So I know I haven't posted in a while. When I get home from class and reply to emails and make dinner, all I want is to lay in bed and watch a movie or read a book, not do homework or write a blog. So as I sit in my apartment and procrastinate my homework, I decided I'd write a blog post.
Last week was our first week of classes. We spend most of our day in ulpan (Hebrew class). I'm in kita gimmel, the third highest level. I love my class. The teacher is wonderful. She speaks entirely in Hebrew and I'm kind of impressed with how much I understand. We do a lot of partner work (called chevruta in Hebrew) where we speak in Hebrew in a less formal setting and not with the pressure of speaking in front of the class or the teacher. We're working on vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. There are a lot of exercises similar to what I did back in my Hebrew class at penn state. And I am so grateful that I took Biblical Hebrew while I was there, as that taught me all the vowels and some of the grammar rules we're currently learning. It's good to hear the same rules explained and reinforced. Last Monday was tu b'av, the fifteenth of the month of av, Israeli valentines day. So one of our homework assignments was to write a short story about something, somewhere or someone we love. I wrote about how I met Elliot in Hebrew. It's pretty cool that I can do that (and that I only had to look up one or two words on google translate). At the end of the week, the four different ulpan classes got together for a small concert. We each picked a song, translated it, and sang it to the rest of the class. Ours was called or (light). We had a lot of fun practicing. We decided on a costume (we each wore a solid color shirt in the colors of the rainbow with the two people in the middle wearing yellow to be the sun (shemesh) and our two guitarists wore white to be the clouds at the base of the rainbow) and choreography (there was a lot of remembering in the verses, so we pointed to our heads and whenever we said shemesh in the chorus we raised a hand over our head like a sun). I think someone took a video and I will try to post that here. It was a lot of fun. And while the teachers said that it wasn't a competition, clearly kita gimmel won.
In addition to ulpan, I joined the high holiday choir. More than half the class decided to participate in this optional vocal exercise. I haven't been in a choir since high school, and it's good to have this structure back in my life. However, I could do without the sight singing that us non-musical people are expected to be able to do. Some of the cantorial students can't even sight read. So that's an interesting experiences.
Today we had our second field trip for biblical archeology. I'm not quite sure what I think of this class. Being in the slightly advanced class, my teacher seems to spew a lot of information at us. It's hard to tell what's important and what's not. We had our first quiz on Monday in that class. And I studied my notes and reviewed the readings and then the quiz was on random little facts (most of which I remembered). So I think I did ok on the quiz, but it really gave me no clue as to how to study for this class. I think our teacher realized that he was all over the place and has been trying to sum up the important points at the end of each topic, but sometimes he forgets and we just get a lot of stories.
This week was very biblical history centered. We had a trip to the Israel museum on Tuesday that was pretty cool. We looked in the archeology wing and talked about how some of the pieces there fit into the narrative we're working on. Wednesday we had the quiz and three hours of lecture. And today we had a field trip (that started at 7am, meaning I had to be awake at 530 so that I could get up, dressed, eat breakfast and get to school before the bus left--funny story: there's this guy who lives like five minutes from school who didn't make it to the bus on time (seriously?) and the bus left without him. He had to get himself to tel aviv where our second stop was. Moral? Always be early for school trips. Always). So the field trip today was to two tels (man made hills). The sites we went to (Tel Gezer and Tel Qesile) were located important crossroads in ancient times. We examined some of the structures that are still there (standing stones, six-roomed gate, water cistern, philistine temples, and four-roomed house) and went to the Eretz yisrael museum in tel aviv (to look at the exhibits on metallurgy, ceramics, and oil pressing). It was a lovely and informative (very, very formative) but I wish it had started a few hours later.
After school, I went to the shuk (open air market) for the first time(!) during this trip to Israel. I needed to get the necessary ingredients to make guacamole because Caleb is coming to stay with me for Shabbat this weekend (woot woot) and we are going to my friends house for a Mexican style shabbat dinner. After the shuk, I made my way to my grandmother's friend's sons house because she brought me some stuff from home (thanks mom and grandmom!). My phone died about ten minutes before I got there (not a good sign when you are directionally challenged). Luckily I know enough Hebrew to ask for directions and luckily people in Israel are very willing to help (even in English sometimes). So I found this house and asked for directions to get home (as few turns as possible). There was one turn. And I missed it. So I walked like 20 minutes out of my way. However, there was this older woman who was walking and fell as I was trying to figure out where I was. I went over to her (as I was the only one around) and asked if she was ok. She replied in very fast Hebrew. I asked if she knew English to which she replied no (in English). However, I was able to flag down a car, and the gentleman was very kind to stop and help me. Then another couple stopped and offered to help. I stayed until they found her husband, said than you, and continued getting lost in katamon (a neighboring neighborhood to where I live; at least I knew I was close). After my very adventurous day, I finally made it back to my apartment for a quiet night of studying.
