Nothin' but a Good Time

I had a lot of other things that I wanted to post about before writing this, but I recently had quite possibly one of the most amazing weeks I’ve had while here and I felt compelled to share it.

SO let’s start off with Suday, February 15. Though schools are in session on Sundays, we do not teach on those days. Instead, Israel Experience/ITF provides us with seminars, or trainings, or if we’re really lucky, A DAY OFF!

On the 15^th of Feb, we had an early start to the day (9 am but come on, that’s early for not having to be in school) and we had a session with a life-coach. This was supposed to run for 2 hours, but Josh and I had to slip out a few minutes early because at 11 our little scholars were set to perform at a choir recital! We really wanted to support them and attend, and I’m so happy that we did. We also had the opportunity to watch a few other choirs from around Petah Tikva. The students had no idea Josh and I were going to be there, especially since we don’t work with them on Sundays, so they were extremely surprised and happy to see us there. I remember how much it meant to me when my parents could come to any sort of recital or performance I had when I was younger, so I was really glad we could do that for them. It’s important to me that they know Josh and I are here because we care about them and believe about them.

After the recital, we went home to rest and get ready because in the evening we had the opportunity to attend OUR FIRST ISRAELI WEDDING! This is a big deal people. I was SO excited that one of the teachers at school extended an invite to her wedding. Meital, the bride, is a 3^rd grade teacher who we rarely get to work with, so the invite was extra unexpected.

I knew Israeli weddings are a lot more casual than American ones (in that people some people even wear jeans to them), so I didn’t want to risk showing up as if it were prom because I’ve been told that I already scream “American.” After sending my madricha (counselor) a selfie of my outfit and getting it approved, I finished getting ready and just like that Josh and I were out.

It was pouring on the night of the wedding, but one of the teachers generously offered 4 of us a ride. The second we arrived at the location, I knew a great night was in store.

Amid the strobe lights and loud music, we noticed many little h'orderves stations. Josh and I agreed that it would be best to do a lap before committing to any particular food. It’s nice working with someone who is on the same page as you.

 

Couscous, Moroccan Stew, and Mini Shwarma 

They say that all that glitter’s ain’t gold – and while I whole heartedly agree with that, something that glittered AND was gold was a beautiful little hot dog station. I know, I know, it has been way too long since I have written about the best hot dogs in Israel. These were really tasty and a bit spicy but I refuse to add them to the rankings because these were catered hot dogs and you can’t really go out and get them in Israel. Wouldn’t want to tease you all.

Posing w/ the Hot Dog Stand

duh.

After trying a few different but equally delicious h'orderves, wedding planners cleared the aisle so the groom and stunning bride could take the stage. Something that I really appreciated is that, in true Israeli fashion, there were no frills. Only the bride and groom walked down the aisle and the ceremony began instantaneously. Not that I appreciate it enough to implement it at my own wedding but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The Beautiful Bride

Anyway, after a majority of the audience ignored the ceremony and chose to drink at the bar, the main hall opened up for dinner and dancing.

I wasn’t sure whether or not I had stepped back into a South Beach club or I was actually at a wedding. To sum up the experience in a few short words: excessive amounts of food, alcohol, and dancing. Two thumbs up.

Wedding or Bar-Mitzvah? 

The next day we had the pleasure of hosting a photographer at our school! Israel Experience, the particular organizer of Israel Teaching Fellows in Rishon and PTK, wanted to update photos on their website and such so they chose to follow Josh and I around for a day. They kind of picked a hectic day to come considering we had an earthquake drill (do they even have earthquakes in Israel? Still not sure), but it ended up turning out great! Through this I discovered that all of my students have releases signed so you better believe you will start seeing their precious little faces all over this blog. Check out some of my favorite photos from the photographer below.

Not From the Photographer but my Favorite of the Day 

I had one more event that I wanted to include in this post but I think I’ll just save it for the next one -- so you can expect it in about a month or two. KIDDING KIDDING. 

