Cows!!!

Shalom from Pittsburgh, PA!!!

Today started bright and early when we knocked on our girls' doors at 5:45 am. We prayed, read Torah because today is the Fast of Tammuz, ate breakfast, and we were on our way! Quiet hours (the first few hours on the bus when we try to make up for the sleep we didn't get the night before) failed this morning because everyone was too excited. I was very tired at first but perked up when we got to our first stop of Wheels- Kreider Dairy Farms in Lancaster, PA!!!

The dairy farm tour was really cool but I was a bit concerned about the welfare of the animals. We had a really nice old retired dairy farmer man who told us about the production of milk products on the farm and he told me about the treatment of the cows. I still am worried about the hens though. Anyway, the kids really loved it and especially when we saw the cows getting milked on a carousel for cows!!!! They make a complete rotation with electronic milkers on them and when the rotation is up they are done getting milked!! The tour ended with a sampling of the delicious ice cream they make there (shame about the siege of Jerusalem...but the Fast of Tammuz failed a bit today).

A while later, we took a ride at Hersey's Chocolate World (not the theme park, the big store where they tell you how they make the chocolate), and we continued with our theme of cows!! There were lots of singing cows on the ride and they were really cute. We got a taste of chocolate at the end and the kids went crazy in the gift shop even though I told them it was the first of approximately 8 million.

We arrived in Pittsburgh about four hours later, and went right to dinner at a beautiful synagogue here. There is quite the Jewish community in Pittsburgh and I must say I am a little jealous! Dinner and programming went well, and I am especially happy that I am finding people that want to learn how to read Torah and lead services. People are seriously stepping up, and it makes me so proud and joyful!!!!

Now our Wheelniks are scattered around Pittsburgh at the homes of various congregants, and I am in a hotel room about to go to sleep. I hope quiet hours are more successful tomorrow!!!!

TEENAGERS

Teenagers are crazy. They are awesome, but they are loud, quiet, social, anti-social, hungry, tired, happy, moody, nervous, excited, and everything else all at once. That, combined with me being all of those things all at once, is CRAZY.

Today, we woke up early, prayed (my blood sugar level plummeted or something during services and it was almost a catastrophe but Andrew saved me), prepared, and waited for the kids to come. They did! And they brought all of their parents with them. I was stationed in the luggage room for three hours and the parents got very defensive as soon as they saw the measuring tape because they swore that they searched high and low for a suitcase that met the 10x20x26 requirements. It still went pretty smoothly overall.

Then we did ice breakers for an hour or two, and that was pretty crazy. A lot of the kids came knowing each other, so they wanted to catch up and continue jokes from before and stuff like that. Other kids were just meeting everyone for the first time. Other kids had met via video chat and were meeting each other face to face for the first time, which can be even more awkward than starting with a blank slate. Anyway, we got through the packing of the bus and loading suitcases, we ate dinner, we listened to rules, we hung out, we got tired.

Tali and I checked all 23 girls into their beds tonight, we sang Bashem Hashem, a beautiful song about four angels protecting all four sides of the body, plus the spirit of God above you (it sounds way cooler in Hebrew), and chatted a little bit. The night concluded with a staff meeting where we went over our concerns and predictions about the kids, plus a little fun. Now I am all packed and ready to head to Pittsburgh!!!!

New Beginnings

Shalom from New Jersey!

For the last five days, I have been locked in a hotel in Somerset, NJ, hidden from daylight and frozen to the bone by fierce air conditioning. I have sat in session after session after session about what the Torah has to say about the teacher/student relationship, how to stop teenage girls from sending teenage boys inappropriate text messages, what to say when a kid wants to x, y, or worst of all, z. I have been labeling, decorating, lifting, sorting, sweating, and snacking to get everything ready. I have been spending every waking moment with the same four people, working as a team to prepare and getting to know one another at the same time.

All of this for 46 sixteen year old Jews.

Tomorrow begins USY on Wheels 2010 for Bus C. We are starting in NJ and driving across the country and back over the course of six and a half weeks. We are going to pray every morning, and maybe in the evenings too. We are going to eat frozen dinners, we are going to stay in a new hotel almost every night, we are going to play games and learn stuff and study religion. We are going to create a culture of our own, have one million or more inside jokes, hate each other and love each other more than anyone in a long time. We're going to share germs and shampoo and clothing and secrets.

We are going to have the time of our lives.

From a personal perspective, this is really coming full circle for me. On June 25th, 2007, I met all the members of Bus D 2007 at a similar, mid range hotel somewhere in New Jersey, and we set off on an amazing journey together, and that has changed everything for me. Those friends are still the deepest in my heart, those songs we learned can still draw tears, those weird sites and museums are still conversation starters. My hope is to create something totally new this summer, with the help of my amazing co-staff (these names will be coming up a lot this summer!! Tali, Jake, Aaron, and Andrew--all amazing incredible beautiful lovable perfect human beings), but keep the feelings of belonging and happiness the same as my own summer as a 16 year old.

Tonight, less than 12 hours before the Wheelniks arrive, I am a bundle of nerves and a heap of tired bones. It all begins again tomorrow.