That Time the Movie Had an Intermission

Yet another day of MEET has come and gone.

At the beginning of the morning, we split up our 40 kids into their recitation groups, then paired each of them up. Despite the fact that we created Israeli and Palestinian pairs, several of the partners high-fived their partners. :-)

We started late again this morning. As I mentioned at the end of the previous post, Froy gave lecture in a small recitation room, without AC. We had the window open, and there was a small fan, but it was far from ideal conditions for a lecture.

After stuffing 40 people into the room, and starting about 30 minutes late, Froy tackled the Using Methods topic. The quality of the students we have was apparent today: they didn't complain too much, and weren't too restless despite the conditions.

Following Froy's lecture, we remained in room 612 for another session from Boaz and Basam.

First, Boaz had a few students come up and share stories about a time when they overcame an obstacle. Yahia told about the time his foot was crushed under a cabinet, and he wasn't able to walk for 3 months. When he tried to walk again, he had to work his way up from crawling, to limping, to walking, and eventually to running and jumping. A great story.

Then the real fun began! Basam led the students through several activities about overcoming inhibitions. The students made faces at each other, talked in gibberish, attempted to make others laugh, and played follow-the-leader. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

(I had the privilege of getting a bird's eye view, because I volunteered to remain with the bags.)

Because Boaz and Basam took some extra time and because I wanted to begin recitation on time, lunch was hurried. But rushing through lunch was totally worthwhile, because I got to have the full time for the recitation that I wrote. As an example for using methods, I created a Hero class. We used the API to create an instance of Hero called superLina, whose superhero quote was "It doesn't matter!" I also got all of my students to yell out answers to example problems while standing on their desks. Some of the students were shy about answering questions, but yelling at the top of their lungs while on a desk gets rid of those inhibitions. (Alice mentioned that she could hear it in her room. Heehee.) Teaching is way too much fun, especially when your students are engaged and eager to learn the material.

As much as the students seemed to understand the material, that didn't necessarily translate over very well to lab. While one or two students in my recitation were able to breeze through the lab and the extra questions, most struggled along the way. As always, I spent the whole time answering questions, and trying to find new ways to break through language barriers to explain Java.

After MEET, I drove back a carfull of people to the apartment, and then Bo and I returned to the cars, and en route passed a man on a donkey.

Near the mall, we passed this intense apartment complex:

We went to the Jerusalem mall to watch a movie with the kids and pick up hoes. I had been told that we'd be watching Kung Fu Panda, but the kids apparently couldn't bring themselves to watch such a juvenille film. Instead, we watched Wanted.

I was quite pleased with the film, but thought it was perhaps too graphic for 15-year-olds. In one of the final scene, Angelina Jolie kills a half dozen people and commits suicide with a single shot. Is that okay for 15-year-olds? Have I just forgotten? Am I going to be one of those lame parents that doesn't let their kids do anything?!?! Oh well.

It shall be noted that the films here have an intermission. In the middle of the film, at some completely random spot, the movie stops and the lights come on. Five or ten minutes later, the movie starts again, more or less at the same spot, but not exactly. It was not a pleasant experience.

We gained a Mike in the theatre, and he, Bo, and I got some ice cream in the mall. I chose coconut, the flavor in the top right corner of this picture:

Then, I finally got my hoes.

[That is one of the few pictures that proves I'm actually here.]

Quote of the Day: "Opus Figured Ass Extras" - a font on Kim's computer.

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