My First Full Week of School and Shabbat

Wow, it has been SO long since I've written a post... Lame of me.  But I'm just going to go ahead and give a little wrap-up/summary on my week.

These are the secular classes which I took this week: Marketing, Love and War in Ancient Greek Thought, Trends and Ideology in Jewish History, Biology, Jewish Identity- Leaders and Leadership Throughout the Ages, English Composition, Psychology, and Statistics. Here's my review:

Marketing-- Loved it.  The class seems like it's going to be easy, but also that I'm going to learn.  My favorite combo. 

Love and War in Ancient Greek Though-- As I do believe I previously mentioned, I really did not like this class at all.  I totally wasn't feeling the professor, and I'm not so sure about the subject either.  So I'm dropping it :).

Trends and Ideology in Jewish History-- I really love the professor for this class.  It seems like it's going to be a super awesome class.  The only thing I didn't like about it was the very large class size, and my hope is that he scared people away after the first class.  But we'll see how that goes.  He's an awesome guy, and ridiculously intelligent.  Let's talk about how he wrote a textbook... Ya.

Biology-- Seems like it would be the easiest class in the world.  Also, I love biology.  The problem with taking it is that I will likely not get any credits from it since most colleges- including Rutgers- don't accept Biology without a lab component.  And a bio lab is available, but since it's during the same time-slot as Psychology I don't want to switch into that.  I might switch for 2nd semester, though.  We'll see.

Jewish Identity- Leaders and Leadership Throughout the Ages-- This class is taught by the same professor as the Trends class, and I think it would be at least as great as the other class.  The very big bonus to this class is that there are many fewer students in it, and it is available to our program as well as the student on this American exchange Graduate Degree program.  In other words, it's going to be taught at a super high level- which I like.  The only thing I'm a little hesitant about with that class is the amount of reading... We'll see, though.

English Composition-- Love it so far.  The teacher is the Rabbi Moskowitz teacher from one of my morning classes, and I really like him.  We got our first essay back this week and I did really well! So obviously that made me happy.  But I like the style of the class a lot because we basically spend our time reviewing a few grammar principles then reading students' essays and discussing them.  Good stuff.

Psychology-- So far so good, minus the fact that I had to buy a fatso expensive textbook and that I have to read that every week. Haha.  For real though, it seems like it's going to be a really good but hard class. Which I can deal with, because it doesn't seem like there are going to be that many of those.

Statistics-- Hard for me to talk about.  It's actually the easiest class I've ever been in.  I sit there and basically beg the man to teach at a faster pace, because he teaches at a baby turtle pace.  Additionally, he's teaching material that I learned Sophomore year. So... Oy, is how I feel about that.  By the way, there are still, somehow, students who don't understand what's going on.  It truly boggles my brain.  I guess it's nice to end my Thursday on an easy note.  The only problem is that it's so easy it's actually quite frustrating.

Those are my secular classes.  My Judaic classes were really all quite awesome.  There's only one that I didn't like, so I'm switching to the other option for that one.  Aside from that, though, all the classes have been a really great pace and subject matter for me.  So I love them. 

Each of my classes are ninety minutes long, which is crazy because at Yeshiva my classes were thirty-seven minutes long.  Seriously, more than double the length.  I really like the long classes though, because I like all of my classes.  It's fun to just sit all day long and learn.  Especially because so few of the teachers actually ever give HW... So I really get to spend my day learning and my night participating in the programs that are offered to us.  Since I'm taking so many classes it has definitely been suggested to me by many people to drop a couple, but I really don't see a reason to do that.  I have really been enjoying learning all day, and it's not like each class adds an enormous amount of HW.  Obviously I have some reading to do, but even that is only for certain classes.  The difficult part of taking all the classes seems to be when Finals roll around in January.  Instead of taking one per day, I'm probably going to end up having to take two or possibly three.  Honestly, though, I took two per day at Yeshiva- obviously it's not the same- and I was GOOD at them.  I love preparing and studying for a bunch of tests and then knocking them all out... I really do rock at that.  So I don't think it's going to be such an issue for me.

