Wednesday, January 19, 2011

First day of School - by Rosalie Whitehill (New York)








Shalom you'all,
Today was the first day of community service for the group. All were excited, some a little apprehensive about how they would be received and what would happen. Around 7:30 the first group took off in the taxis and around noon they returned to the hotel with such smiles on their faces - "oh, it was great - better than expected.." They were full of stories and anxious to tell each other about their experience.


The following is Rosalie's account of the day.
Yes, it is almost sundown on another beautiful, sunny 63-66ish day in glorious Tel Aviv.....sorry for my friends in Plainview and family in Boston......but delighted for me!!!

Today was my first day back at my school.....now a 40 minute walk since our present hotel is further away......An aside.....in addition to the most accomodating staff I have ever experienced in Israel, the food is really good......a little less than other places on desserts, but that's fine with me.

Anyway, today was too easy for me.....I had all girls....3 classes of 2 and one class of one...(one of the girls is the sister of the boy whose family picked me up at the airport and she just grinned like a cheshire cat, the whole period)....and since she and the girl with her liked to sing, we sang songs in English and had a fine time.

This afternoon we had a tour of the first city hall of Tel Aviv on Bialik Street.....on of the first streets after the original settlers built their houses....It has been beautifully restored and I discovered that Dizengoff (first mayor of Tel Aviv) was great friends with Bialik (poet laureate of Tel Aviv) whose house is just accross the little plaza. Another place I had not visited before....for the past two years it was being restored so that it could open for Tel Aviv's 100th birthday last year.

If you read this far, I will add that my room-mate Diane is more than happy with this trip, really enjoying the people, what we do, and appreciating our coordinator and guide......all of which makes me feel good.

So that's the news of the day(s) and I continue to love Eretz Yisroel as much if not more than ever!!

love to all of you!!
Rosalie