Discoveries Abound

Alright, so the last few days have been mildly interesting, but I have learned a lot. The Ulpan started the day before yesterday and so far it's been pretty fun. It turns out that Hebrew is the absolute easiest language I have ever had to learn. This is because the modern Hebrew spoken in Israel today was only developed about 100 hundred years ago, so it's not as convoluted and weird as French, Spanish, or English. There are only four tenses in Hebrew (past, present, future, and imperative), and only four verb endings in the present tense. In fact, the only downside to the whole thing is that I had to learn a second alphabet because Hebrew has an cursive-type alphabet which is what they write with. The alphabet I learned is what you use to read stuff like books and banners and things. Now, though, I kinda wish I had some sort of independent study option because I get everything we have been taught, but because I'm in the absolute beginner class, the class itself goes very... very... slowly. But I suppose I'll get used to it. Something funny/really awkward happened in class yesterday. One of the guys in the class is from Macedonia, and throughout the first day of class he said that he was from Macedonia and spoke Macedonian. There is also a girl in the class from Thessalonia, which is apparently the capital of Greek Macedonia (or something). She took great offense at his saying he was from Macedonia when, according to her Macedonia no longer existed or had yet to exist or something to that effect. So they ended up loudly arguing about national identity and cultural indoctinization for several minutes while the teachers looked on helplessly. It was awkward. Personally, all I know about those two places is that Philip of Macedon was Alexander the Great's father and in classical Greek myth Thessalonia was where witches came from. Needless to say, I didn't get involved in the argument.

Now, a quick rundown of my roomates. There are five people besides me living in my suite and only one is Israeli. I tend to forget his name but it is something like Washi or Washmi. The first person I met from my suite was a very thin German guy named Sebastian. Then Adam, from New Hampshire, Martin, from the Czech Republic, and Gabriel, from Greece, who I have seen a grand total of twice since I arrived. They seem pretty cool, but I almost never see them so its hard to tell. That being said I think all of them are staying for the semester as well as the Ulpan so I'll probably see more of them later in the year. Oh, and apparently the guy who lived in my room during the last Ulpan (in July) was also named Luke, which is rather improbable. Also, on a living situation related sidebar, I have very little idea of what to make/eat here considering that I don't have any silverware or plates or anything of my own. There is a communal set in the suite, but I don't quite trust communal stuff. So I have been having mustard and salami sandwiches for breakfast everyday (because they don't require silverware or bowls and that was the only deli meat in the store which I recognized). This has led me to conclude that I really need to buy some more supplies because my stomach does not like mustard that early in the day. I would have been making peanut butter and jelly, but there is no jelly here, only confiture and I don't know what that is (the jars have stuff floating in them).

Yesterday I would normally have written a post, but I didn't because I was very sick (shocking, I know). Here's how this came about. Earlier in the day I went up to the moadon (which a sort of general purpose room for the dorms) for the orientation for our trip on Friday (we're going to the Golan Heights). Afterward I was planning to take a hike down Mt. Carmel with some people, but the oppotunity arose to go the Grand Kanyon (the biggest mall in Haifa). I thought that this would be an excellent time to get a converter for my laptop/camera battery so this guy named Jacob and I caught a bus heading in that direction. On the ride down I started to feel a little unwell, but I didn't think anything of it. The bus dropped us off at our stop and we discovered that that bus took you near the mall, but not to the mall. So we walked about a mile along the side of a miniature freeway, navigated a multilevel subterranean parking structure, passed two security check points, and finally found ourselves in the mall. Now this was a fairly legitimate mall (you know big, lots of stores, brand-names I recognized despite being written in Hebrew), so you would think that at least one store would carry what I was looking for. But, of course, you would be wrong. The closest I came was a REI type store that sold adapters for plugs, but which didn't do anythingt for voltage. This would have worked for my laptop, but not my camera. I almost bought them anyway, but the adapter didn't fit a 3-pronged plug so I left without buying anything. I later discovered that that would have worked for my laptop, but whatever. Jacob, the guy I went there with, had similar luck in finding the surf shop a friend had garunteed him would be there (it turned out to be at the Kanyon mall on the other side of town). The whole trip would have been a waste except I bought a new book (The Ruins) which made everything better. Or so I thought until I got on the bus again. This bus was going to take me to the central bus depot and from there I would take a diferent bus back to the university. But halfway through the first ride I became excessively carsick. I don't know what it is about the buses here but apparently they make me ill. That was easily the longest series of bus rides I have ever taken. It was nothing but stop and go, up and down and around these unnecessarily twisty roads. By the time I got back I was sick to my stomach so I dragged myself back to my bed and collapsed. Later I felt better so made myself Israeli cup-o-soup (using bottled water) and abruptly got sick again, this time due to the incredibly high salt content of the broth (it was like salt water). So that was my day yesterday. Today, we had a test in class (to the dismay of everyone but me) and now I plan on doing my homework, then borrowing an adapter and watching some TV on my laptop. Tomorrow I'm going to the Golan Heights for a tour. To end this I will list some things that I find odd about this place: 1. Buildings have 13th floors here 2. The elevator to my room does not have a 3rd, 5th, or 8th floor 3. There are cats EVERYWHERE 4. McDonald's actually tatses good here, but Coke still tastes bad and 5. The ocean is warm.

More later