A Great Time to Dream

January has come (and passed…) and for this month’s bulletin board, Josh and I knew that we needed to include New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. As a way to make this one cohesive idea, we made the board “dream” themed. We felt as though this tied the idea of New Year’s resolutions and the “I Have a Dream” speech together nicely. We wrote “It’s a Great Time to Dream” in both English and Hebrew, and our question of the month was “What are your dreams?” We ask all of the tough questions.

I felt it was incredibly important to teach the students about MLK, Jr. Aside from the fact that he was a huge mover and shaker in American history, he also advocated love, education, and service which all hold special places in my heart. Josh and I presented the idea of teaching the 5^th graders (Kitah Hay) about MLK, Jr. to Rosi and, of course, she was very supportive.

The lesson turned out to be one of the best I’ve ever facilitated. We had the opportunity to teach 2 different 5^th grade classes, and both responded really well.

We began the lesson with this video of MLK, Jr.:

For those who can’t/don’t want to watch, it’s a pretty cool video where the King himself (is that an appropriate way to refer to him? Probably not) explains that Israel is “one of the great outpost of democracy in the world.” NO BIG DEAL. 

Next, we played this video for the kids:

Since this video was a bit longer, we stopped after every sentence or so and worked with the kids on translating the words to Hebrew. The students’ main English teacher also helped us with this for both videos. The video’s not perfect and COMPLETELY drops the ball when speaking about MLK’s assassination but it did a good job explaining the history to the students.

Then came the MOST EXCITING PART!!! Caps and lots of exclamation points are necessary because I could geek out over this for hours. We asked the kids to create a dream bubble and gave them this prompt to fill out: “I have a dream that _____.” We really didn’t know what to expect. We unsurprisingly got some silly responses -- like “I won’t be in school” -- but for the most part their answers just reminded me how brilliant children are and how fortunate I am to be working with these little scholars!

Some may have spelling or grammatical errors, but pay attention to the messages behind the words - these were 100% the kids' ideas. I said it once and I'll say it again - kids just understand life so much better than we do.

That's a lot of salsa! (Get it? 'Cause Pace...salsa...)

SO MANY GOALS SO LITTLE TIME... We need more girls to grow up with these dreams!

How we displayed the work of our little scholars

Anyone who knows me knows that I am unapologetically obsessed with motivational quotes. They dominate my phone background, my walls, and my Pinterest boards. Some of my favorite quotes come from MLK, and I’m willing to bet that City Year sparked my fascination with his words. City Year uses MLK, Jr. Day as a “Day on, not off,” and has different service projects running across the country.  I wore my Timberland boots and khakis– which were part of my CY uniform – in solidarity on MLK, Jr. Day here in Israel.

And now, I leave you with some of my favorite MLK, Jr. quotes:

“Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

"Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."

Hope you’re all inspired. Now go out and change the world or something.

Channukah in Israel and England

Two simple words perfectly describe Channukah in the Holy Land: sufganiyot galore. Seriously. From the shuk to the best bakeries, anywhere and everywhere had an assortment of Channukah donuts. An Israeli told me that she limits herself to one sufganiyah a year since each one clocks in at an average of 600 calories but I think that’s just silly. Why deprive myself of something that reminds us of the miracle of Channukah? I’m happy that some people are able to exercise self control, but as the saying goes -“Treat yo’ self.” And that’s just what I did. Sometimes twice a day. Oops.

While the students had school during the majority of the holiday, my program was kind enough to give us a week off. One of my best friends on the program, Naomi, extended an invitation to go home to Manchester, England with her. While I was tempted to go home for the holiday, I felt silly doing so since I am so close to Europe and I won’t necessarily have the opportunity to travel so freely again.

I chose to join Naomi and visit England for the first time. I definitely made the right decision. I had an incredible time. I would be lying if I said England was at the top of my dream places to travel to – in fact, had you told me in August that I would be going to England, I would probably laugh in your face. But lo and behold, here I am on my return flight back to Israel writing about the “brilliant” time I had in England.

I was fortunate enough to spend 5 days in England. Like any good tourist, I went into the trip with a bucket list, if you will, of what I wanted to do while on the trip.

