I've decided to re-start this blog

So, after many hours of thinking and pondering and assessing, I've decided to (re)start (my) a blog.

Firstly, I don't live in Melbourne anymore but hey, I can't be bothered to get a new URL and I will always love Melbourne so this URL stays.

Secondly, for those who know me, I am currently living in Israel teaching English for the next 10 months as an Israel Teaching Fellow.  That I guess is the point of this blog.  I've been here for nearly 3 months and I have seen a lot of things that have made me think and I want a place that I can write about them - aka right here.

So, first is first, background:

I am currently living in Rishon LeZion, Israel's fourth biggest city that is south of Tel Aviv.  Lucky for me, Tel Aviv is 30 minutes away by bus so whenever I have a free day, I usually find myself there.  For the history buffs out there, Rishon LeZion directly translates to 'First to Zion' and there have been Jews here since the late 1800's.  It's a pretty cool city that is fairly lively, and out of the Israel Teaching Fellow cities to choose from, pretty sure I chose #1.

I live in an apartment basically in the centre of town.  I live with three other girls; 2 Americans (one from NY and one from Minnesota) and 1 South African.  It really is awesome.  We have family dinner once a week which involves me cooking and we spend a lot of time discussing all the essentials in life; boys, food and how to avoid getting yelled at in Hebrew while living here.  

I 'teach' at a local elementary school in Rishon.  I say 'teach' because I am not really teaching.  I take small groups (between 4 and 6) of kids out of mainstream English class and we play games, do fun English activities and talk.  Some of the kids I work with are fairly advanced and others are not. It is super fun though and even though everything else in Israel can be super stressful at times, the kids never fail to make me laugh.

Other than teaching, I attend Ulpan (Hebrew class) twice a week which I find mildly painful and I also volunteer once a week in Jerusalem with the Ethiopian National Project.  They are a super awesome NGO doing really great work in the social integration space in Israel so check them out (http://www.enp.org.il/en/).  

I guess that sums it up.  Stay tuned to hear about my life here and my thoughts on various things related to Israel life (like the price of hummus and where the best felafel is haha).

Now it wouldn't be a real Mona blog post if I didn't include some photos of food I've been eating so that's how I will end:

Red Velvet in Tel Aviv - the best cupcakes and cookies!

Death by Max Brenner in Rishon

Wings in Tel Aviv - Texas Flavour (honey BBQ)

MM x