After the Institute #2: Reminders for future years

This post will be of interest primarily to other Institute attendees.

1. Learn the words to all the verses of Yedid Nefesh, so that you can teach Lenny Solomon's tune next year.
2. Don't bring much food--you ate like a pig all week.
3. Do bring an extra plug-in light for the powder room (for my foreign readers, that's a room with only a toilet and [usually] a sink, as opposed to a "full bath," which also has a bathtub, or, at least, a shower stall). The light there is connected to fan that sounds like a bleeping vacuum cleaner, which you certainly don't want to hear all Shabbat/Sabbath, and your flashlight barely lasted overnight. (You really don't want to have to leave the door ajar when you're using the powder room during the day.) Someone suggested that we bring a night light, which is an excellent idea.
4. Bring more light-switch covers for Shabbat. I think we were short at least three.
5. Bring two white shirts for each of you for Shabbat--at the Institute, many people follow the traditional minhag Yerushalmi (custom of Jerusalem) and wear white tops, at least, especially on Friday night. Some of the women wore white from head to toe.
6. Weekday breakfast note (there being no hot food served on Shabbat morning): The real maple syrup is on the shelf right at the cafeteria entrance.
7. Um, Ms. Can't-Handle-Beans, you did better with dairy despite your mild lactose intolerance.
8. Be sure to try before you "buy"--many of the dishes have more pepper in them than you can tolerate, so sample things first before piling them onto your plate. The Punster said that the soups were generally too peppery for you.
9. Bring your camera, and plenty of batteries ('cause videos use a lot of power) to the Thursday night talent show!!!!
10. Don't forget to ask someone to take a photo of the two of you.
11. Bring your copy of the sheet music for Salamone Rossi's (correction: Louis Levandowki's) "Halleluyah," if you can find it. You'll probably end up singing it over Shabbat (maybe Friday night when folks get together to sing after the poetry reading, which is when we tried it this time).
12. Someone's great suggestion: Fold up your schedule and stick it into the plastic casing containing your name tag/meal-admission card, to make it easier to carry on Shabbat. (Note to my readers: Yes, there's an eruv.)
13. Say Birkot HaShachar (the Morning Blessings) before Shacharit (the Morning Service) on Shabbat--this year, the Traditional Egalitarian minyan started the service at Pesukei D'Zimrah (Verses of Song [mostly psalms and biblical quotes], sometimes called the Introductory Service), and you ended up playing catch-up again.
14. Do n'tilat yadayim (the ritual hand-washing) and say a motzi (the blessing thanking G-d for bread) before getting on the lunch line on Shabbat, 'cause you'll never be able to get back through that line to the washing station. (Okay, it'll be a bit out of order, saying hamotzi before kiddush [the prayer, recited over any beverage except water, thanking G-d for the Sabbath], but logistics seem to necessitate this.)
15. Eat Shabbat lunch and dinner/seudah shlishit in the back seating area (the Hampshire Room?)--that's where all the singing was going on this year.
16. Friday, August 29, 2008 update: Follow the same instinct you followed this time, and bring enough clothes for the whole week--you'll be too busy davvening, studying, reading, singing, dancing, and/or having fun to bother doing laundry. Parents with kids in tow probably don't have the luxury of skipping a laundry session--there are some advantages to being past the child-rearing phase.
17. Another Fri., Aug. 29, 2008 update: As you did this year, be sure to take housing next year within the eruv, on the main part of the campus --aside from being outside the eruv, the lakeside housing is a serious schlep from the main part of the campus, and the last thing you need, in terms of getting to morning minyan on time, is an extra 20-minute walk.