3000 Years of Beautiful Jewish Tradition ....

Thanks for checking in. Can you finish the sentence above?

Despite the ongoing "situation" which I've talked about in the last couple of posts, my life has entered some sort of routine. Jerusalem remains on high alert, but I am safe, comfortable and, I promise, being careful. Once again, I swear to you, my life doesn't resemble the images on CNN or BBC. My money says that more people have died due to the heat wave that has gripped the US than do to Israel's current conflict. Stay Cool.

I have started my Hebrew courses. I'm in the lowest level of 5, even though my Hebrew is not that bad and I speak better than most students 1 or 2 levels ahead of me. I speak well because I’m able to “throw caution into the wind” and am not afraid to make mistakes, so what if you get it wrong? (The fact that I act like an idiot most of the time, helps alleviate some of the fears that come with looking like an idiot when you speak poorly) My reading and writing need a lot of help, I may move up a level in Hebrew in the fall when the rest of my classes start.

One thing to be cautious of is that the many words are very, very similar to other words in Hebrew, "receive" and "terrorist" are only one letter apart -- a good one not to mess up. A less serious example: imagine if a foreigner were to arrive in the US and tried to say, "I am a very important person back home" and said impotent instead of important --- it would take on quite a different meaning. Well, I'm sure I've made many of those mistakes. When I was living in Chile I'm once said "estoy caliente" which while technically means, "I'm hot" actually translates to "I'm aroused." (wow, impotence and arousal in the same sentence -- maybe this war is getting to me). One quick story that made me chuckle to myself and also question how I ever made it past the 5th grade, occurred when I learned that the past tense of the verb to sing (for a female) is pronounced ... shart. Yup, I thought that was the funniest thing ever ... I can't believe they let me in either.

I'm still iffy on many of my classmates, I'm starting to find the people that I like the most ... but it continues to be a process. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of people and am confident I will have good friends, but many people, especially the men, take themselves quite seriously (something I've never been accused of doing … see above). As a group it seems we really like to hear ourselves speak -- a trait that I am quite aware is not foreign for members of the clergy. I hope to provide some more anecdotes on individuals (names will be changed to protect ... my ass) and the program on the whole. As always --- questions, comments and anecdotes are encouraged.