This week we got a few days off from school after our finals. Tuesday we had our Hebrew final and an end of Ulpan party. During this party, each class sang a song or did a skit before we were served Holy Bagel (a delicious bagel and shmeer restaurant chain) for lunch. My class wrote new lyrics to Bob Dylan's Blowin in the Wind, in Hebrew, and based on our summer class. It was a lot of fun. Especially when we ended with the chorus of the song we sang during our last zimriah (song session), which everyone has learned and sings randomly during breaks. It was a lot of fun. After Ulpan, and choir, and a review session in the school museum, I went to my friends' apartment to start studying for our biblical history final. We got there around six, ordered pizza, ate pizza, and then started studying, working our way through the study guide, answering questions and solidifying our understanding of the material. I went home around 11:30 that night with the intention of returning the following morning to continue where we left off. I got back around 9:45 while my classmates were waking up. We started studying around 10 and continued until 1230, when we decided to take a break and make some lunch (we made quesadillas). After lunch, I was done studying. If I talked about this material any more before the test, my head was going to explode. So I went to school to relax and settle in before the final. As you may recall, biblical history as not been my favorite class this summer. I've really struggled trying to follow the material and discern what is relevant from our lectures and field trips for our quizzes and tests. The quizzes throughout the term have been mainly true/false, which is really challenging when you are not very sure of the material. It's been a frustrating learning process. So I wrote a paper to make my final exam count for less, and walked into the final feeling well prepared after our study sessions. Compared to the quizzes throughout the summer, this final was a breeze. I felt confident as I walked away from that final that I had done well enough to pass (something that never happened after the quizzes). I walked away from that final into a five day break.
Wednesday night, to celebrate the end of finals, one of my friends organized a showing of the movie "Keeping the Faith" about a rabbi and a priest who are best friends and in love with the same girl. It seemed like a perfect movie to be watching after the first term of seminary :) Thursday I awoke to begin looking at apartments because my living situation fell through and I needed to find a new place to live. I had responded to several adds earlier in the week and spent Thursday looking at them to try and find my new home (which I did, but more on that later). Thursday night I also packed because I was off to Tel Aviv for the weekend on Friday.
Going to the beach with four friends was probably the best decision I made for break. I wanted to go and be away from most HUC people (a majority of whom had gone up north for the break), get out of Jerusalem, and be able to do nothing but relax. Which is exactly what I got with a trip to Tel Aviv. We got there around lunch time, checked into our hotel, changed into our bathing suits and headed straight for the beach. We found some sand, laid out our towels, put on sun screen, made some lunch, and waded into the water. I love the Mediterranean Sea. The water is just perfect. We saw some signs posted in the water that said "warning! rocks (boulders) in the water" This was exciting because we had just learned the words for warning and boulder in ulpan for our final. I successfully swam in the Mediterranean Ocean WITHOUT getting stung by a jellyfish. Major success. major. After we had our fill of ocean for the day, we headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for Shabbat. We left more than enough time for five girls to shower and spent the extra time watching Arthur in Hebrew (the cartoon TV show staring and aardvark and his best friend Buster the Bunny). It was quite amusing to follow the kids show in Hebrew and be able to understand it :) We were all very excited. Then we went out to the port for Shabbat (the same services we went to when HUC brought us to Tel Aviv for the day) and went out for dinner (the only meal we ate at a restaurant). After dinner, we went back to the hotel and hung out in our pjs on the roof talking before crashing. Let me tell you how impressive it was to squeeze five girls into a hotel room designed for two. We barely had room to walk, but made it work, and it was an experience :) Saturday we got up, checked out, and went back to the beach. We spent most of the morning out in the water and relaxing on the sand. We left around 1 to get ice cream before heading back to Jerusalem after an amazing break.
Sunday, I spent the day packing to move to my new apartment. I successfully found a place not too far from where I was originally living that was decently sized and priced. My new roommate is named Sara and is an art student at the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem. After packing and cleaning, I went to my friend Allie's apartment to make some homemades (homemade spaghetti). We were talking about pasta at our dinner in Tel Aviv, and I told my friends how I can make pasta from scratch. They wanted to learn, so Sunday night we got together for a pasta making lesson. We each made one eggs worth of spaghetti and made a garlic-parsley-parmesean-oil-sauce to go with it. The sauce smelled delicious, and I think my friends had fun. They said they're up to try ravioli some time :)
Monday I moved. I have some really awesome friends who agreed to help me shlep all my stuff from one apartment to the other. I probably could have managed by myself, with several trips, or the use of a cab. But this way, we got to save me some money and spend some time together. It took three trips to get all of my stuff over here. Somehow I accumulated a lot of stuff in the past two months. Not quite sure how it's all getting back to the states, but I have 9 months to figure that out. After we dumped my stuff (literally) on the bed and in my room, we left to go to Women of the Wall, to support them with their sit in. Allie and I stayed for about three hours, singing, studying, talking, sitting, until the end of the afternoon service, for which they needed 10 people (a minyan) to participate. Allie and I were numbers 9 and 10. After the service, we left. I headed for HUC to pick up some stuff (including my Biblical History final which I aced! meaning I passed the class!!) and headed for my new home to unpack and settle in for the night. And that's where we are now.
