Allow me to backtrack for a moment. I thought I had written about the summer semester earlier, but I may not have been clear. So best to clarify things before talking about their conclusion.
On July 11 I started Orientation. We had a week of getting to know you activities, expectations discussions, and programming to help us begin to think of ourselves in our future roles as community leaders. On July 16 I started Summer Semester. This semester is best understood as a pre-school program and was often referred to as summer camp, without a lot of the essence of camp, by me and my peers. In this session we had Ulpan for most of the day, as well as Cantilation (learning to chant Torah) once a week, and a Biblical History lecture twice a week, along with a Study Tiyul (trip) on Thursdays. I was in the highest level Hebrew class, the beginner cantillation, and the Biblical History class for those with some background in the topics.
This summer I also started my Education Seminar which will continue through the whole year. I truly look forward to this class every week and the opportunity to start delving into Education Theory and really geek out as an educator. Sally, my teacher, is wonderful....I can actually say this about all of the faculty I've interacted with so far - but Sally's had us over for dinner and movie night :)
Thursday August 25th was our last day of summer session. I have since enjoyed a week long vacation, which I'll write about soon, and will be beginning Fall Semester on Sunday.
So Summer has come to an end, I came to Israel for 11 months, I only have 9 months left. I still don't feel settled...I am under the impression this is normal. I hate when everything is a blur, but I have been told that that is exactly what this year will be, I'm going to fight against this.
It has been a productive summer and I have definitely done a lot in the last 2 months. My Hebrew Grammar has improved immensely and I feel like I have a new understanding of the language. My teacher, Osnat, was AMAZING! She truly cared about each of us. She worked very hard to help us succeed and she will definitely be missed, as she is not going to be our teacher for the year. I've learned the Teamim (notes for singing Torah) and I've toured parts of Israel as an archaeologist. I've travelled to the Israel Museum for a night of culture, a study tiyul, and a wonderful wine festival. I've gone to Tel Aviv for a free day and a day of sailing. I've wandered in and out of the old city, hung out at Ben Yehuda St., shopped at Hadar Mall in Talpiot, walked to the end of Azza, eaten in Emek Refaim, and fought my way through Machne Yehuda many a time.
I've felt very busy and I have been, I've also felt very flustered and like time was moving faster than I want it to. It never seemed like there were enough hours in the day. I think the fact that I feel like I'm still settling into my apartment has contributed to this. My second roommate, Mike, arrived today and with his help I'm sure this place will feel settled soon. It will be nice to finally set up some routines and to get the place a bit more organized. Feeling like there's work to be done and being too tired to do it at the end of the day is very exhausting - this is probably why I have not been updating as often as I would like to. That and the fact that I had 6 blog ideas in mind by the time I got off the plane and I have not been as good at staying one step ahead since then. I am also trying very hard to make this blog thought provoking and not just a log of the events in my life.
Summer session was an interesting time for us. It was a time of adjustment and it was a time that was misunderstood by many. It was clearly set up - in my opinion - to be more of an ulpan than a start of my Masters. However, many felt that it was the start of their program and were frustrated by the lack of depth with regards to those programs thus far. I think everyone is definitely excited for this program to really get going. There have been a lot of sign ups in the past few weeks and thus signs of the approaching school year. We're going on a tiyul to the North next weekend and needed to sign up for rooms. We needed to sign up to lead services - I've shown great initiative and leadership and opted to go last :) We needed to sign up to give a 5 minute D'var Torah - stay tuned for Parsha Trumah at Kabbalat Shabbat Services at HUC on February 24th - in case you're planning a trip. Finally, we've needed to sign up to chant Torah twice. I will be reading Toldot on November 26th - this year is the Bar Mitzvah of my Bat Mitzvah and I will finally read a Torah portion that is considered obligatory as opposed to the Maftir. I'll also be reading some time in March - although I don't remember what and when at the moment. Yes, there IS a lot of preparation to do.
Thus my "summer" ends. Who's excited for Fall?
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