Getting Grounded

Today’s post comes to you from a real live computer with a real live wifi connection. My access was limited to when I was on the campus (which is about a 20-minute walk from the student village where I live. Uphill, my legs would like to remind.) My last post was tapped out at 9:30 before the library closed on my iPod’s web browser. But right now I’m on my class break, enjoying the slightly cooler weather today (that would be 88F), sitting beside a waterfall and some tombs carved into the white rocks as at least 7 of Jerusalem’s hordes of stray cats patter around me in the Hebrew University’s botanical garden. Just an ordinary day in Jerusalem.

Today is only our third day of study, but I feel like I’ve been learning Hebrew for much longer. Granted, we still don’t know the whole alphabet (still can’t spell the word for ‘money.’ Slightly problematic), but today I played the role of a humble shopkeeper greeting her customers and selling nothing but coffee, oranges, and vodka. I had a few other items that we know the words for, but those were the big sellers. So at least I know I could have a lucrative career here as a shopkeeper. (Don’t worry, the ‘vodka’ was just a water bottle, but we had 3 other bottles of ‘mayim’ for sale, so our teacher wanted to shake things up a bit.)

I just took a break from writing this to have a conversation with one of the cats. He said ‘meow.’ I replied in kind. He moved on. Some things are universal.

After learning a handful of food words, my flatmate and I returned to the grocery store (h’super) to test our knowledge. It went abysmally. It turns out our reading still needs a lot of work, but there was a great moment of triumph when I successfully read the label on the hummus, which read ‘hummus.’ I maintain that the picture of the chickpeas on the lid aided me in no way and it was a pure testament to my Hebrew proficiency.

I’m living just outside of the main campus in an apartment. Five of us have a shared living space while each having our own rooms. There’s me. Next door is my friend from Wellesley (there are three of us here in total. So much better knowing a few people while you’re here.) Norika is next to her. She’s from Japan and has pretty much kept to herself, so I don’t even know what she’s studying here. Then there’s Dima and Acham (my best guess at an English spelling), Israeli students who have been living here for a year or two, which meant our apartment wasn’t sparse as some students had but beautifully decorated and, more importantly, stocked with pots, pans, and a microwave. Small mercies.

Last night, we bought a bottle of Israeli wine (and pudding, because that was one of the first food words we learned, and if you talk about a food 6 hours a day, a girl can get a craving), and sat down in our ‘living room’ with Dima and Acham and chatted about Isreal, study, food, and where to go in the city as the evening call to prayer filtered through our open window overlooking the heart of Jerusalem. I felt so cultured.

The view from our hilltop is amazing. The University sits atop Mt. Scopus, ‘the overlook,’ and from my room, I can see from the Temple Mount in the Old City to the far hills of the surrounding villages. I wasn’t kidding about the weather. This week’s high is 90F on the Sabbath, but it depends where you are.  I’m outside at about 10 am, but between 1-3 pm is killer. If you have to be outside, load up on sunscreen and water. I have not, without being hyperbolic, seen one single cloud since I have been here. Not a one. Just blue skies and heat. And the haze that hangs over the valleys in the cities. It’s something about being so far below sea level, but I prefer the words of the poet Yehuda Amichai:

“The air over Jerusalem is saturated with prayers 
and dreams 
like the air over industrial cities.
It’s hard to breathe.”

My friends and I have chosen this cooler day to travel into the Old City after class (via the spiffy new Light Rail), since we must have our arms, legs, and collarbones covered as women. Plus, we can’t go tomorrow. All public transportation shuts down on the Sabbath. That’s in Jerusalem, though. Travel outside the City, and it’s much more secular. Tel Aviv for example does not sleep.

My first full day here, I met up after class with my advisor, who was also staying in the City. We went to the Israel Museum and toured the archaelogical wing, discussed pieces I’d studied in class, and I got tons of backstory behind the objects. We went to dinner in a restraunt just off of the Shuk, or ‘marketplace,’ a bustling area of stalls and shoppers. We had delicious food: blue fin on watermelon, curried salmon, and semolina cake for me. That day, I probably walked the length of the city, skirting around Old City. It was so beautiful.

Back to class now!

Lahitra’ot! (Goodbye!)