My List

1. Go to Starbucks 
2. Go to Taco Bell
3. Get personalized Nutella
4. Have high tea
5. Have fish & chips

I know, I know – there’s absolutely zero reason as to why I’m not a 500 lb human being. And while the first two tasks are not British AT ALL, I have gone 4 months without both and have missed them every single day. No shame. I also thought it’d be cool to see Big Ben and maybe even the London Eye (more so on a look but don’t touch basis – there are few things I hate more than heights), but they weren’t exactly at the top of my list.

I am happy to say that all missions on my bucket list were ACCOMPLISHED.

Friday, December 19^th was my first full day in Manchester. Nay and I spent the day in town, where I was able to get Starbucks and personalized Nutella. We also took some very couple-y holiday photos. Tis the season after all. For Shabbat, her family had about 15 guests over for a traditional Shabbat dinner. Nay and I had a relatively early evening because Saturday morning we had a train to catch to London.

We caught the train at 8 am because we wanted to be able to enjoy a full day in London. We arrived at around 10:30 am. We then took the tube from the train station to Nay’s twin brother’s apartment. Her brother, Toby, was our gracious host for the weekend. We spent 7 hours walking around London. We got to see Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, and other touristy things but most importantly we had fish and chips at an English pub and high tea for an early dinner.

Fun fact – Brits do NOT get their leftovers to go. We had quite a few scones leftover from tea and Nay’s brother was mortified when I considered asking for a “doggy bag.” I decided to spare him the embarrassment and not ask because I am a nice human being.

I really enjoyed walking around London – it was exhausting but definitely worth it. It’s a beautiful city that reminds me so much of New York.

After our long day out, the 3 of us returned to Toby’s apartment to get ready for a night out. I got the opportunity to meet lots of Nay’s friends and we all got to enjoy the London nightlife experience. I was exhausted and probably delirious but I’m pretty sure we all had a lot of fun (even though Toby was horrified that I devoured an unkosher burger at like 2 am).

On Sunday morning we enjoyed a traditional Jewish bagels, shmear, and lox brunch while rehashing the details of Saturday night’s shenanigans. Nay and I decided to take it easy until our 2 pm train back to Manchester.

Upon returning to Manchester on Sunday evening, we got to enjoy a delicious Italian dinner with some of Nay’s close and extended family members. Nay has two little cousins who are so in love with her – it’s so precious. It seriously warmed my heart to see them interacting. One asked me if we speak English in “Los Angel-leeze” which was also precious.

On Monday, Nay and her aunt had planned what most people would consider a fun day at the ice skating rink. As we know, though, I have issues conforming and I’m not like most people. I have gone ice-skating at least 10 times and for the life of me CANNOT balance and skate. Skating gives me serious anxiety because there are always those rail holders that either go too fast or too slow, as if they don’t know that MY pace is the correct one, and for the love of God do NOT get me started on the panic that instills when there is no railing to hold on to because apparently people need an entrance/exit or whatever.

Needless to say, I was not impressed with the ice skating plans. Nay tried to comfort me by saying that she wasn’t a greater skater herself, but obviously the second we hit the ice she turns into freaking Kristi Yamaguchi. Some girls just have it all. So, I had her use her powers for good and got to enjoy being pushed around the rink.

On Tuesday, I was set to fly back to Israel at 5:30 pm, which left me enough time to check off the last thing on my bucket list – a visit to Taco Bell. While Brits aren’t really familiar with the gourmet fast food chain, there are a few locations in England and I needed to get my fix. It was sort of embarrassing telling people that this was actually something I wanted to do – one of Nay’s younger cousins even asked me why I wanted to go so badly when their food is “rubbish.” My answer? It reminds me of home.

REUNITED AND IT FEELS SOOOO GOOD

While some menu items were different, I was able to get my fix and introduce my Brit to high quality Mexican food before heading back to the Holy Land.

All in all, it was an AMAZING trip that inspired me to do even more traveling while living abroad. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to live abroad, and going to England was a great blessing and gift.

Until next time x

The Most Wonderful Time of Year

So it’s officially 2015 and I have yet to write a single post about December, 2014. I’m going to do my best to sum up an amazing month into a semi-condensed post.

