So Hebrew's a really interesting language. Every word has a root/stem (the two words are interchangeable) that has to do with a particular concept. So SDR goes to "seder" and "siddur", and KDSH (SH being one letter in Hebrew) goes to "kiddush", "kaddish", "kadosh", "kidusha". The former has to do with order, and the latter with holiness.
This is all a side note.
Present tense Hebrew has four conjugations: boy singular, boy plural, girl singular, girl plural.
Past tense Hebrew has ten conjugations: me, we, you boy, yall boys, you girl, yall girls, he, them boys, she, them girls.
Also, Hebrew is utterly confusing when it comes to masculine and feminine. Masculine "you" ends in "ah", but nouns that end in "ah" are feminine. Verbs and adjectives also end in "ah" when you're talking about something feminine, but the past tense masculine you says "ah". So basically you can't actually tell.
Last bit of Hebrew ranting: you don't possess anything. You say "There is/isn't (whatever) to (whomever)."
So "I have a brother" is literally translated as, "There is a brother of me." Because THAT'S not complicated. Or, the most popular comment between Michele and me: "Ain li kesef." - "There is no money to me." I.e. I'm broke.
Anyways.
After class, Michele and I headed down to the beach to study. We sat and order nachos while reviewed....
Nachos in Israel are not what we expected... First of all, we couldn't identify the flavor of the chips until we had eaten nearly all of them. They're BBQ Doritos. The sauces were pureed avocado with no seasoning, straight hot sauce, and cream cheese. It was very interesting...
When we got cold, we headed towards campus and stopped at a little cafe for coffee and tea. I haven't spoken to the coffee here in Israel. They don't have American coffee. They have "American" coffee - which is an Americano. Which is still not right. What I end up getting is called a cappuccino, which is what I would call a latte in the States - espresso coffee with steamed milk. Actually, this chart is a better representation:
Point is, they don't have drip coffee. Which is a pain because the coffee here never tastes right. But I have become somewhat addicted...
The absolute best thing is Iced Cafe - or iced coffee with lots of milk and sugar that has been blended into a slushy sort of thing. I like to compare it to Starbucks' frappuccino, but it's much better. It's like a coffee slushy. And I'm sure absolutely terrible for you, haha. =]
Halley had some friends over and a bunch of us went out to dinner together. It was six girls and one guy. Some of them went to a club, but Michele, Yasmin, Tal and I headed back to campus. Tal and I ended up talking for a long time. He's a history major, studying modern Jewish history (i.e. Tel Aviv, since it's only 100 years old) and how the writings of history have influenced the community. It seems like a really interesting way to study history.
Tomorrow is review for our final exam in Ulpan, which is Thursday.
Lilah tov!
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