The Beginning of an Adventure:

Sunday was the first day of classes. My schedule:

Modern Hebrew: level Aleph (which means I’ll probably have to be here for three years)

o Meets Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday

Akkadian: first year

o Meets Monday and Thursday evenings

Readings in the Book of Jeremiah

o Meets Tuesday afternoon

Chapters in the Archaeology of Jerusalem in Biblical Times

o Meets Wednesday evenings but has a tour in the morning!

Languages of Ancient Egypt over Four Millennia

o Meets Tuesday evening

A Bibliography: A tutorial (not sure what this is exactly)

o Meets every other Tuesday morning.

I’m excited about these courses. They should be very interesting. I am allowed to audit one course each semester for free. I think I might do that. It would be awesome to take advantage of the time I am here. I just have to decide which one. I am supposed to have a year of Biblical Hebrew under my belt before taking the Jeremiah class. I talked to my advisor since I actually have none and she said to give it a try.

All of my teachers are great. My two Hebrew teachers are hilarious. They use minimal English – none if possible – and are wonderfully animated. They use enthusiasm and hand motions to teach new words. It’s a lot of fun. All of the professors are so knowledgeable. They just chill in their chairs talking a mile a minute. I am going to have to get back into the swing of writing non-stop for hours on end! My right hand was ready for the weekend. I am a little worried about my Languages of Egypt professor though. He would kind of trail off in the middle of a thought (or even a sentence!) then pick up somewhere else.

It is weird taking classes from professors with strong accents. Nicklis, I finally understand your pain! It is going to be interesting. Also, before a student is allowed to graduate from the Rothberg International School with their master’s, he has to pass Hebrew level Vav. That’s the sixth level. So, most students take at least a year before even coming to the school. This adds another level to the teaching process.

Example: Akkadian. (Which I found out is the language of Babylonia began during the time of King Sargon and was derived from the Sumerians.) While the classes are actually taught in English, transliterations can be written in either English or Hebrew and (because apparently knowing a million languages is common) examples will be English, Hebrew (modern or Biblical), or Arabic words. It gets confusing trying to translate the Akkadian use of a Sumerian word through the medium of Hebrew transliteration with Arabic examples!

My Jeremiah professor through me for a bit of a loop during class. She was giving a quick overview of Jeremiah, who he was, what he did, etc. She was talking about how lonely Jeremiah was – even his family had disowned him. Here she points out the window and interposes, “You know they live in Anata, just northeast of Harhazophim here.” (That’s the street that passes in front of the school.) Wow. This is gonna be awesome.

(I have also spent a retarded amount of time this week trying to get stuff done. Going from one place to another to find something, trying to talk to the librarian who kept shushing me, sitting for over two hours at the Cellcom booth trying to get a sim card – only to find out my phone is locked and won’t unlock, trying to get my internet connected in my room only to have each party tell me it is the party’s fault. On and on! These people do not understand the concept of “customer service.”)