Rosh Chodesh and P'unk-Ninim!!

Week of March 6-12th
Motzei Shabbos we stayed up all night 'Punking' Rabbi Meisels office. The girls covered his walls in plastic wrap and then graffitied. We had our best artists work on it and it turned out really really cool! A couple of girls also tin foil wrapped all of his things. Individual wrapping the desk, every chair, book, pen, and candy. Well- to be honest, they ate all the candies and stuffed the jar with wads of tin foil :) lol
My job was to make him a hat and bling necklace to wear. I paper-mache`d the hat and then graffittied the top. I wrote RABBI across the front in silver foil and then bedazzled the rim. The medallion I made him was a chain of silver foil and foil covering cardboard that said 'P'unk-Ninim' on it.
When he came in on Sunday we were all dressed as punks... all out- hats, bling, and black lipstick. :P
Monday a girl in my seminary got engaged. She had been getting late curfew for two weeks and getting dressed up every day, especially that morning. We were all told about a Lechaim that would be held in the Meisels house and the whole thing was very surprising and last minute. As you might have figured out... it was all a hoax. This girl was head of Chaggiga together with her roommates so it was really easy to make it believable. They broke out the theme of chaggiga(Mock Wedding) at the Lechaim, during which a few girls inconspicuously slipped out and went back to sem to do some messin of their own. When the Chaggiga heads came back to school, all of their beds, closets, and drawers were outside on the porch. :} not my idea... hehe, they weren't tooo happy but we can all take a joke right??
And some time this week I also bought a bucket to do my laundry in since I've been hand washing since i got here. lol... I wrote on it "Shayne's very own bucket- דלי. If anyone even so much as thinks of stealing it- Beware... I have strong friends."
Okay, shabbos I went with 2 friends to a different teacher on Sorotzkin. Friday night we went to the Belzer tish and got to see all the mentchies walk on the tables!! ('all those yoilies came to see- came to see... the Rebba's shabbos table just like royalty, hey-ay!')

Marching marching....

hehe... how korny was that title huh :D
Okay so finishing the first week in March...
So on Thursday, after everyone was semi-feeling better, we had a tznius yom iyun which was actually really inspiring and cool. I think most if not all of the girls enjoyed it.
That shabbos 4 other girls and I stayed at the Meisels' (my principal). I'm not sure if I wrote about it when it happened last, but the last time I went to Rabbi Meisels' house his niece was there. What's Hashgacha Pratis about that was that it was both our first times there and we are really good friends from middle school. I haven't seen her since 9th grade when I traveled to Toronto by myself and stayed at her house!! What's funny is that I didn't even know that she was in Israel, let alone that she is my principal's niece. So this was both of our first shabbos back since the last time and it wasn't planned at all. Hashem really does love me!! <3 <3 <3
Shabbos day we all ate at our teachers' the Simons. Both Rabbi and Mrs. Simon are teachers in the school and are very involved with the students. I think it was all of our first times going there for a shabbos meal.
All in all, we really enjoyed shabbos... especially the riddles.
Riddle from Rabbi Meisels- try and figure it out.
There are 12 weights that all look the same. You have a olden day scale that goes up ad down when you put stuff on either side. The are all equal in weight and size besides for one. It is either heavier or lighter than the others. You can use the scale 4 times before you need to know- which weight is not equal, and whether it is lighter or heavier.
Now you try it :)

Call in the Riot Police!!! Is this how its supposed to be?

I pretty much stayed in this past week since everyone was sick (I have a cold) and also I was working on getting the March calendar finished and up on time. B"H I was able to put it up last night.
O- here's some news. Monday Mercaz HaRav Yeshivah was rioting about some police attack on a kibbutz last week... apparently he just started shooting and killed a bunch of innocent chareidim. So the boys were rioting right outside the sem. There were about 30 police cars around the building. When Rabbi Kahane (our teacher and the Shana Bet principal) showed up to teach us that night, he thought P'ninim was finally being arrested :) lol...
what's not so funny is that 6 of the yeshivah guys were arrested. Later that day hundreds of yeshivah boys came out to riot in support of their friends in custody. When the riot police arrived it was a really not a pretty sight. Unfortunately many of the boys sustained injuries, some more severe than others... O- and don't worry, we weren't allowed to leave the building either.

L'Zicaron

Week of Feb 20th- 26th
Mindy's parents were in for the week so she moved into the apartment they were renting with them. Monday they came with us to Yad V'Shem, the Jerusalem Holocaust Memorial Museum. Our guide was none other than Hanoch Teller. When I was going around on my own afterward, it trully hit me how lucky we were to have that privilage. A guide I had stopped to listen to was giving a detailed analogy of all the art in the museum, who designed it, and their lives.Its scary to think that the guide really shapes your way of thinking about the entire meseum- and the holocaust itself. Whereas we heard facts and true stories (survivor accounts) of what happened during the holocaust- coupled with all the pictures and evidence being presented in the glass cases and exhibits of the museum.
For most people, not surprisingly, I think the most moving part was the children's memorial- even though it presented no facts or stories, had no pictures and no evidence. It was a stone buiding. Inside is dark with a walk way suspended half way through a huge empty room aside from the whole middle being a giant glass case. Inside it and on the walls were thousands of candles seemingly suspended in mid air. One candle per child that was documented murdered in the holocaust. Resonating through this stone building was a deep male voice slowly speaking out the name age and country of every child- one by one. Going across the catwalk took less than 3 minutes but just about everyone who came out of there had tears in their eyes.
Tuesday I crashed Mindy's apartment for the night just to get out of the dorm, and Wednesday night her parents took her, me and my roommate out for dinner at Rimon. It was a beautiful evening and I had a great time.
This past Shabbos I was in Maalei Amos with Leora Gershaw and family. Of course I had a beautiful, relaxing shabbos together with them and look forward to going again.

