I'm sure this will surprise my family and most of you who know me well enough, but I have become That Roommate that does everyone else's dishes and cleans not only my own space, but all the communal areas compulsively. I know, I can barely believe it either. But I just cleaned the dishes and put away the dry ones without being asked or provoked. My bed and the area around is spotless (I can't say the same for my roommates, however), and I am in the process of cleaning the kitchen and living room. It's not my stuff, I didn't make the mess, but I'm cleaning it anyway. I barely even recognize myself anymore. I can't tell if this is the advertised responsibility/growing up part of Shnat, or if my eight roommates are just that disgusting.
In other news, I have 333 new vocabulary words to learn for the MDA course. I am dreading making those note cards, but thankfully my host sister is a seasoned MDA volunteer, so I plan on begging her for help memorizing these.
Today (the day after I wrote the above^), I saw two occurrences that would warm the heart of even the biggest kid-hater. First, there were three kids, two giraffe toys. Anyone who knows the nature of children can see what comes next. One girl was rightfully playing with one toy, but two boys were fighting over the other (shall I enter a comment on gender inequality of maturity?). Eventually the fighting got so bad that I took that giraffe away. One of the boys went off and found something else to do. The other boy cried relentlessly for what seemed like hours. After realizing that he wasn't going to get any better any time soon, the girl got up and gave the crying boy her giraffe toy and a hug. He immediately stopped crying and one of those too-adorable-to-be-real smiles lit up his face.
The other situation happened when one girl was obviously having a very difficult day; she would break down in tears every few minutes. I was sitting on the ground holding her when another little girl came up. She was holding two dolls. She gave one doll to the girl in my lap and said, 'b'yachad.' B'yachad means together. They played together without a single problem for the rest of the day.
So yes, kids are crazy and like to fight and they sometimes smell very bad, but they most definitely have their redeeming moments.
Later in the day, during the kids's nap time, one of the teachers left and brought back a huge tub of glidah (ice cream) and toppings. If you saw it, you would think we were a bunch of preteen girls at a sleepover, not professional caretakers.
After the glidah, we set up snack for the kids to have when they woke up, and then I had an entire conversation with one of the teachers in only Hebrew! I asked if we had any more work to do, and then told her I had to leave because I had a class soon. My Hebrew may be coming along slowly, but it's definitely getting better. I can talk easily to the kids now, too.
One last note about the kids: the most amazing feeling in the world is seeing almost thirty three year olds ignore their breakfast, jump up, and run to hug you as soon as you walk in the door, despite the teacher's protests.
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