OY VEY USHISSKIN

Today was a day for the books, or the blogs I guess. I have been walking, running from bus stop to bus stop, and exploring my way around Israel all day! It all started at 9 AM with one word I will never forget. Ushisskin. This is the transliteration of a hebrew word for a street name. Little did I know that there are repeat street names in almost every different city. I currently live in Holon, and today was the big day where we went to our volunteering placements for the first time. Given a bus name, a street name and address and we were off to discover where we will be working and devoting our time for the next three months. I almost thought it would take me the entire three months to find the building the childrens art museum is located, where I was so excited to learn I would be volunteering there. Nevertheless, after walking from stop to stop and seeing that the "Dan" bus Number 1 did not arrive there, we finally found the correct bus stop. The girl who I went on this adventure with is doing very well with her hebrew studies and is thank goodness (!) almost fluent. She asked the bus driver to tell us where Ushisskin Street was, and he told us he would let us know when the bus had arrived. We sat on the bus for ages, nearly an hour when we were finally signaled off. When we asked what city, we were surprised to know that we were in a very random and unfamiliar part of Tel Aviv. All I can say is that the Israelis in the area were so helpful! One man even walked us to the exact street we were looking for. We soon discovered that the building we were looking for was not on this Ushisskin, we had stumbled upon the wrong one! We were on the Ushisskin in Tel Aviv, not Holon!!!!!!!! Oy vey, we had been traveling for hours and we would still be lost on our first day of volunteering if we didnt figure something out. We started walking down a main road looking for a bus stop, with none in sight we hailed a cab and gave him the address. We were so relieved to see the colorful building nestled in the bushes of a street we had passed trying to find our way to the bus stop just a few hours previous. The women who worked there were so friendly and were so understanding as to why we were late. After the morning was over and I went back to my apartment to relax, I pondered in how amazing is was so see so much of israel by mistake. If we had not gotten on the wrong bus, we never would have met that nice man that helped us, or had the conversations we had with the people we asked for directions on the street. This place is new to me, it's my first time to ever be in israel, and fortunately all my mistakes here will be a positive learning experience that will lead to my success on this program.