Well, my first week of hebrew language lessons have finished.  im currently going to whats called an Ulpan.  Its three times a week, mon, wed & thursday  for 4 hours for the next….  5 months.

So im only three classes in, but ive got some observations so far.  First off, i took some hebrew classes in vancouver a few years ago.  by the end i was able to read-ish, but they were only once a week and i wasnt using the language at all.  anyways, it took us three classes to learn all the letters in the alphabet.  but now we are reading, and more amazing, writing

a few comments for those that dont know anything about hebrew.  its based off of bibical hebrew.  so a lot of names that im vexed trying to spell are because thats how they are spelled in the bible.  if your interested, the modern hebrew article on wikipedia is a pretty interesting read.  Anywho, some cliff notes (now mind this, im probably wrong on half of this) is that there are two written alphabets.  one is cursive, which you use to hand write, and script, which is used for books, typing, and signs.  for the cursive alphabet, there are no capitals.  everything is written in lowercase.  vowels are modifiers on the letters of the alphabet.  but once your an adult, you drop all the vowels.  which is pretty cool, but makes it a pain to learn.  but think about it, if you drp ll th vwls frm a sntnc, you can still read it.  they have just taken it to the next level.

anyways, what this means is i need to learn a lot of new words.  then i have to learn to read them using children’s books.  then i have to learn to read them without the vowels.   but im excited about going through this whole process.  and actually learning it and practicing.

Three days into the Ulpan, i have some general comments on how they teach.  i think they have it down.  half the class is complaining its too fast, but i think it has to be.  and they do a lot of speaking.  and they are teaching us the alphabet quickly so we can start to read things.  its really a system set up to get new immigrants integrated into society, and they take classes 5 times a week, but its working pretty well for everyone else too.  its unlike any other language class ive ever taken, and im enjoying it.

lets see how i feel and am doing in 5 months.  

As i sit here gorging myself on humus and pita, its currently raining outside.  in the three weeks ive been here, its the first time ive seen rain.

this morning noa and i went running again.  we had taken four days off due to both being ill, and we were finally feeling better.  it was overcast out, and a little chilly getting started.  i am in shorts and a running shirt only though.  apparently on overcast days forecasting rain, the locals dont exercise.  i think we maybe saw 10 other runners out?

anyways, we get to the beach, and lo and behold, it starts raining on me.  Now, i would squarely put me in the casual runner category, and i would never even contemplate running in the rain in vancouver.  only the hard core runners (in my mind) do so.  So when it started raining on me, i was like, what the fudge.  i stopped, told noa this is crazy, we are gonna catch a cold or something again, and what are we doing out here.  She being firmly planted in the hardcore runner side, said, im continuing.

“Fine!” i yell at her back.  and continue on.  what misery.  what agony.  well the rain only lasted like, 4 min.  and it wasn’t actually so bad.  then the sun came out, and i was warm again.  seriously, what is with this wannabe rain.  im going to have to re-cailbrate my rain meter or something.  its going to take some getting used too.

while writing this it has stopped raining outside.  so weird.