Day Two of School

I was told by Limor, the more experienced of the two English teachers, to arrive at school at 9 am. I got there and Sahar (it's her first year teaching - she just came back to Israel from university in NYC) asked me to come to 6th grade with her. Limor had wanted to talk to me about a schedule instead, but then decided I could go to 6th grade and instead of shadowing Sahar take the 6th grade dovre anglit kids out. Basically I got there at 8:55 and was thrown into a classroom by 9:05 even though I hadn't been told I was teaching today. Okay, fine. I could deal with that.

Apparently last year they had a man, Marvin, volunteering at the school. He's in his 60s and retired to Israel from Chicago. He isn't going to be around after October because he and his wife are moving back to the states. He didn't so much teach the kids as read Shel Silversteen poetry to them. He came to school today and was told to sit-in on my classes. Obviously he can tell me a lot about the kids because he's taught them in the past. So I met with the 6th grade kids. Then I had to do the same with 4th grade. I had nothing prepared because I was told to come today and we'd work out a schedule. I wasn't told I'd be teaching. Instead I asked the kids a lot of questions and got to know them.

Then Limor and I tried to work out a schedule. Sahar had told me I could go to 5th grade and watch her teach, which I did. At this point they both told me to go to talk to the principal because there was no one to teach 1st grade and they wanted to see if we could work something out. I went down to talk to her, but she asked me to come back because her English isn't that good. Sahar came to translate. Basically the school needs another teacher for 1st and 2nd grade because Sahar (who is replacing the teacher who taught those grades) won't do it because she's too busy. They want me to teach both grades based on a curriculum/book/puppet/CD that they have. The homeroom teacher would be in the classroom "to translate" if necessary and there are tons of activities in the book so "I wouldn't have to do much" (according to the other English teachers....). At one point the principal mentioned trying to hire another teacher to do this job. I think that idea got scrapped somewhere along the translated conversation. I'm not really sure I'd get a trial period, I think they basically want me to teach for the whole year. I also wouldn't be able to split the class easily except in 2nd grade where the dovre anglit kids would get some additional assignments during the second half of the class.

I'm supposed to go Monday at 8am to find out what my schedule is - I'll probably have to start teaching right away (?). After this meeting Limor asked me if the ministry was going to pay me more and that I should double check with the principal about that. Then she said I was done for the day and could leave (it was about 1pm).

Some students get out at 12, some leave at 1, and others have school until 2:30. I left at 1 and went to the grocery store. While I was there, Sahar called to ask where I was and to tell me that the 5th graders were waiting for me. I rushed back to school and had a 1.5 hour class with them. Limor hadn't told me anything about teaching this group and had only given me morning classes. I felt like an idiot because the kids were waiting around in the hallway for me. They asked me about what book they should get and they seemed to really want this class, which is exciting for me.

The Matrimony of an Ikea Bed and a Free Couch

Lindsay moved up to the big city (from Yafo) today. I went to her apartment to help her get set up. Yesterday, she had chosen a bed at Ikea and it was scheduled to arrive today. Of course Ikea was supposed to call between 7 and 9 to let her know what time they would be arriving. And, of course, they did not call. Why would they call? That would have been too considerate. They arrived at 11, which worked out because we had a TASP meeting at 12.

On the way to Lindsay's place in the morning I had walked by a couch that someone was throwing out. It was slightly broken, but fixable and in otherwise good condition. On the way back from our TASP meeting we went to see if it was still there. Luckily we had Daniel with us because the couch was still on the curb! The three of us hauled it across Dizzengoff Square and down Pinsker to Lindsay's apartment. Getting it inside was a bit of a challenge, but we managed.

Then we ran to Dizzengoff Center to get stuff for both of our new rooms. Lindsay needed sheets and I needed hangers and a garbage pail. Daniel got some lunch/dinner and a planner.

