Ani Lomed Ivrit!

Below is the branch of the school which handles overseas students

Mah Shlom'Chem? Tov, Tov. Ani Oseii Chaim! Oh, sorry...I forgot to switch my brain from Hebrew to English. As you can tell, I have been studying Hebrew sooooooooo much. At first I thought this Ulpan was going too slow, but it seems that when it picked up, it left me behind. With all joking aside I would just like to say that this is getting difficult. The great thing is, it's Hebrew! I love studying the language and actually doing something in school that I want to do. For anyone who doesn't know exactly what I am doing or for people who want more details, here is a brief description of life here, and what the program is like. First of all, this program is called Ulpan. It is an intensive language program mostly for new immigrants coming to Israel. There are many different Ulpan classes throughout the state of Israel. Most people prefer to join a kibbutz and learn the language that way. Now me on the other hand, I prefered to go to Hebrew University and take their language course. As I have never been on a kibbutz to study Hebrew, I can't give the exact differences between those classes and mine, but from my observations I think those ones are mostly to learn how to speak the language, whereas the Ulpan I am taking focuses a lot on both the written and oral parts of the language. Whatever the case, I do get ten college credits for this course, which I wouldn't find at a kibbutz. The course is from August 9th until September 28th. I study from 8:30am until 1:00pm, sunday through thursday, with an extra hour added on tuesday. I just had my first test today, and there will be a test every following thursday. All that said, I feel I did well on my first test and I am still so amazed that I can actually get a test written entirely in Hebrew and actually understand what it is asking me to do. When I am not in class, I mostly stay in my room either sleeping or studying. There is a nice cafe located right outside of my dorms, which I go to occasionally to do homework. In short I am just trying to keep my head down and stay glued to my textbooks. Thank you all again for your support and prayers. I will try to write an update every thursday from now on so you can know when to check for new updates.

With much love from Jerusalem,

Jesse

P.S. My phone number is (052) 312-5594. So far I don't think anyone can get it to work internationally. In any case if you want to try the country code is 972. Also, I made some modifications to the comment posting options. Now when someone wishes to post a comment they have to do a simple word verification. If you haven't noticed, automated software programs have been posting stupid comments on my site in order to get a link to their website. This verification should stop it from happening.

This is a view from Mt. Scopus, where the University is located.