מסיבה אחרונה: Forest Party

One aspect of Year Course that I have not spoken about this year is the partying/drinking scene. This is such an inescapably large element of the program that I would be remiss if I didn't address it. I've been to my fair share of clubs, parties and bars. I've done the whole hanging outside of Muza in Arad, and going to "Crack Square"* Thursday nights here in Jerusalem. And yet that's nothing in comparison to most Year Coursers.

It's been a year full of "first times" and I regret none of them. It will absolutely be strange going back to the States where I won't be able to legally drink or set foot into most of these places for another two years. It will be weird not seeing alcohol in every corner store and for it to be illegal to drink in public areas. I really liked being able to order a glass of wine with my friends at dinner or buying a beer at the store.

Thursday night was the last big party that Year Coursers were going to. Hosted by the teens from one of our Tsofe's kibbutz, it was a forest party at the top of the mountain by the kibbutz (near Beit Shemesh). There were enough of us coming from Jerusalem that we organized a tour bus to drive us there and back.

The logistics of arriving was somewhat ridiculous though. We planned to leave Jerusalem at 11pm but because we had to wait for the Bat Yam bus to leave, we were sitting on the bus for an extra 45 minutes. Once we got to the mountain we were informed that because the road up was extremely narrow only one bus could go up and back at a time. And so we waited. When it was finally our turn to make the ponderous trek up the mountain I had the misfortune of sitting near the front and being afforded a great view through the front window. (To give you an idea of how scared we were I actually think I would have preferred taking Chaim's car up that mountain.)

It was a seriously cool party though. After hiking a ways into the forest there was a huge clearing where they set up a DJ and a huge dance area (and also unlimited alcohol). There were predominantly Israelis shnat sherut aged there but Year Course still had a strong presence.

We had planned in advance to meet back up at 4 to take the bus home. So we were all milling around and we see our bus making it's way up the road. Long story short: our bus comes up to take the section 3 kids down and then was planning on dropping them off at the bottom and then going back up for us except that he didn't make it all the way down before another bus started up forcing him to go back up the mountain...backwards. And then he still had to go back down with them and come back up for us. Excellent. We got home at 6am.

*Dubbed "Crack Square" for its reputation as a place for yeshiva boys to do drugs. For Year Course it was a hang out place to drink near all the bars in the center of town.