In the States, we tend to think December as “Christmas time” or “Christmas season.” As I’m sure you can imagine, things are a bit different in the holy land. Though you can find a Christmas tree here and there if you go out looking for it, most storefronts are decorated with channukiahs and dreidels. For our December bulletin board, my co-teaching fellow and I were a little conflicted as to whether or not we wanted to include a Christmas tree. On one hand, we both agreed that the tree plays a large role in American culture. On the other hand, it can be viewed as a strictly religious symbol. So we did the PC thing to do and covered the board with paper snowflakes instead. We also explained how outside of Israel, dreidels have letters that represent the phrase “a big miracle happened there” as opposed to Israeli ones, which read “a big miracle happened here.” Additionally, I spent way too long drawing Olaf from Frozen but we needed a snowman and I was not going to settle for a printed one. You better believe I laminated that bad boy.

Olaf in the making

Student admiring our work

Finished product

Since it was Hannukah season, our ulpan teacher decided to move one of our Hebrew lessons outside of the classroom and into the kitchen. We spent a class making latkes and attempting to communicate in Hebrew. She also read us an adorable Hebrew children’s Hannukah book. It was still difficult to understand some of the story, but Hila made sure to stop along the way and translate for us. It was a really exciting way for us to kick off the holiday season.

Tasted even better than they looked

Not too long after our latke ulpan class, Masa hosted a leadership summit. The summit was held in Jerusalem from Decemeber 7-11. As explained on the Masa website:

“Masa Israel Leadership Summit is an intensive, five day learning and skill-building seminar for exceptional participants of Masa Israel programs from around the world. The Seminar is designed to provide Masa participants the skills that will help them become strong and active Jewish leaders through learning, leadership training, community service and getting involved in their local communities. By offering them dynamic and interactive programming and a support network of peers from around the world; the Leadership Summit helps prepare Masa participants for active involvement in Jewish life on their return home.” 

It was an AMAZING week – I got to meet so many new and interesting people (like a half-Persian half-Austrian Israeli…what?!) and hear a lot of great lectures. Here are some of the highlights:

Masa-Israel Leadership Summit Gala Event

To kick off the week, Masa hosted a gala on the first night of the summit.  This was basically a bar-mitzvah and to be honest, I didn’t hate it. We all got dolled up and enjoyed a nice sit down dinner followed with some dancing to a live band.

Outdoor Training at Jerusalem Biblical Zoo

The next day, we got to go to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo and do some team building activities with a group called Ekipo. Ekipo’s tagline is “Playing Seriously.” The group specializes in Outdoor Training, which includes a bunch of really fun physical activities. We got the chance to do a relay race around the zoo (which I have actually never been to) and other silly things. It was loads of fun and really got me excited for the rest of the week.

My group for the duration of the summit

Israel Day – Leading Social Change in Israel

On Israel Day, we had the choice of 6 different “tracks” to choose from.  I chose the social change track (obviously). This was one of my favorite parts of the week. We had the opportunity to follow Yuval Bdolach of Re:Lod, a “mover and shaker” in the Israeli social change scene. We visited the city of Lod, which is a mixed Israeli-Arab city. When we first arrived to the barren/desolate city, Yuval greeted us and said, “Welcome to the best city in Israel!” I realized right then and there that Yuval is just as delusional and optimistic and I am, which got me really excited for the day.

The group and Yuval

See, people are really quick to call Petach Tikva the “shithole” of Israel. I don’t agree with this sentiment at all, as we have everything we could ever want and more here. Visiting Lod, I even questioned how people could call PTK a shithole when places like this exist. Yuval’s idealist energy really reminded me that there is a lot of beauty in even the most seemingly “unbeautiful” places.

The point of Re:Lod is to embrace the co-existence, regentrify the city, and make it the bustling city it once was. Re:Lod employs Israeli students to live in the Lod community and develop activities and programing . I loved the idea of it all, but I had to ask – Once the city is regentrified, what is stopping it from becoming the next Tel Aviv. Yuval smiled when I asked this, and explained that the ultimate goal was not to make Lod into the next Tel Aviv. The ultimate goal is to play on the strengths and assets of the city and make it the best Lod it has the potential to be. 

