Things I didn't realize or know would happen in Israel:
1. Massachusetts is harder to pronounce than I thought. Every non-American who asks me where I'm from says "Masheeshutets? Say that again." I just tell them I'm from Boston.
2. There are a lot of non-Jews in the program. I mean I knew that there were going to be people who aren't Jewish, but I would say almost 40% of the international students aren't Jewish.
3. The majority of people are Jewish. I like that. In class we we're talking about Menachem Begin and there was no mispronunciation or any questions of who he was. I was ready to raise my hand and talk about what he did, but then I remembered that almost everyone in my class is Jewish and knows who he is.
4. There is a food court in the Rosh Binyan (Main Building), which is not at all like the ones in America. This food court has McDonald's (of course) but they have salads and the food isn't as gross. Also, this McDonald's has a separate section for the ice cream, which I thought was pretty cool. There's also a chinese food place and a coffee place. The two coolest thing about this court is that there is a separate place to eat milk and meat and that it's kosher. One of my friends eats only kosher food and had only had McDonalds the last time he came here a few years ago so he was really excited that he could have McDonald's.
5. The bus is so confusing. It's only easy when I have people who know where they're going but the bus stops are not at the same place (like not directly across the street) going or coming back.
6. Cats...lots of stray cats. There are about 7 or 8 that roam through the dorms' courtyards. It's a little bit weird, but they're not vicious cats.
Classes started this week and they were all really interesting. We had the Hebrew placement test on Monday and were placed in a level by the afternoon. I got into a higher level which is still puzzling to me. I always think that I know less Hebrew than I do. I really like my teacher and my class. Mina, the professor, speaks slow enough so that I can understand and my class is probably the most diverse class anyone will see in a Hebrew class. There are only five or six people from the US and the rest are from Poland, South Korea, France, and the Marshall Islands. Having a diverse class really livens things up and makes the class itself interesting. I never really thought about this, but when I write down the definition of a word I do it in English, but the people from Poland, South Korea, and France write the definition in their native language. There's no reason why they shouldn't I just really never thought about that, probably because both are foreign languages to me. I can already tell that I'm learning a lot. On Tuesday when we started, I had a little trouble understanding what she was saying, but today, Thursday, I can understand a lot more. I don't know if that's because I'm being exposed to Hebrew 24/7 or if I'm actually learning more vocab. Sometimes, I come out of Hebrew class and think a little bit in Hebrew and will write some of my assignments down in Hebrew. For example "read book" or "write answers to questions". They are pretty simple things that I learned years ago, but I think because I'm in Israel and my brain is in Hebrew mode for two hours that I am able to do this. In addition to Hebrew, I'm also taking Psychology of Conflict, which is about understanding others' habits before understanding why they react to a situation. Psychology Seminar, where we are going to learn about different aspects of psychology. And Media in War and Crisis which is taught by an old Jewish lady from New York. At least I assume she's from NY given her accent. The class itself is about analyzing the media in times of crisis.
Because my dorm in Federman was almost unbearable, I made up an excuse to move out. I told the Madrichim that the mold was really bothering me. As this is a great possibility, they believed me and today they gave me a room. Today after paying, I went to the guard to get a key and he gave it to me and let me go. I walked around for almost an hour looking for the stupid dorm number. The room numbers in the Talia Dorms make absolutely no sense. Finally, after asking a few people who had no idea where it was, I was close to giving up. My last chance was to ask the House Mother, Michal. So I found her and asked if she could tell me where my room number was. She told me that I wasn't even supposed to find it by myself and said that someone would be with me in a minute, meaning ten in Israeli terms, to help me find the room. By the time I got to my dorm and brought everything from one room to another (four or five trips back and forth), it was almost 400. I got out of class at 115. But I am now unpacked and ready for the weekend trip to Golan.
1. Massachusetts is harder to pronounce than I thought. Every non-American who asks me where I'm from says "Masheeshutets? Say that again." I just tell them I'm from Boston.
2. There are a lot of non-Jews in the program. I mean I knew that there were going to be people who aren't Jewish, but I would say almost 40% of the international students aren't Jewish.
3. The majority of people are Jewish. I like that. In class we we're talking about Menachem Begin and there was no mispronunciation or any questions of who he was. I was ready to raise my hand and talk about what he did, but then I remembered that almost everyone in my class is Jewish and knows who he is.
4. There is a food court in the Rosh Binyan (Main Building), which is not at all like the ones in America. This food court has McDonald's (of course) but they have salads and the food isn't as gross. Also, this McDonald's has a separate section for the ice cream, which I thought was pretty cool. There's also a chinese food place and a coffee place. The two coolest thing about this court is that there is a separate place to eat milk and meat and that it's kosher. One of my friends eats only kosher food and had only had McDonalds the last time he came here a few years ago so he was really excited that he could have McDonald's.
5. The bus is so confusing. It's only easy when I have people who know where they're going but the bus stops are not at the same place (like not directly across the street) going or coming back.
6. Cats...lots of stray cats. There are about 7 or 8 that roam through the dorms' courtyards. It's a little bit weird, but they're not vicious cats.
Classes started this week and they were all really interesting. We had the Hebrew placement test on Monday and were placed in a level by the afternoon. I got into a higher level which is still puzzling to me. I always think that I know less Hebrew than I do. I really like my teacher and my class. Mina, the professor, speaks slow enough so that I can understand and my class is probably the most diverse class anyone will see in a Hebrew class. There are only five or six people from the US and the rest are from Poland, South Korea, France, and the Marshall Islands. Having a diverse class really livens things up and makes the class itself interesting. I never really thought about this, but when I write down the definition of a word I do it in English, but the people from Poland, South Korea, and France write the definition in their native language. There's no reason why they shouldn't I just really never thought about that, probably because both are foreign languages to me. I can already tell that I'm learning a lot. On Tuesday when we started, I had a little trouble understanding what she was saying, but today, Thursday, I can understand a lot more. I don't know if that's because I'm being exposed to Hebrew 24/7 or if I'm actually learning more vocab. Sometimes, I come out of Hebrew class and think a little bit in Hebrew and will write some of my assignments down in Hebrew. For example "read book" or "write answers to questions". They are pretty simple things that I learned years ago, but I think because I'm in Israel and my brain is in Hebrew mode for two hours that I am able to do this. In addition to Hebrew, I'm also taking Psychology of Conflict, which is about understanding others' habits before understanding why they react to a situation. Psychology Seminar, where we are going to learn about different aspects of psychology. And Media in War and Crisis which is taught by an old Jewish lady from New York. At least I assume she's from NY given her accent. The class itself is about analyzing the media in times of crisis.
Because my dorm in Federman was almost unbearable, I made up an excuse to move out. I told the Madrichim that the mold was really bothering me. As this is a great possibility, they believed me and today they gave me a room. Today after paying, I went to the guard to get a key and he gave it to me and let me go. I walked around for almost an hour looking for the stupid dorm number. The room numbers in the Talia Dorms make absolutely no sense. Finally, after asking a few people who had no idea where it was, I was close to giving up. My last chance was to ask the House Mother, Michal. So I found her and asked if she could tell me where my room number was. She told me that I wasn't even supposed to find it by myself and said that someone would be with me in a minute, meaning ten in Israeli terms, to help me find the room. By the time I got to my dorm and brought everything from one room to another (four or five trips back and forth), it was almost 400. I got out of class at 115. But I am now unpacked and ready for the weekend trip to Golan.
