Michal's Update

Update from Michal:

I had a great day yesterday – we went on a tiyyul, a field trip, to the Old City. (Just me, as Jonathan would have died in the sun). We went to Mt. Zion, King David’s Tomb, the place to where archeologists think the Last Supper was held (SO DAMN COOL), and a museum where they had a replica of the layout of the Old City at the time of the First Temple. We also visited the valley of “Ben-Gihon” where child sacrifices were held (as railed against in the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah) – it was so awful that the name of the valley later became Gihon, then Gehenna, aka Hell. Then we walked all up and down the valley that had been the border between Israel and Jordan in 1967, and ended at the ancient burial caves from the time of Solomon, where an intact burial cave with 4 generations was found from 2700 years ago, including a silver amulet that contained a phrase from the Bible – which is the only known text of the Bible that we’ve found from the Biblical era.

Yesterday I went to the Tel Aviv airport to meet my grandmother, who came in from her visit to the States – she brought a big suitcase from my mom, which contained wondrous amazing things like Rolos and Snickers bars. Not to mention other, less important things like our bedspread from home, winter clothes, and extra Brita filters.

I’ve been having a ball setting up our apartment and getting it the way I like it. J and I have been buying tapestries and throws from the shuk, the flea market (along with our produce and pita). The place looks like ours now - we even procured a desk from another HUC student! We’re gonna take pictures in the next few days and put them up. My father gave me some money when I got here, and with his gift and a little of my own I also got nine new tops and four new skirts – I’m excited. I look more Israeli now, and I’m waaay more comfortable walking around in the heat than I would be in jeans.

My dad has weekly meetings in Jerusalem, so every Wednesday he’s been coming over to hang out after work – it’s been nice. He’s been a huge help with my Hebrew – the first composition of mine that he corrected had more green correction pen than it did my pencil marks! Ulpan itself is eh – I’m in Kitah Bet (level 2 out of 5) because while my vocabulary is high, my grammar sucks. So half the class is boring when we do vocab and speaking, and the other half is hard when the teacher goes over verb tenses quickly. I’m thinking of getting a tutor for grammar so I can move up a level or two… I’ll let you know how it goes. J

Tomorrow J and I are hosting a birthday “movie night” party, which will be our first time hosting lots of people. J set up his projector in our living room, so we watch DVDs on a 60 inch image on the wall, complete with surround sound speakers. It’ll be fun to watch as a big group - we’ve really only had Jaimee and Helayne over before, a lesbian couple we’ve become good friends with. A couple weeks ago the four of us made an Israeli communal dinner - Jaimee was in charge of the spiced hamburger and J of the rice, so we all pooled ingredients and cooked, and then Helayne and I whipped together some fruit salad for dessert. Yay friends. J

Other than that… Jan’s going-away gift of Star Trek: TNG has never been put to better use. It’s a great way to wind down the day, since each episode is only 45 minutes and I don’t feel like I have to commit to a whole movie. We’re nearing the end of Season 4, watching them in order.

I’ve become addicted to fresh nectarines, and I’ve fallen in love again with the concept of eating tomatoes and cucumbers like I would an apple. I did a 15-minute presentation in ulpan about my family, where I brought in my laptop and did a slideshow presentation of people (including Cleo the cat and Gesundheit the rat). I’m learning all kinds of new stuff about ritual and Biblical history that I only wish I had known when I was teaching 6^th grade at Temple Israel. And I’ve been really enjoying Shabbat, where I’m forced by default to do nothing.

That’s all from the home front… pictures to follow soon.