"All of Us Together" in Arabic and Hebrew - as seen in Lod

In our host groups, we were asked to reflect on the day. Here are my notes from it:

            LOVED the day, felt so at peace and in my element. Incredible idealist energy. Loved the team element, working together for a common cause. Being one with the community members of Lod. I’ve always believed everyone has something to offer, I loved that they’re using energy to rebuild and refocus Lod’s strengths as opposed to making it something its not.

I abuse the word “love,” I know.

How to Dunk with Your Feet on the Ground with Tamir Goodman

Oh. My. God. Where do I even start with this? Tamir Goodman, also known as the “Jewish Jordan” is an American-born basketball player who eventually made aliyah.

The Jewish Jordan on a Sports Illustrated Cover

As explained on Wikipedia:

“After averaging 35.4 points per game for the Talmudical Academy of Baltimore, in 11th grade he was ranked the 25th-best high school player in the country. Goodman received a scholarship to the University of Maryland. The team's schedule of practices and games meant having to play on Friday nights and Saturdays, against the rules of Orthodox Judaism, so he declined Maryland's offer and accepted a scholarship from nearby Towson University. Goodman then moved to Israel and signing a 3-year contract with Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2002.”

Tamir Goodman is probably one of the best people I’ve ever had the honor of meeting. He is genuinely one of the most positive people and is extremely inspiring. During the summit, Goodman used his experience on the court to give us tips on great practical life lessons. In short:

1. Lay-Up – Give everything your 100%. With a lay-up, if you don’t go through with the shot 100%, the other team can easily block your lay-up. Effort always pays off.
2. Free Throw – Free throws represent a sense of comfort for basketball players. During a free throw, it’s just you and the basket. Goodman explained that it’s important to have a strong identity and sense of self. When life gets hard, don’t run away and try to be someone you’re not, but rather return to your baseline and your roots.
3.  Listening – Listen to the opportunities you are given as opposed to the ones you don’t have. Work with what you’ve got.
4. Paying attention – During the last couple of minutes of a game, things stop being about you and you begin to pay attention to your surroundings – the clock, the score, the people. Remember that not everything’s about yourself, it’s important to be concerned about everyone else.

Israel Experience girls w/ Tamir Goodman

This is so so cheesy but Goodman could genuinely not have a more appropriate last name. He just exudes SO much positivity. He believes in the good in others and doing good as well, which is refreshing. “Everyone is so special,” Goodman began. “Use your specific blessings – your life is incredible.” Everyone in the room was so inspired and moved by Tamir. His speech was without a doubt my favorite part of the summit.

All in all, the summit was a really great experience. Something I struggled with, though, was that I felt as if most of the participants in the summit believed that being a leader means you have the most important thing to say and always need to be vocal. I think there’s a lot of beauty and strength in teamwork and silent leadership. The ability to listen to others is such a big part of being a good “leader” and I felt as though I was pretty much alone on that belief. Other than that, I had a good time during the summit and I was really happy to be in Jerusalem for the week.

Yom HaMoreh

Yom HaMoreh – or Teacher Day- is a national holiday that happened to be the day before we broke for the Hannukah vacation. If you’ve read ANY of my posts, you know I’m pretty obsessed with my host teacher Rosi. My co-fellow Josh and I knew we had to do something special for Rosi on this day, so we gathered some of Rosi’s students in secret and had them write notes of appreciation to her. Josh and I also made her a little “relaxation” pack since the woman never sleeps. The pack included fuzzy socks, incense, and a mug. 

Our final gift to Rosi was a pinterest inspired poster, where we had multiple students hold up different letters and spell out “We <3 you Rosi!” It ended up turning out really well and Rosi was very surprised by the gifts. Pretty sure she even teared up a little.  We were so happy to do something for someone we admire so much and were glad it was received so well.

A rose given to us by the students

Sorry this wasn’t as condensed as I wanted it to be but that’s all for now. Next post will be about Hannukah break and I promise I won’t make you wait as long for it!