Italy in Hanukkah

Hanukkah is a major holiday in Israel. So I will be flying to Italy over Hanukkah to spend 8 glorious days traveling from Northern to Southern Italy with the amazing Anna Tzizik! We will be eating the best food there is, drinking the best wine there is, and not to mention seeing the birthplace of the Renaissance. As our friend, Matt, likes to say, "Huzzah!". Two days until departure, break hasn't even started and I am already there.

OUR ITINERARY... Abridged:

Depart Tel Aviv Friday at 1am and arrive in Belgium at 5 in the morning for an 8 hour layover. This is when Anna and I train to Brussels and get Chocolate Belgium Waffles and Beer.

Depart Belgium (au revoir); arrive in Venice just before sunset (taking in city from the sky, there will be lots of photos so don't worry!)

Meet ANNA'S EXTENDED FAMILY! Yes, we will be staying with her legit Italian family (So, YES there will be wine and awesome home cooked meals) Vicenza! is the name of the city and will be our departure point for the beginning escapades.

Next few days, totally and completely unplanned and I couldn't be happier to spontaneously adventure through Northern Italy with Anna and perhaps see few other countries as well nearby!

Head south and meet Anna's other family who just happens to live in ROME!!

AND...as the saying goes...WHEN IN ROME :-)

Off to Florence! Our amazing friend Sarah (who lived in Florence) provided us the golden list of what to see and what to do. We will hopefully complete all of these things before time runs out.

Then we take the day train back to Venice and laugh from the tremendous memories made in our 8 days of Hanukkah trip to Italy

Arrive in B'eer Sheva at 4am. Just enough time to change clothes, pop an aleve, and head to our 7am teacher training class.YESH!

So, that's the plan. Will write again after to let everyone know the results :-)


Ciao!

Miss Lowen? Who is that?

Teaching is the best and worst job.Some days I exit the school grounds and I can't stop smiling. Other days I am trying as fast as I can to return to my bed so I can crawl under the covers and fall asleep. I teach 1st through 6th grade.Typically I work with 4-6 students per period. I now know all my kids names, and they call me Becca and sometimes Miss Lowen which always makes me slightly uncomfortable. Because I mean who likes to see themselves as a grown up. One day, I entered the first grade class to drop off a key, and all the 1st graders stood up and I literally stopped and looked around to make sure nothing had happened. But all the little kiddos stood there staring at me waiting for me to do something. So I just broke into a smile and walked back out of the class. .. while they giggled. Bemet.
The most challenging aspect of teaching for me has been 1. never feeling good enough 2. disciplining. If the kids don't absorb the material or the lesson plan isn't as interesting as the lesson the previous week and I can't keep their attention, I feel like a total failure as a teacher. I have learned that certain methods of teaching work better than others and certain methods definitely do not work. For example:
1. Station learning works very well: They can work on an activity for the duration of a song and then when the song ends, time to switch!
2. Scavenger hunts for clues around the school so everyone is up and moving, and who doesn't like a little competition
3. Skits!!
4. Lecturing definitely does NOT work
5. Using songs can help
I try to remember on the bad days when a student might have been particularly disruptive or not interested in learning English that I will have a larger impact on that student if I can be patient and calm and remember that teaching is about figuring out what it is the pupil is interested in learning and using whatever that is to propel the student into an engaged and motivated mindset. One of my favorite students (is it bad to say I have favorites) was very challenging in the beginning because he didn't enjoy sitting. Every day he would climb on the table while we were doing an activity and it would be very difficult to get him to stay put. So one day he came up to me during hafsaka (recess) and asked me if I know how to break dance? I told him no, but could he show me? So he began a little minny break dance series right there completely improvised. So the next day I decided to teach the names of body parts and had him teach us a few break dance moves in English at the end. I think he loved it and so did everyone else. Mostly because it was fun! That day I left smiling.

