Comparisons

Midnight, Sept. 10

One of the things that I find myself doing a lot during this first week is comparing Legacy-Keshet and Yearcourse. I realize the two aren't intended to be compared--one was a six-week summer program that involved a lot of touring and a lot of hanging out at the university campus and the other is a year-long program that is full of free time, should one decide to avail oneself of it that involves a lot of hanging around wherever in this country one can go to and come back from before one has class on a weekday morning. That said, though, the first parts of the trips weren't dissimilar:

Obviously the flight was the same, but even if it weren't it would be too boring to discuss here.

Yearcourse is so much bigger (I want to say there are 500-ish total and 160 in Jerusalem right now and 80 in Shevet) that disorganization is entirely expected. Leaving the airport on a single bus is much easier than trying to direct three groups simultaneously to a dozen different buses at the same time as Nativ is walking through the doors right next to us.

More people means (one might conjecture) higher chances of finding the right group of friends perfectly compatible. On the other hand, it takes longer to sift through the crowds to find that group. And, of course, I know from having experienced it that it is possible for the entire group to be the "right group". After even a half hour sitting repacking/reorganizing bags at Ben Gurion and overhearing conversations and making small talk, I realize that not all selection processes are as well-designed as the one Legacy used for this summer. I hope that in the future enough teens will be interested in programs like Yearcourse that the turn away the people who are incapable of standing with their mouths closed. That's another big difference: Keshet never had to scream their heads off to get us to shut up, much less to do that on Shabbos. I just don't understand it. Because on the other hand, nearly everyone here now has previously been to Israel, whereas only 20% of Legacy had been here before the summer. And it's not like the two groups should be so different: both have their share of USY and other youth group kids.

Midnight, Sept. 11

But here's one difference that is quite evident to me right now through several of my senses. Whether it was the selectivity of Legacy or the freedom afforded to Yearcourse, the sounds of throwing up, the smell of smoke, the feel of trying to lift my roommate's head to put his pillow under it on the floor, the sight of staggering friends-by-day, the taste of disillusionment, are all entering, entering. So maybe not several but instead all. I think I'd like to think it's just the freedom afforded to Yearcourse that causes this overload but I have the feeling that perhaps tonight wasn't anyone's first time with any of this stuff. Why did I go to Ben Yehuda tonight? Because it was our first time let out of the building. Why did everyone else go? Same reason. But free time this summer was spent singing and making (sometimes off-color) jokes and tossing discs and walking a beautiful campus. Free time this year may very well be tonight several times over. That's not to say that the Baitar Jerusalem/Hapoel Tel Aviv game playing on the TV in the street wasn't exciting to watch in that atmosphere, but I don't want to be the one who drags a roommate back to the hostel at quarter past eleven.

More differences: few people from Legacy had previously been to Israel while nearly everyone here has been at least once already. That difference I'm at a loss to explain. It's also really hard to figure out the religious observance of a lot of Yearcourse kids. The Brits especially all call themselves Modern Orthodox but Americans would apply that label to few of them. And for the number of American kids who say the same thing, the "minyan" we had the first few days certainly didn't reflect it. There has been more participation in the last few days, but always more at Minchah than Shacharit so something funny is going on.

TBC...?