So Tuesday, my ulpan started. I woke up at 1:30pm, swore a lot, took a quick shower, and headed to the bus stop. The night before, Kate told me how to get to Pardes. I got on the 32 near my apartment and took the bus a few stops (which I don't feel bad about, since I have the monthly pass), to where the Agron guest house/Native & Pilgrimage headquarters is, to transfer to the 21. Except I missed my stop and had to go back...and saw the 21 pass me. I waited at the bus stop for awhile...and watched as I became progressively more late for my 2:30 ulpan. Eventually the bus came. Now, some of the bus routes, including 32 and 21, have "aleph" routes, so there are also 32 aleph and 21 aleph (aleph = "a"--the letter, not the word). Kate told me that as far as I was concerned, there wasn't much of a difference. I had gotten on 21 aleph and was convinced that the bus was taking me someplace other than where I wanted to go and that I was dreadfully lost. I got off the bus and talked to a cab driver and then realized that I had only taken the bus 1 or 2 stops beyond where I needed to go.
I arrived at Pardes pretty late, but it was okay! They were still interviewing people to determine their placement. I registered and had my interview. I was placed in bet (level 2). The available levels were aleph, apleh +, bet, and gimmel (1, advanced 1, 2, and 3). They combined aleph/aleph + and bet/gimmel, because there were only 2 teachers. This was actually okay because there weren't a whole lot of people registered for the ulpan. It turns out that June is Pardes' quietest summer month--July and August are much busier. I guess this is because some people don't get out of school in time, or can't get away from work until mid-June or July.
There were a total of 6 people in my group. 3 (2 girls and a slightly older guy) were in gimmel. with me in bet were a middle-aged woman and a guy who looked like he was my age, maybe a few years older. We had an abridged lesson, since most of the time had been spent in registration and placement. The bet people went to another room to complete a list of 100 fill-in-the-blank Hebrew questions in about 40 minutes. I was the only person to finish. It's because I'm awesome. We then went back into the classroom to go over things with the teacher. It became clear that me and the guy were doing fine, but the woman was in over her hear. However, she had taken level aleph so many times that the teachers had decided to place her in bet. You'll see eventually that this might not have been the best idea...
I left ulpan not sure about my placement. I felt comfortable...was I too comfortable?
I decided to walk home from ulpan. This is a pretty long walk, but not too strenuous. Plus, I hadn't had the opportunity to walk down Emek Refaim, which is a street in Israel with lots of restaurants. I stopped in an ice cream store called Milk and got tiramisu ice cream. It was good, but a bit too runny. Next time, I'm totally going to try either the pistachio or the kiwi ice cream. I was on the lookout for the PresenTense building (PresenTense is a Zionist initiative...and pretty damn cool. I help out with their magazine.), but I missed it. Anyways, I got home, chilled, etc. Later on, I went back to Emek Refaim and hung out at a cafe with someone from CHUSY.
Wednesday was pretty uneventful...except that I conducted a phone interview with Sandy Cardin, president of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. That was insanely cool. Later, I discovered the TV show True Blood and watched most of the episodes. I know, I'm kind of lame.
Thursday, I caught yet another early morning bus to Tel Aviv. However, this time I took a bus to a big terminal in northern Tel Aviv, which was only a 20-25 minute walk from the embassy! I went in, picked up my passport, and then went back to Jerusalem. I took a shower and chilled, then went to ulpan.
Ulpan was...interesting. Bet started with the teacher, and we went over more of the questions we completed on Tuesday. The woman in the class kind of had a breakdown because she didn't understand a lot. It was awful. I don't think she has the Hebrw background for this level. She needs to take some regular Hebrew classes.
When bet was done and the gimmel people came in, I asked if I could sit in on the lesson. In bet, we had gone over some things I learned in high school which were reinforced at JTS, and I was the only person who knew both of them. This confirmed that the level was too easy. The teacher let me participate in the lesson, and it went really well. The class was all in Hebrew. Even though I didn't understand every single word (I asked a fair amount of questions), I think that I did very well, and I will now be in gimmel! I feel like I'm going to get my money's worth. Afterwards, I went to Bourekas Ima (Bourekas Mama/mother), a nearby bakery, where I picked up some bourekas and cookies. I then started walking home, but a 21 bus was nearby, so I hopped on that and continued the rest of my journey home by bus. When I was near home, I stopped at a small market/store and bought a melon. Because melons are awesome. I managed to stay awake until 9pm, after which I PASSED OUT because I've had the most fucked up sleep schedule this week.
Friday: I woke up at 3pm! I then goofed around for an hour and a half. I also received an email from the Jerusalem Post people! I have an internship! I mean, I knew I did, but I was afraid that something happened and their slots were all full, or something. Then, I decided I needed groceries, but the grocery store was closed for Shabbat. Sad. I decided that I needed to do something Jewish, so I asked around for places to go for Shabbat services (fun fact: my favorite services are the Friday night ones because I love the singing). I ended up at an Orthodox shul. It was nice. There was a time when I would never have chosen to go to an Orthodox shul, but that time has passed.
Today I have basically done nothing...EXCEPT I FINALLY UNPACKED! I also need to finish uploading content from PresenTense's magazine onto its website. I'll get to that, eventually. I think I'll also go for a jog, as part of my campaign to live a healthier lifestyle. This has actually been going reasonably well. I haven't been doing too much snacking. I have also decided to limit the amount of ice cream and schwarma I eat, because I could legit live off of ice cream and schwarma here. In the future, I also will only order a shwarma laffa (laffa = giant pita, but you don't put the stuff inside it, you put it on the laffa and roll it like a burrito) if I am able to eat only half and save the rest for later/dinner/whatever.
I also have to do my ulpan homework. It's not that much/not too hard.
My perfect shwarma pita/laffa: shwarma, salad, onions, harif (harif = sharp/spicy...it's an awesome hot sauce), eggplant, and chips (french fries). A little hummus and tachina (sauce made from sesame seeds, I think) is also acceptable. Now you know what you can bribe me with. Zomg, those things are so delicious! So far, I have only had a shwarma laffa. It's okay though, that was on Sunday, when I got seriously lost. I needed a major pick-me-up, and drinking didn't seem like an option.
And this ends my first full week in Israel. 1 down, 10 to go!
Stuff to do tomorrow:
1) Go to the supermarket and stop up on food for the week: dinner food (chicken?), lots of fruit (lychee! melon!), vegetables other than Israeli salad, rice, and a little ice cream/ice cream bars.
2) Do laundry. I've worn almost all of my t-shirts...also, the laundry machine isn't too large, and my things need to air dry, as there is no dryer.
3) Ulpan. Duh.
Stuff for the week:
1) Go to the Machane Yehuda market. Because it's awesome.
2) Go to Ben Yehuda Street? Maybe. I bought an awesome "sketchy bag" there during Pilgrimage. I named it the sketchy bag because it can hold an insane amount of things, and you can't really tell what's in it. This bag cost me like $3, and it's falling apart.
3) Hang out with Nitzan! (Hopefully!) Amital met Nitzan once during a program in Israel. She stayed with us for a few days at the beginning of freshman year. She is going to show me around Tel Aviv!
4) Go to ulpan. Since it's the only scheduled thing I have.
5) Plan a trip? To Tiberias? Haifa? Someplace?
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