though. I also noticed for the first time that the sun takes around twenty minutes to set here. Maybe less. One second it's light outside, the next it's not. A little bit disorienting.


Succot: So, there is entire saga of calls made between me and Ruthie (a friend of mine going to another Sem. who I really wanted to spend some time with, so we were trying to get together for the first days.) and Tzippy H. (my cousin, who we were trying to spend the first days at). But in the abbreviating attitude of this post, it all worked out and Ruthie and I met a the Kotel Wednesday afternoon (we were supposed to meet at noon. I got very, very lost, first on the bus system and then later in the Old City. So we met closer to one o'clock.) and we went out to lunch before picking up her stuff at her Sem. and heading to the Tachana Merkazit (Central Bus Station). We caught the right bus, no problem, but ended up gettting off a stop late. Oops. Still, I called David (Tzippy's husband) and he picked us up. Good thing, 'cause Ruthie had at least three bags, and I had my HUGE Israeli backpack I had bought on Tuesday. It is large, blue, and awesome, I could smuggle small children in it, and I can fit six outfits along with toiletries and other stuff for traveling. It's a little unwieldy, but I like it.
Anyway, I then meet my second cousins - four boys and a little girl. Anyone who know me knows that it took me the better part of two days to remember everyone's names, but I've got it down now. :D Anyway, Wednesday night through Thurday was run-of-the mill, we went to shul, ate meals, napped. Thurday night, it got a little interesting. Ruthie is keeping two days of chag this year, and I'm only keeping one. So, basically, we found a local place that was having a second day davening (Reishit Yeshiva, for the curious) and we decided to go there. One of the boys drove me there so I'd know the way Friday morning, and I set an alarm before we went to sleep. And the next morning we got up bright and early and trecked to the Yeshiva. I brought a cell phone in case we got lost, and I hid it before we got there. The Yeshiva gate was propped open with a rock, but there weren't any clear directions, so we wandered for a bit unti we heard davening, and then we just followed the sound until we found it. We made pretty good time.
That afternoon we read for a bit. I was in charge of the lights and the fan. It was pretty hot, so we wanted to fan on, but it made this annoying THUMPTHUMP noise after a while, and it got hard to concetrate. So it was my job to fiddle with it, turning it on and off. Then Ruthie decided to take a nap and I went to check my e-mail.
That night was our last night and it was great. Some friends from up the street came to visit and we ended up hanging out in the succah until 1:30 in the morning, joking around and having a great time. The next day, after lunch, we went over to the friends' house and played Power Grid, this interesting German board game. The instructions were badly translated and hysterical to read. I also borrowed some books (I've been trying to get my hands on good R.A.H. and there he was!) I don't really get a lot of reading time, but I'll be here all year.
The bus ride home was a first for me. This very clearly drunk Israeli girl was harrasing me, but I couldn't understand most of what she was saying. She did insult my manners, though, which I found hysterical in retrospect, because she was loud and obnoxious, and repetedly told to shut up by other people on the bus. Still, adventure, right?
Ruthie and hung out in the Tachana Merkazit for a while. We met a friend of hers and ate dinner, while contemplating what to do next. I wanted to take the bus back to Sem. but I didn't feel comfortable leaving Ruthie in a cab by herself. So we took a cab together to Ben Yehudah, where she met up w/friends and I caught the last bus. (Funny fact. We both know Rami L. Me from school, and her from Machach. And guess who the first person we saw on Ben Yehuda was?) I got back to the dorm and crashed. It was an awesome weekend.

Chesed and Bus Rides (aka Rosh Hashana:Part One)

So, Tuesdsay. Morning was standard Gemarah class. But instead of ending at 12:30, we ended at 12:15. And instead of heading to lunch, we hopped on bus for a ride the was rumored to last an hour, but lasted closer to two. And when we got off that bus we walked into a middle of field and were handed sharp knives and plastic bags.
Why? You ask. No, this wasn't a Battle Royale-esque battle of the Sem. girls (which would be hysterical, no doubt about it.) No, this was actually us doing one of the most fun Chesed projects of the year (as far as I know).
There is an organization in Israel that collects food from various places, including big events like weddings, and distributes it to the many, many Israelis who live below the poverty line and cannot afford food. One of the things they do is go to fields that farmers aren't going to harvest from and collect the food for these people. Y'see, sometimes it costs more to collect the food then is worth it for the farmer. In this particular situation, the price of eggplant had gone so low that a particular Farmer judged that it simply wasn't worth the time, effort and money to collect the vegetable. The problem was that the organization found out about it a few days late. So we (and one other group of people) spent our time combing the field for any eggplants that still retained the sleek purplish-black of healthiness, and hadn't get turned gross and brown. We got quite a few, actually, but it was disenheartening to see the sheer amount of brown ones we had to pass by.
Then we headed back to school and had the rest of the day off. The next day (Wednesday) was just like a typical Friday - totally free, but you had to get somewhere for chag before sundown. I stayed up really really late (One of the girls in Sem. announced her engagement Tues. night. I was up waaaaay later then I intended, celebrating with everyone.) So I woke up and packed, somehow fitting three days worth of clothing (including backups and an outfit for Saturday night) toiletries, two pairs of shoes, and a brush into one backpack. I don't know how I did it, and I don't want to do it again. Then I sat at the bus stop forever, waiting for the seven to roll around. I did get a cartis, though! (Literally translating as "ticket", in this context it means a little card with ten squares on it. Every time I get on the bus I get a hole punched into the square until I have to buy another one. This saves me a lot of time, as I used to spend a good five minutes standing in front of the bus, digging around for 5.5 nis (new Israeli shekel))
Anyway, I got to the Tachana Merkazit (main bus station) and passed through security to go int. Once inside, I started hunting for flowers for the Z.'s (the people I was going to for Shabbos) No such luck. I must have passed every store twice, even stopping random people to ask them where they thought flowers could be purchased (Note I was asking in Hebrew. I tended to get confused looks until I said "Flowers?!?" in English. Then I got regretful shakes of head. Why couldn't I get such a response for Prachim? Argh)
I finally grabbed chocolate, because I was worried about the bus ride. I'm not a great bus rider, in the best of times. I've gotten off at the wrong stop, gotten lost, asked for directions wrong, you name it, I'll probably do it at some point. So I was a little nervous taking the bus the Beit Shemesh by myself. I'd taken a sheirut last time, and I was pretty sure I could pull it off again (Rachov Reuven, B'vakash?) but I wanted to learn the bus system, and I couldn't do it without taking it. So I found the gate for the 415, asked the driver if the bus was going to Beit Shemesh (Kein) and got on, after fumbling for the fare.
I ended up fumbling my way through asking the driver to drop me off near the Super-Hatslacha (the landmark Tifferet Z. told me to look out for) another Sem. girl, who I didn't know, was apparently getting off at the same stop. She asked the driver where the stop was, and I think she had a lot more luck then I did, because he signaled her before the stop and we got off together. We talked for a bit, and each called our hosts. Tifferet picked up, but her hosts didn't, so I asked Tiff to give me directions to pass onto the other girl (who's name, I believe, was Rivkah. But I'm not 100% sure, as I didn't see her again during chag) and I passed on Tiff's directions so the girl wouldn't get lost.
Then I walked to the Z.'s house. In conclusion, the trip was a total success. I didn't get lost, and I made it in time for a pre-chag shower. Pretty good.
To be continued....