Memoirs of winter ulpan....

Hello,

I figured I would start off by making you all jealous by saying that it has yet to rain since I landed the very first day and has been a breezy 50-60 degrees with sun mostly all of the time....

Anyways I know it has been a while but honestly nothing exciting has really been going on the past week.  I was really sick for a while so I mostly went to Ulpan and then came home and slept!  Also no one really wants to go out during our Ulpan week because it is hard enough to get up and be in hebrew class from 8:30-1:30 as it is.

Hebrew is interesting because when you are rested and focused it really is not that hard, however as soon as you cross over a certain point of being tired or disinterested NOTHING will bring you back haha.  If you are not focused on it words that you previously knew look like complete jibberish, hence the 3rd part of ulpan is usually pretty interesting because many of us are totally clueless at this point.

Here is my homework:


One exciting thing is that we are already starting to plan out our Passover vacations.  Everyone wants to go somewhere else which is difficult but we are thinking of hopping around quite a bit.  The countries on our list are Greece, Italy (I am fighting for Italy so I can hopefully see Hannah!), Jordan, Egypt, Cyprus, Turkey, and also there is an organized trip to Poland that I am considering.  We might do Jordan and Egypt seperately in two different long weekends too... the possibilities are endless.  

So as for the culture shock, alot of people are getting to that 2nd stage in which the euphoria of being here has faded and everyone is sick and tired haha... the other day in ulpan the teacher went around asking how we were doing and the responses were like this: "lo tov, lo tov, lo tov, lo tov..." (not good, not good etc.).  Supposedly the next and last stage is when we literally become "Israeli" and start being rude and pushy haha.  That is the funny thing about Israelis, they are the most hospitible people but at the same time they have no patience whatsoever.

Shiri and I planned ahead this shabbat and we signed up to go to the student center for a free dinner, we thought we would give it a try.  We also signed up to go to Tel Aviv/Jaffa next friday!! I will finally have some new pictures and I am sure some new stories!! We are going with the group and then hoping to stay the weekend either with her family or in a hostel.  We (meaning I) can't wait to finally have a cheeseburger!! Tel Aviv is less traditional and much more modern.  The beach will also be amazing!


This is random but I saw this sign and I didn't know what to think.... I think the writers of Lost may have gotten the entire idea for the show right here in Jerusalem.... There are all kinds of magical secrets in this old city.

 This is the view from my bedroom window at about 6 am... The mountains are in the distance but the picture makes it hard to see. 

Lastly, for those of you on facebook I started an album called "Cats doing funny things in Israel" I will be adding to it the rest of the semester.... I will post the best ones on here too, they are just so weird. Last night I was carrying a pizza box and one literally chased me, I just threw some pizza crust and ran. 

Thrifty Cat.

Cat in the student union asking if this seat is taken...

Thanks for reading!!! More to come! 

-B