This past week was filled with action and adventure! Last Tuesday, I had Ulpan then Simon and I went to Ironi Yud Aleph High School (about a 20 minute walk from home) for a volunteering orientation. We ran into Lucy's roommate, Rotem, there. The three of us learned that Ironi High School is a last opportunity high school. The troubled kids typically don't want to learn anything; they often don't come to class and need disciplining. Their parents often don't know how to read English, but we, as volunteers, would help them learn to read and write in English. I'm going to try out this volunteering opportunity this coming Thursday. Jesse (from an Oranim internship program) is an intern there, and he's second in command to the director. He brought us around the school, told us a little bit about the kids and what we would be doing, and hoped we would come next time.
On Wednesday, we had classes all day then I went with my friend, Nicole, to another volunteer orientation. Nicole has been volunteering at the Neve Tzedek Community Center since she came to Israel on the internship program in March (now, she's on the Master's program). Neve Tzedek is a neighborhood in southwestern Tel Aviv in which the affluent live. Nicole and I went to the community center to help tutor kids in English. On this day, there weren't that many kids, so we kind of just sat around the whole time. Randomly, Emanuelle from the internship program joined us at the orientation. I seem to like that place, it's calm and collected, and I get the chance to work with little kids. I remember when I went on a Hillel community service trip to Los Angeles in March, and for much of the week, we tutored little kids in Math, Science, spelling, and reading; it was such a rewarding experience when I got the chance to see a child spell a word right or solve a problem correctly. If they didn't, I helped them the best way I knew how. That's the type of thing I'm looking to get out of my volunteering experience. At night, Alex, Adam, and I just hung out playing some video games, but it's weird... I feel like I had dreamed about experiencing this night before.
Thursday was originally devoted to a program trip of a hike in Miron and spending time in Tzfat, one of Judaism's holiest cities. It's located in the Galilee area, the highest elevation in the whole country. Tzfat is known for being the birthright of Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). The trip was postponed, so we'll be going there soon. My friends Aline and Kenny (separately) spent time with friends there for the weekend, and they both had fun with their respective experiences. Instead of the trip, everyone took the opportunity of free time to catch up on some group work. We were all busy at work all day. I worked on a couple projects and also on some internship work, writing another blog.
But the weirdest thing happened Thursday. All day, up until a certain point, I had known that everything would happen the exact way it did. I knew I would be playing Battlefield 3 with Alex and Adam, eating cheese puffs. I knew I would walk down to the bank to apply for a credit card, answer my phone, get off it right as the employee came in the room again, listen to the exact same music, walk back, see Simon in his room every time I went to the bathroom or got a snack, and just sitting in my chair doing work. The only different things were Alex telling me he got hired for an internship and my friend Jason calling me to ask about borrowing books from me. It was a very odd day. At night, I hung out with Shawna from Ramla.
Friday was also used to catch up on work. I was so busy, it all feels like a big blur to me. I spent Friday night in Ramla, just hanging with Shawna again. Saturday and Sunday weren't really too exciting, just more work and staying at home relaxing and sleeping. Monday was classes then later, I went with Loni and Hunter to Mike's Place to watch Kenny do stand-up again. He was much better this time. Like I said, he is improving by the week.
I gotta go, need to take my laundry out and run to an enrichment program. We're going to be learning about Hanukkah (which starts in just 6 days, next Monday) and a bunch of us from the Master's program signed up for this program called Inter-Mate, where we will meet a bunch of (most likely Israeli) Tel Aviv University students for a social hour. It's a way to branch out and get to know Israelis personally. I'll tell you more about it next time. Laundry time! L'hitraot!
 |
| My friend, Mike, on the L.A. trip with one of the coolest kids ever |
 |
| Tzfat, I took this picture on Birthright |
But the weirdest thing happened Thursday. All day, up until a certain point, I had known that everything would happen the exact way it did. I knew I would be playing Battlefield 3 with Alex and Adam, eating cheese puffs. I knew I would walk down to the bank to apply for a credit card, answer my phone, get off it right as the employee came in the room again, listen to the exact same music, walk back, see Simon in his room every time I went to the bathroom or got a snack, and just sitting in my chair doing work. The only different things were Alex telling me he got hired for an internship and my friend Jason calling me to ask about borrowing books from me. It was a very odd day. At night, I hung out with Shawna from Ramla.
Friday was also used to catch up on work. I was so busy, it all feels like a big blur to me. I spent Friday night in Ramla, just hanging with Shawna again. Saturday and Sunday weren't really too exciting, just more work and staying at home relaxing and sleeping. Monday was classes then later, I went with Loni and Hunter to Mike's Place to watch Kenny do stand-up again. He was much better this time. Like I said, he is improving by the week.
I gotta go, need to take my laundry out and run to an enrichment program. We're going to be learning about Hanukkah (which starts in just 6 days, next Monday) and a bunch of us from the Master's program signed up for this program called Inter-Mate, where we will meet a bunch of (most likely Israeli) Tel Aviv University students for a social hour. It's a way to branch out and get to know Israelis personally. I'll tell you more about it next time. Laundry time! L'hitraot!
No comments:
Post a Comment