Woke up at 6:30am this morning, desperate for a piss and REALLY, REALLY thirsty. I wanted to lie down and go back to sleep; but the raging thirst prevented this from happening. So I went to the bathroom, had about 5 cups of water, and filled up my bottle so I could drink more in bed.
Got up properly at about 8am, feeling a bit headachy but otherwise fine. Contrary to my expectations, I remembered everything from the night before, and really didn't feel hung over. I got ready, had breakfast, and then by 9:15 we were on the bus and ready to go.
Once we were moving, I discovered that Raffy, Jezz and a few others had played a little trick on Burnett when he was fast asleep last night. Apparently, they had [done something that Burnett would not appreciate me publishing here]; and so all morning they were making crude jokes about [it]. Burnett suspected the truth, and lemme tell you he was pretty pissed off.
This morning we went to the "coexistence museum". This museum was pretty good: all about peace and conflict, and Jews and Arabs living together. Lots of multimedia and modern techniques, although in my opinion they went way overboard on the whole symbolism/metaphor thing. After the tour of the museum, I went to the shop and bought some posters. We also met some more Shnat kids on our way out, and I saw Matt Doobov there.
After that, we went to the Jewish quarter of the old city, where we had 2 hours to do shopping. They also hired a professional photographer to get some group snapshots of us.
I went on a shopping frenzy in the Jewish quarter: on the Cardo, I spent 550 NIS, on 3 mezuzot and scrolls, and on a pair of Shabbat candlestick holders. Also bought a big brimmed hat that said "ISRAEL" on it; and 2 "Israel" camels for Dana and Natalie. So yeah, a great deal of shopping took place.
All we did this afternoon was have lunch, and have showers and all the rest, in preparation for Shabbat. Anyway it's now 3:50pm, Friday afternoon, and I must go: time to go to the Kotel for Shabbat.
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Once we were ready, we all met downstairs in the hotel lobby, and then we began our walk to the Kotel. It wasn't that far to get to the kotel from Hotel Ariel: maybe a bit over 1/2 an hour. We took a steep path that went up the side of Mt Zion, through some gardens planted on the hillside.
We got to the kotel really early: unlike last time, when there was a really long queue at the security checkpoint, we just went straight through. We beat the Academy 1 people: in fact, there weren't yet many people there at all; the wall itself was less than 1/4 full.
I decided to beat the rush, and pray Mincha at the wall before everyone else got there. I davened mincha at the wall, and then went back to the flags at the back end of the kotel courtyard. Academy 1 had turned up by then; but we were all waiting in great anticipation for a group we hadn't yet seen in Israel: MTA. I wanted to see Goldstein, and was impatiently waiting for him to arrive with the rest of MTA.
Finally, we saw the B'nei kids start to issue through the gate; and we all crowded round the entrance, waiting to greet various friends. When Goldstein came through, I ran up and gave him a big hug; I was so excited! Daniel, of course, was not; but then again, he never is. Actually, by his standards he was pretty happy: after all, he was seeing a friend from home, and seeing the kotel for the first time, all at once.
I caught up with Goldstein a bit, but we didn't have much time because everyone was moving off to the wall to begin Erev Shabbat. He said they'd spent most of their time so far in Tzfat, and that it was the best place he'd ever been to. I was impressed: I agree, Tzfat rocks!
I went off with the rest of the group, into the kotel synagogue, and we prayed Kabbalat Shabbat. During the service, I was flitting between the B'nei kids, who were doing the usual tunes at a steady pace; and a group of really enthusiastic chossids (looked kinda Sephardi, but I have no idea who they were), who went at a snail's pace, but sang some great tunes, and jumped around and danced like, as we say, "rabbits on ecstasy".
Shabbos at the kotel (my 2nd) was as beautiful as ever. When the service finished, I found Goldstein again and caught up with him properly. He wanted to know everything we'd done on Academy, but in quintessential Daniel style, he wanted the funny stuff most.
But we didn't have much time; it was getting late, and both Academy and MTA had to go (MTA left first). So I said a big goodbye to Goldstein (again), and then off he went. And pretty soon after that, we left too. Most people had already gone home; but they'd allowed some of us to stay and return later.
We made our way back, through the Armenian quarter and out the Zion gate; and then through the rest of Jerusalem to Hotel Ariel. We had a nice dinner when we got back, complete with Kiddush, hand-washing and a nice meal. A few of us also stayed after to do a proper bensching, which was lots of fun: just like being back at Hineni camp!
After a bit of free time, we returned to the dinner room for an Oneg Shabbat Tisch. The Tisch was lots of fun, except that some people were pissed off about the shortage of alcohol (only 2 small bottles!). We sang heaps of songs: Am Yisrael Chai; Col Ha Olam Kulo; Yachad; Na Na Na Shabbat Shalom; and many others. Lollies and chocolates were thrown everywhere, and there was much merriment, and it was good. [Amen!]
We didn't stay up that long after the Tisch; although one really funny thing did happen before we went to bed: Ari's famous interview with Semii. This was an absolute classic of cinematography: so damn funny! They did it in our room, but since we're all keeping Shabbat, they had to turn the lights on, and operate the camcorder.
The interview was strictly "secret men's business". Ari was the interviewer, Portnoy the cameraman, and the rest of us were 'canned laughter', i.e. the studio audience. Ari asked Dan the funniest stuff, like which girls he's interested in, what's been embarrassing, and what he thinks about Israel. We discovered [some secret stuff that has been omitted]. He also did one of his famous jumps for the camera.
It was so much fun, making the interview, although I wasn't very happy about being in a film while I was keeping Shabbat. But I didn't touch any electronics; and when the crew left, they turned off all the lights for us.