Hello loyal readers (and non-loyal, for that matter).
Forgive me for my lack of posts over the last two weeks as I have been very busy. Here is what has happened up 'till this week.
I complained a couple of times about how many stairs there are from my apartment to my classroom...so I counted. I actually counted twice to make sure my number was accurate, and I got different numbers, but it is approximately 220 (between 219 and 222). Everybody is exhausted before class even starts.
When the first Ulpan session ended two weeks ago, I went south for the weekend to Moshav B'nei Darom (Moshav is a communal living area, and this particular one is called “B'nei Darom,” which means Sons of the South). I stayed with close family friends and over the four days I was there, I spoke more Hebrew than in my entire month at the Ulpan. As part of my job abroad is to observe the cultures here, I paid particular attention to, well...everything I could. The food, the physical arrangement of the moshav, family life, etc. It was an amazing feeling to see all of the white shirts the men wore for the welcoming of the Sabbath services on Friday night, walking to the synagogue and pouring into their temporary sanctuary. The unity of the massive group clearly resemble services of worship of other major religions, regardless whether some of the physical ritual aspects still make sense – at synagogue or at home. Another fantastic “ritual” - at 11:00 on Friday night, some of the family I was staying with and myself went for a walk around the moshav, along with dozens of other people, much to my surprise. People take advantage of the night and the relaxation of the Sabbath to be with family and community this way, but I didn't expect it to be so contagious.
A few posts ago, I wrote about a video of Israeli soldiers dancing to Lady Gaga's “Telephone” (I also added a link to a video of it). My friend at the moshav is now in the army and it turns out that the dancing soldiers in the video are in his regiment. I took advantage of my connection to find out what was the reaction within his regiment and from what I gathered, their commanding officers weren't exactly pleased with the video, but didn't give harsh punishments either.
Last week, an unfortunate event took place: the death of my beloved camera. While the person who dropped it feels absolutely horrible about what happened, we must remember that it is an inanimate object and my camera (which I had named Herbert) was replaced by another (Frank). In commemorating the brilliant work of Herbert, one of the pictures is black, a tribute as well as a reminder that Herbert cannot take any more pictures.
Observations:
1. The Hebrew language is shifting dramatically. There are more words in Hebrew now than there had previously been, primarily borrowed from other languages. Most notably are words from Arabic (“Sababa” which means “all is cool, that's nice, etc.” and now a common slang greeting, “Ahalan,” from the Arabic word for “hello.”) as well as Russian (“Kaif” which is a kind of fun). I am told that if someone from the time of the establishment of the modern State of Israel (1948) were to hear Hebrew spoken as it is today, they would not understand the language. From time to time, Hebrew language scholars meet to discuss the issues of the rapidly evolving language, what it means, and what can be done about it, if anything.
The pictures are of my first session Ulpan class, with our fearless teacher in the flower blouse, Dado beach in Haifa last week with some friends, two birds that joined me for lunch in one of the cafeterias, and my photographic ode to Herbert.
Stay tuned next week as I write about more “tiulim” (trips), the second Ulpan session, and a surprise event!
-AZ
