I'm doneeeeeeee!

Hey all!

Just realised that I completely forgot to blog last week. Oopsie daiseis =P

Anyway, I'm completely done with my course! Like completely! Like fully! Like yeah! Haha we just had our final exam this morning, welcomed in the Shabbat as per normal, and now I'm at the airport chilling forrrrrrr another 10 more hours now! =P And I'm hungry and there's almost nothing open due to it being Shabbat (was prepared for every Shabbat except this one =P=P). There's a couple of other guys with me, so it's not too bad, but still gonna be a bit of a wait. Not to mention the next 5 hour wait I'll have in Istanbul, possibly without internet connection =P. So might as well do this now haha. You can totally expect a not-so-long post here =P=P.

So yeah I'm done with the Genesis course! I'll probably back up a little more to describe the entire course in a moment, but just at this point =P. It's kinda mixed feelings at this point haha. First off, I am VERY glad to be heading back, and there's so much stuff back home that I'm missing HEAPS (and no, the top one isn't gaming, or even my instruments =P=P). I'm also glad it's over just because around the end, we could just feel the long-term fatigue setting in from doing an intensive course for a full 6 weeks. But at the same time, I'm kinda sad to leave behind what was an AWESOME experience, just when I was getting to a stage where I could really start feeling the language. But undoubtedly, it HAS been an awesome time over here, and it's certainly been my best birthday present ever from my parents (along with being the most expensive >_>) and I think it'll be for a while. There's just so much I've gotten out of it that I literally couldn't have gotten anywhere else in the world, and I trust that God will continue to build it up in me, even though I'm not immersing myself into the language intensively anymore.

So what can I officially do now that I've finished this 6 weeks? I can read the entire book of Jonah, the first 3 chapters of Genesis, and the 10 commandments in biblical Hebrew with pretty good understanding. We've also done Psalm 8, but... it's still gonna take me a while to get a grasp of the vocabulary and the sentence structures. But we officially did look at it and read it! =P But apart from that (oh and Jonah 2 is a lil weird too) I can actually read all those with pretty good understanding. And really now the main thing I have to work on is just the vocabulary. As just about every one of you probably knows, my memory... is not the best in the world =P. But yeah that's the thing I struggled with a lot in the course (just about every error I made in the final exam was a vocab issue =P). And I can essentially read out any part of the old testament (that's in Hebrew, anyway =P). Might not necessarily know what it means, but I can do it =P. But even so, I'm realising that I recognise a lot of words just when reading a few 'random' texts out of the Torah. And that....... yeah it's a little cool =P. Like OHMYGOODNESSIACTUALLYUNDERSTANDWHAT'SGOINGON kinda cool =P. Just a little =P.

Haha so now that I've finished the course, I'm gonna try and look back and trace my progress. Cos let me tell you, even into the 3rd week or so, I'd NEVER have imagined that I'm where I am now. Some of this will be repetition of previous stuff but hey. I have time. I need to kill time. Deal with it =P.

Week 1:
This was all about getting used to hearing the language. Essentially, they commanded us to get up, and we got up. They commanded us to jump, and we jumped. They commanded us to fly, and we flew. They commanded us to hit the other teacher with a sword, and we did that willingly =P. In this way we built up a basic vocabulary and just began to get an ear for how Hebrew words sounded. Around the end they also started introducing the present and past tense (again, all just by listening to commands and listening to what they said while we were performing the commands). At this stage, we also started learning the alphabet. We were essentially saying nothing this entire week. The only real time we got to speak was right at the end, when we (the students) got to give the teachers commands, and they had to do it. Ahhhh that was good fun =P.

Week 2
Here we started reading the book of Jonah. Very very slowly - around 1-2 verses at a time. Even then, it was incredible - I could already understand most of the stuff right from the start! I was totally not expecting that to happen so soon. We also did some basic verb things (like tenses and that kinda thing) and it quickly moved to more complex verb things. New vocabulary was learned by the same method as before - acted out by the teachers and sometimes commanding us to do the same action. And while we continued to build a foundation of vocabulary and grammar, we just continued to read through the book of Jonah.

