Last Day

This is my last day in Tel Aviv. My flight leaves at 11 tonight, and 3 (!) flights later, I'll be back home. Yay, home!!! For so many reasons!


It's hard to leave, but I think it's time. I've had an amazing time here, and I'm afraid that I'll never be able to come back. But, at the same time, I think that this trip has really come full circle. 


Almost the first thing I did in Tel Aviv was go swimming in the Mediterranean, and on Tuesday we were able to go swimming again. Somehow, spending just a few minutes in some salty water or lying on soft beach sand makes everything seem right.


Yesterday, two friends and I went and had pizza and lemonade at a nearby place, and chatted. There was a bomb threat a couple feet away, but life just kept on keeping on, probably in part because there wasn't a bomb. Plus, yummy pizza. That evening, we went and had cake, followed by a trip to the store to get plane snacks. I tried an Israeli winter chocolate marshmallow puff thing that everyone has been telling me that I need to try. Then three of us went to the lounge, ate popcorn and drank hot chocolate and tea. We watched the end of Inception, and printed our boarding passes.


Leaving is tough. Saying goodbye to people who I might never see again isn't easy. But there's also so much that I have to look forward to at home. Family, friends, food... The forever adorable Donut and Ginger.


On a less sentimental note, I thought I'd throw out a couple of final observations.


Hanukkah is not an ostentatious holiday. Businesses light menorahs, but they are small, and the decorations are minimal. Turns out that my idea of Hanukkah is influenced by the wonderful, over-the-top love of Christmas in America. Speaking of, is Christmas really in a few days? It still feels like mid-Fall here, except that most everything is still green. Snow? What? What's that? What?


Free-cycling is the best. In my part of Tel Aviv, people put out clothes and shoes they don't want anymore on benches for anyone to claim. The weather is mild enough here that things don't get wrecked before people take them home.


Last observation/suggestion/note-to-self: If you ever want to get to know the layout of a city, and it has reasonably-sized streets and isn't too hilly, ride a bike. I feel like I know Tel Aviv so much better from the times that I rode my bike places than the times that I took the bus, and walking is too slow to really cover ground in a reasonable amount of time. Bikes!!

Students in Israel

I recently started an internship at an organization in Ramla that acts in conjunction with local schools to teach English in a non-academic setting, by which I mean games, activities, and media instead of memorization, grammar rules, and tests. The organization's teachers tailor their programs to dovetail along with what the kids are learning in a more rigid academic setting at their regular schools.

How I get to Ramla (otherwise known as a totally skippable paragraph): bike to bus station (leave guest house around 6:00 am), take 7:05 am bus to Ramla, arrive in Ramla at about 7:50, then either take a sherute or walk to the center. I'm not entirely sure at all how long it takes to walk if one doesn't get lost, but I think about half the time it took me on Wednesday. Is this a surprise? Probably not.

Everyone working at the center is really nice, and very welcoming. I helped/hindered in different teachers' classes on the days I went. Some of the teachers command more respect than others--or maybe just command more attention. Many of the students were actively very rude--to a point that I would not have tolerated, had I been in charge/the students been back-talking me. Classes are very noisy, and often completely ignore commands. Some teachers tried the placating and reasoning approach; note for those interested, this does not work. Other teachers threw misbehavers out of class, and this worked better for those who remained, but it was such a practiced response that I am not sure that some of the kids are spending any time in class whatsoever.

I've heard different explanations from different people about why students in Israel on the whole aren't as respectful as students in other parts of the world. One of the center teachers said that it is because this generation's parents feel completely willingly to challenge teacher authority, and make it okay for their children to do so also. One of the NYU Tel Aviv people suggested that it is an extension of Israeli culture in general--which tends to be very brash and informal. Children call adults, including teachers, by their first names. Whatever the reason, classes here can get out of control quickly.

To be clear, the students are super sweet. They made an effort to communicate with me in English, they did the assigned activities, and for the most part, they smiled and laughed throughout the day.

Biggest problem, in my opinion: pervasive misuse of Google Translate. Google Translate is an excellent tool. Occasionally I use it to translate pages from Hebrew to English. This is helpful. But there's no way to pretend for a moment that the English it produces is anywhere near good. It only conveys a general meaning. Many of the students think that it is acceptable, in class, to decide what they want to say in Hebrew, write it, and have Google do the work for them. Note: this is not acceptable. Also, many students thought it was alright to copy and paste off the internet.

