For the first time this week, there was no excitement of getting up in a tent, and eating breakfast outdoors: just the regular routine of get up, eat, and get on the bus.
This morning we went to the museum at Atlit, which was once a detainment camp for Jewish immigrants caught entering Palestine by the British, post-WWII. It was a pretty boring place: looked similar to a concentration camp, with huts and long, low buildings, and razor-wire fences; only no horrible massacres occurred there.
We played a seriously dodgy game on these crappy Macs, supposed to be a "simulation" of an illegal immigrant's experience. We also watched a movie, but I was so buggered that I slept through the entire thing.
The 'angel' game is becoming quite fun, with everybody doing nice little things for everyone else 'in secret'. My angel gave me a Mars bar this morning, and I gave Ari some chocolate on the bus, leaving Atlit.
Academy 2 Does CaesariaWe also went to Caesaria this morning, where Nimrod showed us a number of ruins, including King Herod's palace by the sea; and the ancient chariot racing track. We also saw an ancient ampitheatre which is still used today for rock concerts, because it can seat 3,500 and has the best acoustics in the country.
The boys at CaesariaWe took heaps of photos at Caesaria, particularly around the water at old man Herod's hangout. We also formed a giant "A2" (Academy 2) on the grass, and got many photos of that. I bought some fridge magnets, and a funny "Israeli Intelligence" t-shirt ['My job is so secret, I don't even know what I'm doing!'] at a souvenir shop.
After Caesaria, we returned to our hotel in Zichron. We've had lunch, and are now just spending the afternoon relaxing and getting ready for Shabbos. We've also gotten our dirty laundry back (it's now clean). I'd better go now: Shabbos is nearly in, and it's about time I got ready for it.
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I decided to keep Shabbos for the third time in a row: so this afternoon, we turned off all the lights except the bathroom light, and didn't touch them again.
Kabbalat Shabbat was nice but extremely rushed, since we had all of 20 mins in which to do it. I led the service at one point, although Portnoy did most of it. We made a makeshift mechitza with chairs as well.
We sang Shalom Alechem, and made Kiddush, at the Shabbos table. The buffet dinner was absolutely superb. One table even did the full (camp style!) bensching - and of course I joined in.
After dinner - which really wasn't that heimische, since it was in a buffet restaurant - we had an Oneg Shabbat Tisch. This basically involved a lot of singing, pretzels, and vodka (disgusting cheap brand: I had 5 shots of it!). When the singing deteriorated, we also played the kissing game for a bit: but that didn't last long.
Oneg Shabbat was the last really Shabbos-like thing we did tonight: coz the rest of the night was spent in the café area, where a DJ was running a disco and karaoke gig. I danced a fair bit, and joined in with some of the karaoke. The music and dancing was good fun, although it was hardly a Shabbat experience.