ShnUpdate - Savyon 01.03.18
As many wise past shnatties mentioned to us before we embarked on our Shnat journeys, “Shnat is a rollercoaster”. We guess they’re right, because we’ve certainly had our ups and downs. So to continue this analogy, this week has been the point of the rollercoaster where you are jolted around a corner, and suddenly, without preparation, have a photo taken of you - one that you look back on in future years and think, “we had no idea what we were in for”.
We’re at that point of Etgar where we have just settled into our ride and look to the future with anticipation for the wild experiences to come. This week we all really settled into the flat, with everyone making an effort to live communally and interact with one another (with the exception of the group binge-watching the entire first season of The Good Place in two days…) We’re starting to thrive in our timetables, with everyone getting to classes on time, bringing the right equipment, and getting hella ideological. In the past week, our educators have taught us about Hebrew, Jewish nationalism in the diaspora, the economy and wealth distribution in Israel, the spectrum of devotion of youth movements, and our personal favourite: what each character from Fiddler on the Roof represents!
Many of us expanded the boundaries of prayer this week by attending the Nava Tehila service at reform synagogue Kol Haneshama on Friday night. It was the Southerners’ first time attending, and all of us thoroughly enjoyed it, particularly bouncing around in a conga line with people we had never met as we sang. The kef (fun) continued on Sunday night, when we ran everyone a quiz night/challenge extravaganza; posing the greatly debated questions of our time to everyone, including “what is the record number of grapes that one person has ever fit in their mouth at the one time?” Fun fact, it was 88, and they were seedless. Following this, we all made hamantaschen to prepare for this week’s Purim festivities, which was lovely time spent together - not to mention how great they ended up tasting! We must say, hamantaschen is proving to be quite the haman-fashion!!
All in all, this week has been incredible, and to continue with our analogy, we look forward to the exhilarating path we lead onwards in the theme park that is Netzer.
Chag Sameach everyone!
