Me talk pretty one day

is a book that has been on my mind a lot the past few days. When I was at Rothberg, my friend Tamar lent it to me – she’s a big David Sedaris fan and I was on the fence about him and she felt this book would change my mind. It did, but that’s not my point here. I read the book, and really liked. More, I think, for his hilarious and apt descriptions of what it’s like to be in an intensive language learning class. In Sedaris’ case, it’s learning French. In my case (and everybody else at Rothberg, and now at HUC), it’s Hebrew.

His descriptions of his horribly rude teacher, and the way he, after weeks of hearing “Blah blah blah blah blah oui” turned into hearing “You’re a fat idiot who is blah stupid” resonated then. It was completely my experience. In some ways, it totally validated the feelings of infantalization, and frustration, and also accomplishment that pervaded my mind then. I'm anticipating a similar reaciton to ulpan (but we'll see) in the next few weeks, and so, after only two days, I really want to reread it.

Ulpan started yesterday. I was placed in Kitah Daled (Class 4), which is the “highest” class. It was a bit of a surprise to me to be in the highest level, not because I don’t know enough Hebrew to be there, but because I thought I had forgotten too much Hebrew to be there. Apparently not. There are nine of us, and I feel right in the middle of the class. My reading and certainly my grammatical ability is right at the top, while my comprehension is in the center-ish, and my speaking ability is low of center. But it’s all good. My teacher is this tiny, adorable woman named Osnat, and she’s awesome. I’m not sure she likes me (my terrible fear right now is that she’ll find out I don’t know a single word of Hebrew and demote me) but I know I can win her over with my indelible charm and wit. Although my wit in Hebrew is pretty non-existent, so I’ve got to work on that.

In other news, Shabbat was, again, lovely. Friday night was an all-class great Kabbalat Shabbat service, led by two of our summer interns, that was both spiritually and ritually fulfilling, coupled with a great dinner on campus and a fantastic song session led by five students and their guitars. Services in the morning were at HUC: the final element of our orientation. They were led by Rabbi Michael Marmur, who is the Dean of the Jerusalem campus and the head of the YII program, and Cantor Tamar Havilio, who is the resident cantor/liturgy teacher (I think). The service itself was fine - it was packed with students, a wedding party, and visiting Reform congregations from the states - catering the crowd. But Rabbi Marmur's leading and sermon were fabulous. I'm really looking forward to learning a lot from him this year. Shabbat day was nice and relaxing. The highlight was Seudah Selishit, which was hosted by two classmates and one SO – they made chili and had havdallah. Virtually the whole class (and their SOs) came, and it ended up being a great night of bonding before ulpan started.

I also got to briefly see my best friend Rebecca Levy Saturday night. She’s on Birthright this week, and Saturday was her “free night” in Jerusalem, so I met up with her for a little bit before she went to a birthright sponsored dance club. She’s in and around Jerusalem this week, but is extending her trip after they leave on Wednesday, so she’ll be staying with me this weekend. It’s going to be legend… dary!