Shana tova and such

PS (I know this is supposed to go at the end but you might get bored before then): I added pictures to an earlier entry. Enjoy!

As an added bonus, this blog is a very effective tool to measure the extent to which I am fully taking advantage of my year in Israel. Of course, this also means that days like today and yesterday, which stand out as particularly not blog-worthy, remind me of the limited time I have here.

The general pattern of the last two days: Ulpan, lunch, reading, nap, emails, dinner with Max, and, in the case of today, laundry.

I think I’ve hit a wall with Ulpan Beit Ha’am. I’m not sure exactly what it is … that it’s been a full month. That there’s only so long a person can listen to Mr. and Mrs. Weird talk about “bat shelanu” (their daughter), forcing the class to tangent once again from the lesson. That my weekend in Tzippori showed me how beneficial speaking with Israelis can be.

Ulpan is a very interesting language-immersion program and a very effective tool for learning Hebrew, but I think Ulpan Beit Ha’am, specifically, has worn out its welcome in my life. The class is very large, which means few meaningful opportunities for practicing my spoken Hebrew. And while the workbook used by Beit Ha’am is one of the better language books I’ve seen, I’m craving other educational tools … I think there could be a lot gained from reading the newspaper, watching movies, listening to the radio, etc.

There is another Ulpan – Ulpan Milah – which has come highly recommended and which I think I will check out soon. Ulpan Milah has smaller classes and it operates under the ideology of language and cultural immersion. I think this means they use all the educational tools I just mentioned (as well as the same workbook used by Beit Ha’am). (As added plus: Ulpan Milah’s classes are Monday – Thursday 9 am – 12 pm vs. Beit Ha’am’s Sunday-Thursday 8 am – 12:30 pm regimen.)

***Book Recommendations: Because I do not have a TV or quality internet access or a lot of homework (and perhaps because I crave all things English) I have a lot of time to read. While I still think Animal, Vegetable, Miracle should be your priority, you can add Bee Season by Myla Goldberg and TheCurious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon to the list. Bee Season is about Eliza, a young girl who feels very out of place in her gifted family – her father absorbed in the world of Jewish mysticism, her brother following in his father’s path, and her brilliant but distance lawyer mother. When Eliza discovers her aptitude for competitive spelling, her father takes it as a sign and sets her on a strange religious quest. Eliza’s mother’s secret life is revealed and the fabric of the family begins to unravel and it is Eliza who tries to make things right. It is beautifully written and captivating, but be warned. It is a little intense and … sad. I can’t report quite as thoroughly on The Curious Incident because I am only halfway through it, but so far – awesome! It’s written from the point of view of a 15-year-old boy with Asbergers Syndrome (on the Autism spectrum). It is wonderfully … strange.