Hebrew is bittersweet

I'm sitting here studying for my Hebrew final which I'm taking tomorrow, and I've been flooded with memories from Israel. I remember little things, mnemonic devices I used for this word or that one, or where I studied said word.

Some words, I fight back tears because ... well, you'll see.

מדבר
mid-BAR, the word for wilderness. Van Pelt and Practico, the authors of the Hebrew vocabulary book we used, also added desert to this definition. Nope. It's not the desert. Promise. I've BEEN there. I've walked in the wilderness. Ani halekh bamidbar.

 עץ
Etz. Tree. Etz chayim. Tree of life. 

 מים , עין
MA-yim, ein. (going from right to left). Water, spring. Ein also means eye. Ein Gedi is more than just a place. It's... I guess to you it would be like an oasis. But it's not. An oasis is what Jericho is, a place where a city can develop in the midst of hamidbar (the wilderness). It's ein. A spring, a lifespring. Oh, I can't describe it!

 שמש ,לילה
SHEH-mesh, LAI-la. Sun, night. In the evenings I would say "Laila tov" (good night) to my friends as I was leaving for bed, or signing off online. (Though "Erev tov" is "Good evening")

עבן
EV-en. Stone. I'm pretty sure that this word has the connotation of a little stone, like something you would throw. I put a picture of this wall up because most of the ones you see are little stones that you could potentially throw if you could pry them lose from the wall.

חסד
KHES-ed. Love. Unfailing love. Loyalty. Loving-kindness. These ladies were some of my best friends in Israel, and I am so incredibly blessed that two of the three of them are Messiah-ians, and will be there when we return to Messiah's campus in five weeks. This word is the Hebrew version of agape, the Greek word meaning the same thing. So, naturally, now I think of khesed when thinking about the people I love there.

So, you see, some of these things have become real to me. And I miss them tremendously. I used to study Hebrew vocab lying in my hammock in my room, pushing against the wall with my foot. I once sat near the window sill, making my last batch of notecards as I chatted with a friend on Skype. I remember discussing mnemonic devices in the dining hall, in the classroom.

I think that's going to be hard when I get back. I'm used to my instructors using Hebrew words to describe things, simply because English doesn't cut it. Midbar communicates wilderness more effectively than the English word, and ein is so much more than just a spring. I learned the word "bama" which means high place, because of my teacher using it in class (which, by the way, bama means more to me than a high place). I already miss it so...

Do you want a coupon?

I know I'm home now, but every so often I'll have a post either talking about some experience I had in Israel that I thought about and never talked about on here, or adjusting to life back in the States.


Today I had an adjustment moment. Or, as I wrote on Facebook, I felt like a foreigner.

I was standing at the counter at McDonald's, ordering a small order of two things off the dollar menu - what I usually do when I need to sit down for a while and work on something. I don't just want to waltz in, buy nothing, and use the internet. Anyway, so my total came to $2.10. I reached for my wallet, and... went for the change section first, digging around for a dime around my leftover shekels.

The shekel coins:
1, 5
10
2, .5

As I was digging, the lady standing next to me asked if I wanted a coupon, and then proceeded to dig around her purse for a huge booklet of coupons, saying that she would never use them all, et cetera. When I gave up looking for a dime, I told the lady gently that I had just ordered off the dollar menu and there probably weren't any coupons for that. She apologized and said she was just trying to be nice. (I thanked her for her kindness in any case - very sweet to offer a coupon!)

Having abandoned my search for the dime that would allow me to pay in exact change, I pulled out three one-dollar bills and put them on the counter to pay. The woman behind the register took the money, placed two of the bills in the register, and handed one back to me. Huh? 90 cents of change does not equal one dollar! But, I swallowed my pride, thanked the woman, and took my change.

Two scoops of ice cream at one vendor in Jerusalem is
one of these coins, or the equivalent of 2.50 in US dollars

As I walked away with my McDouble and sweet tea, I wondered what it was that made both ladies treat me as if I didn't have much money. Did I really look like a poor college student? I realize, of course, that I should have taken out the two dollars first and THEN looked for the dime, but it was... well, it was kinda habit to reach for the change first. See, Israeli fast food only costs something like 10-20 shekels, which can be paid in coins of 10, 5, 2, and 1. My second-to-last night in Jerusalem, a bunch of us went out for ice cream, and I handed the man a 10-shekel coin with which to pay.

I'm just glad I didn't hand the woman a 10-shekel coin... THAT would have DEFINITELY labeled me as a foreigner.