A load of updates

I've been focusing on Ulpan and seeing friends here (so many of my Israeli friends are leaving town... sigh...) that weeks have passed since any substantial update to the blog. Sorry folks (I mean CAMERON).

So, in no particular order:

- Ulpan finished on Wednesday. It's been a journey, from not being able to read in the fall to, well... I started the summer shocked to be placed in Kita Daled, feeling like I should probably move down. I wasn't understanding conversations, really missing huge chunks of what was going on. And at some point, le'at, le'at (slowly, slowly), I found myself understanding almost everything. My teacher called me the afternoon that we finished and said she'd like me to try moving up to Kita Hay -- level 5 of 5 -- for the first week of the semester, and level 4 of 4 for our Biblical grammar class. ::gulp::

Kita Hay also has one day of language study replaced with a class on Jewish Thought. In Hebrew, of course. I'm always game for a challenge, but we'll see... this may be just a bit too much with the rest of the classes on top of it. I AM actually really excited to try! It might be what forces my spoken Hebrew to catch up to reading and comprehension...

- I had a wisdom tooth out yesterday... my one wisdom tooth, which was NEVER supposed to come in. Well, it finally started coming in. Luckily, my friend's dad is a dentist, and an awesome one at that. I was in and out in 40 minutes, even went to a presentation at school (masochist? maybe) an hour later. Shockers for Americans: 1) the surgery was done without any sort of sedative, only local anesthetic; 2) the dentist called me later, from home, just to check in on me. (And I get the feeling that this is his standard practice, not friend-of-daughter practice.)

- SHIRA GOT MARRIED. The wedding was beautiful... so much joy and so much love. And so many of the Livnot chevre that I so cherish (including Ebin, all the way from NY!). Best moment of the night? Dressing as pirates and kidnapping the new bride...

Ok, ok, ok, maybe not the best moment. Second best. Best was the chuppah, of course, and the moment of the first touch... But it's a close second. 

- Back to a parenthetical remark above, my dear friend Ebin was here for a week for Shira's wedding. It was beyond amazing to see him, to have him here, to get to discuss my experiences and my processing of said experiences with someone who has known me for awhile, and who comes (on many levels) from a very similar place. Or at least he knows my journey because he's been there for a lot of it... 

- I've been really busy finding and preparing material for the High Holiday services that I'll be helping leading in Modi'in. It's a lot all at once, but I think it'll come together. I was asked to do two of the three repetitions of Kol Nidrei, once sung, and once... on violin. One guess as to which one I'm more nervous about... yeah. Playing my violin in public causes me great anxiety, but I promised myself I'd face it this year. So... here goes nothing. No pressure or anything... it's just Kol Nidrei. Erm... uh... right. 

Hmmm... maybe I better get back to this practicing situation. Probably a good idea...

Sending love to all...

I love Jerusalem on Saturday mornings...

... there's an intense quiet, a pervading sense of calm. Lots of birds. (Dad: "Good birds.")

Other mornings? I wake up to the loud crashes of construction across the street. Bang. Bang BANG.

Nothing compares to Saturday mornings here...

A lot to cover, not sure where to begin...

... and not sure if I'll remember it all. It's been a few weeks of dealing with a lot of non-Israel-life stuff... Starting with now, working backward-ish:

- Tonight is Shira and Tuvia's wedding, a day for which many friends have long been waiting! Ebin flew here for the wedding and it's been beyond wonderful having him here... he's one of the people I miss the most. Looking forward, too, to a ton of reunions tonight at the wedding... but looking forward mostly to the wedding itself...

- Had an interesting moment over shabbat: I was with Ebin at the Great Synagogue (ok, "with"...). It's pretty hard to hear the Torah reading in the balcony because the women are often chit-chatting and kids are running around making noise. I couldn't differentiate words at all, but had this moment of realizing that I was still following along with the parsha because I could hear enough of the trope... and this all happened unconsciously. Never would this have been possible last year...

- Ok, had MANY interesting moments over shabbat... let's suffice it to say that Jewish geography is a crazy game, and lunches with 80 people crammed into a rabbi's apartment are an absolute balagan.

- Got home one day last week and noticed a poster on my building's wall. The first thing I registered was, "Oh, that looks like a picture of Fiddler on the Roof... I wonder where they are performing?" The next thing I registered was the actual Hebrew text, "Ok, not a Fiddler performance... that's my friend's name!" A friend who lives nearby was giving a talk in a gan (garden) in the neighborhood. I missed most of it because of a voice lesson, but when I showed up, was pleasantly surprised to be able to follow along in Hebrew and catch a large majority of what was going on. I loved being able to answer the question, "Sari, at mevina?" with "Ken!"

- I've been traveling outside of Jerusalem for voice lessons. It's, quite admittedly, a pain in the ass, but the teacher is wonderful and well worth it. However, the traveling does mean that a 1-hr lesson ends up being about 5 hours, all said and done. Oy! The lessons are slightly frustrating because the work I have to do at this point is so nuanced... and nuanced particularly in reference to muscle memory. It takes all of my concentration, and then some, to really incorporate all of the teacher's adjustments. The change in my voice when I do is phenomenal...

- Had my first Hebrew exam in Ulpan and did surprisingly well. I am not so certain I can keep the bar as high, but we shall see. A good start, nonetheless. Also, survived a 15+ minute presentation in class, all in Hebrew. Could've gone better, could've gone much, much worse.

- Working on music for High Holidays; I'm being sent to Modi'in, a city between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. I'm a little frustrated since its been hard to get any real response as far as what they'd really like me to do, what their lay cantor ALWAYS does, so on and so forth... ie. it makes no sense for me to spend time preparing an El Male Rachamin or a Hineni or whatever else if someone there is already set; there are plenty of other things for me to work on...

- It's been unbelievably hot in Jerusalem for the past week or so. I knew we were being spoiled by the weather here since I arrived; it was faaaaar more pleasant than I remember it being at this time last year. This past week has been a lot more familiar, unfortunately. I'm lucky that my ulpan kita is in one of the few rooms at school that has functioning AC right now. (Phew!)

That's about all there's time for right now. Life has been, while not mundane, a lot less exciting in the past few weeks... there's just too much work.
Off to class... and then the wedding!!!
Love to all in the states...