Election Day, St. Patrick's Day, E is sick day...

Big day for Israel!  Election day is a public holiday.  What will tomorrow bring for leadership?

Spent most of the last two days on the phone and computer ( when I wasn't shoveling Advil and Tylenol into E, poor thing). 

Two meetings tomorrow.  One with my Fulbright contact here in Israel, and the other with the Director of Innovation at the Center for Educational Technology (CET).
http://cet.org.il/pages/Home.aspx

The goals of MindCET ( say it aloud, ah there you go!).

MindCET’s Goals

• To be part of the creation of a new educational paradigm.
• To utilize the spirit of entrepreneurship and the start-up culture in Israel within the practical field of education.
• To serve as a catalyst for enhancing the processes of learning, thinking and development in CET.

They are an NGO, (A non-governmental organization (NGO) is any non-profit, voluntary citizens' group which is organized on a local, national or international level.) I am very excited to know more about. 
                                                      

                                                                                   (NOT me)
I am going to have so many people to thank at the end of this experience.  This Fulbright experience is a fine example of networking!  So many folks have assisted me or made introductions for me- all for a great cause, (of course) education! You! The students!  There are big changes ahead for education.  No way am I going to be the teacher closing my eyes, plugging my ears and wishing nothing would change.  It has to!  Learners have changed and as my email says...

“If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.”  Ignacio Estrada

Breakfast

OK, so the breakfast is a buffet, all you can eat, Israeli breakfast.  That is what it says.  

I don't know about you, but my breakfast at home might be an egg and toast, but more likely a banana/yogurt... etc.  The amount of food and variety of food served at this buffet is overwhelming.  Everything from pizza to salad, cheeses, really cool teas, and more...

 Have a look.

I will identify like the plate is a clock, starting at 12. eggs, cheesecake, a chocolately bready thing, croissant.

The selection of vegetables.

Tea station.  Not just any tea, loose, exotic tea.

OK, so Florida has nothing on this citrus.  Top- grapefruit, bottom, orange and melon.  Amazing.

OK, top IDK, a spinachy, artichoky, cheesy, tastey thing.
Grilled tomato, and a knish- pastry-wrapped veges. 

This was a no try zone- poached eggs in tomato sauce?

Spicy corn on the cob- did not try for breakfast.

OK, at 12, croissant, the chocolate-infused bread, a packet of chocolate sauce, idk, Turkish delight?  and finally a cake that I did not care for. (semolina?)

This plate has two types of bland cheese.  The 5 dobs are sauces.  At 11 are olives, next an olive-type sauce, the red is HOT, the yellow is artichoke, and the right, green is pesto.

See this is the problem...

"The single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language." Prensky (2001). 

Tomorrow I am going to take pictures of breakfast. WOW!

EILAT!!!!

 OK, I’ve been a few wonderful places.  The Costa Rican rainforest, Mt. Katahdin, the Caribbean, Angkor Wat. But Eilat…or should I say the Red Sea...  The bar to impress me is set rather hi gh.  Enter Eilat.  We landed, grabbing our luggage as they evacuated the airport.  Why?  We do not know.  I decided that the waiting taxi meant get out of there so- we did!

This morning was dark and stormy.  E was disappointed thinking of having to be holed up in our room all day… alas !!the sun came out and all was well.  It was not hot, and was windy, so we spent the day at a great ocean center.

The Red Sea is amazing. Put the beauty of the Caribbean together with the awesomeness of the Grand Canyon and add a touch of exotic spice- Eilat. 

We are far from the town center- a little Miami-ish for me.

Going to post lots of pics, but one more thing.  Our room ( OK the budget room, over looks these structures that are triangular and just plain odd.  Was it a hostel?  Was it a camp?  I need to investigate this further, an hopefully will not break any rules... Pics below



 Here are those "structures"...

 This is on the hotel grounds.

 Cat on a boat, obviously!

 Feet in the Red Sea.

 This would be a camel.  They were outside of the ocean center.  One could pay for a ride :(

 Inside the ocean center.

 Mrs. Winslow was very impressed with the Red Sea.

 Mr. Bolduc got into a spot of trouble...

 As did Eizabeth...

 Sigh, and Andrew...

 And Paige and Amina... Supervising all of you was difficult!

 OK, now here's just a nice picture of the Red Sea with Jordan in the background.

 Oh no...

This one is entitled… people DO care.