The Pursuit of Happiness

In the Times News article “The Happiness of the Pursuit”, Jeffrey Kluger examines the nature of the search for happiness in a country built on the fundamental idea that we the people of the United States are gifted the riches of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The author speculates that it is up to the individual to find the joy in life and even though “you might have to work hard, you’ll have a grand time doing it.”Although the article is compelling and draws a number of excellent conclusions on why the happiness impulse, biological and political in its origin, has its advantages; I am compelled to argue that in fact we have become paralyzed by having to make choices and we need not pursue happiness as the ultimate goal but instead find individual purpose for a life of fulfillment and happiness.
I am 23 years old and was raised on the saying “do what makes you happy”. The question of course then became what makes me happy? And the pursuit began, a search manifesting itself in my life like a repeat song on a long and winding run. The song would play and I would get excited and then after hearing the song again and again, I began to feel sick from the frustration I felt. Pursuing happiness might have been a knee jerk response my parents said to me to be fatherly or motherly in the moment. Nevertheless, the re-surging mantra persisted and I struggled as I pressed forward always imagining what could be my own unique little fishbowl world of happiness. What I learned after reflecting on how silly it all seemed to be worrying about happiness, paradoxical even, was that happiness was not meant to be pursued but lived and if instead I worked hard towards a goal, any goal, I would be happy.
The first question that comes to mind is what makes someone happy? Malcolm Gladwell discusses in his TED Talk on “Happiness and the invention of Tomato Sauce” how happiness is not as intuitive as it sounds. Food companies had been relentless in trying to create an ideal tomato sauce when in fact none existed and if they were to instead create the ideal tomato sauces, there would be something almost everyone would want. Previously the accepted belief was that tomato sauce should taste like the traditional Italian tomato sauce which was a thin basil blend. Yet in a blind taste test, 1/3 of people actually preferred their sauce chunky. Now imagine that you are the tomato sauce company and you get to choose which tomato sauce you want to make. You could choose a tomato sauce that you enjoy or one you think other people will enjoy or find out what people subconsciously enjoy and make a tomato sauce for them and probably be hugely successful. The truth of the matter is that if you were to figure out the groupings of what kinds of tomato sauces make you happy then, any and all of them would do. The choice of course would be difficult to make, but there would be no need to worry about making the wrong decision because there would be no better tomato sauces, only different flavors. When given more choices, we start having higher expectations and become more disappointed when things are not as good as we think they ought to be. What I learned from the re-invention of the tomato sauce and the pursuit of happiness is that there is no tomato sauce that is better. Believing there is can lead to a life of searching and dissatisfaction. Therefore it is critical not to compare but rather pick something good for you and dedicate hard work to pursuing whatever is good.
I grew up and around a host of inspirational people. My mother was a family doctor who started her own family practice of all women doctors assisting people more than as a medical professional but as a caring individual who would lend a listening ear. My father was a magician; he made childhood the most wonderful experience for me and my two siblings without letting his work interfere with our happiness. And then there was my grandmother who survived the Holocaust after being pushed out of France and has lived to tell the tale. The stories I heard from her growing up made me particularly critical of the pursuit of individual happiness because to me life was always going to be unpredictable and dedicating a life to myself when so many people around the world suffered would be difficult for reasons I later concluded had to do with empathy. Being conflicted on whether or not to pursue happiness is what led me to ultimately writing about it and what I have decided is that happiness was never meant to be pursued but lived and through happiness I would find my purpose.
Take a moment and think about people in your life who you would consider to be successful. Now take a moment and think about the people in your life that are happy. Is it their outlook, is it their smile? Is it their passion or love for what they do? Consumptive happiness or as my mom and I like to call it “retail therapy” as mentioned by Jeffrey Kluger has become a national past time. Kluger points out that even though we have the happy feeling when searching for something at the store, after impulsively purchasing an item, we feel terrible inside. Going back to the relentless search and dissatisfaction at the end, perhaps if we had more purpose entering a store, we would feel better afterwards. What if we entered the grocery store pretending we it was a museum filled with beautiful items. Each item carefully crafted and you have the opportunity to pick which item you will take home with you.We all need to buy things, and we might not have time to spend every day at the grocery store walking up and down the produce aisle admiring how beautiful each eggplant and cucumber truly is perfectly on display. But, choosing to spend time thinking about what to buy or spending time creating your life instead of mindlessly walking through life seems to me makes everything seem slightly more illuminated. 
There are toys to stimulate our minds and distractions to keep us having fun. But how do we stop people from being bored and dissatisfied? I don’t believe there is such a thing as chronic happiness. I think that happiness comes in waves and typically when we least expect it. We spend less time with family and more time working than ever before. What about working on reflecting on what it is you are trying to accomplish. When you complete a goal, it might not seem exciting at the time. But years down the road, all the accomplishments will build up and you will be remembered for the great accomplishments in your life time. True happiness is not the immediate pleasures but all the little successes along the way. It may not be obvious until you look back but one day you will begin to see what was good about your life and all the happy moments that you shared with the ones you loved.

