This Friday, we had another experience we’ve never had before.
We went to the STEM lab for the third period. Mr. Bonina held the class, as usual, I assume. He was talking about the other projects that were robotic arms in the making. After that, he introduced us to the 3D printer and printed us some little gadgets that we asked for.
As soon as we finished, we proceeded to head towards the theatre, where some of us held the Dva’r Torah, followed by the Fireside chat hosted by Ethan Traub.
I haven’t been in front of that big of an audience before, so let’s just say, I was a bit excited. I also had stage fright, but I was able to overcome it after the first question due to the cheering I received. I felt relieved. People even seemed to like the jokes I’ve made. It was a good feeling to make many people laugh.
Also, it was fascinating to see how actively the students were taking part in the school’s life, let it be the students’ government and their goals or the school clubs which made several announcements during the assembly.
After the assembly, we had a period with the student government, where they gave us a deep insight on how their system works and gave us tips & tricks on how to manage it on our own.
Then we proceeded to gather our stuff for Shabbaton.
We quickly changed into our fancy Shabbat clothes, but before the prayers, we had a game of human domino hosted by one of the SSG teachers. From there I got to know Coach Creeger. It turned out we had a lot of things in common. After Kabbalat Shabbat, we had a great conversation throughout the Shabbat dinner. Then we finished our meals and received books written by the rabbi. We had an hour to finish the assigned chapters given to us by Rabbi Soskil. We shared our thoughts about the chapters we were given. After a break, we had a tish. At the tish we ate sweets, sang songs, told stories, and had a good time. That was the last program before we went to bed.
The next morning we woke up to Rabbi Soskil and his specialty, called the Dinosaur song. We went to have breakfast, which was followed by a prayer. We participated in reading from the Torah, and for some of us, it was a new experience. Avishye Moskowitz helped with great kindness those who felt inexperienced.
We had our lunch, where we sang Shabbat songs. After that we had some free time. Before the next prayer we had games hosted some SSG kids and even Rabbi Soskil.
Unfortunately, because of the rain we had the Havdalah indoors, but it didn’t matter, because of the good vibes. The feeling of standing in a circle, singing in the dark while the only illumination was a candle.
At the end of the week, everyone was so in tune with each other that we were bringing food to each other without the other one’s having to ask. We had a lot of great conversations, some even in depth. We played jokes on each other, told each other funny stories. I felt so blessed that I was able to see my old friends I met previously in Budapest and also I got to meet some new people as well.
Simon P., Grade 13
