[NH] National Havurah Committee retreat
Aug. 12th, 2007 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidI'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.
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.