Go go gadget SPAIN!

I am going to Spain tonight! The bus is leaving from the university at 1:30 am. I can't wait!

Yesterday, Roi and I went to Rada's house for Eytan's brita (party.) They had done the actual brita two days before!

Roi and I escaped to the balcony for a minute during the party!! =)

Eytan!

Baby Eytan (Ethan in English) is one week old today!! He is Roi's new nephew! I finally met him yesterday!! He is quite the little blessing!! His mom is feeling great too! So welcome to the world Eytan!!

Great friends and a view!

Liad and Maura!!!


Please excuse the sunspot!! Loren, Maura, Liad, Anna, and BEEBA!!!



Views of Safed! Nice and green in Israel!!

Safed

http://www.safed.co.il/

Then we went in a cave!

More swinging


And more..


Looking up before going down down down in the cave!


Me and Gali in the cave! The biggest one in Israel. They said if use to go all the way to Jerusalem, but because of earthquakes, it doesn't connect anyway! But that would have been cool!

More fun in Israel

Just like Indiana, with some more rocks than sand maybe!



We got to swing over this huge cave opening...it was great. This is Yishai.

This is me!!!! WOO HOO!

Northern Israel

Yishai and me! (We're trying to be funny, but I just look like I am trying to fart.)


Me and Gali!! She's really really wonderful!!!

Me driving the oversized golf cart with more horse-power!

It was fun and had seat belts and much better than the ATVs which I refused to get on.

Megan's Birthday

Last week hundreds of people went bowling for Megan's 11th birthday party.

Here is a really nice article about it! My sister and Rick, and Rick's dad, Jack are in the second picture!

http://blogs.southtownstar.com/oaklawn/2010/02/friends_gather_for_a_cause.html

New discoveries!

Today I had a meeting about being a teacher next year. It is more realistic now to talk to people about work now that I know I will be here next year. So she was pretty optimistic since I am a native speaker (of English!!) that I would get a position, and since I have a teaching license. She said he would easy too because I will have a masters degree from within Israel. She said I may have to get my BA degree "transfered" which I hadn't heard about before so I am going to do some more research about that too.

I have been working with Lauren from the Hagar School to work on publicity and fundraising! Publicity isn't so bad, but fundraising for the school is hard. Lauren made a "Wish List" of things that the school needs. It's really great because donors can see the actual breakdown of costs per student per activity.

http://www.hajar.org.il/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78&Itemid=96&lang=en

Look at the Wish List, it's in a PDF file. And feel free to donate to this awesome school!

After my meeting this morning, I want to SuperSel..it's a store, a HUGE store. I don't know how I had never been there before, but it's like Sams Club in Israel, but no free samples! But now, if I have to buy in bulk, I know where I have to go. Then the issue is just carrying everything home!!

My papers have been complete for three days now and I am finally catching up on life. I filed my nails, did a few loads of laundry (including my sheets, which were well overdue to be cleaned), baked a banana cake, bought some cleaning supplies at the store so I can wash my floor, bought some underwear. It's been nice to just do things at my leisure instead of being forced to sit behind a computer all day.

Also, after SuperSel, I went to this store called Gong, (weird name) but everything in the store was 29 shekels...that's $7.75...I bought three sweaters and a pair of tights. It's crazy how cheap everything was there. I'm not expecting the best quality for $7.75, but at that price, I know I won't mind leaving anything behind when I have to pack/move. And it was funny because the clothes weren't labeled with sizes. When I asked the lady who worked there, she said, if it's not labeled, it's all one size. Weird. I am also not sure if she meant that everything that wasn't labeled was a size one. Maybe I'll never know. ;-)

The best part of last night/today was that Roi's sister, Rada, had their baby boy!!! Mazel tov!!! I haven't seen him yet, nor have they named him, but soon I hope.

I hope you're having a great Tuesday also!!

More information about Hagar!

How can Jews and Arabs find common ground if they cannot talk to each other? In Israel, Jewish and Arab children attend separate schools, creating space for fear, stereotypes, and inequalities to grow. These children, who might even be neighbors, grow up in two parallel worlds that rarely intersect. In order to change this reality, parents and community members in Beer Sheva have played an active role in developing a future of tolerance and respect for their children and their community.

