יש הרבה גשם עכשיו

There is a lot of rain right now! It is good for Israel, but not so nice to be in. There is also a bit of thunder and lightening. I hope that it will clear up a bit before Irina gets here, not that she hasn't seen rain before, but it would be nice to be able to walk around.

Today mom and dad met a whole room full of friends. We had class at Merkaz Klita (the place where most of the new immigrants live when they are settling in) and went up to Milton's room during our break. One of the people in our class (Meheratoo, not sure how to spell that), is from Ethiopia and had never used a computer before this month! He was so surprised to hear that you could see people over the internet that I just had to call mom and dad over Skype to show him. He was amazed that we were seeing people so far away, it was pretty cool to show him....actually it is rather amazing (thank goodness for internet!).

I also got up the guts to say something to the class this week about being quiet in the classroom so that we we can actually learn. I said everything almost right and it made perfect sense to me, but unfortunately the problem is that the people I really wanted to listen don't know enough hebrew to understand me!! So we had some quiet for about 30 minutes, but today was still pretty bad. לא טוב

We started learning the past tense, which so far is definitely a challange...the words don't sound the same in the past tense. Like in English it is easy to see the similarity between "I want" and "I wanted", but in Hebrew it is a little different, more like "I think," and "I thought". However, the rules are actually followed in Hebrew, less crazy exceptions than in English so I shouldn't complain....at least I'm not trying to learn English.

I had visitors this week. Adi and Etan came up from Beer Sheva to visit. Ben wasn't here though. We went to Tsfat and walked all around the city. It's a religious artists community so there were SO many gallaries, I wished I had lots of money because some of the stuff was really gorgeous! It was certainly worth seeing. I want to go again when the weather is better because it is up in the mountains and has a great view, but both times that I have visted Tsfat it has been very cloudy.

I'm very excited for Ben to come home since I haven't seen him since last Sunday. He will either be coming home Thursday night or Friday morning, I don't need to tell you which one I would prefer:) He has been asked to make a slide show of the pictures he is taking on base for the graduation ceremony on March 3rd. It's really cool that he was asked to do that...I don't think they usually have someone taking pictures. It will be very exciting to see what he puts together. He can be very creative!

I hope all is well with everyone. Can you read my hebrew? I wrote it by myself!

.אני אהבת את החיים שלי בישראל, אבל אני רוצה לראות המשפחה שלי

אני אהבת את המשפחה שלי.

אני הולכת לקרוא הספר שלי ושומע לגשם עכשיו.

להתראות.

(translate.google.com)

I can't seem to get the periods to be in the right place. Also, sometimes google translate gets things wrong!

Mucus Music

Between Ben, our landlord Haim (lives next door), and myself we can call our apartement a real symphony of coughing. We are really a pathetic pair right now, but are trying to enjoy our time together as Ben leaves for two weeks straight starting Sunday. The wonderful news however is that Irina (Ben's mom) is coming to ISRAEL!!!! In only about 3 weeks...we are SO excited! I'm sure that will keep us going for a bit:)

I missed three days of Ulpan this week, which in terms of learning the content I think I will be alright, but it was actually rather disappointing not to see my friends in class. Tuesday after Ben left I went to the doctor and they said I had the flu (whatever that means). I was at the pharmacy afterwards just getting some throat losenges and suddenly felt like I was going to pass out....so I sat down. It was rather embarassing (I even threw up in front of the pharmacy staff). I had really low blood pressure, which is weird for me because I think mine is usually pretty good. About 20 minutes later (I think, I guess it could have been two hour or even two minutes), I felt a bit better and called my friend Tatiana to come get me. Ever since then I have felt better (now just a cough/cold/no voice). The good thing that came out of it was that I know I can call Tatiana and her husband David anytime for help. They even said if I need something in the middle of the night to call them. It's nice for me to know they are here for me when Ben is on base.

Despite being sick, we are still enjoying living in Karmiel and making friends here. Unfortunately my camera has decided that it is at the end of its life and is no longer functioning so new pictures/video are a little difficult (impossible) right now. Ben took his camera to base last week though and has some pictures to share from that (it's pretty great to be able to see what goes on and where he is living, it's hard to imagine sometimes). I'm sure he will be sharing those pics here soon.

Take care!