Shabbat at Shlomi- Achuzat Sara

Alright. It's Saturday night. We're finally on our way to Achuzat Sara after an amazing shabbos at Shlomi. It all started Friday morning. After finally catching up on sleep, we started our day off with a quick breakfast and davening. Immediately after, we got our Kol Hanearim t-shirts and made our way to the buses for a two hour hike. When we reached the top of the mountain, we did a few more ice breakers, including an epic tournament of Rock Paper Scissors, won by Leo Ottensoser. We then had a sandwich lunch, before heading back to shlomit. The rest of the afternoon was down time to play basketball, catch up on sleep, meet new people, call our parents, and prepare for shabbos. At 5:30 we all got together to take shabbos pictures and start the Shabbas festivities. Before we started davening though, Michael Reidler surprised all the coordinators with gifts and letters as a token of his appreciation for them. We then went on to daven kabbalat shabbos, and head to the dining room for dinner. After quickly eating and socializing, everyone gathered around Rav Yair for zmirus and a tisch. Everyone was getting into it. We were singing, screaming, and banging on the table! The sound was deafening!! As the tisch finally came to a close, all the different homes split up into different rooms for more activities and ice breakers. We went to an empty classroom and all went around and said our names again before starting our activity. For our activity, we played a game where one person would stand in the middle, say an interesting fact about themselves, and then anyone who shared that interesting fact, had to get up and switch seats. Whoever was the last person standing would have to share the next fact. We played for around an hour. The game was a hit! We then transitioned into a more serious note. We began speaking about why we came on Achuzat, and shared any ideas or stories we had. After hearing so many amazing ideas, we finally concluded with a song before calling it a night. Everyone said their good nights and headed to there rooms to get some sleep in order to prepare for shabbos day.

Shabbos morning started with a 9:30 davening, filled with singing, dancing, and meaningful dvar torahs. After davening we all made our way to the dinning room for lunch. Like Friday night, the meal quickly turned into a full out tisch filled with singing and dancing. We then went on to bench and made our way to our classroom again for a group meeting with Michael. Michael told us why he started Kol Hanearim, what keeps him inspired, and why he feels journaling is SO IMPORTANT!! The rest of the afternoon was down time to sleep, relax, hang out, or go to different optional shiurs and Q and A's that were offered. We then all reunited in the Shul for mincha before heading back to the dining room for shalashudis. As expected by now, we ate, sang, and of course ended it off with a little dancing. We then made our way to the balcony outside the shul. As we watched the sun set, we sang a few songs and took time to really reflect on how amazing shabbos was. After the singing finally ended, Michael and I made a siyum on Mesechet Megillah, followed by maariv and a beautiful havdalah. We then all ran to our rooms to pack up our bags and load the buses as we finally got ready to leave. As we rolled out, I looked back at Shlomi and realized what an amazing shabbos we had. After so much, singing, dancing, and bonding, we were finally ready to head to Achuzat Sara, meet the kids, and start what should be the best month of our life.