Tomorrow, the fall term starts (I can't believe the fall term is already starting). We have orientation all day and Wednesday and Thursday I'll be up north for our first Israel Seminar tiyyul (trip). Until next time, Shavua Tov (have a good week)!
Wednesday night, to celebrate the end of finals, one of my friends organized a showing of the movie "Keeping the Faith" about a rabbi and a priest who are best friends and in love with the same girl. It seemed like a perfect movie to be watching after the first term of seminary :) Thursday I awoke to begin looking at apartments because my living situation fell through and I needed to find a new place to live. I had responded to several adds earlier in the week and spent Thursday looking at them to try and find my new home (which I did, but more on that later). Thursday night I also packed because I was off to Tel Aviv for the weekend on Friday.
Going to the beach with four friends was probably the best decision I made for break. I wanted to go and be away from most HUC people (a majority of whom had gone up north for the break), get out of Jerusalem, and be able to do nothing but relax. Which is exactly what I got with a trip to Tel Aviv. We got there around lunch time, checked into our hotel, changed into our bathing suits and headed straight for the beach. We found some sand, laid out our towels, put on sun screen, made some lunch, and waded into the water. I love the Mediterranean Sea. The water is just perfect. We saw some signs posted in the water that said "warning! rocks (boulders) in the water" This was exciting because we had just learned the words for warning and boulder in ulpan for our final. I successfully swam in the Mediterranean Ocean WITHOUT getting stung by a jellyfish. Major success. major. After we had our fill of ocean for the day, we headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for Shabbat. We left more than enough time for five girls to shower and spent the extra time watching Arthur in Hebrew (the cartoon TV show staring and aardvark and his best friend Buster the Bunny). It was quite amusing to follow the kids show in Hebrew and be able to understand it :) We were all very excited. Then we went out to the port for Shabbat (the same services we went to when HUC brought us to Tel Aviv for the day) and went out for dinner (the only meal we ate at a restaurant). After dinner, we went back to the hotel and hung out in our pjs on the roof talking before crashing. Let me tell you how impressive it was to squeeze five girls into a hotel room designed for two. We barely had room to walk, but made it work, and it was an experience :) Saturday we got up, checked out, and went back to the beach. We spent most of the morning out in the water and relaxing on the sand. We left around 1 to get ice cream before heading back to Jerusalem after an amazing break.
Sunday, I spent the day packing to move to my new apartment. I successfully found a place not too far from where I was originally living that was decently sized and priced. My new roommate is named Sara and is an art student at the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem. After packing and cleaning, I went to my friend Allie's apartment to make some homemades (homemade spaghetti). We were talking about pasta at our dinner in Tel Aviv, and I told my friends how I can make pasta from scratch. They wanted to learn, so Sunday night we got together for a pasta making lesson. We each made one eggs worth of spaghetti and made a garlic-parsley-parmesean-oil-sauce to go with it. The sauce smelled delicious, and I think my friends had fun. They said they're up to try ravioli some time :)
Monday I moved. I have some really awesome friends who agreed to help me shlep all my stuff from one apartment to the other. I probably could have managed by myself, with several trips, or the use of a cab. But this way, we got to save me some money and spend some time together. It took three trips to get all of my stuff over here. Somehow I accumulated a lot of stuff in the past two months. Not quite sure how it's all getting back to the states, but I have 9 months to figure that out. After we dumped my stuff (literally) on the bed and in my room, we left to go to Women of the Wall, to support them with their sit in. Allie and I stayed for about three hours, singing, studying, talking, sitting, until the end of the afternoon service, for which they needed 10 people (a minyan) to participate. Allie and I were numbers 9 and 10. After the service, we left. I headed for HUC to pick up some stuff (including my Biblical History final which I aced! meaning I passed the class!!) and headed for my new home to unpack and settle in for the night. And that's where we are now.
Tomorrow, the fall term starts (I can't believe the fall term is already starting). We have orientation all day and Wednesday and Thursday I'll be up north for our first Israel Seminar tiyyul (trip). Until next time, Shavua Tov (have a good week)!
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