Aviv Days 18 + 19

Teenagers are a special breed; too much sleep and they crash, not enough sleep and they still crash, the right amount of sleep is paramount unless you wish to be dealing with a group of mindless drones who do nothing other than complain about the fact that they are doing something other than being nicely nestled in between a set of bed sheets. The madrichim of Aviv 1 learnt this the hard way on day 18, after some of the boys decided to have a late night in which they received a total of 45 minutes of shuteye despite the knowledge that they had to be in Jerusalem by the ludicrously early time of 9:30. They arrived on time yet in a robotic state of disengagement. The first program of the day was run by informal educator Mark Lazar, a man whose hippie-like appearance and large repertoire of sexual innuendos caught each and every group member off guard. Despite a sleepy start we were soon into discussions of societal importance in both Israel and Australia as well as games like that which have been played by many of us in various youth movements across our adolescence. After a couple of hours we departed for a nice hostel lunch, our new lodgings for the new day known as Agron Guest House, served up a delicious buffet.

Our next ‘program’ was scheduled for 5PM but it did not go ahead due to the suspicious disappearance of a number of tired participants, much to the dismay of Tracy and Oded. Next came dinner, which consisted of restaurant quality meatballs and schnitzel, needless to say they were quickly devoured. People quickly retired to their rooms in droves as tired teens’ heads hit the pillows in record pace. However not all had stupidly sleep deprived themselves, so many headed out to indulge their sweet tooths, consuming crepes and other not so Israeli delicacies. Eventually all hit the proverbial hay, not so eager to rise at 9AM the following morning however ready for whatever the new day would throw at us.

Monday brought pizza for breakfast followed by a brilliant speaker by the name of Yair Zivan who educated us about politics, Israel advocacy and its applications for each and every one of us during campus life at our various universities located all around Australia. However his lecture did not capture all as those uninterested in politics sat with dejection. For those who appreciated his speech it was ridiculously interesting, and a debate between Jared and Harry stemmed from it which has not been resolved to the minute of writing. Next we were handed 30 shekels and sent off into the big bad city of Jerusalem to purchase and consume lunch all on our own. Burgers Bar was the obvious option for most as prices of over 50 shekels were ignored due to the absurd deliciousness of the burgers on offer. Following lunch we headed back to Agron and chill time ensued.

Another awesome couple of days down, 131 days to look forward to!

Jake