[NH] National Havurah Committee retreat

[magid]

I've been in NH for almost the last week, at the NHC annual retreat, which is rather like six days of Jew-con with a splash of summer camp. It was intense, as cons always are, and rather wonderful in many ways (which I didn't expect, actually; not sure why), and far too much for a single post.

The retreat was at Franklin Pierce University (nee College, last month), in Rindge, NH. There were three groups of sojourners this week: the Jews, the teenaged basketball campers, and the flocks of Canada geese. I'm not sure which group was largest. It's a pretty, self-contained campus, with the main sort-of quad overlooking a lake on one side, with a view of nearby Mt. Monadnock on the other, with lots of tree-covered hills all about.

The average weekday started with a variety of shacharit options, both before and after breakfast (the kitchen was kashered for the week, and served milchigs only. I was amused to see the lunch menu for the campers today, after all the Jews had gone: at least three kinds of meat, plus cream of chicken soup. I wonder whether they realized they kept kosher for a week.). Breakfast was standard fare, including fruit, but no veggies or other eclectic things as I usually eat; it felt strange to have all those eggs'n'taters'n'pancakes style breakfasts so many days in a row.

After all the morning davening ended, there were morning workshops, a bunch of different one-hour one-shot topics, ranging from text study to discussion to crafts to videos and slide shows. The next slot was an hour and a half for morning classes. These people signed up for in advance, and they ran four days, which meant that there was time for more in depth study. In practice, this meant that we did cram a lot in, but we still skimmed over lots of stuff; I'd like to have more time, or perhaps a tighter focus. On the other hand, it gives me a lot I can do at home...

Lunch, in the very warm cafeteria (the building was under construction, and for some reason the kitchen and cafeteria areas weren't (yet?) air-conditioned, which made meals more sweaty than they ought to have been. Ah, well.

After lunch, there was another round of one-shot workshops (I'm not sure how they decided which would happen when; probably semi-random), then afternoon classes.

In the time before dinner, there were a couple of options, ranging from beit midrash study to 12 step meetings, and a couple of things in between. In practice, I played it by ear, depending on how I felt and what things were going on.

Dinner was followed by mincha-maariv (usually only an egal option), then a single evening program until about 10 or so, with a couple of options for activities after that, plus the usually-open Alumni Lounge for general schmoozing and game playing. Which would've worked a bit better had the times not always slipped....

This post seems to have turned into something that will be useful to me when I go back, but quite possibly not of general interest. So I give you virtual brownies if you get this far :-).

I was quite lucky: both the classes I'd chosen turned out to suit me to a T, and the workshops I meandered into were all interesting, though I'd been concerned beforehand that things would be too granola to suit me.

To be continued.

Comments

[rhysara.livejournal.com]

while virtual brownies are nice, I think I may just wander into the kitchen and gobble one of the physical brownies I made just afternoon.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Actual brownies trump, definitely. I'd've offered those, but the technology for squeezing brownies into an LJ post (and under a cut :-) seems to be still on the drawing board...

What kind of brownies did you make?

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

mmm virtual brownies.

Sounds awesome, and I'd love to hear more detail when you get around to posting it.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Somehow yesterday I was sort of flattened after coming back, being totally underslept plus all the other 'back to the rest of life' stuff. I'm hoping to post more today.

[rethought.livejournal.com]

I ran out of coherent thought when you mentioned brownies.

*goes looking for sweets*

[magid.livejournal.com]

Did you find any?

(My shoving sweets at the monitor doesn't seem to be helping ;-)

[rethought.livejournal.com]

Just end up with a sticky screen. :)

I have some dried figs, so that's working for now.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Ooh, dried figs. V. yummy.

I'm not sure why I'm thinking of this now, but there's a medieval-style dessert that has cut up figs, dates, and raisins baked in a pie crust with plain milk-and-egg custard, and it's really nice.

Excellent icon use :-)

[rethought.livejournal.com]

They do something like that here. I'm not sure what they're called, but it's really nice. I feel a bit sick after (I think they put suet in them, eeek), so I might try making my own.

