What is this? A theater for ANTS? The stage needs to be... at least... THREE TIMES that size!

This is the completed version of the puppet theater that I made last night/today. I'm pretty darn proud of it. :) Today the kids really enjoyed playing with it, too. First I had them draw little backdrops to put in the windows on either side of the theater. Then in groups of two or three they thought of little stories and performed them in front of the class. Obviously they were all in Arabic so I couldn't understand them, but one story which seemed to have the rest of the class rapt was about someone who puts their baby in the trash and the garbage in the bed. Sounded pretty funny.

I was worried that making the backdrops and performing the skits wouldn't take the whole class, but before I knew it, we only have 15 minutes left and three groups of kids wanted to go again. My girls are such little hams-- a couple of them went up there just to have their puppets sing. The kids seemed to like it though and they had pretty little voices. I wanted to keep their puppets for a little while but I'd told them the last class that they could take them home and they really wanted to so off they went. I've still got a few of some of the kids that didn't turn up today... I think they had exams or something.

If you want to check out a few more pictures of my puppet theater and how it evolved, go to my public Picasa album here.

A little art therapy for myself...

Since I'd spent the whole class running around putting glue on the kids' puppets and helping them cut things with the sharp scissors (I gave them the kiddie scissors-- I know what I'm doing!), I didn't really get a chance to make any puppets myself and they looked like fun! So after class I spent an hour alone in my messy classroom listening to music and making my own puppets. It was actually pretty hard, but I think the three I made above turned out pretty well.

Between law school applications and TYO, I am very busy here! I've had a little downtime tonight to post on here, but pretty soon I have to go and prepare a dance for tomorrow's women's class, submit my last few applications and hopefully start work on my puppet theater. I really do admire anyone who teaches for a living... it is definitely not a 9-5 job. I only teach kids three hours a week and it is so time-consuming! Bravo, teachers. Bravo!

Puppets!

Today was the first kids' class that I thought went really well, and it's only my third class so I think that's pretty good! Note to self: crafts are the way to go. Movies... not so much.

In honor of Halloween I showed the old Disney version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I figured that it would be demonstrative enough that its being in English wouldn't matter. And I know that kids in the US love it when you show a movie, so I was banking on it being enjoyable for the first half hour of class (hey an hour and a half is a long time to teach!). The kids liked it for about 15 minutes and then I lost them. They all kept asking 'Hallas? Hallas?' ('Enough? Enough?) while I told them to hush and watch it. I wanted them to get to the part with the Headless Horseman at least, but that isn't until the very very end of the movie. With only about a minute left, I tried to stop it, but apparently one little boy was really into it and wanted to finish!

I was worried that since the kids hadn't really liked the film, they wouldn't get the idea of making the characters into puppets, and I'd spent hours the night before cutting out identical gingerbread man shaped pieces of cardboard. But the students latched on immediately and spent the last hour of class seriously engaged in creating little versions of Katrina Van Something (I forget), which explains all of the pink skirts in the photo. If you look closely you'll see a couple of Headless Horsemen and even an Ichabod Crane (the Ichabod Crane is the one with the pointy nose.

Now I have to make a little puppet theater by the next class so that we can perform The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. They all seem pretty excited by the prospect of playing with the puppets and taking them home. They cheered!

Boy did that make me feel like a good teacher :)

Dating in the Muslim world

This yogurt has an expiration date on it.

06/11

What does that mean? Does it mean June 11th or June 2011? 4 months old or almost two years young?

But wait... months and days are backwards here.

So is it November of 2006? or November 6th? Three years old or two weeks young?

Moral of the story: I ate it. We'll approximate how old it is by how long it takes me to die from it.

Check it out I'm famous!

http://tomorrowsyouth.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/introductions-new-interns/

View from our balcony

Week One of Classes

I’ve just finished up my first week of classes at TYO and I have to say that they have been much more challenging that I anticipated! However, I think I’m getting the hang of things as the second class for both my moms’ dance class and my children’s theater class ran much more smoothly than the first. The cardinal rule about traveling and teaching is to adapt, adapt, adapt! I can already see my students getting accustomed to my teaching methods as I rework them to better suit my students.

Sundays and Tuesdays I will be teaching 45-minute dance classes to help the mothers and young women in the area have a chance to get a little exercise. The ladies were a bit skeptical as to the health merits of dance, but I’m on a mission to disabuse them of this notion and I think that it is working! My goal is to have them all be very tired and very sore at the end of each class, as well as having had a great time. As the women start to really get into the aerobic portion of the workout, I hope to have time to explore different dance techniques with them—ballet, jazz, Latin, hip hop and swing are all in my planned itinerary! I really want them to see that working out doesn’t have to be boring and that you don’t have to run laps to get a great cardio routine in. Over the coming weeks I will hopefully have a chance to stress healthy eating and exercising habits so that they all really feel good about their bodies and love to exercise!

