A day of firsts

Today was a day of firsts: my first day as a teacher ("teacher") and my first time traveling alone in Israel.

The first first went pretty well. I helped out, and there weren't any crises. The students are very well behaved and enthusiastic about school. I sat in on a 6th grade classroom today, and the diversity of the students was amazing. There 10 students total. 3 students were new to the school. A couple students had British-sounding accents-- they could have been from England or South Africa or New Zealand for all I know. There was one South Asian, one East Asian, one or two Israeli, and the rest I didn't get a chance to interact with. The rest of the day I spent in the computer lab assisting the tech department.

The second first didn't go as well. I went down to Tel Aviv to meet up with a Yale friend who spent the summer doing research on the Ethiopian Jewish community. The first part of the trip went smoothly: a friend from AIS drove me to the train station, I hopped on a train-- it took all of 8 minutes, I met a girl on the train who was taking the bus I needed to take and she escorted me to the bus stop, walked me through the bus system, and rode with me to my destination. I met up with my friend in Tel Aviv pretty easily and we walked around the city and ate dinner together while swapping Israel stories. He had a lot of interesting stories to tell about his interview-based research, and his experience in Jerusalem. His experience has been vastly different from mine. Jerusalem is a politically and religiously tense area, which is markedly distinct from the liberal atmosphere of Tel Aviv. He had the opportunity to travel in the Palestinian territories, which was interesting to hear about. Also, he felt himself under extra scrutiny and sometimes even suspicion as an African American in Israel. It was great to see a familiar face-- the only familiar face in Israel outside of the AIS community-- and to hear such a different perspective on living in Israel.

After we said good-bye (he is leaving for the States early tomorrow morning from Jerusalem) things started to go bad. I was given the wrong directions for which way to take the bus, and I didn't realize it until we were way out in the country. **Note: from this point onward all signs, announcements, and maps were in Hebrew only and nearly all random passers-by, bus drivers, and guards did not speak English** I kept thinking we were going to circle around and head back into the city, but no such luck. I got off the bus after verifying with the bus driver that I was indeed headed in the wrong direction and jumped on the first one going back into Tel Aviv. Unfortunately, it was a 20 minute wait on the side of a dark empty road before a single bus came by. I was so desperate for a ride that I got on the bus even though it wasn't the one I needed. Of course it didn't go where I needed it to go, so I eventually got off after asking the driver what to do. I then wandered around some neighborhoods, asked some people at a bar where the nearest train station was, then finally located a train station. The ticket booth was closed, and I had to ask the guards to help me maneuver through the automatic ticket machine. Finally, after getting my ticket and asking three different people where the train to Herzliya was located, I found the right track and sat down to wait. Thirty minutes later, after 8 train heading the opposite direction passed by, my train arrived. I got on, got seated, got comfortable. Immediately after departing from the station, the conductor made an announcement. Thankfully, a guy that I had asked for directions earlier knew where I was headed and told me that this train wasn't stopping in Herzliya. We got off at the next stop, then boarded the next train to come by. Three stops later I was home, I hailed a cab, and I was home. The entire episode took nearly 3 hours. (The trip to Tel Aviv only took 15 minutes.)

Today's debaucle was my first solo experience in an environment where I was absolutely lost in the language. Every other experience I've had in a foreign country has been in a place where I have studied the language or where the language is easily decipherable because of its Latin roots. I absolutely cannot read Hebrew. My verbal knowledge of Hebrew includes only Hello, Good-bye, How are you, I am fine, Good job, Thank you, Thank you very much, Good night, Good afternoon, Go straight, and Cool. I don't even know the Hebrew alphabet. I have the Hebrew comprehension and speaking ability of a mentally challenged infant. I wouldn't have gotten home if it hadn't been for the kindness, good will, and English knowledge of about forty different strangers.

On the plus side, I have lost all shyness and reserve in talking to Israelis. I ask anyone and everyone for help whenever I have the slightest question-- directions, food recommendations, instructions on how to pick fresh Israeli fruits, what the color of a soldier's uniform means. As a result, I've met a lot of really interesting people and saved a lot of time and wondering.

I need to learn Hebrew ASAP.

Oh-- on the topic of learning Hebrew, one of the Israeli teachers decided that she's going to teach me one Hebrew phrase each day. Unfortunately, "one Hebrew phrase each day" has turned out to be several variations (speaking to a male, speaking to a female, speaking in the first person, speaking generally) of several different expressions each day. I've already forgotten what she taught me today. I'll have to look them up in my Hebrew phrasebook before I see her tomorrow.

OK-- gotta be at school in 7 hours. Good night.