(no subject)
Soooo its been a really long time since I've updated. Prom was fun and Panim was amazing. I did soooo many things on Panim, it sorta made me feel like I don't do anything in my life. Every second of every day was planned out from 7:15 in the morning to 11:30 at night.
So we got to the hotel (a Best Western/Comfort Inn in Arlington, VA) at 3:30 and we checked in with the Panim staff. Then we heard some opening remarks from Miriyam Posner, the director lady, and Elana Boteach, the assistant type director lady. We had icebreakers next where we had to all sit in a circle and then one person was in the middle and they would say something that they have or have not done (for example I said I have a dog) and then if you had done what the person said you had to get up and switch chairs with someone else who had done it. This would leave one person still standing which would be the new person in the middle. Then we checked into our hotel room and I shared a bed with Stacey and our roomies were these two super cool girls from Philly, Sara and Alec. Then we had our first boring lecture from Rabbi Sid Schwartz. He basically just talked about Panim and how he's so great because he started it and blah blah blah. Then we had dinner (and our first encounter with Yosef). The first night we had chicken... ick. After dinner two speakers from the coalition for the homeless came in and spoke to us, Joanne and Moses. These people were formerly homeless and spoke to us and told us their stories. It was incredibly moving and made me re-evaluate some of the things I take for granted everyday. Then we split up into groups and we each had a different madrich (these college kids who helped out with Panim) and they took us on a monument tour. We went to the washington monument, the reflecting pool, the lincoln memorial, the einstein memorial, the korean war memorial, and the vietnam war memorial. I took a picture of all of us sitting on the einstein memorial (you can like climb on him) and in the picture I'm sitting on his crotch lol. Oh, I forgot, before the monument tour we did a Yom Hazikaron program in front of the reflecting pool. I read a poem called "The Paratroopers Cry." At around 11:30 we got back to the hotel, I showered, and we all went to sleep.
So on Monday I woke up at 7:15 from a night of having no sleep because Stacey doesn't know what it means to stay on her side of the bed. We got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. Then we had our first policy session. This one was on capital punishment. Two speakers came in, David Elliot from the national coalition to abolish the death penalty, and Richard Samp from the Washington Legal Foundation. I thought that this policy session was actually interesting and it helped me to realize my view on capital punishment. I decided that I am against the death penalty just because realistically I don't think that it can be 100% accurate 100% of the time and if one innocent person is killed, then it isn't worth it. After the policy session we had our limud on capital punishment. We were split into groups that were either for or against the death penalty (we didn't get to choose, I was put in a pro death penalty group) and then we had to use jewish values to defend the assinged point. Then we went on our free time options. We could have either gone to GW, the Smithsonian, or shopping in Georgetown. Guess what I chose. Yup, shopping in Georgetown. I bought 3 shirts from urban outfitters and ahava hand cream from sephora. Me, Josh, Robyn, and Melissa all stuck together during our shopping excursion :) Then we met up with the rest of the group at McPherson Square where we did Street Torah. This was where we handed out items (clothes, toiletries, etc.) to homeless people and actually got a chance to talk to them and hear their stories and why they're homeless. This really helped me to re-evaluate my views about homeless people. I was really scared about street Torah before I did it and afterwards I was really happy and it ended up being my favorite activity of the entire trip. Then we all went to eat dinner at the GW Hillel (and saw Yosef again) and then went to the David Broza concert at GW. The first part of the concert war really boring, but then I decided I might as well get into it. Melissa thought that I was insane because I was sitting there clapping and trying to sing along to the songs, it was great. During one part of the show I even held up Melissa's cell phone and started waving it back and forth (its definitley a safer version of a lighter). We got back to the hotel around 11:15, headed to the gift shop to buy some snacks, and then it was curfew time. Me, Stacey, Alec, and Sara stayed up until around 1 just chilling.
I slept better the second night seeing as I told Stacey that she had to stay to her side of the bed or she would be severely beaten. Hehe I'm such a great friend. We all got dressed and headed down to breakfast again. Then Miriyam talked to us about something to do with Israel, I wasn't really paying attention because it was really boring. Then two speakers came in, Barak Seener from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Rabbi Gerry Serotta from Rabbis for Human Rights, to talk to us about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rabbi Serotta was in favor of building a "fence" to separate Palestinians and Israelis and Barak Seener's attitude was that he didn't understand how the Palestinians would ever be happy and he pretty much just wanted to kick them out of Israel. I definitley agree with Mr. Seener in that I believe if you give the Palestinians a portion of land they will only keep wanting more until they eventually take over all of Israel. The Rabbi and Mr. Seener definitley disagreed and at one point I seriously thought Rabbi Serotta was going to reach over and strangle Mr. Seener. Me and Josh had a good laugh about that. Then we had lunch and left for our museum options. We could either go to the Holocaust Museum, The US History Museum, or the Spy Musuem. Of course I chose the spy museum. It was soooooo cool. I don't really know how to explain how cool it was, but trust me, it was THAT cool. Then our group went to the ESPN zone and me, stacey, robyn, melissa, and josh had some goooood eats. Then we got back on the metro and went pack to the hotel to prep for our congressional meetings. We pretty much just learned how to lobby and what we should expect for the following day. Then we had our final dinner and our last encounter with Yosef. I convinced all of the girls to, if I asked him, take a picture with him. I probably shouldn't have done that seeing as I think he may have been shomer negiah and I put my arm around him in the picture... Josh told me he's going to have to go the mikvah now, oh well. Then we had a simulation of a caucus, which I thought was sort of pointless. After that we learned about our delegate person who we were meeting (or meeting one of their staff members) on wednesday. I learned that I pretty much agree with everything that Ben Cardin does, which made it really hard for me to find something to argue about. The only thing that I don't agree with him on is capital punishment and I don't have a strong case to argue there, it just doesn't sit right with me. Then we had free time in the hotel and I played set with some of the girls and chilled in the boy's room for a little while and then went to sleep.
So the last day was definitley bittersweet. I had a great time on Panim but by Wednesday I really wanted to come home. So we woke up and I had to figure out a way to fit all of my stuff into my suit case. It ended up with me screaming for Josh to come close my suit case and he managed to close it. Josh is the best :) Then we had breakfast with our Congressional Meeting group and left for Capitol Hill. The B-more folks met with Bill VanHorn, legislative consultant to Ben Cardin. This guy was a lawyer and pretty much acted like a lawyer. Then we took a tour of the capitol building which was pretty interesting. Then we met the rest of the group on the supreme court steps for pictures and then headed back to the hotel. We had lunch, hugged everyone and said goodbye, and then left.
This week has been insane with all of my make up work and now I'm attempting to study for the AP. I just started studying on Thursday and everyone else has been studying since like January. Well, I better get back to studying, leave comments if you actually read this ramble.