Learning Hebrew

Hmmm. To say the least my first lesson was overhelming and we were just trying to learn the alphabet! I think the thing I was most confused on is that at least a dozen of the letters look virtually the same (a backwards "r") with a longer or shorter tail in either direction. How do you tell them apart??? And apparently they don't use vowels so my name for instance is SRH (in the Hebrew characters of course). We spent an hour and half going over the characters and sounds they make. The instructor gave us homework due back on Wednesday! It almost looks like I'm in first grade if you look at the handouts I was given. They have really big letters, short words, and pictures next to them. The lessons are usually one on one, but Priya and I are taking them together. Hopefully that will make it a bit easier for us. We tried to form a basic sentence. "My parents live in the US" Abba Ima shalee bah it USA. I'm sure I'm missing something here, but that's what I remember.

I missed swimming class due to the timing of Hebrew lessons:-(. Somehow I need to see if I can move the lessons slightly later so I can continue with both.

In the evening Ken had some teleconferences so I went next door to the neighbors (lady who helped me at the grocery store), she was delighted to see me and welcomed me in. She asked how I was doing and what I had been doing. I said I had my first Hebrew lesson and for the next hour she walked through the whole alphabet with me again. Her son said.. "It's very similar to Greek". Hmmm I don't know that one either :-( After my tutorial we did talk about other things and she gave me a list of good restaurants in Haifa.

The weather is beautiful here! Nice to have sunshine every single day.