Ulpan....again

Well, well, well...once again I went to my first day of Ulpan (Hebrew class), but this time it was quite different. I have class from 8:00am to 12:30am Sunday-Thursday now and am very excited and ready to really learn some Hebrew. The teacher is much nicer at this Ulpan and speaks much slower. She lets each person try speaking and she waits for them to finish saying something before correcting. We also do a lot of repetition and practice of the same questions, which I think helps me to learn the words. In the other Ulpan there didn't seem to be any kind of plan or organization, but this time the topics that we cover seem to make sense! It was interesting though as I felt I actually knew the most hebrew in the class! This one is starting much, much slower...but since it is every day that is probably a good thing. Plus, it was nice to understand a bit.

There are 16 of us in the class. We are from the U.S. (2), Georgia (6), Ukraine (1), and Russia (7). Everybody in the class speaks Russian and only the two of us from the U.S. and one person from Russia speak English. It's very weird because I can't understand anything people are saying except when they speak Hebrew! I think it might be easier when we learn a bit more Hebrew so I can communicate with the other students. The other weird thing is that when the teacher says a new word she often translates it into Russian, sometimes I don't even know what language she is speaking! (She does translate to English at times, but so far I haven't needed it...cool).

Overall I think this is going to be a much more rewarding experience, the only disappointment is not having an easy place to meet some people (many of the students are much older and/or don't speak English!), maybe over time, we'll see. Oh, and I am actually the only person who didn't recently make Aliyah (in other words I am the only tourist).


As far as other news, I found the library. It's right next door to the class. I'm pretty excited about that and already checked out a book. Ben left for Army again today, which is always sad for me. But....he left me a friend. Meet Zimmy!

Ok, I know...he's no Maybe, and I was a little concerned at first that it was a bad idea (last time Ben gave me a fish, Aspen ate it). But I have to say, as pathetic as it may be, it's kind of nice to have another living thing in the apartment with me when Ben is gone. He's a bit shy and hides behind the fake plants, but every now and then I see him venture out for an exploration. I'm a little worried that his bowl is too small (he 's a big boy!) so I may need to upgrade soon so he can really go for a swim. I named him zimmy because zim means gill in Hebrew (hehe, maybe that's kind of like naming your dog paws or something, but I like it...and I think he does too).

Happy New Year!