A Day in the Life of an OTZMAnik

Sorry for the lack of blogs lately… truth be told, there hasn’t been much to blog about. Every time I talk to someone back home, it’s hard to get any information about what they’re up to because it always goes back to “So what amazing thing are you doing in Israel today?” Truth be told… not every day is a gigantic adventure! This isn’t to say I’m not having a great time and I’m not having experiences I would never have anywhere else, just that it isn’t always something to write home about. So, I thought I’d fill everyone in on an average day in Ashkelon…

7:15 – Alarm goes off.

7:40 – I get out of bed.

8:15 – Head down to the 1st floor of our merkaz klitah (Immigrant center), Kalanit, for ulpan (Hebrew lessons) in kitah aleph (1st grade, or just the 1st level of ulpan) with our teacher Miri. Generally, we’ll learn some vocabulary, work on putting words and phrases into different tenses, go through a worksheet, and work our way through a short Hebrew text.

9:50 – Hafsicha (break) from ulpan, which usually means having breakfast with a variety of OTZMAniks.

10:25 – Head back for the 2nd half of ulpan, which lately has meant listening to other OTZMAniks in the class give 5-10 minute presentations on themselves in Hebrew, with a Q&A session after. I gave mine last week, and somehow made it through! Other than that, it’s more of the same from the 1st half of class.

12:30 – Class ends, and depending on if I have volunteering that day, I’ll go to tutoring with Sivan, the teacher’s aide, for about a half hour. Usually we’ll work on whatever we were assigned that day, which could be translating a text or writing sentences using the latest verb we learned.

Now here’s where the day diverts...

IF I VOLUNTEER AT ATIDIM THAT DAY:

12:30 – Find something around the apartment for lunch. This usually involves pity, hummus, some sort of vegetables, and occasionally schnitzel (breaded chicken), Nutella (chocolate spread), or peanut butter.

1:30 – Head out to catch the bus to Kfar Silver, a nearby boarding school.

2:20 – Get to Kfar Silver. Really, this is a closer ride than it seems, but there’s a bus transfer in the middle that adds on some time.

2:30 – Sit around and wait for something to happen. (Sidebar: More common in Israel than you might think. Imagine if an entire country ran on Jewish time except for the buses.)

3:15 – Start working with a class of kids on their English skills with Robyn and Alexi, two other OTZMAniks. Usually we’ll play a few games with them to work on their vocabulary, or we’ll just sit with them and have a conversation. It doesn’t seem like much, but they LOVE it and apparently were looking forward to us coming all week. For those who don’t know, Atidim is a program in smaller communities to take the more gifted children and give them additional class time in math and English in order to help catch them up with students from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where the schools have a lot more resources and are much further ahead once they get to university. It wound up being fairly disorganized, but what isn’t over here?

4:00 – Switch groups and do it again!

4:45 – Head back to Kalanit.

IF I VOLUNTEER AT BEIT YITZCHAK THAT DAY:

1:15 – After tutoring, grab lunch.

1:45 – Pretty much whatever I feel like. Could go to the grocery store, could go to the mall, could hang out outside with people, could take a nap.

4:30 – Board a bus and head to Beit Yitzchak, the foster home we volunteer at.

5:00 – Arrive at Beit Yitzchak. There are about 12 OTZMAniks that work here on Tuesday nights, and we split up into groups of 2-3 per room. My room is one of the better ones, and we’ll do anything from helping kids with homework to horsing around with them to just hanging with them and watching TV. For example, yesterday I was playing with the kids and lifting them up in the air like they were jumping, and when I lied down on the ground pretending to be tired they had a great time jumping up and down on my back. Trust me, more fun than it sounds.

6:45 – Dinner with the foster home, whatever they’re cooking that day. Sometimes healthy, but usually not.

7:20 – Head out to catch the bus back to Kalanit.

7:25 – Realize you missed the bus.

7:55 – Catch the bus back to Kalanit.

IF I DON’T HAVE VOLUNTEERING THAT DAY:

1:15 – After tutoring, grab lunch.

1:45 – Same as what I said before, but if it’s nice outside (which is just about every day), you can add on a trip to the beach.

7:00 – Dinner, usually a potluck with some other OTZMAniks. We’ve done a couple “themed dinners” with Chinese or Mexican food, but mostly it’s whatever people bring. My roommate Jeremy’s a pretty great cook, so I usually help with whatever he makes and try to pick something up along the way.

8:00 – After cleaning up, it’s whatever I feel like. Usually I’ll try and get some Hebrew studying in, but otherwise it’s hanging out with people here, Skyping with people back home, writing a blog to you fine people, or just watching a movie or TV show with some people (usually How I Met Your Mother). After that it’s off to bed and do it again the next day!

Obviously there are some different days and variations, but by and large that’s the schedule. Actually, add a lot more beach time in there. It’s a hard life!