Pride Parade, White Night in Tel Aviv, talking to Birthright groups, finding an amazing tapas restaurant in Tel Aviv.....these are just a few of the things that have happened since my last post.
It has been a crazy last month, and this will probably be my last blog post during my program. I finished teaching at the school a few weeks ago, and though I enjoy the extra free time for practicing and exploring, I miss seeing my kids. I went back for a few one-on-one tutoring sessions this week and Lior, my newest tutoring challenge, was really disappointed that I was leaving for the summer. I introduced the game "Hangman" to him and now it is his favorite thing to do. He has taken it upon himself to beat me at the game but is always surprised when I can guess the words that he comes up with. I was a little stumped with "FC - Barcelona"...I don't think acronyms are allowed in Hangman, but I don't want to have to explain what an acronym is to introduce this rule.
Last month I did a lot of museum exploring with my friend Louise - we went to the Diaspora Museum (or "Museum of Jewish Peoples" as it's called here) here in Tel Aviv and enjoyed peering at the reconstructions of synagogues from around the world and learning about the Bukharan Jews. We also went to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, which just had an overwhelming amount of artifacts, but was a delight to wander through. It was really cool to see mosaics with Hebrew on them, I usually only think of Greek and Latin as "ancient cultures." Louise and I amused ourselves by spotting all the cat (and lion and tiger) figurines of various sizes. Our piece de resistance of the day was going to the Eucalyptus restaurant in Jerusalem - a restaurant that specializes in making foods native to Israel. We ordered a "King David Feast," which was basically a 7-course meal of vegetables, meat, soups, and dessert, of course. It was one of the best meals that I've had in Israel and inspired me to make more hot meals for myself.
Back in Tel Aviv, we went to Eretz Israel Museum, but our tour was mostly just us wandering around deserted museum grounds looking for entrances into things. It was a bit of a letdown after the amazing museum in Jerusalem, but we consoled ourselves by looking at the lovely items in the museum shop and eating some really tasty (and not overpriced) food at their cafe.
Last month also marked the start of a new kind of bodywork for me called the Grinberg Method. It was created by an Israeli and is kind of a combination of reflexology, therapy, and deep tissue massage. I met my practitioner by chance in the park next to my apartment building and have been having weekly sessions ever since. We unlocked some things that I had only started to scratch the surface of with my counseling and Alexander Technique and I really enjoy my sessions. I also went to a few movement classes (an offshoot of Grinberg) which were invigorating and stimulating. I plan to take regular classes when I come back in the fall.
Which brings me to the question on all of your lips - What is Daniella doing this fall? Fear not, I will tell you. My audition for the music school is on Sunday (yes, one day from now!) and it couldn't come a moment too soon. I am excited to present my pieces and also excited to then move on to new pieces. I am coming back to Tel Aviv in October and hopefully will start school at the end of the month.
In the meantime, my program ends on Tuesday, I am flying home on Wednesday, and then it's a summer of unpacking, traveling, and repacking...not necessarily in that order. I am looking forward to many things: having a full kitchen with a decent stove (and oven!!!), not having to squeegee my bathroom floor every time I shower, sleeping in a real bed without being awoken by people shouting joyously/drunkenly to each other at 3 AM, not living above a bus stop.... Mostly though, I am looking forward to seeing my cat again. This will have been the longest that I have ever been away from home, and the longest that I've stayed in one spot since high school! I never thought it would happen in Israel :)
I will post more pictures tomorrow (well, later today for most of you).
Mangoes and chrysanthemums,
Daniella
Oh, p.s. dialectivities is an example of the challenges of teaching English to kids who don't regularly use vowels when reading/writing their language. Mor, a 7th grader, was working with Georgie one day and was arguing with her about one of the answers on his homework. It was a fill in the blank sheet and the question was about television and computers. The answer they were looking for was "forms of communication," but Mor insisted that it was "dialectivities." Of course, neither Georgie nor I knew what he was talking about, so I asked him to show it to me in his book...."daily activities."
