My new family

On Sunday Yasmine and me woke up at 5 o’clock in the morning. It was rather hard after the wedding party! I followed two lessons physics. The teacher used inductive learing as method. The students tried to draw the direction of a molecule in a closed space and in this way they discovered the definition. I noticed the way of teaching: the pace is not as fast as in our College and there is more time to talk about things or to digress.

After lunch Laila, the assistant of mister Taha, said that I would be her guest for this week. She gave me some information about her family: she lives in Haifa, has three children, she combines working and studying…We went to her home and I met her family. The daughter, Amal and 11 years old, was so curious about me. So we talked (her English is very good) and we have so much in common. She wanted me to paint her nails, she showed me her photo albums and did some gymnastic tricks while Laila was preparing the dinner. She made tabouli with potatoes and minced lamb.

At 6 p.m. we went to the gymnastics club of Amal. I watched her training and I really enjoyed it! Iwas in the national team of Belgium for gymnastics so it was nice to see the beauty of this sport again. We walked back home and passed the Stella Maris, a place with a wonderful view over the city. If you don’t want to walk that much, you can take the cable car. The people in Haifa call this view the ‘San Francisco oberservatory’ because it the city looks almost like the American city. Once home I helped the other two children, two boys: Amre and Adam, with their English homework. In Belgium the English lessons start in high school (8th grade) but in Israël the children learn English from elementary school. Just before bedtime Laila took me and the children for a walk in the neighborhood and showed me the most important busstops.

On Monday I had to give a presentation about the connections between Dutch and English. I explained the German languages family, the way we teach English in Belgium, why we speak so much English and gave some information about the teacher training at my college. These students chose English as part of their studies so they speak English very well. It was nice to have a conversation with them and even a discussion about the differences between both cultures. They were interested in the way we live, they asked a lot of questions but at the end they chose their way of living over the Western idea. Whil I was waiting for mister Taha, two girls appealed to me. The girls are students English and they want to know me better. They even asked me to enjoy them for a nice afternoon.

In the afternoon I walked, more than 30 minutes, to the beach. When I finally arrived the security told me that the beach was only for men but tomorrow it’s for women. I didn’t know their exist beaches only for one gender…So I walked some more to another beach. It was very small but so quiet. I read my book and played some racket with a Christian girl I just met. After dinner with my new family I took the children outside so Laila can clean the house. We took the bike and cycled in the neighborhood. We stopped by a petshop and saw kittens and puppies. Before I went to bed, I walked to the top of the Baha’i Gardens and enjoyed the view over this beautiful city…