Week 3
More of the same, more of the same. Except the sheer amount of vocabulary we learnt went up, and we needed to learn it faster. We had started reading around 1-2 verses a day, and by this week we were reading like 6-7 verses a day. We didn't do a huge lot of acting out past just acting out a new word for the purposes of... well, learning the new word =P. I believe at this point we started learning the different categories of verbs (the verb patterns), but I can't quite remember if that was in week 3 or 4. I think we did have the weekend to work on that. But by this point, we had pretty much already covered most of the verb 'theory' just by using a whole lot of verbs that we'd learned beforehand.

Week 4
So at this point, we had three days left and the whole of chapter 2 and 4 to cover before the review and exam. And so I was like 'yeah right, as if we can finish this on time' =P. Well, apparently we could, simply by doing half of chapter 4 per day and running through the entire chapter 2 as a class together. Yes, it was intense, but we did it! =P Considering we went from 1-2 verses a day to half a chapter a day... yeah that's a fair amount of progress =P. And there was even more vocabulary to learn - quite a lot in fact. We also tied up all the stuff about grammar and verbs which we'd learnt so far. And we reviewed the entire Jonah for the exam, and... we sat the exam! Haha I did a LOT better than I expected (my paper was littered with annotations saying stuff like 'I have no idea what this actually is, but it sounds like it should be that....' =P. Hahaha good fun.

Okay running out of time, I'll finish this up later =P

Kets!

Heyo alls!

I are done with Jonah study!! =D=D AND I passed the exam that we did yesterday! Even though I was uber confused for a lot of it. Like when he was going through the solutions, I was consistently going like 'Uhmm. Right. Yes. I knew that that thing was the third person masculine singular in the past. Totally.' But hey! =P I can now read Jonah in Hebrew with relatively good understanding (esp the first chapter, and most of chapter 3 =P. Chapter 2's just weird. Well, at my level anyway =P) So now amazingly, I have a weekend without any homework or review to do! Which I suddenly realised yesterday means I actually have the chance to move around =P. So tomorrow I may head down to Jerusalem, wander around a bit, grab a Hebrew bible, all that kinda good jazz. And then onwards to Genesis!

But yeah. Umm. Suddenly I'm at a loss as to what to say haha. I've already said stuff like 'it's sunny outside!' =P. Umm. Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm. This is weird. I'm writing a short post. This is....... weiiiirrrrdddddddd.......

Okay cya guys then! ^_^ Sg peeps in abt 2 weeks, perth peeps in abt 3 weeks ^_^.
God bless!
Ernest (Nehemiah)

I HAS INTERNET!!!!!

After going essentially an entire week without much internet, I finally have some! So gonna quickly blog while it's still up =P.

Classes are still intense! We're 3/4 of the way through the Jonah course now, and we're slightly past half way through the book. The pace of reading is definitely picking up though. Even though I think I'm probably behind a lot of the other ppl doing the course, I'm quite amazed at how much I'm learning. We've essentially memorised the shma (Deut 6:4-9? I think?) and I'm quite shocked that when I'm reciting it, I can actually figure out what it's talking about without trying to have to search for an english meaning.

Actually I'm finding the biggest problem I have atm is getting a grasp of all their grammar stuff. Like they'd go "So yes, this form is applicable to every pronoun!" And I"m like... uhmmm what's a pronoun? And they'd string a sentence that included 'infinitive', 'imperative', I dunno what else... you get the idea =P. So it's hard for me to grasp what they're saying about grammar if I've got to wikipedia 'adjective' every other page... and my internet has been down =P. So yeah =P.

Other than that, recognising the words and their patterns is starting to become a lil more natural, but there's definately still a long way to go. I also need to start being able to figure out what it's saying from what I'm reading. Like if I hear a word, I can generally figure out what it's talking about, but if I'm reading it out, I generally read so slowly that I don't pick up what that word is. But slowly! I'll get there! =P I'll definetely be looking for ways to continue reading after this course is done though. Like at first I thought this would only be for Jonah, but it turns out we can actually understand quite a bit of narrative as well. Like on the bus our teacher was reading from Kings about Elijah and the prophets of Baal, and we could pretty much understand the whole thing! So yeah, really exciting stuff ^_^

The bus! Yeah we had a two day field trip out around the Galilee area from wed-thurs, just to get a feel of the country. I'd been touring around there before, so it wasn't a HUGE deal for me, but it was still nice to be out around the area. The sea of galilee just like before was amaaaaaazzzzinnngggggg - watching the sunrise over it in the morning from Beit Bracha (the place where we stayed) was incredible. Wish we coulda stayed there another day or so, but alas =P. So we kept moving around the place, went to this university at the top of Mount Carmel for a free museum trip (I couldn't get a good shot of the HUGEEEEEE building sticking out the top of the mountain! >_<), and we also went to Gath Hepher, which in the words of who we affectionally call (literal translation:) teacher big again, was an 'unexciting yet exotic place'. I'll be impressed if you know what that is - I certainly had no idea and didn't even realise this was in the Bible! (yes, it is in the Bible =P). I'll put pictures up on fb at some point =P. Once I get down to it =P.

