May is upon us already! How did this happen? March and April were busy months - Purim, Pesach, Yom HaShoah and all the days in between. Just a quick update and then I will post pictures over the weekend.
I've been keeping busy with Ulpan - my Hebrew is really improving and I understand a lot more thanks to the 20 hours per week of saturation. I try to converse with some of the French and Italian students but usually the words that I am searching for come out in Hebrew or English. I wonder what will happen when I start learning German this summer.
Last year I really didn't do much to celebrate the holidays, but this year I have been making up for it! For Purim, I went to a salsa club and after a short lesson, I was dancing away! It was a lot of fun and of course there was a costume competition which had some amazing entries.Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me, so you'll just have to imagine the costumes. There was everything from dancing rabbis with butterfly wings to futuristic motorbike riders with fiber optic LED lights (they won the competition).
For Pesach seder, Zoya invited me to Ashdod to be with her family. I had a real Russian seder complete with beet salads, deviled eggs, gefilte fish, and more! Zoya's family was concerned because I wasn't drinking or eating meat, so her grandmother gave me the fish head from the gefilte fish so that I wouldn't starve. We ended up spending the night in Ashdod and I realized how much I miss the quiet of the Northwoods. Since Ashdod is so close to Gaza, I expected it to be slightly more frazzled somehow, but it was actually quite nice and the apartments are new and well-maintained because families own them rather than renting them as in Tel Aviv. If it weren't for the safety issue, I'd be tempted to move there!
Also before Pesach, my Ulpan took a trip to the Matsada and had our symbolic seder at the foot of the mountain. I sang two solos: "Deep River" and "Alla fiera dell'Est," which is the Italian version of "Chad Gadya," except that the goat becomes a mouse...nobody's really sure why. I also sang two Hebrew songs with a group of women from other classes. It was the biggest audience I've ever sung for solo (500 people), but after just a few Grinberg warm-up and breathing exercises from my new teacher, I wasn't nervous and was ready to go! (Even despite slight dehydration from the desert conditions.) I'm still working on getting a recording from the event - sadly, I wasn't standing close enough to the microphone for one of the songs, so I don't know if it came through on the video. People were still able to hear me, though, so I know that my voice is indeed improving!
I also took a day-tiyul to the Judean Hills with Nefesh B'Nefesh, the organization through which I made aliyah. I snuck Zoya along (technically, she is what we call a "veteran immigrant" not a strictly "new immigrant," but it didn't seem to make much of a difference) and we had a grand old time in the lush, green hills. I also had my first experience crawling (not an exaggeration) through a cave. I was a little nervous to go in but then once I was in, there was only one way out and it was quite exciting. The only downside was the very exuberant Israeli children behind us who didn't understand that caves magnify voices.
Spring has definitely arrived in Israel - everything is in full bloom and the parks are packed on the weekends! This past weekend I had a belated birthday picnic (my birthday fell on the last day of Passover) and we had a lovely international mix of old and new friends. I was speaking a mixture of English, Hebrew, and French, so by the end of the day, my brain was fried. But it was one of the best birthday parties I've ever had - good food, good weather, good location, and good friends! I will post pictures soon.
I hope that everyone is well and that you are beginning to experience Spring in your respective corners of the world.
A bientot!
Daniella
