#DillerSolutions #OurOvernight

I’m going to assume the general public reading this blog, isn’t a twitter buff, unlike the majority of Diller 5, and, due to this, you’re probably wondering why I used a pound symbol in the title and grouped all my words together. No, it wasn’t a typo, but twitter vocabulary which inevitably was part of our discussions over the course of the weekend. Each phrase of words represents something that is ‘trending.’ A trending topic could be something like #QuestionsIHateAnswering, or #ThingsParentsSay. By putting these in your ‘tweet’ you allow the world to see what you think about these things or what you’re saying about them, and in response, you can also view what others are saying about the same topic. For example, I might tweet “My Mom is always like ‘This is my house!’ but as soon as it becomes time to clean it suddenly becomes my house too #ThingsParentsSay”. And, after posting this to my twitter, I could easily scroll through and find other tweets about people saying things about what their parents do, and so forth, but that’s an explanation for a different blog.

Now, you’re probably sitting and staring at your computer, wondering why the blog committee has decided to write about that foreign thing celebrities use called twitter. Well, apparently Diller 5 is filled with tweeters and tweet readers, and before the weekend was over we’d have our own Diller slang as such:

1. #DillerGirlSwag - This can be used to show the girls of Diller are way cooler than the boys of Diller, (which is also totally true). For example, “Man, the Diller girls are so smart and pretty! I wish I could be a part of their secret group #DillerGirlSwag”

2. #DillerBoySwag – This is something that lives in the hearts of the Diller boys. Here is an example of how this trend might be used, “We get the room with all the windows? Probably because of that #DillerBoySwag”an, the Diller girls are so smart and pretty! I wish I could be a part of their secret group #DillerGirlSwag”

3. #DillerGirlsAndBoysSolutions - This is usually around the time just after the ever continuing argument over Diller girls vs. Diller boys has gotten old. The solutions are usually a compromise that each side is pretty good, and this is how it might be used, “Without both the Diller girls and the Diller boys... it wouldn’t be the same. I love all of you!! #DillerGirlsAndBoysSolutions.”

4. #[insert name here]Problems - This trend is referring to an individual person in Diller to describe something that is a typical problem of that person. Usually it makes the rest of the group laugh, and they’re extremely fun to make up, for example, “I have to write the Diller blog by Wednesday, but I also have to study for my AP Bio test on Friday #RachelFormanProblems”

Other than twitter, our weekend was filled with bonding, birthdays, and the building of our Tikun Olam projects:

To begin the sleepover, we watched a movie entitled My Australia, which described the lives of two young Jewish brothers, named Tadek and Andrzej, and the story as they make Aliya and moved to Israel. Their Jewish heritage was unkown to them as they grew up in Poland, being taught to hate Jews until their mother moves them to Israel, and teaches them of their real Jewish roots. The youngest, who was told they were

moving to Australia, and not Israel, is absolutely outraged at the idea that he is a Jew, which he had so despised previously. Both brothers have an interesting journey in finding themselves through their new found Jewish heritage.

As a group, watching this movie brought in some mixed emotions. Most of us had never seen someone resent moving to Israel or learning about their Jewish life. It was a new turn on an old conversation, and really was able to spring forth topics such as Jewish Identity as well as Jewish life in college.

As the night continued to move past us, we spent the hours playing different games that continued to bring us closer together. The first ice breaker was lead by Noga, who lead us through a game where a ball is passed from one Diller to the other. Sounds easy right? Well, we then had to pass the ball through the same order many more times and see if we could beat the clock! (We’re so talented - you can bet we beat the clock!)

At some point around midnight, the birthday committee surprised our January birthdays, Nitay, Julian, and Ben, with a Facebook wall filled with signatures from their fellow Dillers, and some amazing birthday singing.

Afterwards, we had a second game lead by Max. Using his talents in film, he gave us an exercise he usually does with his friends to warm up. The exercise involved pretending to love something we actually hate, or pretending to hate something we actually love, while the rest of the group would egg us on to keep going, until Max would say, "Next".

Some of the lines were “I love that disgusting feeling you get when you’re sick,”, “I hate that my teachers don’t give me enough homework,”, “I love it when people ask me about my future and college,”, and “I hate that the Yankees are so attractive!”

After this, the Diller girls and boys said good night to each other, and with that, started the beginning of Ma’agal Laila/Night Circle separately for boys and girls, and a time of building a bond of trust that will last forever, and memories that will last a lifetime.

After only getting roughly four and a half hours of sleep, Dillers sleepily awoke from their beds to eat breakfast and start a new activity. This one specifically was our Tikun Olam Projects. We began discussing our projects by watching a video of inspiring teens, our age, who have taken it upon themselves create Tikun Olam projects that are larger than one would think a teen could do. These teens created projects that deal with the water issues in Ethiopia, education issue in Liberia and the genocide in Darfur. Watching these teens forced us to think bigger than we thought we ever could. After being given a partner who had similar ideas to us, together we planned out a project we’d like to work on for the next several months. Personally, after meeting with my partner, I was extremely excited to begin our project!

We then had a guest come and teach us some Hebrew. After a quick lesson on learning how to say things like “He/She/You want the apple/plum/peach” in Hebrew, and with one last game of Jungle Speed, it was unfortunately, time to say goodbye. With the promise to see each other soon, the time we spent together this weekend truly made us grow even closer to each other, and definitely made me have a feeling of completeness, to know that I’ll always have my Dillers to lean on.

Thanks to Leah, Max, Aliza, and Noga, for organizing an amazing overnight, and my fellow Dillers for always bringing the laughs and a good time! Love you all!

See you at the Super Bowl!

RB