Smells like Shabbas Up in Here (Up in Here, Up in Here)

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Every Friday morning the chanichim (campers) nearly race to the chadar ochel (dining hall) because they know what's awaiting them at the breakfast table, MUFFINS! First round muffin picks go to the chocolate chip and blueberry, next round pick goes to the poppy seed, and the third round pick goes to the corn muffin. So as we enjoyed the sweetness of the muffin to taste, our noses enjoyed the aromas wafting from the mitbach (kitchen)--the smell oh so familiar and

the closest thing to the smell of home; shabbas dinner.

The exact scent is hard to describe, it's some combination of roasted onions and baked potatoes with rosemary. It is definitely enough to excite a room for what comes later in the day.

We do spend our Fridays getting ready for Shabbat, or as we call it hachanot l'shabat. An extended avodah is part of that. We send the ashpa (trash) truck to go around and collect the garbage from all of the buildings and tzrifim (cabins) around machaneh, we mop the floors of the chadar ochel, and among other things we harvest the fresh vegetables and herbs from the gan and we live the difference between a week of work and a day of rest.

...Shabbat Shalom and Check Out until Sunday

M.C. SHMOLLY

This is the Remix Edition of a Song About Pishin'

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It may come as a surprise to families and chanichim (campers) alike the amount of actual

learning that goes on here. It's not that we try to hide it by any means, we just get that every opportunity is a learning opportunity, and just like we expression we throw around the...office: chinuch (education) is kef (fun). Though it may seem easier to find an interesting article, make copies, and distribute them to an entire shicvah (age group) to read and then talk about, it definitely isn't the most effective way to get a message across.

Around these parts, we call ourselves "informal educators" regardless of the tafkid (job) an individual holds. We plan peulot (programs) each day that teach a lesson related to the themes and the process of the summer during

peulat shicvah (a program by age group), which we refer to as pish. During this time, aside from the method of the peulah, there is also a latent learning function where the kids in each shicvah bond with one another by sharing in the same learning frame and process. Today, the Sayarim (post 6th graders) went on a scavenger hunt to familiarize themselves with the locations at machaneh and find their "missing kvutzah (group) member" to recognize the contribution of each individual to the group. And in a similar vein, the Bonim (post 8th grade) discussed inequality through exploring varying access to resources by breaking the chanichim into groups and giving each group different amounts of materials to make a raft that floats.

We learn by learning together. See, chinuch is kef!

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M.C. SHMOLLY

Intersession it's in between the sessions, it's after first session and before second session.

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Sending our four-weekers away can't help but be a little emotional, considering the measurable growth (both physical and emotional) we see in one another in just a month's time. It's quite possible that life-long bonds have been made in a this ripple of time, and the second you leave, it's only 11 months until you can come back again. Sarah in Chotrot (on the right) started to cry when she said bye to Julie our matzilah (life guard), and then Julie couldn't hold back her tears when they hugged. Shiah found the whole thing amusing, hence the two thumbs up. We say that generations here last about five years, roughly from one year's Amelim (age 9-10) to one year's Bogrim (age 15). It's

crazy to think that this summer's Bogrim will be the madrichim (counselors) for the 2010 Amelim when it's 2015 and they are in Bogrim. Confusing, but oh so cyclical. Shiah is 22, Julie is 19, and Sarah is 11, and yet they have all impacted one another's lives.

Now, welcome to Intersession, the hang time between first and second session. For chanichim (campers) intersession serves as a great time to catch up on sleep, euchre and other card playing, and trips to the movies to see summer blockbusters like Toy Story 3. We even bring in a special tzevet (staff) to help out themadatz (CITs) with running intersession programming. The intersession tzevet is normally

comprised of former Galil tzevet members and vets to the summer process. This year we brought in former Rosh Galil, Ben Profeta, former madricha, Gan specialist, and Driver, Ilana "Woosie" Goldfus, former madriach, Brian Cohen, and former madricha, administrative assistant to the Eexecutive Director, and the one we call "Grams," Arielle Wernick. It's nice for all of us to bring in some back up so that we, the tzevet (staff), have about 48 hours break everything down, build it back up, and just generally do our thing. And now with about three hours until the second-sessioners roll up, and the final moves being made to prepare for their arrival, we are just about ready to get this whole thing started again.

Second session will bring a whole new slew of energy and excitement and we are all just bracing ourselves to bring it all on.

Thanks for all of your patience in the blog-gap. Even bloggers have to participate in the intersession madness. Don't worry, your kids and friends are safe and happy!

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M.C. SHMOLLY