Uplan:
We finished our first book (VERY EXCITING) and moved up to workbook two! This change means on Wednesday we have a big test with everything from the first book. I am very nervous, although I think the hardest part will be remembering all the vocabulary because the grammar is simple/ I already know the basic grammar. I think I did O.K. on the quiz last Wednesday, it was nothing major.
Zionism: Every class reminds me more and more of AMHSI (Alexander Muss High School in Israel). I sat next to a friend last class who also went on Muss (and was there when I was with her school). As our teacher, Benji, talked about different Zionist thinkers, Emily and I talked about which project we did on which Zionist thinker and where we went to see their graves. It was lots of fun to go back in time and remember how much I learned on Muss.
Volunteering:
Eyal, my counselor, told us other counselors would be able to help out by translating! The videoing will happen...But, in order to fully do our project (says the director of the activity center), we must: have six 45 min to 1 hour long sessions once a week with each person for them to tell us their life story; create themes, which we specifically didn't want in the beginning, in order to make the choosing process easier because most of the people want to be heard. Eyal also said we might have to sacrifice our own time (after hours) in order to accomodate the elderly by going to their houses and interviewing them there also. To top off our project, they want a party at the end of November (when section two leaves Bat Yam and the project needs to be finished) for the families and interviewees where we would show the movie. Its going to be a few movies, because we can't show 60 hours of video (6 interview sessions for 10 people). I left the meeting feeling very overwhelmed, but looking forward to the final product.
Today in our volunteering meeting, there was talk about instead of videoing the elderly, which we would actually have very little to do with because our Hebrew isn't good enough to interview, and instead we would just volunteer there and hang out with elderly. Although I do really want to video and have a final product, it might be more fun for us to hang out with them and get to know them another way. When we went to the center before, there was an arts and crafts room and I would absoultely love to knit with them. Maybe I could make a video called "How to Knit in Hebrew." That would be fun too.
Monday: The Tzofim had an activity for us which was fun. I volunteering for a game, not knowing what it was to begin with, and luckily the game was to eat as many cherry tomatoes as fast as possible against the other 3 volunteers. I was so excited because Super Deuche did not sell those delishious tomatoes anymore so I had not had them for 2 weeks (those were the tomatoes that I bought extra with my own money to have only for myself because I would eat the apartment amount in one night which was not fair to my roommates).
Tuesday: The four Americans in the apartment when to Nechalat Binyamin to buy Noy her birthday gift, a beautiful handmade journal. That night, we had Israeli Dancing then a program called "The Sound of Silence" run by Year Course. Many kids were already at the community center from Israeli Dance, but we started 30 minutes late anyways. They say they are waiting for the kids that are late, but I don't think the counselors are even ready to start on time. They always yell at us for being late, but they should start on time and when people walk in late, they are embarrassed because everyone is looking at them 'cause they are late.
Wednesday: I had a Hebrew quiz. Before night classes, we had a meeting at the community center where they yelled at us some more about being late. Everyone who was over ten minutes late got a detention. In the night class (Israeli Society through Film), we watched another movie, this one called "Turn Left at the End of the World." This is a very very very odd movie and I am not quite sure what to think of it.
Thursday:
Instead of our weekly trips, we had a Section two sports day. We played three sports (volleyball which i played in, basketball and soccer) and divided up by which counselor we have for our room. I don't think we won much but it was still fun. A lot of us also got funny sunburns. I got a nice sunglass burn, still visible today.
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| Sports Day. The blue shirts were Eyal's group and the pink shirts were the Tzofim. |
From 4 PM to midnight I had the second Rwanda meeting. A genocide survivor came to talk to us about his experience but focused mainly on the history the genocide. He was incredibly lucky because his entire imediate family (8 children plus two parents) survived the genocide, mainly because he stayed in his house most of the day. After the genocide he moved with his wife to Israel for school and now lives here. I found interesting in the beginning of his speech, he told us that people were worried he was going to get killed in Israel because of all the conflict (which is what many people think). I then asked him what Rwandan people think of Israel politically and Jews. He answered me that they connect well with the Jews because of the Holocaust and that they have no negative attitudes toward Israel and Jews.
Around 10:30 PM, we watched Hotel Rwanda. My first reaction after the movie was over was anger. I can't understand how people can be so terrible for, what seems to me, no reason at all. I got much more excited to go to Rwanda after watching that movie.
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| The food at the hummus restaurant |
The roommates and I had a cute Shabbat dinner that night then to a friends apartment for some INTENSE card games. We played a lot of President and Yael and I took President and Vise President for so many rounds!
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| Second Row at the Israel vs. Croatia Soccer game. |
Until next time,
Tamar
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