We don't wait for Facebook to write on walls!

I never seem to take many pictures when I'm not a tourist, but here are a few to give you a taste of "winter" in Tel Aviv. 

Sunset in HaYarkon Park - reminds me a bit of Amsterdam.

 This is the tree outside of my window - it started blooming last month already! 

Sometimes we see these birds in the tree, but mostly they hang out by the river. 

They're called Rose-Ringed Parakeets and are originally from Africa.

 These are their cousins, Monk Parakeets, who took over a football field in the park one day.
They blended in so well, I almost missed them!

I'm not sure what these guys are, but I thought they were really cool. 

I saw these modern dinosaurs on another trek through HaYarkon park.

From the previous pictures, you may be thinking that I only interact with birds. 

Don't worry, sometimes I see people, too!

An old friend - 

This is Mati, the former madrichah of the Rishon Teaching Fellows (I went on some trips with them last year).
Mati is a tour guide extraordinaire and an all-around awesome person.

A new friend - 

This is Zoya, my new flatmate. She travels the world, speaks three languages, and makes a mean curry!

Running friends - the Tel Aviv marathon was last weekend. They decided to move the marathon to an earlier date since somebody died from heat exhaustion last year. Good idea, Tel Aviv :)

There are more stray cats than I can take pictures of.
This is the first one that I petted and let climb on my lap.
After she'd finished with me, she returned to her pre-warmed seat on a motorcycle.

 A classic example of graffiti found throughout the city. 

Richy says, "We don't wait for Facebook to rig write on walls."

Hope you enjoyed! Stay tuned for more pictures of Tel Avivian birds, cats, and maybe even people!

Oh, you made aliyah? But you're from America - Why would you come here?

Shalom, kulam!

I hope you haven't been holding your breath since my last blog post - or maybe you have incredible lung capacity and can hold it for 3 months!

Speaking of lung capacity, I started working with a new voice teacher, and right away, we began intensive breathing exercises to teach my body how to really support my singing. Except for a few times while singing with Alexander Technique teachers, I've always felt tension in my lower back while singing, but I thought it was because I was tensing those muscles unnecessarily. I kept trying to release the tension, but actually what was happening was that my muscles were weak and needed to be engaged! For the first two weeks of working with my new teacher, I wasn't allowed to sing at home and only did breathing exercises. Now I've had 6 lessons and I'm able to sing for an hour in good voice without feeling tension or pain in my back and without my speaking voice being hoarse afterwards. It is so nice to have finally pinpointed what was wrong with my singing and to really have clarity throughout my range. Oh, and my volume has increased meod - a lovely side effect!

In other vocal news, I was accepted to two out of the three German summer programs that I'd applied to, so I'm going to Munich in July to learn how to sprechen Deutsch. And also to work on not one, not two, but three opera scenes! I definitely have my work cut out for me, but it's good to be productive again.

Last week, I finally started my Hebrew classes. I tested into "Kitah Alef Plus," but the class was full, so the secretary advised me to go to the regular Kitah Alef, but to wait until the end of the month while the rest of the class learned the Alef Bet and Hebrew basics. Most of what we're learning is still review for me, but a lot of the verbs are new and we have a lot more speaking practice because the class is 3.5 hours long. Being immersed like that for five days a week makes it seem much more natural to speak Hebrew in the city and I'm understanding a lot more. Our class is like a mini-UN; all but one student are olim chadashim (new immigrants) like me from Russia, France, the UK, Australia, Italy, Uzbekistan, the Netherlands, and of course, the U.S. Our teacher challenges us a lot, but she is very knowledgeable and the classes are really well-structured. She makes sure that everyone gets practice speaking and ends every class with a game. I wish that my English classes with the kids last year could have run as smoothly!

Oh yes, I decided not to teach at the school this year. It was a difficult decision because I was really attached to the kids, but between Ulpan, my voice lessons, and my movement classes, I barely have time to do my homework and practice! I'm also living farther north in the city, so it would take me an hour to get to the school versus the 20-minute trip last year. But I did bring them all the books that I lugged over in December and I hope that they are using and enjoying them.

So, that's my new life in a rather large nutshell. I hope that everyone is well and staying [relatively] warm. Fear not! Spring is around the corner!

Chibuk gadol* :)

Daniella

* big hug