My takeaway: these kids do not need to be using computers. I understand that they like them, and that they're fun, and they are learning valuable 21st century skills, but the internet is a huge distraction. Until their regular-school teachers teach them how to research, how to cite sources, and how to properly use an online translate tool, the computer is not helpful. Sooo, what am I going to do to implement my absurdly strong opinions that I have after spending only like 6 hours at the center? Haven't decided yet.

Final notes: some of the students have a really excellent natural grasp of English! A pair of boys were doing a dialogue activity about doing things with friends, and they had to come up with another exchange:

Original text:

A: [Something, something, I don't remember, see a movie...]

B: No, I can't. I'm doing something with friends tonight.

Students' added dialogue:

A: Oh, you have friends?

B: Haha, very funny.

Ack!! Such good coloquial English!!! It made me super happy. 

I'll definitely have more to say about Ramla and the center and the students after I have been there longer. Probably not for another couple weeks though--Jewish holidays mean no public school for another 2 weeks, which means no work at the center for me! Also means that I have 3 days of school between now and the 23rd. October is a good month.

Staring

Culture shock: it happens. I think that people on this trip have been surprised by many things they've encountered here: young soldiers with guns everywhere, the focus on security, learning that Tel Aviv is the fashion capital of Israel (what? What?! Still am not quite believing it.)... I've been most startled by how people look at each other here. Namely, staring.


People stare at me all. the. time. It is a huge change from New Mexico, and an even bigger change from New York. In New York, I went to a party with an "anything but (conventional) clothes" theme, which meant I was wearing a pretty awesome dress that I made out of heavy black garbage bags. So my friends and I are walking down the street in absurd outfits, and most people still didn't want us to know that they were looking at us--heads stay straight, eyes slide sideways. In America, if you're interested in someone, for whatever reason, you try your best to make sure that they have no idea that you're looking at them.


Here, in Tel Aviv, I'll glance up, meet someone's eyes, look away instantly--of course--look up again to make sure that they have looked away, and they haven't. And they are absolutely not embarrassed in the least to be caught staring. If I smile instead of looking away--going for the New Mexican-style friendly hi-we're-both-walking-our-dogs-on-the-ditch-and-don't-worry-my-dog's-on-a-leash-isn't-it-great-out-today?-kind of greeting--they quirk an eyebrow in surprise. "I don't know you, what are you smiling at me for?" is implied.


It's quite different than what I'm used to. I'm expecting reverse culture shock when I go back home--"Hey, wait a minute now, why isn't anybody looking at me like they might look at a camel at the zoo? Why is everyone doing weird eye flicks at me? What is this?"


Maybe Israeli parents never berate their children for staring in public. Or maybe I just run into a population of people with absolutely no shyness all the time. Hmm.

Street Art

Hi!

So the other day we went to a museum that was exhibiting street art.
Some of it was lovely, some disturbing, and some very cute (see if you can guess which adjectives I am using for each of the pictures below! I know this is a challenging activity, but don't give up!)

Some of the art in the museum was graffiti that had been appropriated for the museum. Much of it looked like it had been commissioned by the museum. None of it was tags, or anything that couldn't have been successful in a more traditional museum/gallery setting.

Somehow, though, all the art felt less effective for being in a museum setting. I know that not everyone appreciates street art because it is a violation of private property in many cases (and there were a fair number of things in the museum that skipped along the edge of my general sense of what Americans consider to constitute indecency) but I usually love street art. It often brings a sense vibrancy to public spaces.

But "street" art in a museum... Meh. I would've loved much of what I saw in there, had it been anywhere else.

Opinions?

[http://www.tamuseum.com/about-the-exhibition/inside-job-street-art-in-tel-aviv, should you care. I didn't  record the names of the artists. Should you find them on the internet, let me know. Thanks thanks]

Demonstration in Tel Aviv

Yesterday (Saturday), one of the biggest demonstrations in Israeli history took place. General consensus is that over 400,000 people took part. This number sounds slightly less than overwhelmingly impressive in American terms (for reference, consider that Comedy Central's rally to restore sanity drew over 200,000 people, and that wasn't exactly protesting anything except unreasonable partisanship). For reference, the population of Tel Aviv is 3.219 million, and the population of Israel is 7.473 million (CIA World Factbook). 400,000 people is a fair percentage of the populace taking part. I think. Disagreements, other perspectives? I haven't been to that many protests ever... It seemed like a lot of people, anyway.

