I don't know exactly when we woke up this morning, but it wasn't until at least 11:30. It was a really relaxing morning, and I enjoyed the "fanan" immensely. We were talking in bed for a while, and didn't actually 'rise and shine' until it was time for lunch at 12:30. What lazy shits we are! But hey, everyone else did exactly the same thing.
We got up and got ready, and just made it to lunch in time. They had some delicious tomato saucy quiche for lunch; and when we were done, a small group of us (led by Yummybuns) did the Bensching once again.
After lunch, we went back to our rooms and chilled for a while, then at 2pm, Nimrod took a few of us on a little tour around Jerusalem. The tour was nothing special: we saw the old train station (no longer any train line); the residence built by Sir Montefiore; and Montefiore's windmill. It was nice just to get out and have a walk.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in the hotel. We hung around and shmoozed until Havdalah; then we all gathered together in a circle, sang the usual "di di di di" song, and had a wonderful group Havdalah.
With Shabbos out, we were able to once again use money! The mads took us down to the corner store to buy groceries, and I stocked up on food, including plenty of Mashehus (even a packet to take home!). We also had dinner; and everyone wrote their details down in the official group contact list, which will be printed off for everyone.
At 8:30, we left Hotel Ariel, and walked for 1/2 an hour until we reached Academy 1's hotel. On the way, we went past the magnificent King David Hotel, which was of course bombed in 1946 by the Etzel.
The night activity at Academy 1's hotel was a talk by an English guy about dealing with Anti-Semitism at Uni back home. The main thrust of the guy's argument was that most people, when they ask questions about Israel, aren't looking for answers. They're trying to trap you into answering in a certain way; and so you should try to "connect" with them by telling a personal story and relating it to something they can understand, instead of just answering their question.
I'm very confused as to whether I like this guy or I hate him. I had a long discussion, both with someone who likes him, and with someone who hates him, after it finished. On the one hand, this guy's giving practical advice for dealing with impossible questions: don't answer them, evade the question! But on the other hand, giving sob stories and platitudes, instead of answering the question, is in my opinion immoral. And besides, I was aggravated that he was telling us what to argue, and how to argue it, without considering that we're individual people with opinions of our own.
Anyway, enough about that. When we got back, we had some pizza (they ordered about 5 of them - beautiful stuff!), and I sat and listened to Nimrod while he told us all jokes.