[Israel] Bits from a still-tired brain

[magid]

The short form: there were travel snafus (mostly not mine), but everyone arrived, and Shabbat was pretty good.

I'd forgotten how tiring walking on stone is. I've been walking a lot (today, from Talpiot to Hamelech Felafel, on the corner of King George and Agrippas, then back here, with plans to go see the kallah at the Kotel later, then to the wedding.), getting reacquainted with a city that is still a bit mine, though there are so many changes (mostly of the building more stuff variety). OK, and I still haven't checked how much a bus ride is.

I've run into a couple of people I know, a couple from Cambridge and a guy I thought lived in Cambridge, but apparently that's only 25% of the time; the rest of the time he lives here.

The keyboard here has three alphabets on the main keys: English (caps), Hebrew, and Russian. ("Here," in this case, being the computer room at Beit Shmuel, which is open 24/7, so there may be more posts anon.)

It's been very warm; I got a touch of sunburn yesterday (I can now be called a redneck), and it's very bright again today, definitely T-shirt weather. I would be cooler had I bought sandalim already, but that hasn't happened yet. Tomorrow, I hope (that being the one day that doesn't yet include familial obligations).

I was greatly complimented this morning, as I did a bit of translating for others, that the artisan we were buying stuff from said I sounded Israeli. I, of course, promptly managed to drop into more fragmented sentences. I'm finding myself thinking more in Hebrew, which I didn't expect at all.

I wish I were staying longer.


P.S. I'm not at all caught up reading everyone else's journal, and might not be until I get back. If there's something I need to know, please bring it to my attention.

Comments

[rethought.livejournal.com]

(You wouldn't bring me back a pebble, would you?)

[fairdice.livejournal.com]

That rocks. (Heh.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I could find a pebble (from anywhere in the city?). Delivery might be an issue....

[rethought.livejournal.com]

It's okay. I've beeen keeping pebbles from places of importance to me. The one place that I haven't been that I'm really pining for is Jerusalem.
(I was so close when I was in Jordan, but time didn't permit. :( )

[docorion.livejournal.com]

I get the language thing, though, because I get the same thing with Dutch (my other native tongue). I was in the Netherlands some years ago having a discussion with a parking garage attendant in Amsterdam, and he asked me if I was from the Hague. Apparently that's what my accent proclaims me. I was thrilled and felt a bit weird at the same time ("I have an accent?")

[magid.livejournal.com]

In my case, Hebrew isn't native; I went to years of after-school Heberw school (which didn't give me much in the way of active language at all), and an intensive Ulpan for about a month at the beginning of 2 years living here. I have huge gaps in vocabulary areas (I know most about buying groceries and Biblical/Mishnaic language, but current events are mostly beyond me.).

French I started in 7th grade, and took 6.5 years of. It was much more focused than the Hebrew, so I was much more fluent in it until I lived in Israel.

So many people I know are polylingual that I feel linguistically unaccomplished, having only one active slot in my brain for speaking a non-English language.