Ulpan, Take Three

Late last week I "moved" to Los Angeles so that I could begin a new Hebrew Ulpan (intensive learning program) at the AJU. I stayed with my grandmother for a few days and then on Sunday, the day before class was scheduled to begin, I started house sitting for a friend who lives in the San Fernando Valley, nice and close to the university. Jen and I move into our new apartment later this week. And yes, I did buy a pair of new shoes!

This Ulpan runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is very intense (which, as you may recall was also intense but only intense from 8 to 12:30) as there are only three of us in the class and so, unlike my previous Ulpan, I can not avoid speaking or answering questions by avoiding the eyes of the teacher. Not only does the Ulpan (which runs for seven weeks) take up most of the day, there is also a lot of homework. Tonight I spent four hours doing the following...

• Writing a page in my Hebrew class journal.
• Reading and rereading a essay about Theodor Herzl because we have to be able to read it very, very well tomorrow.
• Listening to an audio file of my teacher reading said essay in order to pronounce everything correctly tomorrow (as if).
• Filling in blanks with missing words on another essay.
• Creating a resume for Herzl.
• Doing research on a famous person in order to "play" 20 questions tomorrow.
• Reading a newspaper article and highlighting the sections that I actually understood (about half the article ended up pink).
• Completing four grammar worksheets.
• Writing out vocabulary words that are new to me and trying to memorize them.
• Preparing for a daily in-class 5-minute speech (I only had to do this once in my entire year back in Israel).
• Reading a short story and complete two worksheets about the story.

So, I'm gong to learn a lot over the next seven weeks but my plans to improve my tan this summer won't come to fruition. But, I will be well-prepared after this class and then another three weeks of Biblical Hebrew Grammar!

It's wonderful to finally be on campus, the campus where I will be spending the next five or so years learning. It's a beautiful place and I've been meeting some wonderful people, both faculty and students, so I'm very excited about the fall! Off to bed to do the same thing tomorrow...