We officially have less than 2 weeks in the program. When I say we, I mean, myself and five other people. Our program ends on Thursday, January 27th. I can't believe that five months have flown by just like that. Scariest thing ever actually. But it was the most beneficial and growing 5 months of my life, and that is why I am not sad but happy that they happened. Now that some of the pressing things have been scratched off the list such as:
- Getting an apartment
- Changing flight
- Celebrating my 21st birthday 3 times
- Seeing out of town friends
I can start focusing on other pressing things. Such as planning the closing ceremony party with Lisa, Dante and Adam. We have the ideas so now we just have to execute them. Need to start looking for a job, planning Marissa's and mine 10 day Israel adventure, packing and making an effort to travel to see some of my family. But as they say here, le'at, le'at - slowly slowly. I am excited for the change though.
I have been sick for a few days :( It started as losing my voice this past weekend from my birthday party. Who's SHOCKED? Anyway, I didn't go to my volunteer assignment because I didn't want to scare the kids with my witch voice, it sucks because I am missing another day at the school because we are going to Eilat on Thursday through Saturday and I also would love to get better for that so that I could actually enjoy it. So Sunday I stayed in all day, finally sort of recovered my voice to go tutor for 2 hours, and when I came, she didn't remember that I was coming to teach. She thought I was just coming by since I had done that so many times before! Hahaha. It was actually really nice. She made me tea and we had cheesecake together and just talked, something that we have never done before. because I am in and out of there, gotta make my money by teaching three hours a week! She told me about her ex husband and about Israel and about life, it's a very interesting, sad and different perspective. The life here is so hard and yet, I am here, working for free and liking it. Like I said before, I feel luckier and luckier every day of my life.
After my "tutoring" I biked to Yafo because it was our second to last Ulpan day. We were going to order pizza and have dessert. It was really nice. We are in love with our teacher. She has quite possibly taught me more in 5 months that some stuff that took me 3 years to learn in college. Either I am getting smarter or she is really that amazing. I think I will take both? Vanessa made her a card and we all signed. I wrote mine in Hebrew, but we will just see how much of it she will actually understand, although she did say that when I sent her a text to see if we were still meeting earlier that day so that she could teach me future and imperative, it looked like one of her Israeli girlfriends had written it, what a compliment!
The next day was study day, Lisa and I simultaneously woke up sick. I think it definitely makes a difference when you are working with kids and sharing a room with someone. I have never really been exposed to this environment so my body at the nice age of 27 cannot not assimilate to this lifestyle. In two weeks I will have my own room and I will just be sharing an apartment with one others person, just like the old times! I can't wait! Living with 8 peope has certainly been experience, don't get me wrong, but I can honestly check it off my list and never do it again. Gotta try (mostly) everything once, right? Anyway, back to this, so we went to our last study day and were just dying in there. We had our last Ulpan and our last meal for the semester and called it a day. We went home and just slept for what it seemed like forever. It sort of helped. I was supposed to have an audition for a commercial ad that I replied to. They were looking for "European Looking People" and so I thought to myself that it would probably not hurt to respond! However, because I was a mess that day I cancelled with them and told them to keep me in mind for next time. Hopefully something comes up soon, I wouldn't mind paying some of my rent with that money.
The next day was an all day group day tour. We were going to the West Bank settlements. The first place we went to was called Harara. There we met up with a socio-linguist, who til the end did not tell us how many languages he spoke. We were able to count Arabic, Hebrew, Yiddish (his 1st language) Russian, German and French, but that is to say the least. He is sort of my role model. He was sharing with us some tactics for possible solutions for a two state solutions, the consequences, the loopholes and so on. I am convinced that I am going to leave Israel more confused and frustrated because now I know the options and I have never really looked into this stuff. The next place we went to was called Beit Al. Was founded about 20 years ago, we were met by a religious man who came to Israel about 28 years ago and has lived there ever since. He creeped me out, with all the stuff that we belong here and we need to make more babies to outpopulate the Arabs. He didn't explicicitly say that but that is what was read between the lines. There are a lot of fanatics out there and it is scary because it is coming from both sides. The upside to this guy was that he feb all 25 of us with burgers and hotdogs in pitas! Delicious. The last place we went to was called Amona, very villagy place, with lots and lots of nothingness. It was so cold and windy that I could not focus my attention 100%. We watched a video about the struggles between the Jews and Arabs, the dissengagement from Gaza, the singing of the Ha Tikva (The Hope) - The national anthem of Israel, for those who don't know. I walked out of there with more mixed feelings, just like I always do. I don't feel like writing them here, but would love to talk about this upon my return.....
Today I am going to take it easy and work from home for the Yafo clinic. I am not going to lie that I do miss the working from home. Getting cozy in my PJ's and just knocking out the work. Except in this case I am actually interested in the work that I am doing! FINALLY!
- Tomorrow we go to Eilat for 3 days, I am really excited! Will tell you how that goes when I come back!
Aaaaaaand since it has been over a month since I have written in here, I will try to condense everything into my new blog, sorry I suck!
Much ahava to all!
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