OK, so it was with trepidation that I set off today.  My goal, an 11am meeting with Fourier Education.  They have the very cool probes that work with iPads,to use in science experiments.  The pedagogic manager of the company was nice enough to meet me in Tel Aviv last week, but today I went to HQ.  So google maps, we love google maps, but sometimes google maps do not love us!  My route was to take the bus to another bus to another bus.  I was not sure which direction to take the first bus? 

Remember the don’t talk to strangers thing?  Sarah always needs to talk to strangers here in Israel.  Unless they seem shady, anyhow… A lady waiting for the bus asked me about the bus, then asked where I am going? and said the train is better….just walk down the street a bit, take the 61 bus to the train station. 

I guess I am a muggle.  I did not even see a bus stop never mind bus 61!!  And all of this time I thought I was at least a half-blood!

So… worried that I was going to be late to this meeting ( although Israelis don’t seem to be often on time), I used my new app.  Gett taxi ( yes, I spelled it correctly.)  So I spent  a fortune and got there an hour early.  OK, time for tea?  So I went strolling down the street- in a high tech industrial park- and my taxi driver pulled over to ask if I was lost.  I explained I was early and Micha said traffic was too busy to drive back to TLV now, so let’s get a coffee.  OK then.

This town had a large population of Yemenites. So we stopped and he ordered a Yemenite snack.  I should have taken a picture Mrs. Pellerin, I’m sorry. It was a sliced hard-boiled egg,  two sauces in little bowls, and this rolled up pastry thing, like rolled up phyllo dough.  We also had a drink made of carrot and orange juices ( really good). So you dip the dough into the sauces.  Ok cool.  So I dipped and the cafe manager hollered something, and my taxi driver, now buddy Micha stopped me fro eating.  That red sauce is HOT.  I had generously dipped… oops scraped that off, and lived.

See People Care!

My meeting went well, then I had to go home.  I got a ride to the train station and asked the lady for a ticket to Tel Aviv.  16 shekels.  ok, got it.
How long does it take, I asked her.  She smiled gently and asked what station I was going to.  , ummm you know, Tel Aviv?  There are many stations she said.  oy!  I did my usual, well somewhere near central, ummm… so she said 25 minutes, central station. 

OK, this is getting long.  Finally, I got home- on a bus after the train, and nearly collapsed.  BUT we had to get to the local airport soon. Ya see, I’m getting really busy, and I want to be sure to do some touring before I have no time.  Last-minute deal to Eilat, on the RED SEA. 

So tired I couldn’t speak by this time… we got to Eilat, checked in, made the receptionist mad, made the waitress mad, then went to bed hungry.

But wait until you hear about breakfast…

OK, The dates were a little wrong- IMPORTANT MESSAGE AT THE END OF BLOG POST.

So...We went to Jerusalem on Sunday.  It took so long for those videos to load that it only got posted today- Tuesday.

Monday I had a meeting with my advisor.  The meeting was in the city of Ra'anana.  I had to take a bus!  So I did.  

Google Maps is an awesome app.  If you click on public transit ( assuming you are in a location where there IS public transit) it tells you what buses, trains etc to take, how long it will take, and when the next bus/train arrives.  So after an hour, there I was, at the Open University in Ra'anana.  After the meeting I figured, hey if the bus I took got me here, taking it the other direction should work, huh?  So I waited, and waited ...

(Ra'anana is an affluent suburb of TLV.  Here's a pic.  Lots of flowers)

 

I was so hungry I almost scaled a barbed wire fence to get an orange.  But I made a good choice !  That would have not have been respectful, responsible or safe! 

So the old adage, "Don't talk to strangers." Doesn't really work here in Israel, where networking is the name of the game.
Alternatively, it doesn't have to be an adage, it could just be Rick Springfield's song...

  Also waiting at the bus stop was Dov.  Dov was very interesting and helpful with my project.  He had completed his compulsory time in the IDF ( Israeli Defense Force)- military.  Finished his bachelor's degree.  Then got sidetracked from working on his Masters with a start-up company.
More on start-ups later.
Dov and his friends are working on an improvement to a satellite.  He and his friends are trying to decide whether or not to raise private funding, or try to sell the idea to a big company, like Boeing.  That is so cool!   

This whole idea of start-ups is what Israel is about.  Michelle, one of E's tutors, works for a start-up company that manages start-up companies.  
So let's see... what are some start-up companies that you know about?  How about FACEBOOK?
http://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/7-inspiring-stories-from-facebooks-early-days.html   

Yes folks.  This is why we...

MAKE THE MOST OF OUR EDUCATION AND  wait for it...

DO OUR WORK, YES THAT'S RIGHT YOU HEARD IT HERE!