I'm funny about raisins. I love them, but I'm not tremendously keen on them baked into things.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I think they're called darioles. Or at least, that's what I was told they are, but Googling gets me very different sorts of things. Hm.

They're easy to make at home, and I don't think it would be a problem to leave the raisins out (or use currants, or something similar). I like them because they're easy to make, a little unusual but not challenging for the eater, and the sweetness is all from the fruit.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I'll take the brownies.

Reading something like this makes me want to attend a combination science fiction/Judasim convention.

[magid.livejournal.com]

*hands you a grasshopper brownie*

I think it would be even more difficult to find time to sleep with two major topics of interest! Or did you mean a con at the intersection of sf and Judaism, with classes on things like the different opinions about Shabbat times on Mars, etc.?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

It's more that whenever I go to a convention, I expect SFnal topics to be discussed. So, for example, when we went to Maine for Pesach, I really wanted some SF topics on their programming....

[magid.livejournal.com]

*nodnod* I hear that.

Perhaps I should work on a Jewish sf class, usable at cons or retreats :-)

[orawnzva.livejournal.com]

Hi. I don't know if we were introduced at the institute, or if we've met at a con, but I had a sudden urge to point you at this post of mine (http://orawnzva.livejournal.com/6317.html).

[magid.livejournal.com]

Very cool post!

I don't know whether we met at the institute; pretty much the only con I make it to is Arisia (do you go?).

How did you meander over to this post?

[orawnzva.livejournal.com]

Now that I'm living near Boston, I think I've been to Arisia once and probably will again. BZ linked you in his 'tute blog roundup.

[magid.livejournal.com]

If you go this year, Arisia's stretched to Monday (a first). And like last year, it's in Cambridge, not Boston.

[cellio]

Wow, that sounds neat! Do they do this every year, or was it a one-shot?

[magid.livejournal.com]

It's every year. Next year's dates have been announced; I think it's August 11-17 (which might be late enough not to overlap Pennsic in its earlier timeslot). It would be very cool if you came!

(I think the brochure for this year is still up on the site, if you want to get an idea of the range of classes; the workshop schedule is given out at registration, so I don't know how much in advance it's decided.)

[feygele.livejournal.com]

as the one who made the workshop schedule, i can tell you that it comes out only a few weeks ahead of the 'tute, which is why it's not online :)

[magid.livejournal.com]

So how did you decide what went when?
(The only one that I could figure out needed to be in the first morning slot was the crocheting, to allow people the maximum amount of time to finish a kippah before Shabbat :-)

[feygele.livejournal.com]

The folks offering workshops tell me their preference (specific day, or morning versus afternoon); about half the workshops are scheduled by their preferences. The remaining workshops I try to group by themes or categories, and spread out evenly. For example, there were only a few workshops that were artsy, or a few that were actually getting folks moving (as opposed to sitting and talking), so I tried to spread them out.

[magid.livejournal.com]

That makes a lot of sense. (Unlike some less-aware organizers who try to clump like with like, so thems that like those have to make hard decisions; whenever I run into that, it frustrates me.)

On the whole, I felt like there were a one to two things that called my name loudly per slot, so I didn't have too many difficult decisions.

PS

[magid.livejournal.com]

One of your teachers from your week at Hebrew College was there, first name Yonah.

Re: PS

[cellio]

Yonah was awesome in our program!

Aug 11-17 is the week immediately following Pennsic, meaning I wouldn't be helping with camp tear-down on the 10th if I have to travel to wherever this is. That said, this might be doable... I'll check out the web site.

Re: PS

[magid.livejournal.com]

I didn't talk with him much, but Yonah seemed very cool.

Things start Monday afternoon, and I believe next year it will again be at Franklin Pierce University, in Rindge, NH, about 90 minutes' drive northwestish from Boston, just over the NH border. There was some coordination of rides, so it might be feasible to fly into Manchester and meet up with other people there (assuming that's cheaper to fly into). (And while some people were driving during the week, I managed to avoid it completely.)