References

Jeffrey Kluger, "Happiness of the Pursuit". July 8th, 2013.

 http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2146449,00.html

Malcolm Gladwell, TED Talk, “Happiness and the invention of Tomato Sauce”

 http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html

Blurred Lines

There are no lines here. I walked into the pharmacy and picked up shampoo and conditioner before heading to the cash registers. All were occupied so I waited patiently until the next cashier looked available. I saw that one lady was getting her receipt and began inching my way closer, when all of a sudden an Israeli walks right past me and sets her stuff down to pay. I couldn't believe it, I have to admit I was slightly offended. I looked at the cashier to see a look, or anything that she noticed this woman had cut me in line. But there was no such look. Being "rude" is more or less how one gets stuff done in Israel. If you are waiting for the bus and decide to be patient until it is "your turn", you will never get on the bus. People cut each other frequently and it's no big deal. You are just supposed to stick out your elbows and fight your way to the front.
I tried fasting for Yom Kippur to experience what it is like to not eat for 24 hours. I was grumpy and tired and might have reflected a little bit, but I felt so good breaking the fast with a big hearty meal of Shukshuka and garlic bread.

I have been taking Hebrew classes and going to various teacher training workshops to get ready for my first big day teaching. My routine of teaching 5-6 days a week will begin October 1st after Sukkot (the next and final Jewish holiday during the month of September), and I couldn't be more pumped! Putting together lesson plans has been by biggest challenge. I am working with 1st through 6th graders at my Elementary School. So far, I have activities surrounding food and body parts. I still have a lot of work to do before October 1st obviously :-). When I visited the school, the principal introduced me to all the teachers and showed me the room where I will be teaching. The school is quaint and very beautiful. There are pots of flowers everywhere and the actual school is located near the edge of the desert so there is a view of the Negev from the playground.

The school is semi-religious and the principal informed me that they practice something called horizontal student to student mediation where the kids will help each other solve conflicts that arise out in the court yard or in the hallways before involving a teacher or an adult to help students gain problem solving skills. Additionally, the students are educated about the state of Israel and how to keep Israel green a midst all the development that is happening right now in the country. I brought 2 fellows with me to visit the school on my second visit and we worked with a group of 3 students. I was amazed at the English the three of them knew. We worked on their practice vocabulary lesson surrounding food by taking turns pretending to be on a cooking show using the names of ingredients to explain to "the audience" what he/she was cooking. It was a bit of a mess, but I think we all had fun and learned a few English words in the process.

We also met the teachers and I found out that all the female teachers wear long skirts and cardigans covering their elbows. It is amazing to me that they don't have heat stroke when it is so hot here!

Women's Fashion...sexy can I?

I bought a soccer ball after visiting my cousins a few weeks back so I could play soccer with other fellows and hopefully the students at the elementary school. Every time an Israeli sees me with a soccer ball, I get a look of confusion. I went to a Hookah bar last night and met three Israeli guys who are in their first year in the army. I told them about how I get funny looks for playing with my soccer ball and they explained to me that girls don't  really play soccer because it isn't "girly"... then they helped teach me a few curse words. I must be the weirdest girl in Israel. I play soccer and I curse.

The next week, I am on break and will be visiting Tel Aviv for a few days and then camping in the desert for some hippie festival :-) Thinking of all my friends and family back at home. Love&Peace

Be Flexible

A lot has happened in the last week. Rosh Hashana happened and I spent 4 days in central Israel with super distant cousins but I feel as though they are just family because we get along in that way. I ate really great food and drank and even napped in the afternoons. It was amazing!

Celebrating birthdays with family on RH

Family photos

PITA and HUMMUS

 I learned a lot about Israelis and a lot about myself as an American by hanging out with Israelis. First interesting difference is that it is not uncommon for family to get together for Shabbat dinners and the high holidays and when I say family gets together, it means 20-30 people and sometimes more. I also learned that with family there is no need to be politically correct, you just need to tell the truth and that is all and Israelis listen to everything you say. I learned something about myself as an American, that we like to do things by the book and we tend to be very polite. For example, I bought my train ticket and the machine didn't read my ticket so I went to ask the guard about it and some Israeli stopped me and showed me that I can just walk around through the disability gate. Of course! I bought the ticket so there is no problem.

