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Ulpan is about to come to an end.
Now more than ever I really feel that I am actually making Aliyah. By ‘Aliyah’ I mean running toward a blurred horizon where everything is uncertain but has some sort of purpose.
When I left Australia I knew where I was going to live, what I was going to eat, and what I was going to do when I got here. Now, everything I plan on doing in the next 6 months to a year is followed by a “maybe”.
This is both exciting and intensely unsettling.
I like to forward plan, but in this country if you approach someone and say “I’m interested in renting this place in a month”, they say; “come back to me in a month”.
Just reflecting a little on the whole Absorption Centre experience. I’ve made some great friends, some who I will keep in touch with post Ulpan. Then there are some I can’t stand, and after Ulpan I will carry a plastic bag at all times coz if I see them I might throw my guts up.
We have our final exam next week, but we have classes until the 6th June (weird), and are expelled from the building on the 15th. So if you do the math, the 6 month Ulpan the government is meant to provide its new immigrants isn’t very much at all.
If there were no breaks it would only be 4.5 months, but there were many breaks; Pesach, day trips, Independence Day etc. Now 4.5 months becomes just under 4. But then the Ulpan itself was never full-time, it was 3.5hours a day which in my opinion was a good thing, but nonetheless halves the Ulpan period which come to 2 months.
My Hebrew has improved immensely, that’s for sure. I can bargain for a better price for my veggies in the shuk. I can complement a soldier at the recruitment office on his compassion for ‘Lone Soldiers’ so that he gives me what I need. But could I write a Master’s Thesis? – Harbeh Lo. Can I deconstruct the literary devices of a Yeuda Amicha poem – Pashut Lo. But I’m getting there.
I can understand about 70% of the news, so that on El-Naqba day I knew that someone from Syria had broken Israel’s borders, not sure if it were their tanks or protestors. Lucky I don’t worry about these things.
Hebrew can often be confusing though, especially with the news. Neshek (weapon) and Neshikah (kiss) are very similar. So a young man in downtown Lod was cought kissing a teenage boy, big deal, is that really news worthy?
The security guard at the supermarket asked me if I had a knife (sakin) I said yes and showed him my plastic bag (sakit) I wanted to reuse. ‘To wait’ (lechakot) and ‘to copy’ or ‘imitate’ (lechakot) are identical to the ear. So when an Israeli friend told me to wait for her while she went off to go to the toilet, I followed her and did as she did. Awkward…
Especially being Australian where pronouncing each consonant isn’t so important makes Hebrew all the more difficult where an ‘i’ or and ‘eh’ can change the entire meaning of the word. And I don’t think I’ll ever learn to pronounce the ‘resh’ (‘r’ sound)
Oy Vey.
