Happy Halloween!

This country is really fond of strikes. Currently, the Coffee-to-Go place next to TAU has a lot of workers on strike, because they have to share their tips with upper management. Some of the high school teachers are on strike, too. The people in TASP in high schools have been relocated or only have to teach half the time. This has been going on for 3 weeks. Also, all the university professors that have doctorates in the country are on strike, for more money, I guess. So, Israeli students are going to only some of their classes, those taught by people without doctorates. This and the coffee strike just started last week. I am in a special program, however, so I have class. I really hope the bus drivers stay happy with their jobs...
I’m in my second week of university classes and it’s weird to think that it’s midterm time at schools in the States. On Sundays, (I know, weird, too.) I have 3 classes: 8:30-10 am= Linguistic Models (theoretical views of language knowledge, processing and acquisition), 11-1:15= TESOL Methods (how to teach English to speakers of other languages), 2-4:30= Qualitative Research Methods (understanding and using the connection between qualitative methodology and the field of education). On Wednesday, I have just one class: 9-12= TESOL Practicum- We visit lots of different kinds of schools every other week and then discuss them and the current controversies around teaching English the alternate weeks.
The classes that sound intense (ie: Qualitative…) are and the ones that sound interesting and fun (ie: Practicum) are, so far. Sunday is a really tough day and it’s hard to concentrate on methodologies and theories at the end of the day. Oh, I can’t forget that also on Sunday, I have Hebrew Ulpan from 6-8:30. I’m going to have to get into the habit of planning my lessons for each week before Sunday, so I can just come home and crash at the end of the day. That’s all I want to do then!
This week, since it’s Halloween in the States, I’m celebrating the holiday with my students. I brought them all candy and I’m reading/telling spooky stories in the dark (with flashlights!) with the 5th and 6th graders. Some of them were really scared! I brought a bunch of my clothes to school and the younger kids are having costume fashion shows, where they have to tell the class what their partner is wearing. (We still have to practice English, after all!) If I see the kids more than once in the week, we’re doing a Halloween mad lib (Yea for parts of speech!) that I wrote, based loosely on my Halloween experiences as a kid. I’ve done only one, so far and it was so funny, I had trouble reading it at some points. Here’s an excerpt: “Dad waits on the sidewalk with the other fairies.” I’m still laughing at that one! I’ll post other worthy lines if they come up with my other classes.
I was just about to post this when Allie asked if I wanted to join them on a trip to Ace Hardware (Yes, there is one here.) I needed a locker lock for the gym and lightbulbs, so I went. Now, this place is only 10 minutes away, but when we realized that we’d have to get Ali and Allie’s boxed desks and chair home, it seemed much further away. If you remember from my move-in story, we were going to have a hard time getting a taxi to take us with our stuff. So, we thought of ways to take the carts home without getting caught. As we were leaving, the security guard stopped us and asked us where our car was. Allie, exaggeratedly pointed across the parking lot to somewhere really far away. Luckily, all we had to do was give up an ID and we could take the carts. Was not so easy as we thought. Heavy cart + tilted/uneven sidewalks + curbs = difficulty + much laughter. I was pulling the cart Allie was pushing. Ali had a lighter cart and didn’t need extra help. I got ran over a few times and probably have a few new bruises. It was hilarious to watch people on the street react to us. If only I hadn’t thought it would be a little trip, I would’ve brought my camera!