As an aside, since beginning my new commute and course, I've become very familiar with the Cofix by my ulpan. So familiar in fact, that I usually order two coffees each morning and they have decided I'm worthy of my own carrying case. I save it and reuse it every day because coffee is no joke. In other news, the morning employees are all French speakers, as is about 1/3 of my class. So I can continue to remember how much French I've forgotten since high school. Which is basically all of it.
So I finished my first ulpan back in February. Then I've been on a waiting list for a medical ulpan. I found out on a Thursday, two weeks ago, that I was off of the waiting list and that I had an exam on Sunday to see if I was qualified (if I know enough Hebrew) to take the course.
Okay, so I make my way to Tel Aviv for the exam. Mind you, I hate cities. Anyway, the exam is difficult but doable. I finish the exam and leave. They said to return the next day at 9am again. I figured they would text or call if I did not pass. They had taken down all of our information.
Oh, but how wrong I was. I go into the classroom and we all wait for the teacher. She comes in and looks at her list and calls out a few names. Then looks at those people, and says, sorry, you can't be in this class, you didn't score high enough. Geesh. Harsh!!! Then they passed around the grade sheet with the results of everyone's exam. I guess we aren't quite up to studying privacy laws in medicine yet.
Moving on. I'm in the class, so yay me! But this blog post isn't about the ulpan. It's about public transportation. The last time that I commuted to work on public transportation was in 2001. I lived in the Bronx and worked in Manhattan. I hated the commute on the subway but it was convenient. Every other job that I've had since then, I've commuted to by car.
So day #1, I go into Tel Aviv with the hubby since he is an expert. We walk 2 minutes to the bus stop and take a bus straight into Tel Aviv. Then walk about 5-8 minutes to his office, where he makes me coffee. Lovely, right? Except I don't work in his office and my ulpan is a fifteen minute walk away. And also, I can't go to his office every day for coffee because he has this thing called a job. And every day isn't "bring your wife to work day." And also the minor detail that I can't do the reverse commute in the afternoon. The same bus doesn't return back to my town until the evening rush hours.
So, there is another woman in my class from my town. I follow her home. That entails walking to the bus. Then the bus to the train station. Then the train home. Then waiting for another bus to my actual home.
Except on the first day, I didn't know exactly where the bus from the train to my house was. So I ended up turning the wrong way out of the train station and walking towards my house, figuring I'd see a different bus stop. Well, the joke was on me because the bus doesn't go that way. Once I realized this, I was way too stubborn to give up and walk back to the train station for the correct bus. Nah, I figured I would just walk home and take the shortcut up the stairs. Have I ever mentioned that this particular shortcut is approximately 275 stairs?? Lesson learned. Be less stubborn unless you're working on your glutes. Below are pics of the view on the way up those stairs.
The next day, I asked where the bus stop was located. Progress!!!
So this has been my daily commute, minus the hubby making me a latte.
#1 abandon my children (actually, they also leave for school at ~ the same time)
#2 walk to bus stop
#3 wait for bus
#4 watch Netflix on bus ride while hubby sleeps
#5 walk 25min from bus stop to ulpan
#6 learn 50 new words per day
#7 rush from ulpan to local city bus with two classmates
#8 rush to make train
#9 enjoy the very pleasant train. Seriously, it's traveling in style
#10 wait for bus to house
#11 get in more steps walking to house
#12 home again, home again, jiggity jig
After Pesach, I have a new plan to save me time. We shall see how it pans out. I did a test run last week.
Now, the new ulpan. I am now in a medical ulpan. It is full of people from different medical professions. We have doctors, dentists, physical therapists, speech therapists, pharmacists, etc... And one lone nurse. Yes, that's me.
The ulpan is full of people from all over the world. France, Belgium, Russia, Moldova, Turkey, Brazil, Australia, England, South Africa. And one lone American. Me.
So the short story is that I really like the ulpan. I hate the commute but the course is really good. You might recall that my previous ulpan was too easy. This one is not too difficult, but it is full of tons of new words. So there is a lot to learn. Or as my teacher so lovingly put it (remember, this is the course where they singled out those who didn't pass the exam) as she read my paper, wow, we have stuff to work on. Well, as we say in English. "No shit, Sherlock." I wouldn't be here if I didn't have stuff to work on.
More on the new ulpan next time. For now, I shall leave you with this:
On Friday we had an ulpan party from my previous ulpan. We all went to our teacher's house (because we are totally her favorite class ever). We had a get together, she made us fancy coffee and of course, forced us to speak in Hebrew. And then at the end, she handed out our certificates of completion for her course, with grades for the oral and written exam on them.
Warning : brag ahead
You may recall that I was in a Bet (level 2) class. But in the end I took the Gimmel (level 3) oral and written exam. It's a long story, but basically, if I passed level Gimmel, then I am able to take my nursing exam in English. Backwards, but thems the rules! Below you shall see my glorious certificate of completion.
But the day before I received this, remember I was sitting in a class where the teacher told me how much I have to work on. And I had a bit of a situation at the train station where I had no idea what the guard was asking but refused to say, huh?
One step at a time.
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