The HUC Players

Last week was our first week of fall semester, of all those many classes I showed you in my last post. I really enjoy all my classes (much more than I thought I would), which is of course great. The best part of my classes, are my teachers who are all hoots and  half. Here's a little synopsis of the character I get to learn from:

Sima Haruv- Sima teaches my Grammar class, which may be one of my favorite classes. It's all so mathematical and formulaic! Sima is a small Israeli woman, who suffers terrible through our hour and twenty minute class because she isn't allowed to smoke while teaching. To help her get through the period, she always has an unlit cigarette in her hand, which I find oddly adorable. Besides this, she sometimes forgets to use her indoor voice and in the middle of a sentence explaining what type of vowel to use under a stressed syllable she will start shouting at the top of her lungs. If you ask her a question, she runs at full speed towards you. Needless to say, classes are highly entertaining with her.

Rabbi Shelly Donnell- Rabbi Donnell is an older man who wears bowties. It was love at first sight. He is head of religious life here and teaches my Liturgy Discussion class. His sister lives in Portland, so we always have lots to talk about. 

David Levine- David teaches my Second Temple through the Antiquities history class. He is an amazing lecturer as he makes event his very boring sounding class interesting. I haven't gotten to know him to well yet, as this class is taught with all 37 of us in one class, but I get excited for each lecture. 

Chana- (Aka muumuu Chana) She is my Hebrew teacher so I have had her for the past six weeks during Ulpan. She has an amazingly high pitched voice which all the students here love to imitate her yelling down the halls "Kitah A-leph!". She has an incredible sense of humor and whips out hilarious jokes when least expected. She also wears a muumuu every day. 

Joel Duman- I had Joel for Biblical History over the summer and now have him for my Bible class. He has a mustache that rivals possible any other mustache I have ever seen. Whenever someone talks about him everyone else holds up a finger over their lip to signify his mustache. Really, it is something special. 

Dalia- I have only had Dalia once so far for my Liturgy Lecture class (not to be confused with my Liturgy discussion class). She is so knowledgable (as are all my teachers) and makes learning about liturgy so interesting. 

Dave Mendelsson- Oh Dr. Dave-- how do I best put him in words? He is a small British professor and is incredibly educated on all things Israel and Zionist related. I have him for both my History of Zionism class and my Israel Seminar class. He is so entertaining and tells some of the funniest stories. He also carries around a briefcase which makes him seem that much more British. Love it. 

Sally Klein Katz- Sally teaches my Education Seminar class. She reminds me a lot of my mom, so I absolutely adore her. She also lives in perhaps the nicest apartment in Israel and has an amazing view. My goal for the year is to get invited to as many dinners at her house as possible. 

So those are the teachers who make up my life right now (since school and homework are pretty much my life). Now when I write about them in future posts you will know who I am referring to!

Other updates:

-We had a 3 day tiyul to the Galilee this weekend which was amazing (except for the fact that we didn't get to have a weekend at all). We visited all different pioneering communities and kibbutzim, and my favorite part was a visit to the Kinneret Cemetery (Dad, you would have loved it, but no fears, I took many pictures for you!)

-I got a job working twice a week at the school Library in the evenings. My hope is to get a majority of my homework done during this time so I can start having a life outside of the HUC campus. I'm currently working my first shift right now and enjoying it quite a bit!

Hope everyone is doing well back home!