Day Four and Five ish

Right now on my on the fence ways of life, I'm leaning towards staying for second session and I'm recruiting MAR kids which means Rabbi Eve makes more money which means I could get more money for scholarships for second session. CA-CHING. :] But I don't want to make any descions until a later date.



Yesterday, ohhh Wednesday. What a day of roller coasters.

Well all day basiclly I was stuck in the beit am because of the thunderstorm.

That was so much fun though. I hung out with Jesus and Kayla and other people. I got to sit in on David Singer's T'filah class and figured out what prayer truely was. Even though of course you didn't figure out why people pray..one day..i'll know his anwser..one day..but I mean that's the point. Then I missed all my afternoon electives because of the thunderstorm.

I went back to the cabin and talked to Zach for a little bit and played some geeetar with Lindsay. After that we had dinner. Meat loaf. Sick nasty. I wasn't eatting something that looked like it could eat me. Then we had song session down stairs again. But the storm came once again and attacked us all in the program room. And when i say attacked, I mean it just came to the camp. It was actually really pretty. I took some pictures of the clouds and such.

We waited and then had services. Steve Dropkin led them. I was really upset because I didn't have my Ha'avoda Shibalev with me because we didn't get a chance to get back to the cabins and I just wasn't in a good mood. I just decided to stand for the entire service. For some reason I felt that would just make me feel better for being all stupid and pissy. But when Steve played his Oseh Shalom I sat down and thought back to my own temple at home sitting next to my father singing this song with him. It's our favorite version and everything felt better agian. I lost my voice because I was so into it and loved that song so much. And he even ended with Bayom Hahu and we all know how I freakin adore that song. :]

After that we were suppose to have a program but they couldn't do it because we had to stay in the program room because of the thunder storm. Instead we had these cabin like games where we had to go against each other. We had to get in a big circle with your cabin and squeeze together front to back and sit on eachother's laps and which ever cabin could do it first without falling down won. HILL 2 KICKED MAJOR TUCHAS! We won. It was amazing! Lindsay and I got really into it. It was crazy fun. Then all the seniors started to really create this big bond and we kept on chanting " '08 DAMN STRAIGHT!" And so and so forth. It was beautiful. I loved all the ruach and feeling from all the seniors. Hills 1, 2, and 5 are the senior cabins. We are kind of a big deal. I completely lost my voice from cheering so much, that's how much fun we had.

We went back to the cabins and got really crazy. I can't really talk about it on this blog because I don't think you cool cats could handle it.

Today I woke up and showered and such. Then I went to breakfast. It was fine. I took some pictures around camp. Ahh I love how pretty Kutz looks. Then we had morning shacarit (aka services) they were beautiful. As badly as I wanted to sing I couldn't because of my lackage of voice so I just mouthed all the prayers and such. I still felt just as connected. Josh is such a fantastic songleader. I loved seeing him up there. Especially for certian prayers he got so into it. Rabbi Koppel did such a great job leading services this morning too. I really connected with services this morning. I didn't like sitting in the back because of all the talking, but sometimes you just gotta deal with it and move on.

After services we went to majors. I was a little bit of a dead beat today in majors. But we learned more about Momonodies and his ideas and what we think about them. Then a guest rabbi came in and talked to us about things. I can't even remember it because it felt like forever ago. But I liked it. It was interesitng.

Then I had my first elective. I've changed all of my electives. I'm in this new elective called writing the Jewish Essay. It's basiclly a class with this amazing woman whose jewish who wrote for the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. She's teaching us how to write really good personal narratives. We are writing about how we found our Jewish idenity. I'm writing my essay about my tallit katan and why I do it and how it all started. I'm really excited for her to read it. It's going to be fantastic. Plus she's teaching us how to have even better writing skills which will totally help me for the future.

My second elective is Jewish ethics. But once again those darn thrunderstorms stopped me from going so I hung out in the beit am again and drew pictures. We had a fire drill today. We thought it was real but it was just a false alarm. I took a nap in the toy room. My chocolate art class is really fun. And I'm really hot. I just got back from the HUC-JIR interest meeting. I can actually be both a rabbi and cantor. So I'm super excited for that.

I'm going to head back to my cabin soon and take a shower. But I'm excited for Shabbat tomorrow night. :]

ROSIE + ZACKKYY D = one hot time. hahaha

Day Three/Day Four

I feel like this is the time I will always be updating this crazy blog.

Okay so I just finished my J.Studs class. My brain is mush just like D.Singer said. Blehh. It was fantastic. All we talked about today mostly was Hashem and the monomidies (sp?) yeah. It was pretty intresting.

Here's what went down these past 24 hours that I've experinced.

I went to my first elective. Sports Odysess with Seth GL and Ben Levine. We played soccer. It was really fun. There was a bunch of MAR sophomore girls in it with me. I had a lot of fun gettinge exerise though. There were two boys who were really good and this other girl from MAR who doesn't really do NFTY but is like a kick butttt soccer player. It was pretty sick. And I met a kid from Alaska. And that's his name. He's a nice kid.

Then I ate lunch. Grilled Cheese.

