First Day of Classes at the CY

It's hard to believe that day two of classes are already over! Gone are the days of free roaming around Jerusalem, sleeping in late with naps in the middle of the day, and spending hours at the grocery store trying to figure out what's in all those darn packaged goods. It's now time to get started on what brought us here - learning.

We are signed up for both sessions of CY's summer session, which means we have classes from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., five days a week, for six weeks. There's also Shacharit service in the morning (starting at 7:30 a.m.) and sometimes there are extra programs during lunch or in the evening.

The classes are set up a little like college where you attend the same classes on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday and then another set of classes on Monday and Wednesday. Over all these days, we are signed up for four different classes. We absolutely love three of our classes. (The fourth one still has potential, but it's not on our favorites list yet.)

One of our favorites is Ulpan (intensive Hebrew study three hours a day), which I was really worried about since I haven't been a fan of several other Hebrew classes I've started. So far, this one is just absolutely wonderful (we'll see how day three goes though).

In the other two classes that we adore, the teachers are fantastic, funny, incredibly knowledgeable, entertaining, and great speakers. They impart the information to our large class (about 50 or so) in a way that keeps us stimulated and wanting more when the class ends. These classes seem too short even though we are in class all day long.

Overall, I feel like I've learned more in the last two days than I have in months of other studying. This is going to be fantastic!