you dont own meee

i have been wanting to post a few pictures for the past couple days but it has been difficult without having my late night time to write. I am going to do a break down of the week...

Monday

volunteered with the babies, and let constans (the woman who runs it) know that last week would be our last one. its going to be so hard to say goodbye to these kids. there is a lot going on in israel right now concerning the refugees and asylum seekers here--and none of it is good. a lot of them have a huge risk of getting sent back "home" due to a new law that was passed. its really awful and i am going to post something later about ways to get involved to help them.

after that i went to the community center to teach english. the first class had 5 people and the second class just had one. when i told the first class i wouldn't be coming back they were all SO nice and didnt stop thanking me for teaching them the last 2 weeks. i kept wishing them good luck and telling them they would speaking english in no time. again, i almost started crying. they asked why i was going home and i said to be near my family and one of the men said he hasnt seen his mom in 3 years. 

here is the classroom i taught in...

and here is the board after the class.

one of the men said he works at a restaurant and someone asked him for a "Side dish" and he asked me to explain what it was. it was pretty difficult with limited english so i tried drawing a plate of food haha. you'll see my great drawing skills. they also asked how to properly ask "whats up?" and why we ask that, and how they should respond. it was really fun explaining it to them and we were all laughing a lot together.

that night the girls and i choreographed our dance for the career israel talent show.

Tuesday

one of the leaders on career israel asked if i would go to a meeting with a couple other participants to meet with the treasurer of the jewish agency and a few others to discuss what we do on the program, why we decided to come, how to get other people to come on the program with a business background, etc. it was really interesting to meet with them but at first i felt like i was back at work in a meeting. hello real world. here are the career israel ppl in the room before the jewish agency group arrived...

after that i went to the artist fair for a couple hours, and practiced the dance with the girls, and packed for our closing ceremonies overnight.

Wednesday/Thursday

we left around 10 to go to shefaim and checked into our hostel. we had a discussion group on what we gained out of our internships, stories we have, etc. there was a closing ceremony with a slide show and we received certificates. really nice, but i think i left mine behind at the hotel haha. 

that night was the TALENT SHOW and Mr. and Ms. Career Israel. 

then it was time for our lip sync. i dont have the video on this computer yet, but when i do i will post it. it is hilarious. i think we rocked the house. after the ceremony we had a dance party in the room until 2am--it was so much fun. today we went to the water park and i almost had a panic attack before i went down the big slide (Not as big as the ones in the states but it was straight down at one part that freaked me out) but i did it and half of the pool at the end went up my nose.

i am back at the apt now. i am 90% sure that i am going to egypt on sunday. i am a little panicky about going so soon before i go home but i know its worth it in the end and if i didnt go i'd just be hanging out TA anyway. 

i am starting to get really excited about going home. i am just as upset to leave israel but i cant wait to get home, see my family, see my friends and start my life there. 

anywho, i am going to go hit up the gym.

yalla bye

sara