Second elective is basiclly G-d and Spirituallity. I didn't realize I was taking that class again, but for some reason I think I'm going to stay in it. We have a small class but we are really into creating a community. I love it. I'm so set in stone (basiclly) on what I believe about Hashem and the ways and such. I mean I'm excited for today's class for it. It should be good. But yeah, I feel like it's going to be interesting to hear what other people's beliefs and ideas about Hashem.

Then we had free time. Aka Chofesh. Good stuff.

I taught a small group of girls how to play guitar..or rather attempt. It's kind of fun teaching them but frustrating at the same time. I can't even explain why I want to. I feel like I'm going to get something out of it all. They are all really into learning though which always makes me smile. I'm teaching them my fav song Or Zaruach and if they can play that, they can play anything. I'll probably play more with them later today.

After that we went to dinner. It was fine. Song session was SO much fun. Josh taught us another song. I forgot what song it was...but it was pretty awesome. I really got into it. Its so hot though so it gets harder and harder to enjoy song sessions because of all the sweat BO and heat. And it's weird to actually pariticpate in it because I'm so use to songleading. But it's always fun to be part of it.

Then we had services. They were beautiful. In the willows. We had this some what nature service. I really liked it. I took off my shoes and stuck my feet in the grass. It felt so refreshing. It was a really cute and nice service. I really tried to intake all of my surroundings and feel the spiritual connection with the community and such.

Then we had an evening program. It was fine. It was about different ideas and pollution. Overall I mean they were okay. I just wasn't into certian parts of the program and I started to get frustrated. I just got really upset last night. But it all turned out to be fine after I talked to Zach. :]

Today has been good so far. Went to breakfast. Then we had a morning program. I loved it. My first rotation was with David Singer about ritual garb. I've done soo many programs about it, but overall I still can't get enough of it. Everytime I talk about it with anyone it always gets me excited. My second rotation was about being Jewish in places where there might not be as many Jews. It was interesting. A lot of people have it hard, some don't, I consider myself in the middle. But I really got some different ideas and opinons.

In J.Studs today...Well I already talked about that. But I'm a dead beat..I'm about to go play kick ball. I'll update this tomorrow.

<3

First Few Days

Ohhh Kutz.

So I'm in the library right now listening to Benny Z (from CA) giving us Jewish brain teasers and David making fun of people on EIE. Ahh this is fantastic.

This first few days have been extremely interesting to say the least. I adore my cabin. Hill 2 baby! We are fantastic. My RA's are sooo awesome. Kelly and Kaitlin. I have some girls from last summer in my cabin (Carolyn, Kayla, and Maxie) It's hard being here without so many people from last summer, but I'm really starting to adjust.

I love J.Studs so far. David Singer has kept me intrested even though I'm a dead beat. I don't seem to be sleeping much, but I am trying to sleep. There are a few regbo kids in my cabin, and they are all really nice. A lot of the girls went on EIE before which is fantastic hearing all about their trip and what I should expect.

This morning I went running with Mimi. It felt like that first day of track all over again when everything is way hard and youre dying. But I have goals where I will do a little bit more every morning and then I'll be running up those hills even faster in the upcoming future days. I went to optional services this morning. It was small, not even a minyan which was sad, but it's only the first one of the summer.

Yesterday wasn't very exciting. We did all those first day of camp type things like taking a tour and the swim test. yeah me and the pool don't get along and so I'm not swimming this summer...unless I get pushed in.

I'm excited for electives today. I'm going to be doing a sports one with Seth GL and something about G-d with a bunch of different visitng rabbis and David Singer. This is looking like a lovely summer more and more every day.

Yesterday Carolyn and I made harmonies to my song that I wrote (Barchu) and it's ever so beautiful. People keep on asking me about my tzzit tzzit. It's intresting. I only know of one other girl wearing tzzit tzzit (Maxie) but I feel like more girls will be wearing them by the end of the summer. I will start a revolution.

Mimi is on the top bed. I'm loving Kutz. I'm having fun. Everything is going well. I can't wait to songlead. Josh told me I could which is a great sign. Everyone thinks that I'm staying for second session but really, I have no idea what I am going to do. We shall see what happens.

It's beautiful here. I love it. <3

Shalom!

Summer of 2007

I decided to make a special Kutz Blog for that purpose, to write or rather type as much as I can so that I can remember it for years to come.

Just a little back ground for those who will/might be reading my blog for the first time.

This summer I am going to the URJ Kutz Campus for Reform Jewish Teenagers. It is a leadership tranining instiutie that I went to last summer, but with a whole different mind set then I have right now for this upcoming summer.

I know somewhat to expect, but my mind will try to stay as open and clear as it can be.

I have some goals for this summer.

1. To learn as much as I possibly can.
2. To have the greatest time ever.
3. To learn about what I feel about conterversal topics in Judiasm.
4. Start to explore my feelings on Zionism.
5. To come back a little bit lighter :]
6. To learn more Hebrew.
7. Create bonds with people I've never met before
9. Create the bonds stronger with people I have met before
10. To write one (or more) jewish song

I want to be able to learn, but still have fun. I want to get so much out of this summer. I really want to be able to walk into EIE having a good idea of my ideals on reform Judiasm and what I believe about it from the Torah to the Messiah. I know I have a lot of goals,but I know I can achieve them.

I'm excited, nervous, worried, exhausted, and overall enthuastic about this year at kutz.

Eyeh Asher Eyeh--I am who I am.

Shalom.