Adventures in Literacy

I went to Hebrew U today, once again to bang my head against the walls and see what falls out of either the walls or my head. Today's adventure was a visit to the Library. After I got my "old-school driver's license-looking ID card" (that's a direct quote from my days of running orientation for Penguin) up and running in the library system, I battled with the computers to search the database for articles, books, or anything remotely related to my thesis topic, Israel Education in the Diaspora. The library wouldn't let me search in English all the time, I don't really know how to type anything useful in Hebrew, and the searching system isn't friendly when you switch to English format from Hebrew. Listings of, oh, the LOCATION of the book are LITERALLY covered up by translations. It took a whole lot of surfing to get some leads, but I wrote down about 9 books or journals to snag, and then I went looking.

I was thwarted on all accounts, only to be told, after a half hour of frustrated browsing, that the books I had written in my little notebook were in the Education library. Apparently, when the books are listed as "Education: 4th Floor" that means they're on the 4th floor of the Education library, which is in a different building, and is its own library, and of course, is a rather far walk from the main library.

I was frustrated, so I went and checked in on the status of my course signup stuff, and then went to the Academon (The School Bookstore). Ever-aware of my illiteracy, I purchased a few books to help me with my Hebrew:

The Cat In The Hat by Dr. Seuss (Shout out to Things 1, 2 and 4 -- My brothers!)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (Hi to his Editor!)

AAAAAAAAAAand Where The Wild Things Are (Jerusalem, CLEARLY!)

I also got a dictionary called Rav Milon (the one recommended by every Hebrew/Ulpan teacher ever).

Photo credit: Amazon.com.

I even got a Yoman (day planner, pronounced Yom-man) that matches my backpack...Here's an upclose of the Yoman's cover. It's so cute!

See how it matches!?!

After forking over the (magnetic) cash for the new books and a Kif-Kef (it's an Israeli KitKat) bar, I ice skated my way (my shoes have no traction left, and everything in this city is made of smooth stone) to the Education library and found some of what I sought.

After Hebrew U, I finally got my Ulpan refund and an ice cream cone (Ice cream? Kif-Kef? Nice lunch, Sara Beth!) before going to a barbeque for Rafi, Rachel, and all the other rabbinical students in my life.

Time to practice my Hebrew reading...bye!