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)