By 6, Lindsay and I began to tackle the bed. We didn't have a screw driver and Ikea failed to mention that one would be necessary. We tried using a butter knife, but couldn't get the screws in tightly enough. We found one at a hardware store on Hamelekh George and headed back to build the bed. It took two college-graduates an hour and a half to decipher the pictorial instructions. Some of the screws required the stupid Ikea screwdriver - an S-shaped metal thing that really hurt our fingers. It was quite a challenge to actually get that thing together, but in the end, Lindsay has a new bed and sheets and a great room!!!

First Day of School and Ikea

Today was my first day at Gretz Elementary. When I arrived there were sixth-grade girls on crosswalk duty. They had long stick which they used to block the road so people could cross. When no one was crossing, the sticks blocked the crosswalk. They never had to move at all. School was buzzing. I said hi to the secretary and went to the teachers' room where I found the other English teachers. We went up to the English room and I arranged books by level.

There was a ceremony out in the courtyard to welcome the first graders. They marched around as a group. Then, sixth grade had prepared skits and dances for the younger students. Some students sung, others read things and teachers made speeches welcoming everyone back.

After the ceremony I finished organizing the books. Then I was asked to print some things, so I went to the computer lab. The computer woman doesn't really speak English, but she was able to set me up on a machine. Now, I'm really computer-savvy, but Microsoft Word in Hebrew is quite a challenge. I finally manage to put together the word art Limor wanted. Then I had to print some clip art for Sahar. I managed to find some pictures in the clip art catalogue. I had to go through it clicking on every tab, but I did it. I needed more, so I tried to use the internet, which sort-of worked. Google kept getting confused and wanting to go to Hebrew; it also stopped working several times. Even with these problems, I still managed to get the images, format them and prepare them to print.

Even though I was the only person in the room, stuff was spewing out of the printer like crazy. Some of it was in Hebrew, but there were also French worksheets about the Holocaust. Even so, the computer I was using had not been hooked up to the printer, meaning I couldn't get my stuff. The computer woman tried to save it to a network and pull it up on her computer, but that wasn't working either. I might try again on Thursday if it's super important to Sahar and Limor, otherwise, I'm staying away from those computers.

There was a mid-morning break. Everyone went to the teachers' room where teachers and parents had prepared tons of baked goods and snacks. I couldn't eat any of it, of course. Limor and Tzipi, the principal, wanted me to eat stuff, but I told them I was allergic to wheat. Tzipi introduced me to everyone, so at least all the other teachers know who I am. One teacher had asked earlier if I was a student who had somehow snuck into the room.

After the break, Limor and I went around to the classes so I could introduce myself and try to figure out who the native speakers were. Many kids were confused by the concept because some of their Israeli parents speak English to them at home. She is only going to let kids who were born abroad or whose parents are American, English, South African, etc. be in my class. The school day ended early and I went home for lunch.

This morning, I was worried about what to wear for the first day. I tried on several options before deciding on a denim skirt and teal shirt. When I got to school, Limor was wearing denim walking shorts with a bright plaid button down v-neck sleeveless shirt. I'm no longer going to worry about what I wear.

This afternoon Lindsay and I went to Ikea. We walked to the sheruit (a shared taxi that runs on a fixed route) and got off around the corner from Ikea - on the side of the highway. We walked around for a bit figuring out what we wanted to buy. I got a night table, lamp and blanket; Lindsay bought a bed. The sheruit back doesn't stop near Ikea. We were waiting for a bus when an Isareli told us his friend advised him to go to the other side of the highway to catch the sheruit. I was carrying my night table and a bag of stuff; he had a plant. Lindsay took the table from me and we crossed a bridge. The sheruits some times make stops on the highway, so we directed us down the on-ramp, but there was no stop down there. Instead we walked along side the highway underneath the over pass we had just crossed. We saw our sheruit enter at the other on-ramp, so we walked up that one. The sheruit couldn't stop on the ramp, so we had to walk all the way up it until we got to a place that was wider. We finally got on and rode back to Tel Aviv. It was a surreal experience - cars were honking at us from all sides.

