Are we at Camp?

Well, our first week of classes have come and gone, and we feel excited, shell-shocked, and a little tired! In short, our days are jam-packed with Pardes classes and our nights already filled with too many ways to try to meet people. Although we are reminded by our faculty that all Pardes classes/activities are "optional" as we are all choosing to be there, it's hard not to want to take advantage of everything. There are classes that begin as early as 7:30am and that run as late as 9:30pm! But if there is one thing we have already learned in our first week, it's that you can't do it all! For example, it's too much to arrive at school at 7am for morning services, to spend the day in several classes, to run errands, make/eat dinner and then finish off the evening by playing ultimate until 11pm at the park. It's hard to believe that we sort of managed this schedule at Herzl every day during the summer - we must be getting old!

But really, we are realizing that the hard-core text study that we are doing in every class really takes a lot out of you. It's crazy that we are actually learning texts all in Hebrew - it's a lot more empowering to feel that these texts belong to us and that we are being taught the skills to decipher them. Much of classes for this month of Elul (the current Hebrew month) are focusing on the upcoming High Holy Days - Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot - by teaching specific texts and subject matter regarding the themes associated with these days. Most relevant, is the theme of T'shuvah - asking for forgiveness, repenting - that is very central to these holidays and to start a new year. It great to spend the days leading up to these holidays really preparing for them.

Pardes also organized a Shabbat dinner for this Friday night where returning students (many students spend multiple years at Pardes) host new students. We had a very nice dinner filled with Israeli salads, Jerusalem kugle, rice, tofu in peanut sauce and more! We have never been to a vegetarian Shabbat meal that tasted so good! We spent the rest of our weekend doing laundry, running errands and resting. We are also slowly starting to make friends - we spent some time at 2 friends' apartments this weekend and also had some friends over to go running in the park. So, slowly but surely, we are setting up a life here.

Thanks to everyone for their emails - we love hearing from you - and miss you!!