The Hagar Association provides a bilingual, educational institution, attended by Jewish and Arab students together in the same classrooms and is supported by community outreach programming. The school serves as a spring-board for social change in the relationship between Arabs and Jews for both the children – who study and learn together — and their parents — who share the common objective of optimizing their children’s educational opportunity and of creating a shared space for coexistence and peace to thrive.

The Hagar Association of Beer Sheva, Israel respectfully requests your support.

About The Hagar Association

The Hagar Association was founded in 2006 by Jewish and Arab parents, teachers, community organizers and other concerned residents from Beer Sheva in order to create successful relations and equal opportunities for Arabs and Jews in the Israeli Negev.

· The Hagar Institute (currently pre-k, kindergarten, and 1^st grade) is dedicated to academic excellence for each student to reach his or her potential. Class enrollment is balanced between Jewish and Arab children. Two teachers (one Jewish and one Arab) are present in each classroom guaranteeing both the Hebrew and Arabic languages and their respective cultures equal status. Religious diversity is taught using holidays for both celebrations and educational moments. By design, classes are small, the school day is extended, and a nutritional lunch is served.

· Our community outreach program offers activities to members of the wider Beer Sheva community. These activities include: spoken Arabic classes, joint Arab-Jewish holiday celebrations, bilingual shows, and family workshops.

As a grassroots organization, Hagar members seek change from the ground up. We call on innovative methods for education, bringing together Arab and Jewish children and fostering relationships built on knowledge and trust. Despite being part of the geographical and socio-economical periphery in Israel, Hagar offers top education and creates a supportive community for our students to become productive members of society.

In the past three years, we have grown to sixty-five students in three classes, supported by eleven educational staff. An additional grade level will be added each future year as our students matriculate upward.

Hagar School TuBshvat!

http://hajar.org.il/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73&Itemid=76&lang=en#tu%20bshvat

This is really adorable!!

Just a thought.

Obviously I have problems with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I wish they had better living conditions, I wish they had their own state, I wish there was no need for a wall, etc.

But I also feel like the entire world criticizes and points fingers at Israel. (Especially the UN.) And not whether this is right or wrong, but isn't world civilization based on taking land and conquering and settling? Is it just that the Israelis left the Palestinians alive that such outrage exists? (or maybe there is a problem because Israel gives them food, water, and electricity too.) The US simply slaughtered all the Native Americans (thanks for making me read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee in 11th grade!) (now they are nicely settled on reservations out of America's way.) There were Vikings and Normans who took over England. Let alone all the Asian (and the rest of the world) conquests that I am too ignorant to even talk about.

The world is guilty for crimes against itself. And of course, always optimistic, I think the world will destroy itself from within anyway. And I'm not saying the status quo is okay, or that we shouldn't learn from history or that we shouldn't ALL hold ourselves to the highest standards. But, hey world, lay off, and concentrate on being better yourself before you go and start pointing so many bloody fingers.

Media sucks

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/world/asia/04pstan.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

This article, from the New York Times, is about three American soldiers who lost their lives in Pakistan from a suicide bomber. It's very upsetting and sad, but it's also upsetting that the author doesn't mention that most of the other causalities were little girls who were on their way to school because the suicide bomber blew himself up in front of a new girls' school (that happened to be paid for by the US.)

=(

Another paper done!

I just finished my paper for my Iranian Revolution class!! Another 15 pages out of the way. I am really excited that I finished this one so early, it isn't due until the 7th!

Now I just have one more 3-5 page paper to write for historiography which has to answer 4 separate questions, so it obviously isn't going to be so in depth! Then I will be halfway to my Masters!!!! Woo hoo!!!

Hagar, Arab/Israeli school!

Sorry for the low quality iPhone pictures, I will definitely be taking my real camera next time! (Don't worry mom!) This is one of the classrooms! Every class has two teachers, one fluent in Hebrew and one fluent in Arabic.

The demographics are 50% Israeli and 50% Arab...

One of the little girls, she was really great at correcting my Hebrew!

Maura with two of the students!

Next week we are going on a regular basis and doing art projects!!! We can't wait!!!!!!!

http://www.hajar.org.il/