Tomorrow I am visiting the school where I will be for the next 10 months and I couldn't be more nervous and excited. Today, we reunited with fellows in the other cities to meet the Ministry of Education representatives and our pedagogical mentors to learn about the Israeli public education school system and to get stoked on teaching.

Earlier today I was placed in a secular elementary school with my dear friend/another fellow Anna at a secular school. However, my director, Maor, came to me an hour ago and told me that he would like me to teach at a semi-religious elementary school by myself. I told him, "But I speak in broken Hebrew!" And in the most reassuring and comforting way that only Maor can respond in a situation when I am on the verge of a panic attack, he told me he believes and trusts that I will be great. Anna, my former teaching partner in crime/ confidante, reassured me and said awesomely "You become alive at the end of your comfort zone". The most cheesy, but I laughed and I'm getting more and more excited for the opportunity to be by myself at a school to have the chance to grow as a teacher and as a student of Hebrew.

The school is walking distance from my apartment. I will know more information after tomorrow but for now all I can say is that I have learned that being flexible is a gift to yourself and cheesy quotes help sometimes. 

Beer She'va

I am writing on the bus on the way to Beer Sheva, the city where I will be living permanently for the next 10 months. Since I arrived in Israel, I have met the people who will be teaching on my program. They are from all over the United States two are from Canada. We toured the north and center of Israel by bus and stayed in Jerusalem and Tiberius, two beautiful cities. In Jerusalem, we went to a "Shuk" which means outdoor market in Hebrew and toured the old city at night which was absolutely incredible. In Tiberius, we hiked to a view of the Sea of Galilee and afterwards got to go swim in the water.

Fruit juice stand at the Shuk

Israel Teaching Fellows in Beer Sheva

I learned about Rambam, the Jewish philosopher/physician/writer who wrote the talmd from an orthodox rabbi from Berkeley, CA. He gave us a riddle to figure out. The riddle went as such:

A rabbi has 4 people stand in a row and they aren't allowed to turn around. They can see the heads of two people in front of them, so the first guy doesn't see anyone. The second guy sees the first. The third sees the second and the first, and the fourth sees the third and the second. Then the rabbi places 4 hats, 2 white and 2 black, on their heads without them knowing which order they are placed and tells them not to look at the color of their own hat. The order he places the hats on their heads is: White, Black, White, Black. They have no idea it is in this order. The rabbi then says to the group, "There are two white hats and two black hats that I've placed on your heads, only one of you knows the color of the hat on your head. You can look at the color of the hats in front of you only. Once you figure it out, yell out the color." Which of the four guesses the color of his hat?

The answer is the third guy who yells out the color white. Can  you figure out why?

So fast forward, I have moved into my apartment! I went to the market and bought groceries and now am settling into the new space. I live in a suite with two other fellows from the program and we have made our space quite lovely. I love looking out the window and seeing lights for miles. I still can't believe I will be living in the desert. Tomorrow will be the first full day here for the next 10 months.

Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva

I am excited and nervous but most of all ready to meet the kids who I will teaching. But that will have to wait until October 1st. That's all for now folks. Laila Tov to everyone reading, good night!

In Transit

I arrived in Canada today and had a 10 hour lay over, so I took the public bus to down town Toronto where I managed to stumble upon a Starbucks coffee shop next to the CN tower. I am reasonably wet from walking through pouring down rain this morning when I arrived, but the sky has since dried up and outside it is reasonably warm even with a heavy fog. Reminds me oddly of a hot yoga class, which dorkily makes me eager to get into a morning yoga routine once I arrive in Israel. I am a yoga teacher and I've been considering teaching yoga in Israel to help my students learn basic English commands such as, "Inhale, raise your arms over your head. Exhale, release your arms down".

