I have been informed that its been several weeks since my last blog post and I need to rectify that. So here it goes:

I am currently in the 4th week of my six week summer class schedule. Hebrew is going about the same as it was before-- grammar is easy, vocab is right on par, and conversation is still killing me. But I am working on it! I'm hoping soon I will be comfortable enough to start using Hebrew menus at restaurants (or at least beginning with a Hebrew menu before asking for the English one).

Cantillation (chanting) is going ok. We have to change from the Torah twice during services this year, and to challenge myself to really work on my cantillation I signed up to read from the Torah in early October. Fingers crossed I can figure out all these trope by then! Most of them are easy to remember, but one of the trope (which tell you how to chant a word) called munach, is pronounced differently depending on the the trope after it. So far we have learned three different ways of chanting munach- I am hoping that that is it!

Not much to say on Biblical History-- Its very interesting, but the readings are very tedious and I am having trouble figuring out what is the big picture.

Education is by far my favorite class. I love my classmates and love love love my teacher, Sally. Last week we had a potluck at Sally's home (which is by far the nicest place I have been to since coming to Jerusalem) and got to know each other and then watched Mr. Holland's Opus. It was just such a fun evening. Yesterday I gave my hour long presentation on John Dewey and education reform ideas (which he wrote about in 1900). I think it went well, and am just so relieved to have it over with!

Moving on from school, living in Jerusalem is great. I don't get to go out as much as I would (darn schoolwork getting in the way) but when I do get to explore the city I love it. A few weeks ago my Biblical History class went to the Israel Museum and we saw artifacts from about 4,000 years ago. Pretty cool in my book. I had really wanted to explore the rest of the Museum, but it was closing by the time our tiyul (field trip) was done. I am hoping to go back soon and see more of the exhibits.

I have also gotten to go to several get together's at classmates places for Havdallah, Shabbat and parties in general. All of these have been great fun and and its so much fun hanging out with my classmates outside of school.

Of course I have also been checking out as many restaurants as my wallet will allow (so not too many, but still some). A few weeks ago I went to the Waffle Bar- which serves Belgian Waffles with all different toppings. I ate a nutella and white chocolate waffle. It was pretty orgasmic.

Yummy waffle bar

Shabbats in Jerusalem continue to be an incredible time. Fridays are filled with people running around the Shuk and supermarkets getting everything they need for Shabbat and then Friday nights and Saturday morning, the city sleeps. There are very few cars out and most restaurants and shops are closed.  A couple weeks ago I got to go to a community dinner called "Jerusalem Challenge Dinner". It was for young adults 20-35 from all over Jerusalem and Israel. Nefesh B'Nefesh (the group you go through to make Aliyah to Israel) helped sponsor the dinner, so there were many recent Olim (immigrants). It was so much fun getting to meet people outside the HUC bubble and hearing stories of how people came to Israel. There is another such dinner in August which I hope to go to.