Last night was our third shabat dinner. Back in the US I don't think I celebrated shabat once but here it is almost impossible for shabat to slip through your mind. We don't do too much for the holiday but we say the blessings for the candles, wine, and challah. After that we eat dinner and everyone brings a dish to pass. Last night my apartment hosted shabat and I would say it was a success.
On another note we finally finished training at the college in Holon. This involved 2 weeks of taking a bus 30 minutes to Holon and sitting through lectures and classes that may or may not be useful for the next 10 months. I am sure some of the stuff will be helpful but they tried to pack too much information into a short training period. But now that training is over we start working in the schools. The other day we received our placements and I am very excited about mine. The only negative part is that it is the farthest away, but that is an easy problem to deal with. I am working with Becca who is very easy going and I think we will work well together. The school is in Lod and it is a newer school in a newer area. They also have a focus on environmental education and this is the first year they are having ITF members there. I start on Wednesday so I will have more details by then.
Last Tuesday bot the ITF group and the Community Involvement Groups were invited to the September 11th ceremony near Jerusalem at the memorial. I thought it was a huge honor that we were invited to the event. The US ambassador to Israel was the first person to speak and then after that a bunch of other people spoke. The main thing that stuck out to me was when someone spoke about the Israeli's that died in the attack. There were 5 native Israeli's. I'm not sure of the details of each person but one was a CEO and graduated Summa Kum Laude from MIT, he was also the keynote speaker on the 100+ floor that day. Another was on one of the flights. Apparently he acted because they were speaking very nervously in Arabic but when he acted, another person behind him stabbed him to death. He was also a highly decorated member of their military and served in some elite division. It seemed as if every Israeli that they talked about had an amazing successful life before this tragedy, leaving newborns, wives, husbands, and family. From the Israeli point of view it is easy to think about 5 people and keep track of their stories and successes. But in the US we had over 3000 people and I don't think I could tell you one of their stories. Here are a few pictures from the ceremony
This is the memorial
After the ceremony we could go put a rose on the memorial
The next day, Wednesday, we didn't have training because we were going to a school in Ramla and then in the afternoon we went to Jaffa to listen to some speakers. The school was a high school so we were all a little confused as to why we were going there but it was a great experience. The name of the school translated into "Last Chance High School." This was because no other schools wanted these kids, who were all trouble makers, and never did anything in school. Even though the students were on their last chance, it was successful. This is probably because of the principle (who is no longer there) named Chilli (pronounced hilly). In the documentary we watched about the school, someone said something about him that stuck out to me. They said he is a great teacher because he has a quality that you can not acquire, people will follow him with their eyes closed. This is a type of quality that I want but unfortunately I don't think I have it. Very few people have a leadership skill like this but for some reason it is very powerful and you can not really explain it. My birthright tour guide has this quality and now he is not a guide, he trains people in the army. The other reason for the school's success is one of the teachers who won the National Teacher of the Year award. She is also no longer with the school but will come back next year. It was a really cool experience and we got to ask some of the students questions. One of the questions someone asked was, why do you think these people had so much success? and they answered that they truly cared about the students. Failure was not an option, and teaching was a 24/7 job, inside and outside of the classroom. This was their key to success.
Later in the day we went to Jaffa for some speakers who had a lot to say. The only problem was that I was finding it hard to draw a connection to what they were talking about and what we were in Israel to do. But after the lectures, we had the choice to stay in Jaffa/Tel Aviv, rather than taking the bus back. I went with a few people to rent some bikes from the public bike system. We had a bit of trouble figuring it out at first but it was great once we got the bikes. We just coasted along the coast from the old port of Jaffa to the new port of Tel Aviv. We stopped for frozen yogurt and then circled back to the beach. One of my friends from Ithaca is also in Tel Aviv, studying abroad. David Barken met up with us at the Tel Aviv port and biked back to the beach with us. Then we just got some food and jumped into the Mediterranean. By the time we swam it was dark and then we just went home. It was a lot of fun and the bikes were only 30 shekels for the 2.5 hours. The great thing about the bikes too is that you can lock them up in any station and then take another one out later. Although I may get my own bike here since my school is located far away.
That is about it for now. I have the next few days free for Rosh Hashonna and on Sunday my roommate, Paul, and I are going to a host family, which should be a great experience.
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