Tonight I cleaned my closet and drawers before putting my clothes away. I built my night table and put my room together. I wanted to wash my sleeping bag, but when I loaded it (and soap) into the machine I couldn't figure out how to get the door shut. The spring is broken, so you have to use a screwdriver as a lever to close and open the door. I was proud of myself for figuring that out, but even more proud that I remembered to turn on the hot water before I showered! Now, I'm all moved in: I still need some more things, but I'm home. My roommate isn't here and won't be for nearly three weeks. It's somewhat strange living alone knowing that he's coming back. I can't move things around too much, but I've begun buying kitchen stuff and I'm certainly using the apartment as I please.

Birthday!

I woke up early and packed up all my stuff. Lindsay came over and Yonni called a cab to take us and my stuff to Tel Aviv. By 12:30 all my stuff was in my new apartment. We then went down to Dizzengoff to buy sheets and stuff. I got bright green sheets and a green and blue duvet at Benetton (they were on sale!). Then we dragged all the stuff back to my apartment, stopping at the grocery store on the way.

At 5 we had a picnic for TASP. It was in Yarkon Park, which is right near my apartment. Sam came as my guest. There were second-years there and lots of alumni. Everybody brought food and I ate wayyyyyy too much. There was also tons of wine. After the picnic, Lindsay and I came back to the apartment and Anton was here was his friends. I got to meet his best friend Sasha who brought a girl from Brazil. We had a great time chatting on the porch. To finish up the night, Stacey, Lindsay and I went to a wine bar/Italian restaurant in my new neighborhood. My apartment was the best present ever!

Getting an apartment!

So, I had picked up the contract on Friday for the apartment with the two young Israelis. It was located a block off Shenkin which is the trendy, shopping street in Tel Aviv. The contract was nine pages long! I took photographs of the pages and photoshopped then PDFed them into an email-sized document. I sent it to two Israeli friends and to my cousin in St. Louis. She passed it along to an Israeli lawyer she's friends with. One of my friends had his co-worker's mom, also a lawyer, read it. She said not to sign it because of some really strange clauses.

I had already been told about the 4500 NIS deposit in cash and the three month's notice if the owners wanted to do any remodeling. I wasn't happy about the deposit, but I knew about it. The first lawyer response was that there were a lot of clauses that weren't at all clear, like the amount of the rent. All it said in the contract was that the rent was 4500 NIS. My part of the rent was supposed to be 1600 NIS, but that figure didn't appear anywhere.

Friday night I was pretty bummed, but my friend picked me up and we went with two of his friends to a bar/lounge near Yafo. I wasn't able to make any progress on Saturday because of Shabbat. Instead, Sam, Lindsay and I walked to watch Israeli folk dancing on the beach. Yonni met us on his bike and then we met up with Daniel and walked around a bit. Lindsay and I were worried about not be able to take the bus back to Yafo. We didn't want to ditch Daniel, so he came with us. We hung out on the roof of Sam's apartment chatting for a little while.

Sunday morning my cousin's friend the lawyer called me from the states. She had stayed up until midnight to call, which was really nice of her to do. She said the rental agreement wasn't great, but it wasn't the worst one she'd ever seen. I could sign it, but there were a lot of clauses to protect the landlord and blame the tenants for as much as possible. So, Sunday I started collecting listings again. I called people and tried to arrange meetings. In the morning I went to the bank. Then, Lindsay and I met up for lunch. After our salads, I called Anton, the Ukranian (mis-identified as Russian last week) guy from the apartment I had really liked. He said he'd call after 6, which I was a bit confused about. He hadn't said no, but he hadn't really wanted to talk to me on the phone.

