Ancient ruins, modern Hebrew

Hello all. It’s been a few days so I thought I’d fill you in on what I’ve been up to here in Haifa. The tour of the Bahai gardens was beautiful. All the plants are so well taken care of and the grass must be cut every few days to keep it so short. My favorite thing about the gardens is that there is water that flows down each side of the steps and you can hear it quietly splashing and you walk down. It was easy to see how this place was so sacred. After the tour we walked to the market to get falafel and do some shopping. I bought some fruit and then headed back to campus to spend the rest of the day studying. This week class has been a little less overwhelming, but still very difficult. Ulpan goes so quickly we sometimes learn 3 or 4 grammar concepts in one day. It will be interesting to see how I will remember it all for the midterm on Sunday. I am still struggling with understanding what my teacher says in class, as well as coming up with full sentences myself, but hopefully this will improve with time.

We were able to get to the beach on Sunday. It is a pretty short bus ride straight from campus. I had no idea what to expect from the Mediterranean, so I was amazed at how wonderful it was. The water is incredibly warm, and the waves are almost as big as they are the Jersey shore. I went with my friends Lotte, Savannah, and Laura. We had a great time playing in the waves and then trying to do our homework on the very windy beach. We stayed for a few hours and then took the bus back up to campus for more studying. I went grocery shopping recently and found a bookstore near the supermarket that has a very small English section. I have been a bit starved for English reading material since I didn’t pack any books. The book I bought at the bookstore was only 24 shekels (less than $8) and the saleswoman said I can return it and they’ll give me half price in store credit. I’m very excited to have found a cheap source of English books.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we went on a trip to Caesarea. Caesarea was originally a port built by King Herod during the Roman empire but changed hands a lot through the years. As a tourist attraction, it was a fascinating mix of the ancient and modern. The ruins themselves are very well intact. You can still see the colored tiles on the floor of the bath house and the colored plaster on the walls. Before you get to the ruins though, you sit through a 10 minute movie about the history, then move to a room where different characters from the history can be projected onto screens and will answer questions for you. Last you go to another room where someone walks you through a map of the ruins on the screen, showing what it used to look like and what it looks like now. It was all very high tech, and kind of kitschy. We were all much more excited to walk among the ruins themselves which were very impressive. After touring the ruins we went swimming in what used to be the famous harbor. It’s more like a resort now, which some nice restaurants and bars with comfy chairs to sit in. Again, a strange mix of ancient and modern. I’ll be putting the photos up on facebook, and I think I can put a link in here to let those of you who don’t have facebook view the album as well. I try to post again soon with the links.

I just finished meeting with my friend Sarah from my class about our presentation we have to give next week. We are going to talk about the different travel obstacles we both faced while getting to Haifa (luggage and security issues). Sarah is from Germany so it was great to get to chat with her about what things are like there. I had never thought about this before I came here, but since Ulpan is taught in Hebrew and English, a lot of the non-American students have to double translate things. Sarah has a German to Hebrew dictionary, not an English one. She said usually it’s not that bad because she knows English so well, but she does write her vocab lists with the words in German, not English even though they’re given in English in class.

This weekend there isn’t a trip since our midterm is on Sunday so they want us to be studying. I will probably be spending most of my time doing just that, but my housemates have promised to drag me out of my room to do something fun at some point. Our Israeli housemates are moving out tomorrow because they finished their exams. Today I made Mervat tell me how they kept the apartment so clean so I can attempt to continue the cleanliness. I also asked her to tell me how she keeps her bathroom clean since I’ve never had my own bathroom to clean before. Oh, the new experiences I’m having here! Haha. Next weekend I will hopefully be visiting with the Schwartzes since Aunt Janet and Uncle Billy will be visiting as well. I am looking forward to spending some time with family.

Please let me know what you’ve all been up to, I’d love to hear about anything that is not related to Hebrew verb conjugations!

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