Mondays and Wednesdays you can find me teaching theater to my 9-12 year olds. We have some very strong personalities in our class and I can’t wait to channel all of that energy and confidence into performance! In my introductory week I tried to show the kids some theater games, which are great for building group dynamics and teamwork.
Some games worked better than others and by Class Two I was much more prepared for my students. Even simply adding chairs for each student to the classroom (theater classes generally use too much body movement to necessitate chairs) provided the structure that was missing in my first class and made for a better environment for the students. And environment is absolutely key, which is why I am hoping to transform my classroom into TYO’s very first black box theater! Black box theaters are simple performance areas that can be used for a variety of shows and rely on the creativity of the performers and directors (rather than fancy set and lighting) to put on a show—so they are perfect for schools, small venues, and TYO!

Disclaimer

Folks, don't take me too seriously on the whole moon thing. It kind of felt like someone punched my teddy bear, you know? I'm not going to go all Save the Moon and Pluto is a Planet on everybody.

Tonight we saw a movie about two Palestinians who move to the US. It was called "Amreeka". I liked it a lot and encourage all of you to see it, but I did feel like the the portrayal of Americans was a little one-dimensional. Kind of an interesting perspective to have your own culture get caricatured. Also, I couldn't buy Alia Shawkat as an Arab, but apparently she's half Iraqi so I actually blame that on the fact that I've seen Arrested Development in its entirety three times.

Tomorrow we begin orientation. Should be a whirlwind day. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm looking forward to people coming to visit me. Please come visit me!

We Bombed the Moon Today

At first I thought it was a joke, it seemed so implausible. When I found out it was real, I had a reaction that I thought everyone would share, but seems now that no one did: I was very, very hurt. To me the act seemed so full of aggression toward an object that, as best I can say it, just did not deserve it. The moon has inspired poetry, religions and children’s stories. It pulls the tides, lights the night and has guided ships. We see faces in it, we believe it’s made of cheese. Now, without warning or consensus or even clear purpose, we hurtle shuttles at it. And it doesn’t even belong to us. By “us” I mean Americans—I feel that there should have been some global forum of some sort before we could take a move like that. But, really, it doesn’t belong to the Earth or any of its inhabitants either. Then again, part of the reason why I feel so hurt by this is probably because I do feel like a part of me owns it—I doubt I would have been moved at all had the same news come out about Mars or Jupiter. I really don’t know what it is.

I thought about a lot of this at 4 in the morning, Nablusi time when I laid on my back on the patio, jet lag keeping me wide awake (even now as I write this at 435am). Today is my second day in Nablus. I arrived yesterday around 130pm in Tel Aviv. So far 4am has been my favorite time of the day, because that is when they make the predawn call to prayer. Nablus is a beautiful city at night, all lights undulating on rocky hills. I cannot tell if it is these hills that causes that eerie echo when the prayer is sung, or if it is the effect of different loudspeakers set up throughout the city, each one a bit delayed. Apart from the call and the roosters and a few lone cars, Nablus is very quiet at night.

Luckily the apartment at TYO’s building has an enormous patio with spectacular views of the city. Our living room has floor to ceiling glass looking out on that view. We six girls on the sixth floor have lovely accommodations, each with our own room and bathroom. The kitchen is well stocked, complete with refrigerator and oven. I have yet to explore the rest of this large building, but what I have seen so far is gorgeous.

Nablus itself is an interesting city. What struck me the most as we drove through the West Bank was the absence of women. While the gamut of males, from young boys to old men, wander the streets late into the night, I could only find a few women walking about, and always walking purposefully as if from point A to point B. When three of us headed down to a juice bar tonight we, being obvious foreigners,invited a few “hello how are you’s”, but otherwise were undisturbed. (Understand that if we were Palestinian or Arab, speaking to us would have been totally inappropriate.)

I’m dying to ride a bike around here to get to know the city, but bike riding may be off-limits to me unfortunately. One other staff member has been looking for a walking partner and I will be happy to join her. There are these long, brutal-looking staircases climbing up the sides of the mountains that I want to conquer. If you know me at all, you know the thrill I get from climbing atop things and usually swinging my legs over the ledge.

Tomorrow we will go to Ramallah and tomorrow night we will see a film. Sunday Nachel (the other new intern) and I begin our “power orientation” which I am very much looking forward to. Sunday also I’ll begin moving into the bigger room with its own bathroom; I hope to pick up some items soon to decorate with, seeing as this will be my home for awhile. I have my worries about such a long stay, but at 4am I absolutely love it here.