I figured I needed to keep looking at places, so I called some more. Then Lindsay and I walked around the shuk and went to the beach for a bit. She had to go, so I went to Dizzengoff to use wifi and find more apartment listings. Anton still hadn't called me back and I was convinced I was going to be homeless on my birthday. At 7, Anton's former roommate, Vicki, called my cell. She said, "Anton told you, right? You're the new roommate." I was shocked and excited. She told me to come by in an hour. In the meantime, Daniel was on the other side of Dizzengoff; we met up and went to see a place on Ben Gurion. The place was on the ground floor and looking for a female, so it didn't work for either of us. I went to Anton's and talked to him and Vicki. I signed the lease (a 2.5 page document!) by 9pm and was immediately given a key!

Then I went for some gluten-free pizza with Daniel. It was the first time since finding out I'm allergic to wheat that I've had pizza. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't fabulous either. I met up with Sam to get the key before heading back to Yafo to get some sleep.

Second Shabbat

Friday Sam and I went to Super Shuk, but earlier this time. We learned our lesson. On our way there Shahar (apartment one from the previous day) called me to tell me I could have the apartment!! After our errands, we went into Tel Aviv to have lunch with a girl from Tufts. We went to an Asian restaurant that has a wheat free menu. I had pad thai (with out peanuts), which was delicious. Then Sam and I ran some errands, got iced coffees and went to see the apartment again. Amir gave me a copy of the contract and I took pictures of it and emailed them to people I know who read Hebrew well enough to understand all that gobbly-gook. I’m still waiting for responses, but consensus so far is that I should not sign this contract because there are illegal clauses in it. It also seems like each tenant must pay 4500 shekels a month (instead of the 1600 I was told). There’s another clause that says that if the owners want to remodel the place they can make us pay for it. I’m waiting to hear back from some other lawyers about this stuff, but I’m not sure what I’m going to do about the place. I don’t have to let them know anything until tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll know more by then. Friday night we had Shabbat dinner at Sam’s apartment. One of Yonni’s friends was here visiting. We made shakshuka (eggs), roasted potatoes, yams and carrots, had some cheese and tuna along with other veggies. We ate on the roof looking out at the sea while listening to the Muslim call to prayer. Then, I went out with an Israeli friend I had met while traveling in South America. He picked me up and we went to a hooka longue/bar with his friends. They were nice, and spoke some English, but the place was pretty smoky and I was really tired.

Week Two

On Sunday I had more TASP stuff. Then Lindsay and I spent the day going to see apartments. At this point I had practically secured the apartment with Edi (the guy from day two). All I had to do was meet the other roommate. Lindsay still needed a place to live. We saw five places that day, many of which were awful. The first place was pretty much two dorm rooms. It was really clean, but there was no communal living space and the rooms had little kitchenettes in them. There was A/C and a really nice bathroom, but you had to walk through one room to get to the other one. Apartment number two was a room in the home of a 40-something security guard. He had come to Israel 18 years ago (not sure where he was from) to play basketball. The place was nice, but it would have been a lonely experience because he was pretty quiet and didn’t really have friends over ever. The next place we saw was in a basement. Not only is that not safe, because of potential break-ins, but it felt really dark and somewhat claustrophobic. The kitchen was pretty crappy, but the guy was awesome. He was our age and worked at a sushi restaurant. Apartment four had been broken into twice in the past four years – once through the balcony of the available room. Not only that, but the two other roommates were both smoking when we arrived and the place stunk. Number five is going to be Lindsay’s place. An Israeli guy named Oren lives there. He’s an acting student and was really nice. The apartment was adequate and in a good location. I could have chosen to take the other available room, but Lindsay and I really don’t want to live together because we’ll already be spending so much time together and we want to live with Israelis to practice Hebrew. Lastly, we went to Edi’s apartment to meet, Ana, the third roommate. She’s from Argentina and was pretty cool. We discussed switching rooms and she said she’d give me the mattress that came with the apartment because she wanted a new one (different firmness). We both told Edi that it would work and Lindsay and I went back to Yafo (she’s subletting here).

