Well, it happened. After 8 months of writing to you weekly, I missed a week. It was bound to happen eventually. At least this time I had a good excuse.
My summer participants arrived! After months of prepping and searching for their internships, they are here and our program has begun. Let's just say, I've been busy. In the last week and a half I have received more phone calls and text messages than the previous 8 months. It is really amazing what happens when 25 new people suddenly come into your life. But not just any new people, 25 new people who are dependent on you for, well, basically everything. As it turns out, I have a pretty great group and aside from a few minor glitches, everything has been running smoothly.
I'll share one quick story. For months and months I was basically playing a vicious game of phone tag trying to set up a participant's internship at one of the hospitals. I was trying to plan ahead, settle the internship in plenty of time before the participant arrived and get as many details as I could so I could pass the info along to said participant and our Boston funders. The volunteer coordinator at the hospital, however, had a different sense of the necessary timeline. As far as she was concerned, we could call her the day before and it would all happen. As this was not going to work for me, we spent many many weeks going back and forth until I got almost enough information to satisfy me. The last step was for me to meet her in person before the summer began. She was not going to have this. We compromised and agreed that instead of meeting ahead of time, I would come with the participant on his first day and we would meet then.
Come day one of summer internship, I accompany my intern to the hospital. We locate the correct office and we find... a note with my name on it tucked into the doorknob. I read the letter outloud, translating into English, which said that she was sorry she couldn't come in that day, but we could go directly to the lab where my participant would be working and meet the lab director there. She left his phone number. So began our scavenger hunt. As the two of us wandered around a massive hospital that neither of us had ever been to before, meandering through winding hallways, asking for directions at every corner, getting into the wrong elevator, which was actually the right elevator, peeking our heads into hospital rooms we probably shouldn't have been in, I decided it would be a good time to share my "new to Israel" philosophy with my new-to-Israel-participant.
"Sometimes (aka often) annoying and frustrating things. People and things aren't where they're supposed to be. Expectations aren't met. Conventions and manners are broken. You feel lost and confused. But, when you stop and think about what's happening, it's actually a funny story. Even in the moment, think about the way you'll tell this story to your family and friends and how absurd and hilarious it will sound. That is what helps gets though the day."
And ultimately, that is why I write this blog. To give me a chance to keep things in perspective and to laugh at myself and my life at least once a week. Thank you all for reading and to my Dad for noticing that I didn't write last week.
Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend,
Stef and Matt
P.S. Happy Anniversary to my (Stef's) wonderful parents and Happy Graduation to Brittany (sister/sister-in-law), who is graduating from UCSB this weekend!
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