(no subject)
Gearing up for Shabbat number four in Jerusalem. I can't believe we've been here that long already. Today has been spent doing Hebrew homework, laundry, and apartment cleaning (exciting, I know). Yesterday was the second of our Jerusalem tiyuls. We focused on the First Temple Era, visiting ancient burial caves, traipsing through Gai Ben Hinnom, and watching a movie perhaps even more awesome and terrible than the 3-D movie we watched at Ir David. Its interesting to compare the learning we've been doing on these tiyulim to the trip we took on EIE. On EIE, the focus was history. Here, we're also looking at history, but with a very specific focus. We have been looking at texts that directly correspond to the sites we've been visiting. These texts also directly correspond with Jewish rituals that we do today. In addition to giving us a history refresher, our tiyulim are designed to demonstrate to us that the connection between the Land of Israel and the Jewish People.
After our super sweaty tiyul (Jerusalem is hilly, Gingy walks really fast, and there is a heat wave), Marc and I had a couple hours to relax and eat before heading back to HUC to get on the bus to another, more recreational tiyul. A group of us went to Kibbutz Gezer to watch a game of Israel's Babseball League. The Modi'in Miracles played the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox. It was pretty phenomenal. The field was in the middle of nowhere and we sat on plastic chairs right up against the chain link fence surrounding the field. Just about every spectator was American and the announcer translated everything (not that there was any commentary on the game). To make the day even better, we HUCers were invited to sing "Take me Out to the BallGame" at the bottom of the fifth. The game went pretty fast -- there are only 7 innings (AND, if they are tied at the end, there is a homerun derby to decide the winner). I was SO exhausted and dirty, and got in the shower as soon as we made it home. After cleaning up and eating dinner, Marc and I joined some classmates downtown to relax and blow off a little steam. It was a LONG week, and I really needed it.
Sunday we start up with ulpan again -- only 3 1/2 weeks left. I was wondering how long my zeal for ulpan would last, and as I suspected it was gone by the second week. Good thing I like all the people in my class and we can all be sick of ulpan together.
After our super sweaty tiyul (Jerusalem is hilly, Gingy walks really fast, and there is a heat wave), Marc and I had a couple hours to relax and eat before heading back to HUC to get on the bus to another, more recreational tiyul. A group of us went to Kibbutz Gezer to watch a game of Israel's Babseball League. The Modi'in Miracles played the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox. It was pretty phenomenal. The field was in the middle of nowhere and we sat on plastic chairs right up against the chain link fence surrounding the field. Just about every spectator was American and the announcer translated everything (not that there was any commentary on the game). To make the day even better, we HUCers were invited to sing "Take me Out to the BallGame" at the bottom of the fifth. The game went pretty fast -- there are only 7 innings (AND, if they are tied at the end, there is a homerun derby to decide the winner). I was SO exhausted and dirty, and got in the shower as soon as we made it home. After cleaning up and eating dinner, Marc and I joined some classmates downtown to relax and blow off a little steam. It was a LONG week, and I really needed it.
Sunday we start up with ulpan again -- only 3 1/2 weeks left. I was wondering how long my zeal for ulpan would last, and as I suspected it was gone by the second week. Good thing I like all the people in my class and we can all be sick of ulpan together.