Monday January 25th-- 1st day of Ulpan

Today was another interesting day because it was our first day of Ulpan! For those of you who dont know- when you study in Israel you are required to attend Ulpan. Ulpan is an intensive hebrew learning program where you take a hebrew test and they place you in classes based on your ability and you attend a hebrew intensive learning class. Ours is from now until February 18th. So insted of starting the semester right now- we have Ulpan for 6 hours a day. Ulpan is Monday-Thursday from 8:30am to 1:15 pm and Sundays from 9:30-2:15. I've never taken a class earlier then 10 am at Binghamton in my life so this should be interesting.

Woke up at the crack of dawn this morning. Didnt sleep much last night--- it was FREEEEZIGGGG & there was some monsoon going on outside, you could here the wind from miles away. Showered, did my hair, and dressed all nice for the first day of school- went outside and of course its POURINGGG and freezing-- bye bye nice hair. We walked to campus as a group--- campus is a like 20 minute walk, not so fun in the rain and freezing cold :( Got there, got a cup of coffee, then somehow tried to to find the bookstore with Sam. The campus is a HUGE maze, im not sure how i'll ever figure it out, theres millions of buildings and so many paths, its soooo confusing. We got sooo lost and Ulpan was starting very soon but those in our level, level alaph, were required to have the book on the first day so we had to get it. Finally found the bookstore, were obviously the veryy last people on a line of about 100 and 1 cashier. Paid at 11:06-- ulpan started at 11:00 today--- 6 minutes late, 10 minute walk away, SWEATINGGGGG-- did not want another repete of daniella cohens hebrew class at binghamton where she publicly humiliates you when your late- so i was shakinggggg and running. Finally I made it to the rothberg school, looked my name up on the board, saw I was in level alaph level 3-- ran to room 207, only 15 minutes late, enterted the room praying I wouldnt be publicly humiliated. Opened the door to a room of about 12 filled with Koreans, Americans, people from Denmark, Italy you name it-- probabaly the least jewish class they got, but hey its a free country. The teacher was this adorable little Israeli lady, so sweet-- only spoke hebrew the WHOLEEE time- im convinced she just doesnt know english. We learned letters, sang songs, we went around the room introducing oursleves in hebrew- it was really fun. It was all a huge review for me because I took hebrew in college so it was pretty much a breeze for me. WHile the koreans were struggling I was drinking my latte. Then we got a half hour break for lunch so I went to the cafeteria and ate a bowl of soup with this boy from my class, Michael, saw him out saturday night WAISTEDDD beyond beleif-- had a field day with that. Then we went back to class and a different teacher came in. Nice lady too, a little stricter but nice-- she continued with the lesson where we learned more letters, songs, etc... Its very quick and intense I almost feel bad for the people who have never seen hebrew before, its quick andd just very very intense, they dont stop for nothin. In my class theres a few boys who are nice and semi normal and this girl whose in aephi at uconn so shes going to be my friend! shes a year younger- actually good friends with someone in my sorority so we're friends. We actually have lots of homework which will keep all of us busy I guess.

After Ulpan, sam and I stuck around and did our homework and waited for the 3rd shopping trip to the Mall. Sam wanted to get a hair iron and I wanted to get a heater and some other things to make me room a little cozier. These buildings are SOOOOO colddd at night omgggggg... We were soooo tired but we knew we had to go so we went. We ate dinner in the food court, fought some israelis in the mall over the heaters and went back on the bus. Such a longgg dayyy sooo wipedddd... Soo happy with this heater, finally a little warmer.

I'll just tell you all the bizarre things about my apartment:
-You have to turn on the hot water button 1 hour before you shower... I shower in the morning and theres no way im getting up at 6 am to flip a switch. Pnemonia here I come

-I always thought this was a myth but its true-- in the bathroom theres 2 flushers- 1 flusher for numero uno and one flusher for....

-Our thermastat which clearly doesnt work because its an ice box in here is run by a remote control thats like 6 feet above the wall

-theres keys for everything-- key for your door, key for your front door- nothing locks automatically sooo annoyinggg

-stairway smells like..........

Laila Tov!