July, 2002
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Hi everyone,
It's Friday afternoon, VERY hot in Jerusalem, so we're sitting inside next to the fan and preparing for Shabbat. One of the wonderful things about our last month here has been the opportunity to let our lives revolve around Shabbat -- to feel the rise and fall of the week in a way that we don't always get to at home. Friday is a day off for us, which means we have time to do all our errands and chores so that Shabbat can be a time to rest and enjoy instead of trying to catch up from the week. Maybe we could get Bush to adjust the weekend in the US?
As Rachel Ann mentioned, we've been loving ulpan. It's amazing to see how quickly my Hebrew is improving -- both in class and on the street afterwards. There are really two different goals for the language study: to be able to read and work with texts, and also to be able to use the spoken language. I'm much better at the first, which is most important for my studies and work afterwards, but the 2nd is coming along with every day.
The big news from this morning is that we bought tickets for our first vacation! I still can't believe we're on a school schedule after so many years of working, but we're going to take advantage of it...we are flying to Venice, Italy on Monday -- yes, that's in 3 days! Our travel agent found an incredible deal, and the round trip ticket was only $200. Unfortunately, Monday was the only day we could travel, so we'll miss the last 2 days of ulpan. But it is worth it, and I'll be doing plenty of studying during vacation in preparation for the next ulpan. We're going to see Florence and Venice, and then take a train to Croatia!! We'll probably spend one day in the capital, Zagreb, and a few days on the beautiful Adriatic coast. They've really rebuilt the place -- it looks like it's going to be beautiful, will offer a lot of history, and is relatively inexpensive since the tourism hasn't caught up, yet. We'll have lots of photos and stories to share when we get back to Jerusalem on July 30th.
After that, we'll have a few more weeks to relax in Jerusalem, and travel up North to spend Shabbat in Tzfat, see our Livnot friends, and travel around the Golan a bit. The rest of our class (50 people) shows up on August 12th and then the HUC Opening Colloquium begins the 14th. It's hard to believe that our group is going to suddenly change from 15 people to more than 60. We've gotten into a nice pattern here, but there are some great people showing up, which will be nice.
Anyway, we are making some cookies now to bring over to an HUC Shabbat dinner. We'll be standing soon on a rooftop overlooking the Old City -- life is good. :) We've been going to different places every Shabbat, getting a feel for lots of the different options available, and this is our first service "in." I hope all of you are doing well, and I'm excited to hear more about what's happening back in the States.
Shabbat Shalom!
Love, Mark
August e-mail
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