Monday was a TASP field trip to some ruins and a cave. We saw the spot where David killed Goliath. Some of the second-years came on the trip and it was nice to hear about their experiences and apartments. One of them had gone to Cornell with a friend of mine from HP. They had actually roomed together which was hilarious when we figured that out. After our outdoor activities, we went to a winery for a tasting. The wines were delicious; I even liked the white one. Monday was a pretty tiring day, but afterwards I managed to run some errands, purchasing a cell phone and apartment hunting with a guy on our program.

After orientation on Tuesday, Lindsay and I walked all over the city in search of face wash for me. Based on the lack of supply and selection, I have come to conclude that people here don’t wash their face often.

Wednesday we had a walking tour of southern Tel Aviv with TASP. We started in Yafo and made our way up, following the pattern of the formation of Tel Aviv. For lunch, we stopped and had falafel. The guide made sure there was no wheat in it, so I finally got to try it. I’ve determined that it’s pretty over rated. The tour was good, but repeated some of the stuff I had already heard about from birthright. That evening Yonni and I biked up to Tel Aviv to go sign the lease at Edi’s apartment. Edi said he would email it to me so I could translate it and come back on Thursday to sign when I had a better understanding of what it said. I thought this was a fine plan and went back to Yafo.

Thursday morning I had a meeting at my school. The principal kept the Danks and I waiting for nearly 40 minutes. We sat with her for 15 minutes before going up to the English room. There are two English teachers at the school. Limor is in her 40s and has been there for a few years. Sahar just returned to Israel after graduating from Hunter College and spending the last six years in New York City. She’s never taught before, but will be teaching most of the grades at the school. Limor is teaching the upper grades (4^th, 5^th, and 6^th). I’m going to be teaching the native speakers and gifted students. Native speakers are kids who were either born in an English-speaking country or whose parents speak English at home. The gifted kids are bused in from all parts of the city. I’ll have small groups and I’m pretty sure I’ll be the only English-instruction for these kids. Limor was shocked that I had not come prepared with a book I prefer to use. I told her that I didn’t know I was teaching elementary school until last week and found out two days ago that I would be at this school. She told me that she’d get me the phone number of a publisher and I could start thinking about what kind of book I wanted. She’s a pretty strong/harsh person and also told me that shadowing her would be useless because I’m not going to have to teach 35 kids at once, like she does. People at school were nice enough, and it will be interesting to see what it’s like once the kids arrive.

I whipped out my iPod just outside school so I could check my email. A message from Edi was in my inbox. It told me that things had changed and I wasn’t getting the apartment because a former roommate wanted to come back in October and was willing to pay for the September rent also. I came back to Yafo and immediately started looking for an apartment again. I wrote down some listings and went to see five more places that evening. The first one is a bit further south than I had originally wanted, but two Israelis live there: Shahar is 22 and in the army. She dances and does yoga. Amir studies computer science and philosophy at Tel Aviv University and he’s 25ish. The apartment is kind of dingy, but they’re really nice. The second place I saw was in a great location. Two Israeli girls live there. One is a nurse and the other is an officer in the army. The apartment was on a busy-ish street and the room faced the street. The third apartment I saw is a two-room. A Russian guy who just finished architecture school lives there. It was really homey – he had tons of art books and old cameras decorating the place. The kitchen was clean and there was a porch which is used like a living room. The roommate is leaving to move in with her boyfriend. She’s selling her bed and there are other pieces of furniture that come with the room. Anton, the Russian guy, speaks some English, but I’m not sure exactly how much. I loved the apartment and the location is pretty far north, but it’s quiet and near good grocery stores. The fourth apartment was the worst. It was a room in a two-room (no living room) with a 40-something statistician. He was pretty creepy and I left without even asking him all of my apartment questions. The fifth one was pretty bad also. It came with furniture and was in a decent location, but the 28-year-old Russian kibutznick plays piano for 3-4 hours a day, which would drive me nuts. His English was great and he didn’t smoke, but his best friend is always over and smokes like a chimney. The friend and others were actually there – it was a sort of group interview. They asked me a million questions and I just wanted to get out of there because I was tired and knew I would not be living in that apartment.