A couple of crazy days...

Wednesday did, indeed, end up being a chore day.  I went to sleep fairly early that night after listening to radiolab, because I had my first real day of volunteering the next day and I wanted to be up by 6:45 in order to get ready.

Despite setting alarms, I woke up at 7:50 and had to run to the school, which I am supposed to be at by 8.  The first day was aright--the teacher, Ronit, placed me with the kids who had more difficulty with English, since I speak Hebrew and can thus explain things to them.  This meant, however, that many of the children I worked with had little to no reading skills and a lack of focus.  It was interesting though, to see how an Israeli classroom works.  Maybe I just haven't been in that many American classrooms, but the children seemed much rowdier.  The teacher had a microphone so that she could yell at them, which was fairly unusual to me.  The interaction between kids was also vastly different.  The first two children I tutored, Or and Yoni, got into an argument halfway through an English comic strip about the Great London Fire about Or losing Yoni's ball.  Yoni insisted that Or had to buy him a new one, Or insisted he had not lost it, and I insisted that if they were going to argue about it they had to do it in English (I was ignored). :P

It is bizarre to see workbooks for the English language in the same manner that I've seen Spanish textbooks for most of my life.  The kids were learning words like "bed," "window," "sky," etc.  When I was trying to explain a concept to one of them, I had to use the word "out," and I remembered how many different and confusing usages there are for "out" in English.

I find it more fulfilling to work with the children who are having more difficulty with English, both because I feel like I'm contributing more and because it gives me yet another chance to practice my Hebrew.  We got let out early on the first day, but I'm looking forward to being there more often and getting to know the kids.  The mentality of children in Israeli society has always fascinated me--Israeli kids seem to mature so much more quickly than American ones, possibly because they know that, by the time they're 18, they will be entrusted with the safety of their country.  The society itself here moves more quickly because it is not one that is entirely secure--on some level, it is facing a very clear and present danger.

After getting home from volunteering on Thursday, I went to take a nap in Simon's apartment (on Nathan's bed, of course).  I then got ready for the big party the scouts were taking us to that night.  I'm not exactly sure where it was, but I do know it was somewhere north of Tel-Aviv and near Ranana.  We paid 25 shekels to take the bus up there, and then 50 shekels at the door for unlimited drinks.  I knew it was going to be a particularly good time because some people from section three (ie, Noah) were visiting for the weekend.  It did, indeed, end up being a crazy party, and the bus didn't take us home until about 5 AM.  As I was waiting on the side of the road for the bus, a carload of Arsim (or Arabs, I'm not entirely sure because it was pretty dark) drove by and called me "Gingi" (a derogatory term in Hebrew for a redhead--it can be used as a term of endearment, but rarely is), then attempted to spit on me--they missed.  I told them I just wanted to be left alone, which I suppose they took offense to, because they then stopped the car and the man in the passenger seat opened his door and asked me what I'd said.  Now, I was a good deal drunk at the time, but I knew I wasn't out of line in asking to be left alone.  They were just being dicks to me because I had red hair.  Instead of standing up for gingim everywhere, however, I just apologized.  I figured that I didn't want to get in a fight, and that they were too drunk to listen to reason.  I then came home and slept a shallow, unhelpful sleep until 10:30.

I got up to go take a shower and, when I got out, my paternal grandfather, my aunt, and one of my cousins had come to visit.  This was fine, although I felt quite embarrassed due to the filthiness of the apartment and my ragged appearance.  Still, we had a nice conversation and they seemed pleased.  I then went to go nap at Nathan's/Simon's/BenJirik's/Scott's/Aaron's apartment, and woke up at about 5 to go visit with my maternal grandparents.  We went out to a steakhouse near the beach that was surely the best food I've had since coming to Israel.  Afterwards, I went with Nathan, Simon, Scott, and Ethan (from section 3) to a Shabbat dinner potluck in Emilie's apartment, which was nice.  Later that night, we went down to a bonfire on the beach, and nothing particularly eventful happened.

The last couple of days have kind of been a bit much for me--I don't know if I'll want to participate in such a large amount of craziness for some time, especially since we start the normal schedule on Sunday.  Unfortunately, I am sick this morning, but I think I'm going over to Nathan's to see if he has some medicine for me.  As fun as the past couple of days have been, I somehow doubt they've been worth the hassle and sickness I'm now dealing with.  It has also undoubtedly been detrimental for me to not post for several days; I'm sure countless funny memories have been lost due to my laziness.

In any case, I can only hope that by the end of today I feel better, since tomorrow promises to be a full day.  I hope all is well with you, and, if you are reading this, chances are I would love to speak to you sometime soon.