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...