There was an interesting article today on CNN...besides the article about Miley Cyrus twerking at the VMA's... Another interesting article on yoga being taught in the classroom: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/22/health/yoga-in-schools/index.html?hpt=he_t5

In a debacle between parents and a school in Georgia that offers students yoga as P.E., the writer investigates whether or not yoga is or is not too religious to be taught in public schools. The parent's argument was against government funding for yoga as physical education because it is "religious" and they didn't want their son practicing yoga. Other students thought yoga to be fun and beneficial to their health. I think it is important for the government to remain secular, but counter to the belief of the parents, I think by and large yoga in the USA has grown out of it's popularity as a physical hobby that incorporates breathing techniques to achieve relaxation. The Vedas, or the ancient Indian religious texts and literature from which the yoga poses and traditions originate, have ties to Hinduism and Buddhism. But even having religious origin doesn't mean that teaching children about various forms of stretching and exercise through the lens of physical and non-religious education shouldn't be allowed. Hopefully we can embrace the potential health benefits that yoga has to offer in a secular school environment to promote kids to stretch, exercise, develop body awareness. Yoga truly does offer a fun and physical way to teach active sentence structure to kids. And just to be clear, I am very PRO the secular establishment of education and I would like nothing more than to keep public education separate from religious affiliation. Hopefully for the sake of conversation there will be dissenting opinions to the ones I've just expressed and those people and I can debate our ideas of yoga and secular education over wine! I am off the airport again, time to head to Germany and then to Israel. Hopefully all my friends and family are doing well, and know I am thinking of each and every one of you.

180 degrees

In less than a month, I will be embarking on a journey half way across the world to teach elementary schoolers how to read and write in English. It has been an interesting few weeks preparing for the trip. I've been shuffled through the Seattle police station to obtain a police record, examined by a University of Washington physician (who resembled more of a robot than a person) but deemed me mentally and physically healthy, photographed without being able to smile for my student visa and on top of everything my wallet and keys to my car were stolen while I was selling furniture at my yard sale. I have to admit, I see some hilarity in the situation. I have not left the country, and I am already feeling the stress and chaos involved with the unpredictability of traveling.
Recently, The United States closed U.S. embassies and consulates in the Middle East. There has been strikes at Israeli consulates in the U.S. and everything remained closed until two weeks before my departure date. I went to the Israeli consulate in San Francisco with my mom, it was a tall unmarked building with security in the lobby. We walk in and my mom hastily begins telling the security officials my situation and how I need my visa TODAY. I sign in and then am pointed in the direction of the elevators. "Floor 21", the security person tells me. Then he turns to my mom and says, "she has to go alone since she is an adult, you can wait here". I look over at my mom who is now deflated but smiling at me. I reassure her that "I'll be fine" and "I'll meet you right here when I'm finished" and then walk into the elevator and press the button 21.

Photo of San Francisco three blocks away from the Israeli Consulate 

Mom and I go to Giradellies Chocolate and get hot chocolate after we try to get me a visa

I was cutting it close if I was going to get a student visa since processing typically takes 3 weeks. I'm encouraged that my mom thinks Ill be able to get one, but as I exit the elevator and near the room skepticism begins to creep in... Then I realize it, right as I sit down in front of the glass window to talk to the lady at the consulate...I don't have all the nevessary documents. I haven't received the letter yet that includes how much funding I will be receiving. I pray to God that she doesn't ask and then show her the print out of my checking and savings accounts. She looks at the money I have and then asks me if I will be receiving any additional funding. "Yes", I tell her. She looks up from the paper to find my eyes looking straight at her,"Can I see the letter that states the amount you have received?" I stare blankly back until I muster the words, "Oh the letter, I must have forgotten to print it out". She encourages me to come in the next day since there are only 2 weeks now to process the visa, and I tell her, "Yes, yes, of course!" When in reality I have no idea when I will receive the letter regarding the amount of funding I have received. One of the directors informs me that there are other participants going to Israel on a tourist visa due to Israeli consulates being closed and they will apply for a student visa once in Israel. I try to notify the funders of my fellowship about my situation but the request falls on deaf ears. I tell myself that there must be too much going on in Israel for them to worry about some teacher who needs proof of funding but really I am just telling myself justifications so I will stop worrying. I stop worrying. I'll get to Israel, that's what's important.

I'm already planning out in my head what to pack. The advice from friends at work, parentals, and Rick Steves...is "pack light". Which translates into 1 backpack and 1 miniature suitcase. I guess I won't be bringing my Teaching for Dummies book or the complete 1st season plus bonus commentary of the TV show "Girls". That all will have to stay in America until I get back.

 

I will be living in Beersheba, the largest city in the Negev Desert. I am supposedly living in an apartment in the city. I will be taking classes in Hebrew and I'd like to learn Arabic. I am skeptical about how much Arabic I will be taught. But I will definitely advocate for some lessons in Arabic since it is the second most common spoken language in Israel, third being English. 

As some famous philosopher says whose name is escaping me right now, "These are the most interesting of times"