End of a Long Week

It has been a couple of very busy days for me since I last posted.

I think that the traditional effect of people staying in Jerusalem is starting to impact me: my legs and feet hurt from so much walking and I think I have lost a little weight. YEA!!!!! There is just something about being here that makes you want to walk instead of take the bus. I walked both ways everywhere the first few days, but then started taking the bus where I was going and mostly walking back. This was so that I would not get overheated and then have to sit in class with a soaked shirt.

The buses here move fast and seem to “wait for no man”. That means hang on tight at all times. The bus drivers are just as aggressive as the cars, even driving on the wrong side of the street to push their way in. Makes me nuts watching, but I guess I’ll get used to it.

At the Ulpan things continue to move at a brisk pace and we had our first test Thursday. This covered the first 59 pages of the book, so there was quite a bit of studying on Wednesday night for it.

I still get all the masculine and feminine forms or address mixed up at times, but I’m sure that will come with practice. Having masculine and feminine, along with singular and plural, forms of verbs makes things interesting to say the least. A few more people have come to class from still more countries. We have added Armenia and Czechoslovakia to the list, and I’m sure there are more.

Tuesday night was a cantorial concert by the current students at the school that I am going to. There were men at varying stages of involvement starting as low as less than 2 semesters. The concert was well received, and a number of the pieces were quite beautiful. While I probably should have stayed at the apartment to practice and study, I felt this was an opportunity to hear first-hand some of the results that others had achieved. The evening was well worth it.

I had my second Cantorial lesson Thursday as well. This made Wednesday evening even more crucial as I had a LOT of practicing to do.

We went over quite a number of things, including a new vocal technique to relax the throat before hitting a high note. There are also some things on “the written language” of music. This is really designed to help to keep the rhythm of the pieces flowing.

We changed the schedule for cantorial class to Monday and Wednesday, so those days will now be quite crowded.

I got a call this morning from a friend who has made arrangements for me to spend Shabbat there. I am looking forward to the new experience, and will write about it when I get back.