Why was this shabbat different from other shabbats?

Ever since I've been home, I feel that I've lost some of the drive to blog. I have seen most of the people to whom I was writing before, so now I feel that I am writing to my friends in Israel about my adventures in Los Angeles, which are none too exciting or entertaining. Nevertheless, it is my sacred duty to continue to write.

I feel like this shabbat was different from last week's in so many ways. For one, I was able to eat all of my favorite shabbat foods, quite unlike the turkey neck soup, shoe leather meat, and petel-syrup drink meals to which I've grown accustomed. The eating environment was a lot more intimate; at yeshiva, it was thirty people to a table, while here, the only unwanted faces were Tabak and Tzvi.

On the other hand, I definitely missed the group environment of the YMG singing and dancing during shabbat morning davenning. Here, I joined Rabbi Becker's teen minyan, where I had the fifth aliyah and received four Laffy Taffys for answering a parsha question. After lunch, I got to play the ca-razy board game Wit's End with Talya, Tabak, and company, and then played basketball. This game of hoops was quite unlike both my previous experiences at YMG and at home in that it was with a completely new set of players; obviously, I was not with my yeshiva pals on the court, but at home, I was surprised at all the new faces I saw on the court.

After shabbat ended, I watched the second half of UCLA's 59-45 win over LSU to reach the college basketball championship game against Florida. Then I went to Tabak's house to watch a Chinese Auction, a fundraiser for the 12th grade trip to Poland and Israel. I stayed awake for as long as I could, but around 10:30, I finally succumbed to jetlag and headed home, where I immediately fell asleep.