The demonstration was comprised of a march followed by a sort of rally. We skipped the march segment of the night--we were very close to the rally location, and it made much more sense to go straight there rather than try to fight our way across a city congested with protestors. Leaving Bnei Dan, we saw a few more people on the street than usual, but not so many that I would instantly have known that something big was happening. As we got closer and closer to the event, the street--filled with pedestrians instead of cars--became more and more crowded. It became harder to stay together as a group, especially as some of us stopped to take pictures of the madness.

Looking North on Weizman St

I was (stupidly) surprised to see police as we neared the area. They weren't there to control the crowd--they were there to provide security, to protect the protestors. There were also ambulances on hand.

We slid our way through the crowd in a long conga line, hoping that we didn't lose anyone along the way. Smoke from cigarettes wafted visibly overhead, adding to a night-time haze born of light pollution. People smiled, laughed, and tried to start chants in little groups of 3 and 4. They carried signs with words on them (sorry, that's the best I can do. Words. Actually, all I can tell you with 100% empirical knowledge is that the letters on the signs were arranged into lengths suggestive of words, but what do I know?). Huge screens displayed photographs of the tent cities. My favorite photo was of a tent being lifted into the air by a cluster of oversize helium balloons (for something unrelated, but awesome and adorable, click here).

It wasn't long before the marchers arrived, and the protest began in earnest. We had been comfortably arranged, standing within solid barriers of personal space, but soon the crowd closed in tight. Movement through it became a question of skill and willingness to knock people over. Chants, speeches, and live music inflamed the crowd. We clapped politely and tried not to bring down the energy of the crowd, even though we were there mainly as spectators. I am not the best person to describe the content of the speeches (for reasons I'm sure you'll guess), but I can say that they were passionate and well-received. I was surprised by how much I needed explained to me--at one point, everyone in the crowd was suddenly gesticulating with three fingers, apparently accompanying a well-known song about a tri-corner hat that has been given new lyrics to demonize a famous individual with 3 homes (or I could have completely misheard/misunderstood. It was loud. If you know anything about this, send me info. Embarrassing thing: being publicly wrong. More embarrassing thing: being publicly permanently wrong on the internet).

I have a couple of clips. If I were you, I wouldn't watch the video because it's a good way to become nauseous. I'm that good.

Okay, these next couple aren't videos (I know!!! I'm glad too! :) ). There were a couple of things being passed around the assembly. The first was a banner with the movement's logo painted on it. It was exciting to see it being unrolled in front of us; we weren't sure what it was, but it looked like fun. It unrolled to that all of us could just grab an edge, and then everyone gently pushed it backwards into the crowd, over our heads.

Then there was the pyramid sign! Which I liked. Except that when it came over to us, we almost dropped it on a nearby guy because he didn't see it coming and it started to overbalance. But we didn't! Go team!

Okay, one last video, and then I will try never to trouble you with my absolute inability to hold a camera up.

Throughout the protest, people watched from the balconies of their expensive apartments. I was fairly surprised at their interest. They have these magnificent homes, and are still spending 4 hours of their lives watching a demonstration demanding social justice and affordable housing. 

As the demonstration came to a close, people slid out from the mass, leaving after they heard the speakers that they had come for, or leaving because they could not stand on their feet another minute. As it happens, I was quite tempted to become a member of the later category. At this point, it was 11:40. We had left Bnei Dan at 8:40 or so. Also, speeches that one can't understand are slightly less engrossing than speeches that one can understand.

After the demonstration was fully over, and the crowd cleared out, I was shocked by the trash on the ground. It was absolutely covered in debris. Empty water bottles, napkins, papers, signs, plastic--everything you could think of. The ground practically crunched. It was fairly appalling. Here was a group of people demanding all sorts of progressive reforms in everything from housing to hospitals, and we, as a crowd, couldn't manage to find our way to a recycling bin, or even a trash can. I felt very disappointed. Tel Aviv tends to be a visibly green city--solar panels, huge cages for plastics recycling on every corner--and its people dumped $1000 (totally pulled that out of the air) worth of clean-up on the city, while simultaneously demanding social benefits. I should have taken a picture, but I was a little too annoyed at the whole thing. It was worth staying until the end just to see the mess that that mass of people abandoned to the responsibility of another.

Just to end on a positive note: you know CapriSuns? They have grape drink here that comes in silvery packs like those, but the straw goes in the bottom and they drink them upside down. My mind was blown. Culture shock like mad. Not really, of course, but it was fun to see a bunch of people drinking from the wide part of the little pack.

Finally, my favorite picture. No, I don't know that person.