Sad to be Packed

Today's theme was officially, "Beyond the Ivory Tower," but it should be "Sad to be Packed." We spent much of the morning on a choice of field trips seeing student projects in the neighborhoods. I chose to go to the School of Social Work and saw several projects in a neighborhood on "the seam" between middle and lower class. The goal is to keep it from going downhill. We saw an outside project to create parks, several senior citizen projects, a project working with new Russian olim who are artists to help get their work out to the public, a Service Fair held in Hebrew and Russian…and one project being done by an Arab Israeli student in a neighboring Arab village where she is working with them on ensuring that they get the services they are entitled to. These are just a few of the projects undertaken by all social work students. It is a 3 year program and in year 2, they work on their projects 1/2 time…and they are doing some very impressive work.

We came back to the Hebrew U campus for our wrap up session and then back to the hotel for a free afternoon. For those who are leaving, it was packing time. Tonight we have a dinner for Betsy Katz who is the retiring North American Director of Melton and a wonderful woman. Then we've been invited to join the Board of Governors at the Bat Sheva Ballet. I will then come back to the hotel for a quick nap and a pick up at 2:30 AM to go to the airport.

I will be back next year for sure.

I am tired and all my clothes are dirty, so I guess it is time to go. As always, I am not really ready to be on my way and am already planning the next trip. I continue to be amazed at how at home I feel in this very foreign place and how much fun it is to get by a bit more with my Hebrew. I will be back next year for sure.