A few
days ago, I rode one of the Jewish buses* for the first time since I’ve been
here. We usually take the Arab buses – the stops are closer to campus, and the
rate is cheaper – but I was going to visit some friends, the Sheltons, in
another city, so I needed the Egged.**
Whatever
the opposite of beginner’s luck is, I have it. I’m very good at things in
general, but I’m very bad at starting things. It’s not usually anything I can
control, either; things just seem to always go wrong the first time around.
Anyway, this made me slightly nervous about finding my way, but I had my GPS
and lots of daylight left, so I set off.
First
my app took me through obscure parts of Arab neighborhoods to get to the bus
stop. I managed to miss the first bus and had to walk about twenty minutes away
to get to another stop for plan B (it was that or wait nearly an hour). I
finally caught that bus, but it took me quite a while to figure out how to pay;
I didn’t have a ticket, but fortunately, I could pay in cash. I made my way on
and managed after a great deal of anxious waiting to catch the second bus I
needed, and after about an hour-and-a-half I managed to get off close enough to
where I was supposed to meet my friend that I could use my GPS to find her.
I had a
wonderful time over the weekend. These are the same friends my parents and I
stayed with over their visit, and I wish I’d started visiting them sooner, but
better late than never. I had a great time sleeping in, studying some, working
out, watching a movie, and watching kids. At first I’d planned to stay only a
few hours, but they invited me to stay the night – and then to stay another
night – so I left on Friday afternoon and didn’t get back until Sunday
afternoon. It was marvelous.
I also
got to go to church this weekend. The service was in Hebrew. I understood it,
but there was translation to English for those immigrants and visitors who
didn’t speak Hebrew. There was also an Argentinian, so we had translation to
Spanish as well. There was also a guest speaker from Uganda; his accent was
quite thick. For the English, though, not much translation was needed; I think
there were more English-speakers than Hebrew-speakers in the room. In any case,
it was very nice, and I’m invited back anytime.
It took
me a little while to get back in the swing of classes, we’ve had so many
holidays lately. I was really tired a couple of days ago, for reasons still
unknown, and this morning I thought my Hebrew class was an hour later than it
was and accidentally missed it. I have it again tomorrow, though; it’ll be
alright. On a happier note, the grocery store near us now sells
half-watermelons, so I bought one, which made me very happy. I’ve also bought
several books in Hebrew (they were on sale) that I’m excited to start reading.
Speaking
of reading, going through the Harry Potter books in German (I have all of them
now) is very helpful for syntax and vocabulary, but it also means that my
vocabulary is expanding in rather strange ways – I know how to say things like
“Death Eater” and “Defense against the Dark Arts” and “Occlumency” in German.
Still, books are an important part of learning most any language.
And of
course, I couldn’t mention this week without mentioning that we went to go see
the Avengers a few hours ago. We thought it hadn’t come out yet, like in the
US, but it turns out opening weekend was last week, so we headed into town to
watch it tonight. It was fun; we enjoyed ourselves immensely, as you can see by
the pictures. The movie theater was trying to be American and went a little
overboard – it was three stories with multiple Uncle Sams and more screens,
statues, and general American movie paraphernalia than I think I’ve ever seen
together in my life. We had fun.
Of
course, going to see it was also the reason this blog post was a little late,
and since I seem to be falling off the bandwagon when it comes to posting on
time, I’d better go ahead and get this uploaded. Thank you for reading, and good
luck to everyone else coming up on finals – only a few weeks to go!
*I refer to them as the Jewish buses because they’re run by
a Jewish company, don’t run on the Sabbath, and etc. The Jews usually take
Jewish buses and the Arabs take Arab buses, but it’s not a law; the different
lines just run differently (the Arab buses don’t have set schedules) and go to
different places in town.
**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egged_%28company%29
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