Group think, or how 19 year olds begin to act like 3 year olds

Note: This post is two days old because the students are so needy that I haven't had a free minute to finish and post it. 

I am sitting on Rothschild Boulevard enjoying a cappuccino and the early morning silence of Tel Aviv as it begins to come to life.  I feel I could write for hours about the past two days - we have been in Tel Aviv for Israeli Memorial and Independence Days - two emotionally, politically, nationalistic days. We went to the Holocaust Museum, to Rabin Square, to Jaffa, to the beach, to a joint memorial service and so on. 

The emotion of the past two days feels almost too much to try to articulate now and so instead I will share the comedy of schlepping 19 undergrads around this land. 

I think I am gaining a sense of what it feels like to parent teenagers, and I am feeling a deep sense of karma from my teenage self. 

Scene 1: 

Last week in Bethlehem, we allowed the students to take cabs to a basketball game to meet our guide, who would chaperone them then. They were to return by 9 pm for a meeting with us. At 915 there was no word so we called multiple students. No response. At 930, no response, no students. At 945, one group of students arrived at the hotel and their exhuberent faces fell as they saw the look on my and Rima (my co-lead's) faces. We sat there arms folded, waiting for an explanation. 

Rima looks at them and says: "How do you think we're feeling right now?" I struggled to keep a straight face as I could not believe I was here on the side asking teenagers how they thought I felt about their late arrival and lack of communication. 

Scene 2:

Any time we get off the bus the first question we are asked is "Where is the bathroom?" Or, "What is this place?" We spend time on the bus talking about our next destination and as soon as we get off they have forgotten everything - or been asleep for the whole thing. They literally cannot figure out anything for themselves. Our new motto is "problem solve!" Everywhere we arrive they ask where the bathroom is. Everytime we get on the bus they ask how long until we get somewhere. Everytime we leave for the day they ask what they need to bring with them. 

Updating this post now from Nazarerth:

Scene 3:

There is a heatwave in Israel now. It was 95 degrees yesterday and will be 100 today. Lord knows I don't handle the heat well, and my Mishkin sweat genes are in full force. Yet after checking the weather and announcing the impending heat wave to the students, I had the good sense to wear breezy clothes, to put on my hat, to carry more water. These students rolled onto the bus yesterday wearing pants and with I filled water bottles. After a full day of listening to complaints about the weather I finally said to the whole group that unfortunately, Rima and I cannot control the weather, and thus asking us why it was so hot was not useful. Instead I taught them how to say "I'm hot" in Hebrew and we reviewed with them everything they might need to bring with them to cool off today. 

Scene 4:

We have a student who has diabetes and celiac. A shitty combination in general, but extra challenging in this land. She has had a hard time eating and thus we have been going out of our way to make sure she has enough food that she can eat. Unsurprisingly, it is easier to find gluten free food in Tel Aviv than in the West Bank. Because we were leaving yesterday for Nazareth, I asked her two days ago if she had enough food for until we got to Jerusalem. Yes, she said, she did. The morning we were planning to leave Tel Aviv, I asked again, reminding her it would be challenging to get any food that we could guarantee was gluten free until we reached Jerusalem. Yes, she said, she had enough food. Lo and behold, we arrive in Nazareth, and at 8 pm she informs me that she needs more food that is gluten free! When I asked her why she had not said she needed more food at 8 am when we were in Tel Aviv and I asked her she just shrugged and looked confused. 

Honestly, I sometimes wonder if these kids are 3 years old or 19 years old. I feel like my patience is being tried in new and exciting ways, though I am also finding the rewards of teaching to be so much greater than they are in Ann Arbor. 

Thankfully, through a much longer story of a real shit show at the hotel we were meant to stay at last night, I am staying at a hotel away from all the students and I just woke up from my first night of eight hours of sleep in the past two weeks and I feel so refreshed and like such a winner. Inshallah this sleep and silence will give me the strength for the next couple of days of heatwave and student crankiness.