New Friends, Partying, and Working

Me and a bunch of people at Inter-Mate

Hey, so this past week was so busy, I barely got a chance to breathe at some points. Like I said in the last post, I went with a bunch of my Master's friends to make new friends at the Inter-Mate program. The Israelis we met were really cool! They all go to the Academic College of Tel Aviv, located in Jaffa, which is southern Tel Aviv. Everyone was between the ages of 22-28 (roughly) and no one was afraid to interact and meet new people. We went to this place on a street off of Allenby and we were welcomed by a big group of people and refreshments. The first activity we participated in was the non-Israelis got into a big external circle and the Israelis got into a smaller internal circle. The Israelis moved around the circle, meeting new people and talking about predetermined conversation topics such as "If you could be a superhero, who would you be?" and "Where have you traveled to?". Then we got into groups based on what kind of chocolate you like (white, milk, dark, none) then what kind of animal you like (cats, dogs, reptiles, not an animal person/allergic). In each group, we were supposed to ask each other more predetermined questions, but we never followed that. In the milk chocolate group, we played "Never Have I Ever" (NOT the dirty version!) and in the cats group, we just went around in a circle telling each other about ourselves. After that, we went to a local bar and I got to know more people. I made friends with Israelis named Adi, Nofar, Hila, Shaun, Tal, and a couple other Oranimers named Anna and Michael. What a fun night!

Left to right: me, Asaph from the
Partners program, and my friend, Dan

The next day, I had classes, then Hilary and I met with our boss for the internship to discuss logistics, and I went to volunteer at Neve Tzedek after school with Nicole. It was the first time I got a chance to tutor someone in English -- in Israel! I helped this little girl (I keep forgetting her name, but it was a cute name) distinguish between am/are/is and has/have, colors, and tall/short/long/thin/etc. She understood as I spoke with her mainly in Hebrew and she was very determined to get it. I was so proud to have made a small difference for this little girl! The hour went by in a flash. After that, the Master's program and internship program went to this bar called Polaroid for a party introducing the new Oranim internship group (7 people) that just got to Israel. I hung out with my friend Dan and a couple Israeli friends of his from the Partners program, the internship program's version of Inter-Mate. I also saw my new Israeli friends Adi and Nofar and spoke with them for a while.

Last Thursday was volunteering at Ironi Yud Aleph High School, the last opportunity high school that I had talked about. I was the only volunteer there, and I helped a 17 year old kid (who's actually a French Jew who immigrated to Israel with his mom about 5-7 years ago) do a little reading in English. He's actually quite good, I just helped him read a few difficult words and discussed the underlying meaning of some quotes and connected them to the story with him. He was studying for a test. I enjoyed doing that, too. What a rewarding experience! At night, I met up with my new Israeli friend, Hila, at the Hemingway Bar in Dizengoff Square for her friend, Lital's, birthday party. It was very fun, a loud bar that had people dancing on the bar. We talked, had cake, and danced a bit. Then I ran into a few friends from Ramla, so when Hila left, I joined them for a couple hours.

Marc and I counting balls

Friday was FILLED with working on project after project. To release stress, Dan and I went out with his roommate to Mike's Place (an American bar across the street from Tsidon) for a bite. Dan and I then proceeded to go out to the other side of town to meet a couple of my Ramla friends. We joined their Brazilian friends, trying to find a place to go. We ended up splitting, some of us going to this really cool bar at the corner of Ben Yehuda and Allenby, while the rest went to a club next door. I have no clue what the name of the bar was, but Dan claims it looks like a scene from Roadhouse, circa 1995. We played a few games of pool, each of us winning one game. Dan and I are going back there very soon.

Saturday and Sunday were COMPLETELY FILLED with working on projects for Org Behavior, Human Resource Management, and Staffing Organizations. 3 projects due in 2 school days -- not cool. On Monday, I had classes and gave my OB presentation with my friends Saul and Alex. We were a kick ass team! At night, I hung with Loni for a bit then went straight to bed. 4 hours of sleep the previous night did not do me any good.

Logo for the Children's
Museum in Holon, Israel

Tuesday was really cool and frustrating at the same time. We had a special enrichment today; we went to this "Dialog in the Dark" exhibition at the Children's Museum in Holon, a town over from Tel Aviv. About half of us from the program took the bus there, got off at the wrong stop, went to the wrong area, got lost, then finally found our way. This "Dialog in the Dark" thing was really cool. We went into this area of the museum that had no lights and we got led by a blind person. It may sound weird, but yeah, it really happened. The point of the exhibition was for us to feel what it's like to be blind. What happens (for those who don't know) is that since you don't have your most commonly used sense, your other senses heighten in sensitivity to compensate.

We all walked around the hallways, afraid we were going to walk into each other, often clutching the wall next to us. We explored a room that had statues on the wall, bicycles, and other really cool things. We got into a boat, going across some small pond. I was told to feel the outside of the boat, and try to decipher the 3 Hebrew letters on the side: it said חנה, or Chana (Hannah in English). That was the small boat's name. After we got out of the boat, we went into another room where there ended up being a bunch of produce (eggplant, peppers, lemons, etc.) that I smelled and touched. Then I walked into the middle of the room -- and ran into a car! Yes, a car. I'm just as surprised as you are. In the next room, we sat down against the wall and just closed our eyes (not that we could see) and were just told to listen to music. Imagination is such a powerful tool. I imagined I was in many different places, based on the music playing. I don't know the  names of anything, except some Mozart playing (thanks for drilling it into my head, Dad), but it was awesome! Last, we ordered food in the dark and ate together while asking our tour guide questions about being blind; we were allowed to ask anything. ANYTHING, including the most personal questions if we so desired. I asked, "Can you visualize things in your head even though you can't see?" and "Have you ever encountered someone who didn't respect your absence of sight and how did they react to you?". I don't remember the answers, but I learned a bunch. Because we were an hour late for the enrichment, I got a late start on working on projects once I got back home. I worked on one then on another in the course of 6 hours. I immediately went to bed due to extreme mental exhaustion.

I got up this morning (early) to finish up some work for one of my projects then went to school. It was Ben-Ami project day. Everyone presented projects in both classes, HRM and Staffing Orgs. Such a tiring day. I'm finally done rambling. I'll update you on more stuff soon.

Adios and l'hitraot!