The Second Day of the Reunion, Herzlia, Israel 07/02/06

The second day of the Reunion. I took the right exit to Herzlia this time! What was still kicking my butt was the one way streets of Tel Aviv. The first day was pretty much asking and answering questions like, “what class are you?” (graduating class, that is), “what do you do?”, “where are you living now”, “are you married and how many kids”. The second day, we talked about the good old days. We recalled funny stories and remembered many who had now passed away. We also got together to brainstorm in how to keep this alumni association going and how we could get together periodically in different parts of the world, mainly in the US and Europe.

Then came what everyone had been waiting for. One of the biggest annual events in AIS was the Hockey Marathon. It is basically when the High school would be divided between the Red and Blue teams. Each colored team would be divided from A (the best players) all the way to maybe F (the ok players) depending on how many students there were. So the guys’ Red A would play Blue A and then the girls’ Red A would play Blue A and so on. It was an event that would last 36 hours. It was awesome. So for the reunion, we had a mini Hockey Marathon. Although we weren’t as young and as flexible as we used to be, it was an enjoyable time. Gonen, the guys’ X-PE teacher and funny man, was the referee of the game. For most of the reunion, the Eagles had been played, and the Hockey Marathon was not an exception, mostly because Gonen is a big fan. As their music played over the loud speakers of the gym, Gonen would play along with his acoustic guitar with a whistle in his mouth, getting everybody off and on the court to sing and shout. It was a hilarious. So we played about 4 or 5 hours, only because that’s how long our bodies were able to resist. By the way, I scored 3 goals!!

At 7pm, everybody gathered at the beach of Herzlia Pituach for a luau. There was a lot of food including fellafel and Shawarma and an open bar. There was more talking, some singing and finally the event was officially closed very late at night.

A Very Bright High School Reunion, Herzlia, Israel 07/01/06

It should’ve only taken me about 20 minutes from Tel Aviv to the reunion in Herzlia (Kfar Shmaryahu), but I took a little bit longer. The reason is because there are new roads that added confusion. At the same time it was good. As I wrote before there’s Herzlia Pituach, and Herzlia City. So there are signs not only for both, but for Herzlia downtown as well. I took the exit to Herzlia Pituach because Kfar Shamaryahu lies pretty close to its entrance. Wrong! That took me deep in to Pituach. However, I didn’t lose my cool. I just enjoyed seeing the new areas and the new changes of the small city. Very slowly, as I followed my sense of direction and orientation, I began to recognize the streets. Just to make sure, I pulled over to ask for directions. It was a Philippino that confirmed my sense of direction. (In Herzlia, there are many Philippinoes that work in housekeeping.) Anyway, it was exciting to drive up the road that I had been on so very many times before that leads up to my high school, the American International School. That road hasn’t changed very much, except for the speed bumps that they’ve added.

I was late because I had stopped on the way to take video and pictures. It was 11am. Security has now been added at the entrance of the high school, so I had to go through that. As I walked passed security, people started recognizing me and I them. It was quite an emotional feeling. I made my way to the cafeteria area where everybody was. I saw my PE teacher, my sister’s PE teacher, my art teacher, my science teacher, my math teacher, Hebrew teachers, the principal of the school and many others. I started seeing many of the students (now called Alumni). It was awesome. An interesting fact was that many of the guys didn’t have much hair and I have a lot. So it was a very bright high school reunion. There was a lot of catching up to do with everyone. Most of the people that came to the reunion are living in the United States. However, there were people that came from Sweden, South Africa and even all the way from Australia. There were Japanese, Philippinoes, Dutch, Iranians, Greeks, Cypriots, Panamanians, Canadians, British, Germans, Italians, Israelis, Argentinians, South Africans, Icelandish, you get the idea. It was amazing. There were people from the class of 1969 to the class of 2006. I had not seen all my friends since 1985. It was time to rekindle old friendships and a time to make new ones. We had lunch together, and we played basketball, and floor hockey.

At 7pm, we had a Gala dinner outside in the north end of the school. It was soooo hot, I had to take off my jacket and my tie. It was suppose to be a formal event, however, I noticed some people were wearing shorts and t-shirts. Tatko, who had worked there many years ago as head of school activities and very well loved by every student, was dressed this way. He went up to make a small speech and in it he included that he was wearing typical Israeli Attire. Anyway, the night only got better. My music teacher, Ms. Rabin, went up to perform. (I used to have a crush on her in High School.) She looked just as beautiful as I remember her when she would teach her class in the High School bomb shelter. She is very talented and is very famous in Israel. She travels around the country performing with her choir and her whole musical ensemble. She did such a great job and everybody loved it, but her performance was a little long and you could hear some people complain about being hungry. We were finally able to eat just as soon as she was done entertaining us. The food was delicious. Despite the fact that I was not able to talk to Ms. Rabin or get a picture with her, it was a wonderful night.