How Many Balloons....

Week of Feb 6th- 12th
Monday night we had a Mechanchos Supper at my teachers house in Ramat Shlomo.
That Shabbos I also stayed in the dorm. There were only about 4 other girls there this time though.

Week of Feb 13th- 19th
Monday night I went to Karaoke with Mindy which is always fun.
Wednesday, Shalom Task Force came to speak to us. For most of you Michigan people, you have no idea what this is. But its pretty recognized in NY. STF is an awareness program for Domestic Abuse. They help and aid frum women in abusive marriages all over the east coast. They also put together informative and preventive programs for single women who are either dating or even not yet. They focus on recognizable signs of manipulation and that sort of thing. I found the program very interesting, and overall it wasn't at all extreme or assuming. Just down to earth and real.
That night me and bunch of the gals stayed up blowing up balloons and stuffing them into Rabbi Meisels office. 500 balloons wasn't enough to fill it to the door so we started with a balloon wall and tape and then worked toward the door. In random balloons we put water, rice, flour, confetti, and beans. Also we made faces and pictures on the balloons. The madricha made a Baloon Rabbi Meisels and put it on his chair, so that when he broke through all the balloons he would see it. We wrote P'ninim Purim Katan in Balloons on the wall behind his desk too.
We closed the light and left a safety pin on his door. When he came into school the next day (the day before Purim Katan b/c there is no school on Fridays) me and one other girl were sitting outside the office (a common place to be for most students) as if to be waiting to speak to him. When he unlocked the door but couldn't open it, we were right behind him with the video cameras. So we have a full 15 minute video of Rabbi Meisels trying to break through the balloons with the safety pin. The whole thing was a riot and we all had a lot of fun doing it!!
That Shabbos was a Shabbaton in Kommimius (a Chassidish Kibutz). The girls were absolutely enthralled with the scene around us- all the Yoelli's on tractors :P
The theme was Tov LeHodos LaHashem and Gam Zu LeTovah.
Okay, all in all, it was a beautiful 75 degree sunny shabbos that was just relaxing and inspiring. I gave a 'Dvar Torah' on the Gam Zu LeTovah part of the theme during Shalosh Seudot that I was mucho not prepared for. No but I really wasn't... I had zilcho written down. I just had printed out a few pages on the subject from chabad.org and Aish.com... and asked people for some stories over shabbos. It ended up being more like a 15 minute shiur because I had so many cool things to say even without the stories.
Like the whole concept of the Tes for Tovah. If i'm correct its the first Tes in the torah, and just like the Ches represents a marriage, the Tes represents the child in the womb- inner goodness that is hidden. The idea being that all is good but goodness is not necessarily revealed or known to man. Just like to Moshe's request for G-d to reveal Himself- He answered "You may see My back, buy My face- that you will not see"- I believe its the Ksav Sofer who says that Hashem was telling Moshe a rule- in hindsight (at the end of days) you will know why I've done all that I do, but foresight was not given over to man. And I told a few stories about knowing that even when something is bad... and it stays bad... and its not going to change- it too is intrinsically good, whether we can see why or not.

Vacation!!

Week of Feb 1st- 5th
Okay, so the beginning of Feb I was on vacation for a few days. From Tuesday until the next Motzei Shabbos I think.
Wednesday we went on a Tiyul to Rosh HaNikrah. We went on Cable cars, a small hike, some caving, and saw a cool presentation on the formation of the mountain. We also went ice skating. It was just about the worst ice rink i had ever have ever been on but nobody died I guess. Had to hold back on most of my tricks though :) It was a beautiful68 degree day though, right in the middle of the winter.
Thursday night I went with Mindy to Maalei Adumim for the night where we had a little vacation-celebration. lol- i hereby copyright that phrase and officially name it the korniest line of the year ;)
That Shabbos I stayed in the dorm. Most of the girls did too since the whole week was very tiring.

Production!!!!

Okay so there is not much to say about the days leading up to production other than that i practiced all day, and that my best friend here is AMAZING! She always knew when I just needed to get out of the building and would take me for a coffee or for some fun night out where I had to get dressed up..... <3 u Mins! I was really nervous the few days before the play because its a really funny script with some really funny actresses and I was having a hard time staying in character and not laughing. I was one of the only parts that COULD NOT laugh. I told the director that I couldn't do this part like a day before the play and she told me that I was doing it and that I wasn't going to laugh. Well, I guess she was half right. I think I laughed half the play behind my hand. Luckily nobody realized.