Week one= shalem

Hello again,
We've had an interesting week. I've now been to ulpan for 7 classes, and I'm still worried about hebrew. My comprehension is fine, but I need to work on my dikduk (grammar). oy. The class is easier to get through now, because I sit with my new friend Michelle, who is getting her masters at Hebrew U. We talk about American politics, and struggle through our thoughts, attempting to articulate them.
Last Shabbat, we went to a friend's house for dinner after beautiful services at Shira Chadasha. The dinner was amaaazing and we are fast learning to appreciate free meals. Saturday afternoon (after sleeping until 11:45) we went to Shimon's. Fortunately, I wasn't that hungry, because it was mostly meat.
Elyssa and I have been going to ulpan, coming back and enjoying our siesta, and going out in the afternoons for errands etc. We finally had our first meeting today! We met with Shira from the Open House about volunteering there. We are probably going to do some resource development and community organizing. The Open House (http://www.worldpride.net/index.php?id=1319), by the way, is the center for GLBTQ support in Jerusalem. The people who run it are really wonderful. We had planned to visit there anyway, but a chance meeting helped facilitate our progress. We had coffee with Assaf (our security guard/counselor/friend from last summer) and his friend walked in and we talked. He told us to come to the Open House, and he gave us some more contact info. Yesss, so now we feel busy.
We have meetings with Pardes and Yad Byad on Sunday.
We are leaving tomorrow afternoon for Tel Aviv to visit Maya and Uri. We're going to the beach!
On friday, we hope to visit with Hody, Julie, Eitan, and Roberta!!! איזה כיף להיות עם חברים
We just returned from hanging out with some Israelis who are our age! It was exciting. We watched a football match (actually soccer) and I stumbled through Hebrew as they stumbled through English.
To bed! I'm tired. (we seriously have walked about 6 miles today. probably more. we hate paying for transportation)
ciao