Updates

Hose:

I know you are all interested in whether or not my new garden hose is working, so I won't make you wait any longer.  It isn't.

Well, it worked just fine the first time, and there I was filling up the pool, cleaning the mirpeset, so happy.  Then, suddenly, in a moment of pure frustration with itself for working well, the hose decided to break.  Literally - the hosing came off of the end piece and water was shprizing everywhere.  So hose investment #3 is a failure.

Ulpan:

It's finally happened. My brain is full.  I cannot cram another conjugation, adjective, or infinitive into my head.  Now I sit there with a dreamy expression on my face and whatever goes in, goes in.  Most falls right on the floor.  Near my seat is a hip-deep pile of information that crash-landed trying to fly into my brain.  I guess 5 months is a bit too much for me.  But I'm still going, getting whatever I can out of it, and we'll see what happens when we have the test.  Yes, there's a test and no I don't plan to do well.

Heat

It's hot.  It's June and we've already had several days over 100. So be it.  The a/c in the apartment and in the car works just fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.

Dust

There is an entire network of dust bunny matchmaking going on in my apartment.  Shadchanim are meeting practically every moment, making matches, and apparently dust bunnies don't date or get engaged for long because there are little baby dust bunnies that have been created almost daily.  I sweep Monday.  And Tuesday there are more.  The gestation time for baby bunnies must be about 15 minutes.  I mean, there's barely time for sheva brachos.

I dust the furniture constantly and while I am dusting I hear it (I am not delusional) laughing at me.  But it's kind of like Ulpan, I'm not giving up.  I know I can't defeat it, but, but,but....

Work

We are both working, b"H, but mostly from home.  Imagine two people who have always worked in separate offices now working at home, together, all day long.  It is hard to get into it, and one does need to get out every day at some point and no, we don't work in our PJs all day long, but it is going ok.

Hebrew

NOT the same topic as Ulpan, although related.  At some point what you learned in Ulpan, in Hebrew class, etc. all starts to come together, but it is such a slow process.  I hear words now and know that I know them, but can't remember the meaning fast enough to make sense of what is being said.  I want to say something but can't find the words so end up saying things that, in English, would sound like, "I and the daughter of mine seek to walk to Jerusalem to buy things but we know not how to reach it."

Money

I finally feel like I know which coin is which without staring at it like a dumb cluck for 15 seconds.  I know the red bills are the happy ones (200s).  But I still have to stare at the cashier with drool coming out of my mouth trying to figure out the amount she just told me I owe.  "OK, maatayim is 200 and chamishim is 50 and sheva is 7, so that's..........257! Which means.....that if I give her a red bill and another bill she will give me change....."  

So all in all, it's coming together.  Don't mind my kvetching - the big, BIG deal is just living here in what is literally a holy place.  Every time I see an archaeological dig pop up along the side of the road because some construction crew found an ancient synagogue buried there, every time I realize that the beautiful majestic hills that surround me every day were probably traversed by some ancestor of mine, and more importantly when I think of my own more immediate ancestors who would have wanted to live here, I am profoundly happy.