At large, school is going really well.  I have gotten a lot more comfortable on the Bar Ilan campus, and I'm getting myself into a nice routine.  Oh, let's talk about how nice it is to be able to go to a coffee shop after tefilah (prayers) in the morning and just order a hot cinnamon pastry of deliciousness... Welcome to Israel, my friends.  It's beautiful.  What else.  Oh, lamely I have to wait until November 1st to sign up for the workout gym that's on my living campus.  So I'm eagerly anticipating that, to say the least.  It's been far too long since I've gotten a solid workout in, and it's yucky.  


It was quite the Friday afternoon. I got in the shower and as I was showering I was looking out the window, and I noticed that the sky was getting darker and darker.  Then some thunder and lightning action started to begin, which wasn't unusual because all last week that was happening.  All of the sudden a fat thunder occurred, and it sounded like the entire sky cracked open.  Basically it started full on Seattle-style pouring after that, and I loved it!!! It totally made me miss the rain.  After my shower I went outside and just enjoyed the beautiful look of the ground, the sound, and the fresh smell.  Since my living campus is super green, it really gave off such a similar smell to the one we get in Seattle after a good rain.  Good stuff.  Since I was spending Shabbat at the Jacobson's, and had to embark on the regular journey to get there, I put on my blue Northface rain jacket.  It was nice to have it on again, as it has been a really long time since I've put that one on.  I looked totally Seattle as I was wearing a Northface jacket, shorts, and a backpack. 


Shabbat was obviously beautiful, fun, awesome, and perfect at the Jacobson's, but I have a story to tell.  Before the story I'd like to mention that the rain, thunder, and lighting, on Friday night in Ra'anana was some of the most intense storm I've been in.  Within like three minutes, the streets and sidewalks were flooded.  The sky was lit up so ridiculously intensely, it was awesome.  I really like the whole thunder and lightning thing, and definitely the rain aspect, so I enjoyed it.  Though I can't say that all the people I was with felt the same way.  Haha.  Anyways, the story.  So we were eating out for dinner at the lovely family's house who I had definitely never met before.  As we're standing in their kitchen, who walks in the door?  You'll never guess- I assure you.  Answer: Betzalel Schwartz.  Who is Betzalel Shwartz? The twelve year-old son of a family who moved to Israel from Seattle quite a few years ago.  I basically freaked out, and unfortunately for him he had absolutely no clue who I was.  But it was so awesome.  I have been planning to call their family to make Shabbat plans, but I hadn't yet taken care of that.  Also, I thought they lived in Yerushalaim.  Apparently they live in Ra'anana, and yes- we ate dinner with their family! Craziness!!!  It was awesome to see all the kids, and for sure Pam and Yoav.  Nuts.  I'm going to go to them for a free Shabbat, so more to come on them when that happens.  But moral of the story is that it was totally insane to unexpectedly eat dinner with a Seattle family who we were friends with!


Oh. Sunday I had my first Ulpan, which was surprisingly great.  I learned a lot, and it seems like a perfect level for me.  Yay!  I also had my Magen David Adom (E.M.T.) training for six hours, which was obviously lovely.  I learned all about baby CPR, choking in all instances, and effectively using ambulance equipment for CPR.  And last night I didn't do anything so exciting. School today, so far, is great.  My two Judaics classes this morning were great, and in about half an hour I have my Marketing class.  Then I'm done for the day!


A couple of things to note:

-The other day I was wondering if there's any kind of study comparing Lung Cancer rates in non-smoking Israeli citizens to non-smoking American citizens.  Because quite frankly everyone in Israel smokes, so the amount of second-hand smoke that happens is a little ridiculous.  Just a thought.


-This country makes me so much hungrier than I've ever been in my life... I don't know what it is, but it's a little much sometimes.  Oy.


-This is a sad story. Once upon a time, in response to my cry for help, my mother so kindly offered to send me hair mousse in a box.  She sent it.  Then she got it back last night.  Let's talk about how that makes me want to cry.  Rudeness! Stupid aerosol laws... Now I need to find real mousse in this country, which is going to be a journey in and of itself. 


I hope all you Seattlites went to the RunScared race yesterday! If not, I hope you all had a great weekend!  Enjoy your week, everybody :).