Weekend Update

After a long hiatus, I feel like I owe an update.

After school on Friday, two of the teachers hosted a nice little happy hour in their gorgeous 2-floor apartment. If there's one common interest among the American teachers at the school, it's drinking.

Post-happy hour, a few of us newbies decided to go out down in Tel Aviv. One of the younger newbs-- Hellen-- is really into salsa dancing, so we decided to head out to a salsa club downtown. Hellen is the first teacher that I met before coming to Israel (we met on the plane in Frankfurt). We have a lot of common interests and our personalities mesh really well, so we end up spending a lot of time together. Noone besides Hellen knows how to salsa dance, but we're a pretty adventurous group (what do you expect from people who move to Israel during a war) so we decided to give it a try.

Things in Tel Aviv don't start 'til really late. People generally don't head out for the night until at least 11pm, and bars stay open and crowded past sunrise. And it's not just younger people who go out. From what I hear, people from age 13 to 80+ are all out at 2am and later. This late-night schedule perfectly compliments my natural body rhythms.

So, like good little wannabe Israelis we got into Tel Aviv around 11.30pm. We followed the directions we pulled off the internet, only to find ourselves in front of a club with a large roof to sidewalk sign advertising "FETISH PARTY." We were a little freaked out. But, the Israeli salsa dance website stated that salsa dancing occurred at this club from 23:00-05:00 every Friday evening. How could the internet be wrong? The sole Hebrew speaker of the group went in to ask about the salsa lessons, and I started to follow. Suddenly, there was a finger in my face. "Not you. Just one." It was all a little sketchy. Needless to say, we took our business elsewhere.

Saturday night we had a welcome-back reception at the superintendant's, then the younger American teachers all went out to a beach bar. Sunday, I used my bike for the first time and headed over to a U.S. Embassy picnic, where we had a potluck and I met a bunch of Embassy folk, including my neighbors-- the Marines. They were pretty nice and friendly-- mostly Southern guys.

Today was my first day on my newly established schedule. I accompanied the 11th/12th grade HS counselor as she spoke to the seniors about college applications and personal essays. I am supposed to be a resource for the kids as they write their application essays. Later, I spent my first block with a class of seniors working on their graduation requirement of a senior project. The students put together a project on a topic of their choice, for which they write a research paper, and present their work to a panel of 3 critics. The students are so intelligent and enthusiastic-- they're fun to work with.

In other news, Neil bought his plane ticket to Israel last week. He's arriving September 20th and staying until March 1st. We're already brainstorming trip ideas. Neil's goal for his stay in Israel is for us to visit at least 3 continents, which I fully support.

I'm starting Hebrew classes soon-- can't wait.