Chugim, Ulpan and a Small Rant, Oh My!

So, as you know, school in underway for the kids in this family.  And this week, school started for me.  Yes, the perpetual student is back in school, this time, studying Hebrew.  It has been a long time (you people on Nativ 16 know how long, so shhhhh) since I have spoken Hebrew on a daily basis, so I need the classes for sure.  And my grammar leaves much to be desired.  I mean, it was perfect when I volunteered in a preschool years ago in Jerusalem and for working with the babies on a kibbutz.   Those babies will never correct my grammar! But otherwise, it is a work in progress.

First, I begin with a sad commentary.  This might sound judgmental, but it is not intended to be:
All of the people taking ulpan met together on the first day.  In one room went the real beginners and into another room went everyone else.  I ended up placing in level Bet although there was some discussion over whether Gimmel would be better.  But I need the grammar from level Bet and now I will tell you why.  I did not attend Jewish Day Schools.  Well, that is not true exactly.  I attended all of the way through 1st grade, at Forman Hebrew Day School.  Sitting in the same room with me, were plenty of adults of a similar age, who had gone through the Jewish school systems in the United States and elsewhere.  And our Hebrew levels were very very similar.  Now, their understanding of grammar seems better, but not the vocabulary.  Sad sad sad.  I am not saying this is the same for all Jewish Day Schools in the USA, but seriously.  You are paying all of your money for their education and your kid is graduating without being fluent.  That was always a pet peeve of mine.  Good news though.  Hubby went to Solomon Schechter and is basically fluent.  Sure he needs to work on things (like making me breakfast in bed) but his Hebrew is surprisingly good.  So, like any good wife, my new goal is to be better than he is.  I mean, I already know every word you need for babies on a kibbutz, and he doesn't know any of those.

Now a step back.  In the US, I was a wee bit overprotective (shut up every single person who knows me) of my kids crossing streets, being alone, etc...  Suddenly we are thrust into Israel where it is normal for kids to walk themselves to school and sports practice and shul and to come home to an empty house and get their lunch, play outside, etc...  I think we have actually adjusted pretty well to this (see my post about sending my older kids on a bus home and wishing them much luck).  So today's picture will include a cute one of my little guy walking to school.  Okay, we live really far away so he can't walk there but he has to walk from whichever far away parking spot I have.  If you think "carpool lane" in the US is crazy, you have not been to Israel at 7:50am.  OMG!!!

 And yes, those are 11 year old crossing guards with one adult helping them, or the other way around.  One of those kids looked at me this week (I was already stopped because I had a premonition that they were going to throw down those stop signs) and threw down the hand gesture for "wait a second."  I almost died laughing at that one.

Okay, so back to my ulpan.  Just a little insight into the makeup of new olim in Israel.  My class is small, maybe 16 people or so.  Today we had to divide into groups of 4, based on where in the room we were seated.  We had to have a discussion with our group about our names, and what they mean and where they came from.  So in my group of 4, there was me, from NJ, one person from Holland, one person from France and one person from Colombia.  Wow!  And if you think ulpan is hard, imagine being someone who is not a native English speaker.  Because that is the common language in the room when we cannot understand something in Hebrew.  So we have people hearing a word in Hebrew, not understanding it, so the teacher says it in English, so they hear it in English and have to translate it to their native language and then back into Hebrew.  Geesh!

Achievements of the week:

Chugim started in earnest this week.  You have already heard about netball.  But in the end we decided to hold off on netball because we have a lot of activities and you know, eventually the kids will have more homework.  So this week, all four attended Taekwondo.  The kids have been studying Taekwondo for 4-5 years now and some are happy to continue and some are not, but oh well.  Taekwondo goes on!  Except now they will get to spar some tough Israelis.  

Then, finally, scouts (tzofim) began.  The kids have been waiting for this.  They walked down to a friends house and those kids walked them there.  I really had no idea about what was going to transpire.  I figured it would be a meeting.  Well, we got  a call a few hours later from the three younger kids that they don't know how to get home because Eli has disappeared.  So, we find where they are and pick them up.  They had the three biggest smiles ever, and had their new scout shirts on and looked pretty cute.  We wait another hour or so and finally hear from Eli (who by the way, was told to bring his siblings home, but well, somehow he forgot).  As it turns out, the kids his age were busy doing a massive slip and slide in a park.  He was pretty happy and smelly when he returned.  Overall, a success.  And I hear they have an overnight, and please can they all go so that the adults can have a Yom Kef???

And finally, guitar.  Eli has found what seems to be the perfect teacher.  First, he lives within walking distance.  A  bit far, but once we get his bike fixed, we will be all good.  And Eli has already learned so much.  As you know, he loves guitar and spends most of his free time playing guitar.  And I spend a lot of my free time yelling, "turn down that amp before I unplug it!"  But we do love that he is so passionate about it.  If you are my neighbor and you are reading this, feel free to tell me if it is annoying you.