Hopefully the next post will come sooner. Until then, Shabbat Shalom!
Last week was our first week of classes. We spend most of our day in ulpan (Hebrew class). I'm in kita gimmel, the third highest level. I love my class. The teacher is wonderful. She speaks entirely in Hebrew and I'm kind of impressed with how much I understand. We do a lot of partner work (called chevruta in Hebrew) where we speak in Hebrew in a less formal setting and not with the pressure of speaking in front of the class or the teacher. We're working on vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. There are a lot of exercises similar to what I did back in my Hebrew class at penn state. And I am so grateful that I took Biblical Hebrew while I was there, as that taught me all the vowels and some of the grammar rules we're currently learning. It's good to hear the same rules explained and reinforced. Last Monday was tu b'av, the fifteenth of the month of av, Israeli valentines day. So one of our homework assignments was to write a short story about something, somewhere or someone we love. I wrote about how I met Elliot in Hebrew. It's pretty cool that I can do that (and that I only had to look up one or two words on google translate). At the end of the week, the four different ulpan classes got together for a small concert. We each picked a song, translated it, and sang it to the rest of the class. Ours was called or (light). We had a lot of fun practicing. We decided on a costume (we each wore a solid color shirt in the colors of the rainbow with the two people in the middle wearing yellow to be the sun (shemesh) and our two guitarists wore white to be the clouds at the base of the rainbow) and choreography (there was a lot of remembering in the verses, so we pointed to our heads and whenever we said shemesh in the chorus we raised a hand over our head like a sun). I think someone took a video and I will try to post that here. It was a lot of fun. And while the teachers said that it wasn't a competition, clearly kita gimmel won.
In addition to ulpan, I joined the high holiday choir. More than half the class decided to participate in this optional vocal exercise. I haven't been in a choir since high school, and it's good to have this structure back in my life. However, I could do without the sight singing that us non-musical people are expected to be able to do. Some of the cantorial students can't even sight read. So that's an interesting experiences.
Today we had our second field trip for biblical archeology. I'm not quite sure what I think of this class. Being in the slightly advanced class, my teacher seems to spew a lot of information at us. It's hard to tell what's important and what's not. We had our first quiz on Monday in that class. And I studied my notes and reviewed the readings and then the quiz was on random little facts (most of which I remembered). So I think I did ok on the quiz, but it really gave me no clue as to how to study for this class. I think our teacher realized that he was all over the place and has been trying to sum up the important points at the end of each topic, but sometimes he forgets and we just get a lot of stories.
This week was very biblical history centered. We had a trip to the Israel museum on Tuesday that was pretty cool. We looked in the archeology wing and talked about how some of the pieces there fit into the narrative we're working on. Wednesday we had the quiz and three hours of lecture. And today we had a field trip (that started at 7am, meaning I had to be awake at 530 so that I could get up, dressed, eat breakfast and get to school before the bus left--funny story: there's this guy who lives like five minutes from school who didn't make it to the bus on time (seriously?) and the bus left without him. He had to get himself to tel aviv where our second stop was. Moral? Always be early for school trips. Always). So the field trip today was to two tels (man made hills). The sites we went to (Tel Gezer and Tel Qesile) were located important crossroads in ancient times. We examined some of the structures that are still there (standing stones, six-roomed gate, water cistern, philistine temples, and four-roomed house) and went to the Eretz yisrael museum in tel aviv (to look at the exhibits on metallurgy, ceramics, and oil pressing). It was a lovely and informative (very, very formative) but I wish it had started a few hours later.
After school, I went to the shuk (open air market) for the first time(!) during this trip to Israel. I needed to get the necessary ingredients to make guacamole because Caleb is coming to stay with me for Shabbat this weekend (woot woot) and we are going to my friends house for a Mexican style shabbat dinner. After the shuk, I made my way to my grandmother's friend's sons house because she brought me some stuff from home (thanks mom and grandmom!). My phone died about ten minutes before I got there (not a good sign when you are directionally challenged). Luckily I know enough Hebrew to ask for directions and luckily people in Israel are very willing to help (even in English sometimes). So I found this house and asked for directions to get home (as few turns as possible). There was one turn. And I missed it. So I walked like 20 minutes out of my way. However, there was this older woman who was walking and fell as I was trying to figure out where I was. I went over to her (as I was the only one around) and asked if she was ok. She replied in very fast Hebrew. I asked if she knew English to which she replied no (in English). However, I was able to flag down a car, and the gentleman was very kind to stop and help me. Then another couple stopped and offered to help. I stayed until they found her husband, said than you, and continued getting lost in katamon (a neighboring neighborhood to where I live; at least I knew I was close). After my very adventurous day, I finally made it back to my apartment for a quiet night of studying.
Hopefully the next post will come sooner. Until then, Shabbat Shalom!
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