The Swing of Things

Life has resumed a rhythm such as I have not experience since my 9-5 job this summer, and I love it. The semester brings many changes that give us more independence, more choice, more opportunities to save money or waste money, the option to only pray twice a week in the mornings, and the responsibilities of time management. I now have to wake up and eat breakfast not based on the prayer schedule but by the public transportation schedule! The program had a firm grip on my hand for the first few weeks, but now I am holding on by a mere finger.

Tuesday I woke up very early and took a city bus to school for my Art History class. We learned so much in just an hour and a half! We talked about Rembrandt's Belshazar's Feast and learned the Bible and Talmud behind that, Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, and other symbols of liberty. I really enjoy the teacher and the style of the class, although there is this one Canadian boy in my class who has to comment on everything, and he is really anti-American! We were looking at the Statue of Liberty from social/historical/cultural point of view, and he took over the professor's lecture with one of his own about the evils of capitalism and American domination! He was sitting next to me and invading my personal space and I was getting really frustrated. If you want to bash the US, take a different class; art history is just not the right venue for your rants. Honestly!!

After Art History, I had Hebrew with my Ulpan class from MiniMester. I really like my two new Hebrew teachers, because not only are they really chill human beings, they are so well trained to teach Hebrew! Like Hebrew teaching machines! It's a beautiful thing. The class is a really good level for me, and we are learning at a good pace. I can say so many verbs now, too, except I can't say "I need" which is a problem because I am a very needy person sometimes and it makes it difficult for me to express myself.

I stayed after class for a little while on Tuesday to find books for my research paper on the Oslo Accords, which was a successful hunt. I felt like Hermione in the Hogwart's library! Absolutely thrilling! Reading about the peace process so much is kind of getting me down though, and I'm starting to question/lose faith in all political leaders, like Obama AND Netanyahu! I am of course speaking specifically about peace in this region, so I can still support these leaders in other areas. But which direction is the correct way to peace!? Settlements or no settlements, partition or integration, one state or two states, economic dependency or separation??

After my diplomatic and depressing bibliographical experience, I took the 4 Aleph bus home. It was a new route for me, since we all usually take the 19, which is more direct. It was a very interesting cultural experience however, because the route is almost solely through Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. I saw a group of girls, probably my age, standing at the bus stop, and I wondered if they were the cool or provocative girls around town, because their long skirts were tight around their hips. I saw a lot of black hats and earlocks and multi-child strollers. The streets were crowded and not very clean, but they were vibrant and interesting. It was a good show.

I got home just in time for my Talmud study session with Adina. We are taking the class together, and it is popular to study text in Chevruta (I am not sure of the literal translation, but it basically means studying with a partner). We looked over a text about a disagreement between rabbis which ends with one rabbi getting excommunicated. It was pretty hard, but we sat for about an hour and really worked it out. We looked at references from the Bible and considered what I thought was literally every possibility of certain confusing passages.

When we got to class on Wednesday afternoon, after a long morning of Hebrew, I found that there were actually several possibilities that we missed. I still felt like Adina and I had covered many important points in our personal study session, however, and I was glad that I had gotten to go over the text with her since there wasn't an opportunity to share all of our findings with the teacher, since the class is only an hour and a half. Our class is also really big for the style of class it is supposed to be-it's difficult to have class discussion with such a large group. The teacher is really great though, a cute little old man with a lot of knowledge, so class is great still.

After Talmud was Israeli Society and Politics, and that goes from 4:30-6 pm. The last half hour, I was gone. The sun had set and it was pitch dark and the Third Alliyah started to sound just like the Second and the First and everyone who immigrated was from Russia anyway...

I rushed home from school to make PB+J and go to Jewish Educator Training, an hour and a half class for people who might want to teach Hebrew school back in the states. It sounded like a great opportunity for resume building-and the class is free-so I had nothing to lose. It wasn't exactly what I had expected, but I did learn from it, so I think I will keep going. The only problem is...

Girls' football practice started immediately after JET, and I was so rushed! I was also really nervous on the walk to the park where we were going to practice because the boys who were coaching us were acting very intensely. It turned out to be the most fun I've had in a while (which is saying a lot since life here is very excellent all the time), and I even stayed after to practice with a few of the girls and the coaches. Four boys from the program are helping us, and they are so nice and supportive! I don't want to say it was a different side of Adam, Brian, Asaf, and Garrett, but at the same time, they completely transformed into dads teaching their daughters how to throw a ball. It dissolved all my fears, and I even caught the football successfully a few times!!

I ran home from the park with Kay, and then I was sweaty and tired so I showered and slept.

Today I had Freshman Writing and I actually enjoyed it. Our teacher likes us now, and we are allowed to have fun in class, so it was very humorous. Then I researched in the library, ate the lunch I packed for myself, hung out at the cafe, and helped Aaron find books in the library because now I am a master at channeling Hermione. We took the bus home and I just finished a good deal of my homework with Adina in the library on the first floor of my dorm building.

I am about to go get my flu shot : (

but then it is party time!!!! Lihitraot!