Saturday (10/2), a wonderful Shabbat, I slept until 1:45pm. How? I'm not really sure. I heard a knock at the door - it was Danni, who had his brother over, and of course Josh as well. They all went to shul/synagogue in the morning and although we had discussed having lunch around 12:30pm that day (and I said the night before - oh I'm sure I won't sleep past 11!), they ended up not having lunch until about 2. So I was invited next door for lunch at 2pm, Danni's brother even made basmati rice! It was delicious! (And I told him I'd blog about it, so here it is in black and white!)
Saturday night I had a lot of trouble falling asleep, from having slept so much during the day, so when I woke up for Ulpan/Hebrew class in the morning, I was NOT a happy camper. In fact I posted this as my Facebook status: "Ruthie Jewthie Kleinman slept way too late yesterday, couldn't fall asleep last night, and is now grumpy to be awake this early...ulpan time..." And boy did I mean it - I hate mornings (at camp I just pretend to be perky in the morning so the kids get outta bed, but really, I don't blame 'em). Ulpan was fun as always; I continue to do well on the tests/quizzes my teacher Yael gives to the class every day, and I am learning new words and verbs and phrases in every class.
After class let out, I went to get pizza with Ethan, Josh, and Isaac. Well, I think it was Sunday, but really, my brain can't remember so it might have been Monday. Anyways, whatever day we went there, we all split a pizza at "American Pie" pizza, nearby on Derech Beit Lechem/Beit Lechem Road. I had been there before and decided that it's pretty good pizza (in my obnoxious NYer high expectations mind), and I knew all the staff there spoke English as well as Hebrew. Because I'm really trying to use Hebrew as much as possible, to get better, I tend to use it when I know the person I'm speaking with also understands English; it's like a comfort thing. So I asked how much each slice cost, how much the whole pie cost, and discussed the cost of additional toppings with them, almost entirely in Hebrew! Go me! We decided on a cheese pie with mushrooms, 8 slices for 4 of us - metsuyan/excellent! We waited for it to be cooked and I even asked them in Hebrew if they had markers for us to write on the walls (they were all covered in markers so this is NOT a ridiculous question); meanwhile we made friends with some of the other customers there, because when you say in Hebrew, "Anachnu talmidim b'ulpan" (We are students in Ulpan), everyone here loves it. "Aaahhh, tov meod!" (Very good!) Pizza done. Check!
Sunday afternoon (10/3), we all had to report to the classroom in the apartment building for a lecture at 3:30. Another participant on the program had a birthday on the 2nd, and since she was away for the long weekend, the Birthday Committee asked that we all show up at 3:20 so that Vera could be brought down by her roommates at 3:25 and we could all sing to her! Well I don't think we fully surprised her but I do think she was happy that we didn't forget her birthday AND we had a cake for her. The lecture was given by Rabbi Rob Kahn, who is the director of academics at Young Judaea. The topic was "Jewish History." His lens was "Israel: Central to the Jewish People." Like we're going to get that covered in 2 hours? Not even close, but, he gave some brief history, spoke about the Torah and some more modern history. I think by the time the lecture got out I was pretty wiped out, attempted to work on my ulpan HW, and then Rachelle and I decided that it would just have to be a sushi night on Emek Refaim. The place is literally called "Sushi" and the big sign out front says it in Hebrew! Amazing. We spent about 2 hours there, ordering, eating, talking, making no room for dessert. We wish! On our walk back, we decided that next time, we are skipping the salad, ordering one less roll, and getting a dessert with two spoons! That's how to really do it! We didn't leave until about 10pm so by the time we got back to our apartments, it was time to get ready for bed - laila tov/good night!
Monday (10/4) was another early morning for Ulpan - wake up at 8:15 and start class at 9. This wake up time does not work for night owls; I can attest personally. But I'm really sucking it up. During our ulpan class today, Yael met with each of us one on one to discuss our progress and ask us what additional goals we have for the time in ulpan. She told me I'm doing very well and learning a lot, and wants to continue to help me. I told her that the easiest thing for me was to read/understand and write, and that the hardest thing to do was to understand only based on listening to something 1 time. We only really have to do that during our homework, and the way we do our listening assignments is as follows:
1) listen to the assigned track for the dialogue/paragraph.
2) Listen to the track and learn new vocabulary words identified in the dialogue.
3) Listen to the dialogue again with knowledge/recognition of new vocab.
4) Listen to the dialogue sentence by sentence.
5) Listen and read along with the Hebrew printed words.
6) Translate the English back to the Hebrew.
WHAT A PROCESS! But let me tell you - it works! It takes about an hour to go through a 2 minute dialogue, but by the end of it, I understand a lot more. Needless to say, my homework has been taking a long time each night because it's a very long process.
Monday we had another lecture in the afternoon; this time about Zionism. Steve Israel lectured on the topic, and started by asking some challenging questions. He split us up into smaller groups and had us discuss what zionism meant to each of us and if we consider ourselves as individuals zionists. We regrouped quickly to tally up the results, and split up once again to discuss whether or not zionism was/is a Jewish revolution. I think because of semantics, many participants had some trouble with this. What is zionism? What is a revolution? Is zionism a revolution at all? Lots of interesting questions raised. His presentation was very interesting to me and I enjoyed the debate I had even in my own head. Still so much to process and it's only been 3 1/2 weeks!
Lecture over, back to the apartment, more ulpan homework for the evening. Marlowe (my roommate) and PJ (my next door neighbor) tell me they are going to The Lab (a bar/club nearby) to get tickets for Hadag Nachash (http://hadagnahash.com/en/), a popular Israeli hip-hop group, for a concert on Thursday night. 100 shekels (you do the math, the exchange rate is about 3.7 shekels to the dollar). Absolutely! Count me in! I forked over my money. When she gets back, I'm so nervous about whether or not she got them, but I ask her timidly, "Soooo...??" "We get 'em! And we got 'em for 90 shekels each - student rate." She places my ten shekels change on the table. We hung out for a little bit, discussing dinner possibilities for the night. Both of us somehow have this specific craving for menu items at Caffit (where I had my birthday dinner), so we decide it is basheret/meant to be, and we must fulfill our obligation to Caffit! We walk over to Emek (yes, now this is the 2nd night in a row I am going out to eat at a restaurant, so much for staying on a budget!) and are seated by the window of the restaurant. The waiter brings us menus but we both know what we want right away. For Marlowe - the spicy noodles. For me - the Asian Oreganatto salad. Waters all around. Delicious! We even take home our leftovers for lunch tomorrow. We stop at Aldo/Max Brenner's for a taste of ice cream on the way back, and bump into PJ and Avi who are also students on our program. We all walk back together, enjoying the fun flavors Aldo has to offer! Yum and goodnight!
I know exactly which salad you're talking about, Ruth; it's absolutely delish! Glad to hear/read that you're having a meaningful & good time at Pardes. Looking forward to your next posts!
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