Boker tov (good morning), readers! The last few days have been pretty fab -- here's a quick recap, and then I'll share my excitement of things to come!
On Thursday, I only had one class, Hebrew. It was my first day in the non-intensive class, and I was delighted to find my friend Charlotte was in the class as well! The teacher seems metsuyenet -- fantastic -- so far. And she's still giving us additional vocabulary! For instance, on Thursday, she wanted to tell us about the recent Israeli Nobel Prize winner, so she taught us the words for "Nobel Prize" and "to win". At the end of the week, she gives them all to us on a sheet, and says to be a 100% student, learn what's in the book -- but to be a 120% student, learn what's on the sheet too! I think this is going to be a much more positive experience.
After that I headed home and got a head start on my reading for the weekend -- in sum, I had over 250 pages to get through! But fortunately, they're all so interesting -- I actually look forward to reading for my classes (although there's a few dry articles that are tough to slog through). I alternated between that and watching a bit of a movie for breaks.
Friday started similarly, but I was less motivated to get through all of my reading, and I got distracted by an application for an amazing summer job! I got through some of the reading and most of the applicaiton, but then by afternoon, I was delighted for the distraction of Alison knocking on my door. Kate and I went with her to her apartment and watched Erin Brockovich and made spaghetti for dinner. Afterward, I headed back to the apartment to finish up a little more reading. I also managed to catch my parents on Skype before bed!
Saturday was a productive day -- 2 loads of laundry plus all of my hand-washing, cooking lunch and dinner, and finishing all the reading and homework that I could. By Saturday night, the only thing I hadn't finished was reading for my Biblical Israel class -- but only because I couldn't access them on the library website (and still can't, rawr).
Sunday I got up at 9ish even though I don't have class until 2:30 on Sundays (yay relaxing mornings!). I did some cleaning and had breakfast and lunch, and reviewed a little Hebrew. Eventually I headed down to the housing office to figure out how to get my sister into the Kfar when she visits this week! I've got most of the paperwork squared away -- tomorrow I'll go down and pay for the extra mattress they'll provide me and we'll be all set for her visit! After a quick power nap, I went to my Judaism and Islam classes. Both were wonderful -- I really love the professors, and they make the material so engaging! Then Arielle and I walked back to the Kfar and decided it was falafel night. We went and hung out at French Hill Falafel for about an hour, then decided it was finally time to head back and study for our Hebrew quizzes. After a quick Skype with Ian, that's exactly what I did!
Despite the fact that it took significant effort to drag myself out of bed for my busiest day of the week, my Hebrew class was wonderful again. I think this class is going to be great (although we still haven't met our second teacher, who is apparently quite ill). After today's lesson and quiz, our instructor pulled me aside and told me that I'm an excellent student, and asked would I like to do some supplemental work? I said betach, of course! So she picked out an article for me to read in the newspaper and said to write a 2-sentence summary, and that after Sukkot break she'll find some short stories for me to read. I'm so glad that I'll be able to make great progress even without the intensive class! I am now so sure that I made the right decision in switching into this class; I'm much happier now.
When I got out of class, 30 minutes before my Biblical Israel class, a librarian had FINALLY e-mailed me the necessary readings. I frantically skimmed them, but resigned myself to not being 100% up to speed on them, knowing that everyone in my class would be in the same boat. I grabbed lunch and some juice to keep my blood sugar up in the 3-hour class and headed over. We talked a lot about scriptural corruption and other such things that were very familiar from my New Testament class -- they were just being applied to the Old Testament! Interesting stuff =) But looooong class...
Finally, last class of the day -- my Holocaust class (which is in the same classroom as my Biblical Israel class). We discussed the interwar period: the effects of the treaty of Versailles, the Armenian genocide, revolutions and tensions, the National Minorities treaties, and how all of these affected the state of the Jews. Again, background isn't the most interesting, but I love the "what ifs?" of history, and the professor makes it all so engaging.
Now back at the Kfar and planning on going to bed early -- 10 straight hours of class is tiring! Tomorrow I'll be sorting out some final details of Kat's visit and stocking up on some groceries for the first day of Sukkot (so that I can feed my sister lunch!) and attending my one Tuesday class. My darling sister arrives on Thursday and we have a week and a half of travel adventures planned -- I can't wait for her arrival! I may be somewhat off the grid while she's here, but you can expect at least one massive post about our fun. She actually likes taking pictures, so you can count on plenty of those!
When I got out of class, 30 minutes before my Biblical Israel class, a librarian had FINALLY e-mailed me the necessary readings. I frantically skimmed them, but resigned myself to not being 100% up to speed on them, knowing that everyone in my class would be in the same boat. I grabbed lunch and some juice to keep my blood sugar up in the 3-hour class and headed over. We talked a lot about scriptural corruption and other such things that were very familiar from my New Testament class -- they were just being applied to the Old Testament! Interesting stuff =) But looooong class...
Finally, last class of the day -- my Holocaust class (which is in the same classroom as my Biblical Israel class). We discussed the interwar period: the effects of the treaty of Versailles, the Armenian genocide, revolutions and tensions, the National Minorities treaties, and how all of these affected the state of the Jews. Again, background isn't the most interesting, but I love the "what ifs?" of history, and the professor makes it all so engaging.
Now back at the Kfar and planning on going to bed early -- 10 straight hours of class is tiring! Tomorrow I'll be sorting out some final details of Kat's visit and stocking up on some groceries for the first day of Sukkot (so that I can feed my sister lunch!) and attending my one Tuesday class. My darling sister arrives on Thursday and we have a week and a half of travel adventures planned -- I can't wait for her arrival! I may be somewhat off the grid while she's here, but you can expect at least one massive post about our fun. She actually likes taking pictures, so you can count on plenty of those!
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