Well – I have made a decision to skip the next Ulpan session and use the additional free time to study what I have learned and to start putting it to use on the street. I am writing up flash cards for myself and will see just how much I remember. I will also be talking with Hebrew-speaking friends so that I am forced to use what I have learned and thus hope not to forget it. I expect to continue again in the less intensive class the following session.

I have a cantorial class on Wednesday, and then will be off until after the holidays. My next session after Wednesday will be in October. I have already been told that I will be given a lot of pieces on Wednesday, so the “time off” is going to be a very busy period for me.

I am staying at the apartment for Shabbat but have been invited to a neighbor’s home for Shabbat dinner tonight. This is someone from the Orthadox shul that I generally go to when I stay here, so I have at least met this gentleman before. The location is ideal --- directly across the street from the apartment.

I found out where another Conservative shul is and am considering going there tomorrow morning to check it out. I understand it is about a 15-20 minute walk from here. I will post where I went after Shabbat. (This is the one I was going to try to go to last week, but did not get to.)

I have been asked by some people what is going on here in Israel relative to Gilad Shalit. For those of you who do not know, Gilad Shalit is a member of the Israeli Defense Forces that was captured in a cross-border raid by Hamas. He has, as of this writing, been in captivity for 1,523 days. He has been seen only in a video released by Hamas, and Hamas has thus far refused to allow the Red Cross or any other humanitarian group to see him.

I have attached some pictures that were taken about ½ block from the Prime Minister’s home yesterday. They show a part of the area that is dedicated to demonstrations in support of Gilad and the diplomatic efforts to free him. There are large demonstrations here once or twice a week, with TV broadcasts from here 3-4 times a week. (I walk buy this location daily. Sometimes it is so crowded that I have to go a different way.) The volunteers here sell fluorescent green ribbons, and I see them everywhere. They are attached to street signs, fences, cars, trucks, busses, people’s clothing, bicycles, scooters and anyplace else you can imagine.

I was invited, along with my flat-mate, to Shabbat dinner Friday night by a neighbor. This was the same neighbor that I had Shabbat lunch with a few weeks ago. This time we were joined by her husband, who came in from France a few days ago.

While some of the food was unrecognizable (by me, and I’m no expert by any means) it was all very good. We were also joined by their daughter. It turns out that she belongs to one of the choirs that are at Hebrew University for the assembly, and she was in the audience for the concert that I described in my last posting. Small world.

Unfortunately I developed a major migraine and wound up sleeping almost all day Saturday. I finally forced myself out at about 9PM for a brief period. I guess I’ll have to try that Conservative Shul next week.

Today (Sunday) was devoted entirely to practice after about 1 hour to complete my Ulpan homework. We had an essay due Thursday, and I should get that back tomorrow. I had significant problems with it as most of it was written in the past tense and we have only learned 2 out of about 8 categories for that. I expect it to come back with all kinds of red ink on it, but I gave it my best shot. We shall see.