So yeah! Other than that, I've been in the room, studying and trying to get internet up =P. Oh at one point I really needed to take a break, so I tried playing around with some vocals stuff. Trying to do some sorta-harmonies stuff that I don't -think- is... according to 'harmony theory' or whatever, but it's something I've always had in mind, so I thought why not try it on this incredibly dodgy lappy mic hey =P. Lemme know what you guys think! Don't mind the beatboxing, I needed a beat and was like yeah why not hey =P. Actually I can just get rid of that portion! Okay now you don't need to endure the terrible beatboxing =P. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15874504/Come%20Thou%20Fount%20beatless.mp3


Will blog again hopefully next week! Ttyl! ^_^
God bless,
Ernest (Nehemiah)

First week in Israel!

WARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY SHOULDERSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Good morning! ^_^ ^_^

So I'm blogging about my time in Israel. For those of you who don't know, I'm in Israel! Surprise! Haha brief background (don't snigger when I say brief, I can SEE you snigger in the futur- hey snigger gives me a red squiggly! Sif! =( ). I'm taking an oolpan over here (language course in Biblical Hebrew), and I'll be doing a 6-week immersion. I've finished my first week now, and boy is it tiring! So now talking about the stuff in detail... (here I make no claim to be brief ^_^)

The basic philosophy of the course is that just about everything is done in Hebrew. We don't get anything like 'Kum means get up' or anything like that. So at the start, what they did was have one of our two teachers to give the other a command (e.g. kum) and then the other teacher would stand up. He'd then give us the same command, and we'd get up. Then he'd tell the other teacher to 'shev' and he'd sit down. In this way, we quickly build up a vocabulary of commands by instinctively doing what they command. They'd often get us to do weird things as well, but it doesn't have to make sense =P. On the most part, it's really fun and informal, but still really tiring just because we're adsorbing so much. On Friday, they gave us a 20 minute opportunity to give THEM commands to do, which resulted in hilariousness =P. We made them do stuff like filling up cups of water and putting them on each other's heads, and then getting them to jump slowly; getting them to eat their swords; at one point we ordered them to get out of the hut and close the door behind them... and then we just sat there and laughed =P. So yeah, it's been really fun but really, really tiring.

So on the most part, for the first few days, it was all about just listening to commands and responding. We were taught more and more objects/animals/stuffs as well, and that was done by giving commands as well. So like instead of just saying 'That's a rock', they'd say 'throw the rock at this person', or 'put the rock in the cup and drink it'. Or, instead of 'this is a sword', they'd say 'hit the other teacher with the sword!' And they take anything (and I mean ANYTHING) and turn it into something to learn. So like once this guy was commanded to throw a chair, and he chucked the chair on top of the sword and broke the handle. And after that there was a flurry of learning about what breaking is in hebrew, or what strength is etc. And up to now (and probs for the rest of the course as well), he's considered as like the epitome of strength whenever they want to talk about something or someone that's strong =P. Haha yeah, once they pick something they stick with it =P.

At the same time, we've been going through picture lessons (a book with pictures on it with a recording that says what those pictures are in Hebrew), as well as learning the Hebrew alphabet and writing system. Moving into next week, I think we'll be doing more talking and vocalisation - we've already started a little bit. So we memorise some songs and Bible verses, and do quite a bit of dialogue from Jonah. Oh I don't think I mentioned - I'm here for 6 weeks, with the first 4 weeks spent on Jonah and the subsequent 2 weeks spent on the first few chapters of Genesis. So yeah, for these 4 weeks at least, I think the objective is to essentially be able to understand and memorise Jonah in Hebrew, and to think in Hebrew rather than to translate into English, because the languages are simply different.

