I’ve been having a great time! Ba-Boom! Or Boom-ti as I say in class. Yes, that is the typical past conjugation of a verb in Hebrew. And that proves my intense understanding of this language. I’m doing well. A lot of those ‘learning’, ‘eating’, and ‘playing’ things are occurring.
I’ll start with the learning. After the 4 weeks that I’ve been here (what? A month? What?!), I can almost speak to someone. Ok, I have talked to people, or at least person, and I sometimes have the confidence to do so. This past Friday night, I went to Bayt Karov, a small bayt sefer that is more community oriented and for students than some of the other ones that I’ve been to. There is wonderful ruah there (but no ghosts) and singing and dancing. There was this guy sitting across the aisle from me who had a terribly awful voice. And he also liked to sing loudly. Every song his voice was pitchy and was not on par with either the rhythm or the harmony. Anyways, when the time came to sing the Tov Lihodot Lashem, his voice ‘popped’ and became beautiful. His harmony was unlike all other harmonies that I had ever heard before, it was slightly different, but memorable. And then after that song his voice went back to crap again. And I personally don’t believe in miracles but that was the closest that I’ve come to experiencing a miracle. Somehow, someone looking down upon me decided that I was to enjoy this song rather than cringing during the other songs. It was such a strange occurrence but one that helped transform a simple service into a beautiful long-lasting memory. Back to what I might have been trying to talk about: I met one guy before the service and was talking to him for a good 5 minutes. I’m calling him Elishai because I had asked his name several times but there was too much ruah in the room to fully understand him (post-edit: his name was Eishay). We talked and for the most part, we talked in Hebrew. Generally my conversations last 2 minutes at most and they dissolve into English, but this one was different. His parents were American and he spoke English with an American accent, but I persevered and kept talking in Hebrew for as long as I could. After services I saw him again and had another small conversation. Our talk ended with him asking, double and triple checking, to see if I already had other plans for dinner. I kept claiming that I was already invited somewhere, but this was the first time that I received a personal invitation for a Shabbat meal. While I am only assuming that he would have invited me to spend Shabbat dinner with him, I felt proud that I had finally been invited somewhere by my own doing. Previously I’d only been invited because someone else was going and I was slightly an afterthought. Not this time! And maybe this was because I was friendly or maybe this was because I could ‘speak’ Hebrew. Either way it was a first and I am proud. Now we’ll have to see if in the future I ever see him again on a night that I don’t have plans and actually do receive and take the invitation. Rak Zman YaAmar. (Only time will tell) (Maybe that’s the correct translation, I truly have no idea). In class I’m doing well. We’re using the same book that I used at Tulane so every once in a while I’ll find that the exercise has already been done. I try my best to cover up the answers and always do the work on my own (in the present). We had a quiz today and tomorrow we have another one! I’m learning the future tense of verbs. It’s not too difficult because once you figure out the future in one form the rest are very similar. My vocabulary is always increasing. I continually want to sit down and make a list of hundreds of words that I’ve learned but…Interruption. Someone just came over to me and asked if I wanted a cookie because he just opened it and had too many and didn’t want them all. In Hebrew! I understood him! Really random. Really random. But hey, I just made a friend, ok I just took food from a stranger, but yea cool. End of interruption… every time that I do I find something else that seems more interesting. Meh. Soon I’ll do that. And for the past two days I’ve had studying and activities so I studied other words rather than the ones that I wanted to learn.
Eat: I’ve actually made food for myself. I’ve become independent (ish) and am now able to prepare my own meals rather than eating peanut butter sandwiches and eat out every meal. Granted my lunches are either bologna or tuna, I’m still making a meal. The first time that I ‘cooked’, I actually cooked. I made pasta with asparagus and corn. I cooked the asparagus and the corn was from a can. Still, I made my own dinner. The next day I invited two friends over and I cooked up some (frozen) schnitzel and sweet potatoes. They brought the rest. I haven’t exactly made too much since then. We had a potluck dinner and I made a variety of the lettuce wraps that I learned how to make in the Vietnamese cooking class. I cooked up egg and wrapped the shredded egg with pepper and cucumber in a lettuce wrap, tied together with a piece of leek. It turned out well. Not the best, but it was still exciting and stressful to make. I’ve learned that I’m fine to make food for myself because I’m the only one eating it and I don’t mind if the food is bland (or disgusting). But when I make food for other people, I get nervous. What if they don’t like what I made? What if all my time was just wasted on a disgusting dish? So I was in a slight rush but they turned out well. I made a plateful, maybe 15 and all of them were eaten by the end of the night (including the several that I ate). I went to the shook with a few friends last Thursday and finally bought plates and dishtowels. I could eat on my own plates rather than continually using borrowed materials. I bought lots of vegetables, including all of the ones that I used to make my lettuce wraps. I’ve found that peppers here are delicious!! They are great snacks and toppings for anything. I’ve several times cut up a quarter of one into small slices to top my sandwich or wrap but then the rest I just snack on. Or I get to put them into the fridge and eat them later. I feel so healthy when I eat peppers! Yum! And my avocados are finally becoming ripe. I’ve had them for two weeks and I finally was able to cut open the first one and eat it. I’m also trying to figure out my bread situation. The first week I bought a loaf of bread but it went bad when I was halfway done with it. Then I bought a packet of 5 rolls from the market. Each roll was big enough that it made three half sandwiches. I still have some left. My most recent attempt was to buy some packets of rice crackers (because they were on sale so I thought I’d try it). They are good because I can make sandwiches out of them and also just munch on them. Maybe I’ll try something different in the future. We have a Panini press that I haven’t tried out yet, but I’ve been advised that I can use that to heat up a frozen slice of bread. I’ve been hesitant to go out to eat because I want to eat up some of the food in the fridge and pantry. I have a lot of veges and they are still there. At one point I chomped on a cucumber. That’s not normal of me to like that kind of vege. I also cut off many leaves of lettuce and ate them while I was studying. Mmm vegetables. Today I went out and bought lunch (or any meal) for the first time in a week and a half.
