Hell Freezes over, or at least Jerusalem.

As I sit in the comfort of my room, I can hear children (some of our ulpan students as well) playing outside in Jerusalem's 1st snowfall since last March. Blizzards (all 2 1/2 inches of wet, icy slush) are a rare occurrence in this part of the world. Apparently this” storm of the century" blew down off the Balkans earlier yesterday causing snow in Athens and Istanbul. In preparation of our snow day, we threw a little hamiesba (party) last night. Some of us indulged in a few too many sprits, and I kept walking in on an Argentinean dude and French chick playing hide the blintz outside my room. Names will not be mentioned but only because I don’t know who they were. Around midnight, it began snowing at a decent clip, and we all ran outside for a snowball fight. Since I fell about 3 times, my clothes were socked from head to toe. I haven’t had that much fun in a long time. Now, I grew up in Boston. I've seen my fair share of winter weather. I can vividly remember poor channel 4's Shelby Scott giving us Nor’easter updates on the beaches of Scituate. If you scroll down to one of my first blogs, I bitched and moan about the weather in Boston, but it's hard to believe I am living with people who have never seen snow before. We have one girl from Venezuela and another fellow from Australia who were as giddy as school children on a field trip. I just shrugged my shoulders but enjoyed their delight. It was a rather beautiful site to see Jerusalem covered in pure white; there's something holy about the entire scene.

In other non-meteorological news, my woes with the Hebrew language have been well documented lately. I have had some internal-struggles deciding to stay in my current Hebrew ulpan class or drop down a level. At times, I feel as though I lack a few fundamentals that Aleph Echad could provide, but after attending a class in that section, there was no way in hell I was remaining. Now, I am not above dropping down a level. If it's what's best for me, then I would gladly do whatever it takes to master this beast of a language, but I can already read, write, and speak some Hebrew. After a week of busting my ass, seeking extra help, talking to people, and a lot of deep prayer, I am beginning to understand the various verb tenses. I find its best not to become obsessed with grammatical rules and just try speaking with the idea that I'll make mistakes and people will correct me. I've never backed down from a fight, and I'm not about to start now. I won’t be challenged in the lower level. I'd rather be a weaker student in a stronger class than a stronger student in a weaker class. My pronunciation is slowly improving, and I am gaining confidence. Stay tuned for more developments.

As previously mentioned, I have "studied abroad before,” and although this isn’t a semester abroad (it's real life this time), I find some striking similarities between both experiences. I met some really wonderful people back in France, and so far the quality of people seems to have followed me to Israel. Everyday is filled with a new adventure as I learn more about Israel and the people at Ulpan Etzion. I try to meet and understand as many different people as possible. I love the Brits partly because we almost speak the same language. I have begun using such words as shoddy, pisser, minger, suspect, peculiar, and odd. It's hard to believe they taught us Americans how to speak English. There's this "one bloke" named Josh from Glasgow. He's a real interesting individual, but I struggle with his strong Scottish accent. Then, we have the lovely lighter accent of Talya from Leeds which isn't to be confused with the delightful London dialect of Tal who's become a rather resourceful study buddy. She's in a class 2 levels above me, and her mother is Israeli (real Israeli not like us fake wannabees). We worship students in higher levels.

So I keep pressing forward here in the Promise Land. I have my good days and miserable days, but I honestly wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now. Even the worst of days when I cut my mouth on Hebrew, it rains, snows, or does whatever the hell it's doing outside now, all day, the South American guys and French girls laugh at me for attempting to butcher their own native tongues, the ulpan food is something survivors from Dachau wouldn’t touch, I'm sick, and I wait in line all day at the bank, post office, or health care services, but I am able to suffer here in Israel, and I am glad it's nowhere else.

Did I offend anyone with my article today? If not, no need to worry tomorrow is a new day. Please offer me feed back, or at least fed-ex some decent kosher food to Mountdew2891@aol.com

Shalomsky,

David