A long, tiring day in Jerusalem

Well, it was. In fact, I'm so tired that I will just post, in bullet points, what I did today, trying to go in chronological order:

• 5:45 a.m.– wake up for minyan at the Givat Zev synagogue. For those of you who missed that, 5:45 a.m. That's right, you probably didn't know that people were up that early.
• 8:30 a.m.– Birkat Cohanim at the Kotel. This was supposed to be cool, with thousands of priests blessing the people at the Western Wall. Except for the fact that the cantor (who calls out, word by word, the blessing that the priests repeat in their recitation) spoke over a microphone that was pretty defective, so we got something like B--ka- -oha--m.
• And on the subject of Jewish prayers- how is it that some Jews pronounce the "nu" sound as "nee"? Clearly, these are the Jews Who Say "Nee!"– I mean, how does that make sense? Or is it something I am not learned enough to understand? I thought I had this all figured out– the consonant "nun" (n sound) plus the vowelized "vav" (oo sound) makes a-- nee? I mean, imagine if I said "greats neews at the yeshiva– "we're going to have needles and tomato sauce every lunchtime, starting at neen. I kneew it!"
• 11:30 a.m.– the 11:00 meeting with Rabbi and Mrs. Goren finally happens at the Coffee Bean in Jerusalem. In attendance were Class of 2005 graduates Leor "Babyface" Hackel, Ruthie "I'm Shomer" Glass, Gabriel "LOUD!" Miller, and Moriah "Not Maria" Manning. Also showing up were Tamar Rohatiner of Shalhevet ('06), Rachel Keyes of Ra'anana ('06) and Perry Sassoon of Bar Ilan (left Shalhevet early). A great experience to see the Gorens again– she took the family back to Israel while he is Rosh Yeshiva of a new high school in San Diego.
• Lunchtime– ate with Ruthie and Leor (pizza for vegetarian Ruthie, shawarma for me and Leor). Ran into Tzippy Cohen from my summer job at JIF, and I was invited to my subsequent evening activity (see below).
• Afternoonish– visited Mevaseret-Zion, Leor's yeshiva. Interesting, interesting. Or so he told me.
• 4:30 p.m.– returned to Jerusalem; met roommate Josh Tal at Machaneh Yehudah (near the shuk on Jaffa Street) and prayed Mincha-Ma'ariv. Josh and Leor left to a concert at Beit Shemesh; I took a taxi to the Kotel that managed to take me only 2/3 of the way there. Whatever.
• 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.– walked from taxi drop-off to Kotel. Got lost in Arab shuk. Got spat on by a very irate camel. Well, not really; he said it was just an accident.
• 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.– prayed at the Western Wall, as I had already missed my planned activity, a Simchat Beit HaSho'evah party (I'm not quite sure what it is, so I'll have to wait until next Sukkot to find out). Talked to God at the Wall, then got lost in the Arab Quarter trying to find my way back to my evening activity. Got spat on by the same angry camel, but this time I think it may have been on purpose.
• 7:00 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.– attended the engagement party of Jason Venokur, one of the senior fellows at my summer job last year, JIF. I was invited by Tzippy when I ran into her at lunch. This was interesting for a few reasons: (1) everyone was dressed in button-down shirts, at least, while I was in a T-shirt and jeans, and I was the only peacock among the zebras (translation: I wore color among the black and white garb there. Okay, so I hadn't had a chance to go change, and all my button-downs are lost in the yeshiva laundry, but still); (2) the musical band consisted of a guitar, a trumpet, and a BAGPIPE!; (3) there was, oddly enough, no food; (4) through a faulty faucet, my pants were drenched in water for a good amount of time (see Rosh Hashana for deja vu), and (5) I only knew two people there. But it was fun, I think; one of the speakers became only the second person I know to use the phrase "don't kill the messenger" in serious context. He also used the phrase "poison Ivy League," but that didn't make much sense.
• To get back to Givat Zev, I took a taxi. It was hard to find one because of the whole Simchat Beit HaSho'evah thing slowing down traffic, but I found one eventually. Unfortunately, it was on the hill before the Dung Gate, and it took 15 minutes to get off the hill. And, then we got lost in Givat Zev itself, trying to find the street address (73 HaMakabim). But I'm here now, and it's time to go to sleep. Yawn. Hopefully, there's no 5:45 wakeup tomorrow. 5:45 a.m.! Just checking to make sure you're still reading.

Wow, I wrote much more than I intended.