Classes run in the mornings from 8:30 to 12:30. We do 50 mins, 10 min break, 50 mins, 20 min break, 50 mins, 10 min break, 50 mins, 20 hour break =P. So it's quite full-on, and by the time we're done with that, our heads are well and truly warked =P. We have lunch up in the dining hall after that (part of the course costs) which is all-you-can-eat, and it's pretty good! I usually go for like 3 servings (which are like full plates of some meat, rice and often a piece of bread with some olive oil =P). So people are getting the idea that I eat a lot... not too sure why =P. That's usually the point where we realise we were meant to go to Jerusalem or something... and then realise we're just too tired =P. So that's when we generally go back to our rooms and crash =P. At the same time though, we have a lot of homework we need to do each day, so really any time I'm not just simply chilling, I have to be doing the homework. It's pretty intense =P. And of course, every night we have the most important 8-hour assignment of sleep =P. Policy here is that homework does not allow you to comprimise on 8 hours of sleep =P. Which I do like, but it also means I have to work harder the rest of the da- ooh look I have 3 =P's in a straight row down! Probs just on my screen, I doubt it'll show up that way on your screens. Ahem. I did not just get distracted. Absolutely not.

Weekends we have off. Totally off. And man I was glad to have no class yesterday, so good to have a break haha. Although my shoulders are still dea- OH YEAH I HAVEN'T TALKED ABOUT THAT YET! Okay later later =P. And I bet you I'll forget =P. And now I've forgotten what I was meant to talk about. Oh yeah that's right, the rest haha. Yeah it's great to just sit back and.... rest lol. I'm probs not going to any church this weekend cos simply... I don't know where to go =P. At the same time though, there's a truckload of hw I still need to get done (I'm less than halfway through, after spending a huge chunk of yesterday >_>), and you all know memorisation is not my strong point =P (that's most of my hw for today). Later might go out for a walk or something, cos the weather's really nice.

Oh yeah the weather! Haha it's super nice here lah. I'm out in the country area, which is actually really similar to the country area in Australia. We're on the top of a mountain, so even if the sun is out (which it always is), it's only slightly warmer than a nice Perth spring day. So yeah it's realllyyyy nice haha. And the place is really nice too - several ppl have commented that it doesn't look like I even left australia! =P So yes all in all I'm really enjoying the place, weather and environment here ^_^

PAH I DIDN'T FORGET!! (I just typed this part out after typing 'I bet you I'll forget' and left it there =P=P) Umm... uhh.... I totally did not just forget what I'm not meant to forget.... OH YEAH THAT'S RIGHT! On fri morning, there was an excavation crew who went out to a cave and a winepress to do some digging. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to go and give them a hand, while being able to see what they do as well. It was really quite amazing - we got to see what had been excavated over the past few weeks, and we saw the different layers of water adsorption into the wall that signified different eras. I was assigned to sifting through the soil. So people dug up the soil, chucked them into buckets, they brought the buckets to me, and I basically went through all of it trying to find pieces of pottery, or really anything else at all. Literally with every bucket they brought out, there were chunks of pottery in it - some bigger chunks, some smaller bits. They were kinda orangey, which the archeologist said was characteristic of the Hellinistic age, but looked like it might have something to do with Herod the Great's time as well. There were also inscriptions in the wall of what they think is John the Baptist, and they believe that this cave was one of the hideouts for a cult that followed John the Baptist about a century after he lived. It was really quite an experience, to just be picking out and holding shards that had lasted through the ages (cos really, you can't actually get rid of pottery per se...). So yeah it was a great privilege to help them out with the dig, and also a great struggle to get through the class that occured right after (we left at 6am and I needed to be back by about 8:30 =P). That and getting my shoes cleaned of all the mud, so that at the least I'd be let back into Australia afterwards =P. And yes. Due to all the sifting (which was surprisingly hard cos the mud was so heavy), yest morning and today my shoulders are killing me. Wark =D=D.

I think that's about all for the first week! Gonna grab a lil bit of air, then dive into the next section of my hw with a lunch break. I'll probably update again next weekend, hope you all are doing fine and awesome!

Gd night and God bless! Shalom! ^_^
Ernest (aka Nehemiah OHYEAHIFORGOTTOMENTIONTHATWEALLGOTHEBREWNAMESSOI'MCURRENTLYCALLEDNEHEMIAHRAWR!!)