HOME

Well. I made it back. It's so green here!! I have been on the go since I landed. Got home yesterday around 5:30, got a hair cut at 6:00, ate a burrito at 7:00 (YUMMMMMMM), went to bed around 9:00. This morning I got up at 6:30 and mom and I drove to Colton for my second interview at 10:00. I did not end up getting the job, but in all honesty I actually feel very relieved about it. I am crossing my fingers now for the Instructional Assistant position at Kennedy, but if that does not work either then something else will.

After the interview I went to Willamette University and surprised Stacy, it was so great to see her. I even got to see Erik for a minute. I visited with my college coach, Matt McGuirk, and enjoyed that as well. After that mom and I went to Grandma and Grandpa's for a short visit and then came home. Oh wait, I can't leave out that I ate a waffle with strawberries and whipped cream for lunch....oh man...yummmm again. I wonder when I'll start to miss hummus instead.

Now I'm home and ready for a nap, just a little one! Night night;)

Coming Home

Well it's the day before I leave Israel, exactly one year since I left home. Last week I went up to Karmiel to visit my friends from Ulpan. On Monday I visited with Milton and his son Allan (it's too bad Danny is still in Brazil, I won't get to say goodbye). We had a good day just kind of hanging out at his house. On Tuesday I went with Tatiana, Yoel, Vadim, Diana and her family and friends from Ecuador to the beach in Netanya. I actually hadn't even spent any time on the beach there before. At first it was rather disappointing...the sand was big and grainy and the waves were far to rough for Yoel to swim at all. After a long trek down the beach and along the road (barefoot! oops!) I found a really nice beach. It cost a few dollars to get in but it was clean and the water was slow like in a little lagoon....it was perfect. I spent a wonderful 45 minutes in the water with Yoel, having that kind of fun that you miss from when you were a kid, and talking away in Hebrew...it was so nice. A great time with Tatiana and Diana, I will miss them so much!

It was a really good time up in the North, but hard to say goodbye.

Last night I went out to Tel Aviv with Ben and we met up with Tamar for dinner. It's really too bad I didn't get to spend more time with her because she is such an easy friend to have. Once again...why am I so much better at making new girlfriends in Israel than I ever was at home?! Ben has my camera right now but I'll post some pictures here soon.

Tonight we are going out to dinner with Eran, Bubi, and Dudu (yes those are nicknames), and after that I have a phone interview for a math position at a middle school in Oregon. Wish me a quick mind and good speaking skills..I'll have to remember not to answer in Hebrew!

Berlitz

I looked back at the last post I made and realized it was made the same week I began working at Berlitz. Berlitz was nuts. Working with the adults was really ok, they were all very nice and easy to talk to (although not level one because they started with no English), it was the kids that were the devils. The first week of camps I taught 9-11 year olds from 9:00-12:30 and then 13-14 year olds from 1:00- 4:30 and then adults from either 5:30-7:45 or 10:00.....it was awful! So much for Berlitz having everything planned for you, I spent hours planning for my classes (especially the kids classes). I would get to work at 7:15 and work in the hallway until someone came to open the doors at 8:00 so I could really get working. The kids were awful...and that's an understatement. The little ones started off ok, they were cute and sweet and enjoyed any game I thought of. The teens were a big of a challenge at first because they didn't want to be there and they were extremely bored. Then everything switched, the teens got used to it or something and the kids got too comfortable and turned horrid. This one kid who was pretty darn cute was really nice until the moment something didn't go exactly how he wanted it and then he would transition into a little brat. . The next 2 weeks were ok because I only had one camp. These were 7 and 8 year olds and there were only 4 of them. One of them only spoke arabic and the other three only hebrew. They didn't know any English...it was so hard to teach them! Two of them were friends who had been in camp all summer together and I got to experience the end of that summer...what fun.

Here is a list of some of the things that happened during this summer at Berlitz Camp

1. Throwing pens
2. kicking
3. name calling
4. yelling, yelling, yelling
5. refusing to listen (even if my face was right in front of their's is was like they could see right through me to continue yelling at another kid)
6. running away (I had to block the elevator twice
7. playing with ipods and cell phones and refusing to put them away
8. calling parents to complain during the camp
9. whining
10. strangling!
11. Refusing to do the final project when the parents and other camp kids came to watch. For the second camp this left one kid and myself singing a song in front of about 20 people. The kid's sister stood up there with him for moral support (he was a rascal during the week, but he was rather cute during that song).


Really, I think these kids are a combinations of 2 year olds and 13 year olds. It's like they are in the middle of their terrible two's but they think they are grown up like 13 year olds. Kids in Israel go out on the buses alone and stay out at night in the streets when they are 8 years old! I think it's pretty crazy.

I did have a few good experiences at Berlitz. For example, all of my adult students seemed to enjoy having me as their teacher and were sad to see me go. My coworkers were all very cool and made the work environment comfortable. Oh, and I earned some money...that's a plus!

I didn't last long at Berlitz, it was a bit of an unorganized mess of a business. I think maybe it was just Israelized, which made it kind of fall a part. For example, we weren't asked what supplies we needed for the camps, they just ordered without us and the supplies didn't come until the camp was OVER!!

Anyway, glad I did it, glad it's over...moving on.