Classes!

Classes:

The first week was super interesting. but super overwhelming.. as you know im always freaking out hte first week of classes..

I went to the following classes this week during our shopping week:

(ps sorry if its hard to follow- i wrote this a couple weeks ago..)

- American Jew vs. Israeli Jew (actually is an amst class! the prof got her phd at md in american studies. so funny! - but not so into it so i dropped that one).

- Contemporary Spirituality in Israel and the U.S. - AMAZING class!! im obsessed with it!! Its taught by this Hassidic rabbi who is great! He grew up in Great Neck in what he referred to as an "ultra-reform" household, barely having a bar mitzvah. He went to sarah lawrence college where he was into philosophy and theatre, dropped out in the mid for a bit n went to england where he found spirituality.. buddhism.. etc.. lived for a summer in the woods in NC.. went back to school continued studying philosophy and religions.. eventually got phd and found his way back to judaism, got smicha, and made aliyah. Hes been living in israel for the past 30yrs. Anyway, he is super cool person! the class so far is talking about what is jewish spirituality? in a postmodern world where spirituality can be attained on its own without religion, why then need judaism? each class has been really interesting. def taking this one!

- Psychology  & Religion - amazing! this is actually what i need to do with my life! I should have been a psych major! i keep saying it but its true... who knows maybe ill go back to school and get a psych degree in my future? lol we're talking about the intersections of pysch and relig and its so awesome b/c its exactly alot of the conflic tin my own head - sci vs. relig... which also ties into the contemp. spirituality class...

and prob will tie into another course that imay take:

- Postmodernism and Jewish History - which is suppsoed to be taught by an amazing professor - but he wasnt here this week so i dont know too much about it or if i will take it yet.. (now ive been to this class.. BEST one by far! but super intense!!)

- Archaeology of Jerusalem - field trip class.. really interesting.. so far we've tlaked about ancient jerusalem and where it is first mentioned in archaeological artifacts as "yerushalmum" and in the tanakh.. its interesting but also not so amazing so im not sure if im gonna tkae this or the postmodernism class.. but it would be really cool to learn this history and go on the field trips to excavation sites. (dropped this one)

- Perspectives of Islam - sooo interesting!!! the teacher is a Palestinian. he was born in schem. grew up in jerusalem, went to school in the old city. then, he went to the states for school - studied at suny albany. then wanted to go back to israel but couldnt b/c now after '67 war he wasnt allowed back b/c he wasnt there when they did the census before.. so he stayed at albany and got a masters there. then he went to georgetown where he got his phd. he eventually got a green card and became a us citizen. taught at georgetwon, md, at penn, now at harvard in the summers.. hes now married with two grown sons and living in french hill in hebrew u faculty housing. he teaches at heberw u and also at a palestinian university in the west bank. anyway, needless to say, just being in his presence is super cool. such a unique person to meet. very open-minded. also he talks about like these big name figures in israel's history as if he's always in their presence. he had a debate with david ben gurion in one of his classes when he came to speak in the states. and one day arafat came to his door to help settle an argument that he got into with one of his students. basically along with learning alot of interesting things about islamic history and culture, i also get to hear all these anecdotes which are just so interesting!

- and then there's Hebrew - which kinda sucks.. but im doing whta tthey call "intensive" hebrew which makes my class 1/2 hour longer than regular classes and i get an extra credit for doing it. and i get a smaller class - 13 or so - and so far my teachers have been good and i like her teaching style. we actually have 2 teachers. and the other one is a guy and its pretty good too.. 

So, most of my first week of class was consumed with stressing out about  classes, but now its all figured out and i feel alot better about it all.

Also though all my friends are talking about all their travel plans - within israel on the weekends - and spring break aka pesach travels... so that gets super stressful too b/c theres so much to get overwhelmed by.. right now, i have friends looking into a trip to prague before pesach so i might go do that trip -i was gonna go but then we got screwd out of flights so not anymore.. but shira is coming for pesach!! so excited!! dave and deborah may come also which would be SO fun!

my sister is coming on thursday! [shes here!!!] im SO excited! [its sooo nice thats shes here!!]

and PURIM THIS WEEK!! so another update soon i hope.. much more to say..