Play:
If any of the categories were lacking, this would be it. I’m not sure what I consider ‘playing’ but I’m not doing enough of it. I haven’t really explored this city to the extent that I would have liked. I understand that I’ve only been here for a month and still have 5 more, but I’ve already been here a whole month. I’ve done a lot of walking around trying to get to different synagogues. (I was originally going to start this next sentence with the word ‘surprisingly’ but I decided to change that because upon reflection I’m not really that shocked that this is how my Israel experience has gone. I think that by looking out from the inside I am surprised at my religiosity but by thinking about it from either a future or a past, what I did seems pretty normal.) Unsurprisingly, I’ve gone to services every single Friday night and every Saturday morning for Shabbat services. I’ve had an invitation to a meal (dinner or lunch) after each service. It’s been really interesting exploring the city through its synagogues. I’ve gone to Bayt Karov (as aforementioned) twice, Rambam (twice), Bayt Yisrael, and the Conservative Synagogue. I’ve walked as a far as an hour in the rain to get to services. The strange aspect of Shabbat here is the times. Candle lighting begins at 4:45, which is really too early. That means that before 4, I have to be completely ready for Shabbat. Candle lighting, services, and dinner. The day goes by extremely fast. And get ready for this- Shabbat morning services start between 8 and 9. When I went to a synagogue that was right next to campus, I can sleep in till 7:30, otherwise I get to leave my room at that time or earlier! Yay! So sleeping in doesn’t exactly occur. This past Friday I made an effort to specifically sleep in. I ended up sleeping till 11. Oy was that crazy. And that had been the first time in a month that I slept in (past 9). It’s really interesting to be able to walk around this city and see what it has to offer. And what I’m looking at are not the touristy areas or are specifically meant to be seen by outsiders like me. I’ve found a technical college that looks like an alien ship (that’s how the Jews really arrived on this planet) and a surprising amount of fun fountains (surprising because I live in the desert). Ordinary people tell you ‘Shabbat Shalom’ and you pass. That’s another reason as to why this country is different than others. If you are walking around on Shabbat, you are greeted in a friendly manner. My other fun activities include going to the shook, studying with friends, chillaxing, and such. I’ve been skyping with a lot of friends recently. Almost someone everyday. And I talk to Lauren a lot more here than I did in Australia (but I talk to Ray a lot less here). And I haven’t yet talked to Dad even though I’ve talked to Mom several times. I’m trying to make connections with my friends that are in the country from either home, Tulane, camp, or other locations. I’ve been talking to several people and hopefully will be seeing a lot of them soon. My goal is to spend most weekends somewhere else because of all of my contacts. But that will only begin when the new semester starts.
Speaking of the new semester, what am I going to do between the ulpan and the semester? OY! I’m slowly starting to talk to people and maybe I’ll do this for a week, maybe that for a week. I’m finally getting my visa sorted out so I will hopefully be able to leave the country and get back in. And if none of my plans actually work out, then I’m travelling around the country and visiting people, spend some time with my plethora of friends in Jerusalem and maybe go up north. Travelling around Israel isn’t the most important thing on my mind because hopefully I’ll be doing lots of travels with Seminar! I would love to travel to the countries near Israel, but I’m not sure how logistically possible that would even be. I know that travelling to Jordan is possible and several friends have already gone there and more want to. So hopefully I’ll be able to do that…and more!
So, what’s in store for tonight? Maybe I’ll make some dinner, or maybe I’ll do a simple thing instead probably more likely. I also need to study some more for my quiz tomorrow. If possible I would like to make a list of words to start studying in my ‘excess’ free time. I need to respond to some emails and fb things! And I’ll probably end up watching some Who’s Line and maybe the latest episode of Once Upon a Time with the friends. Otherwise…I’m going to eat an apple and go back to my room.
Later,
Nissan
