I’ve been thinking of a lot of things about which I would like to write. As I walk to and from school (approximately 20-25 minutes each way, depending on how long I have to wait at the crosswalks), I often have lots of ideas. For instance, did you know that they ticket jaywalkers here? A friend of mine was ticketed 150. shekels (currently about 142. bucks) for crossing a street when there were no cars in sight. People from other big cities are driven crazy by this, but frankly, drivers here are fairly aggressive, and so I wait politely at the light as instructed.
Another day I will talk a bit more about how things that initially seem odd to a foreigner can often be parsed and made sense of if you only try. Since I am spending my days unpacking Talmud, this “And why is this?” kind of thinking is coming very naturally to me in all contexts now. Some time soon I’ll also share (for the benefit of those who have never considered Mishna and Gemara in any language) the kind of thing I am learning. You either love it — or you don’t!
This week I learned many new words (although not of all them will stick). Today I took a class on the weekly parsha — the Torah portion — in Hebrew! Boy was I proud of myself. Granted, Meir translates any word that people don’t know, and he speaks slowly and clearly. But still, I was pleasant surprised to see how much I understood, to learn many new words, and to learn something new about the portion.This past weekend I also taught myself how to describe my current condition: Ani hitkararti, ani hitztananti. Yesh li nazelet. I have caught a cold (two different ways of saying this). I have a runny nose. (Related: I wash my dishes with nozal l’nikui kelim, liquid for cleaning dishes). Every Hebrew word starts with a three or four letter root (four if it’s from some other language, like English or Aramaic.) It’s an incredibly logical language in many ways. If only the natives wouldn’t speak so fast — ;-)!
Anyway, since I am still getting over my cold, and I had a really long day at school (a good one!), I’m not going to write a lot more, but since some have asked for photos, I’ll share a few of plants I see on my walk to school.
huh?
Nine months in Israel 