What a Long Week!

Shabbat Shalom (or almost)!

Sorry I've been slacking on the blog posts. Here's what's been happening since Monday night:

Tuesday: We went on a field trip to Nahal Taninim (the Crocodile River by Haifa), Zichron Ya'akov and Caesaria. It was a pretty bad field trip though, because it felt like we were on a Birthright trip, yet we were taken around to places that I had no interest in going to because they barely gave us any history of the places. I also had a rough afternoon with one the other fellows, but we were able to resolve our issues. It was nice to see the other Ma'ase Olam groups though, and was able to catch up with one of my roommates from Givat Haviva who is doing Israel Service Fellows in Acco.

Wednesday: We had training, but it wasn't at Achva College as it usually is. We started the morning by going to the Democratic School in Rehovot, which is a very free and open-minded learning environment. Pretty much, students are not forced to attend classes, and they are given complete freedom to choose their daily schedules. It was definitely an interesting and unique experience, and a school system I had never seen before. After spending an hour or so there, we were off to Jaffa for a MASA training with all of the other Israel Teaching Fellows groups, and not just the ones we have been with at Achva. Besides the free brunch, it was a very boring training and honestly, I didn't get anything out of it. Afterwards, I was hoping to see my Chetzi, but since it was my first time out of Rehovot, I had no bearing of the area or how to get to where she was. So instead of trying to figure out the bus system alone, I decided to stick with the group, and Rebecca, Jennifer, Ella, Jilli, and myself strolled around Jaffa for a bit before making our way back to Rehovot. Let's just say we had an interesting time with transportation, involving a SUPER long bus ride, missing a train by a minute, and then getting off at the wrong stop. We got back, and Rebecca and I walked to Aroma to grab some food, followed by a stop to get some much needed Goldstar, and then we chilled at the apartment before quickly falling asleep (or at least I did).

Thursday: Last official day at Achva for a while! It was really nice knowing that we are almost done with training, and can actually start teaching soon! There has been some fun parts of training, but at least this week I have felt so burnt out, that I was just ready for a break. After Achva, we had Ulpan…which was pretty pointless, because all we did was singing some Rosh Hashanah songs. I don't think I learned anything new, so whatever. I grabbed dinner with Sabrina and Jennifer after at a burger place on Herzl, which wasn't too bad. After some pre gaming and what not, a group of us went out to some bars called Simple and Flora, both which were fun bars in the Hamada neighborhood. IT was fun to hang out with some of the Israelis, and dancing was involved. It was overall an excellent night, and a great way to relax and let loose after such a long and exhausting week.

Friday: Today has been pretty relaxing for the most part. The bummer was the 9:00 group meeting we had this morning, and the fact that we were supposed to get our bank cards today, and the bank wasn't even open. That was definitely frustrating, but I still got to go out and groceries for the weekend. We also got our school assignments for teaching, which was super exciting! I'm working at an elementary school called Ramat Alon with Noa, and Keren is the Israeli working with us. It's going to really fun working with both of them, and finding out even the smallest information about where I'm working makes me even more excited about starting in the classroom in just a few weeks!

It's been really chill since coming back. Right now there are only 6 of us in the apartment for the majority of the weekend. Hopefully I can just relax a lot and also have some fun. I'm going to Chetzi's house for Rosh Hashanah on Sunday night, so I'm definitely excited for that. It's going to be a good LONG weekend :)

If I don't post before the new year (which I probably won't)…Shabbat Shalom, and Shana Tova! <3