Immaturity at it's Finest

So my Hebrew studies and my work are going fairly well. I'm very used to life here, especially because my weekly routine varies only minutely. I have been thinking for a while that perhaps when I get home, I'll start volunteering or working as a Sunday School teacher at a synagogue. I'll certainly have enough Hebrew to do so. At my job, I speak in Hebrew almost all the time, and my comprehension is getting much better.

That being said, spending an entire day in a classroom studying one subject can tend to make one go a bit batty at times. What's more, since we have two teachers (one on Sundays and the other on Tuesdays and Thursdays), we often will repeat things we've already gone over ad nauseam. This happened yesterday in class. We'd already spent several classes learning the past tense of a particular verb group (called Pee-al), and I had it down pretty solidly. On Sunday, we spent most of class doing very basic worksheets for hours, simply conjugating these same verbs over and over again.

In addition to that, I had been sitting class from 8:30 am until 1:30 pm, and I seemed to have a particular excess of energy that day. Not to mention the miserable pouring rain outside (even though we're in a desert), which ensured that I would not get in the afternoon run I'd planned. My friend Eric and I basically went a little bit insane and got majorly stir crazy. Nonetheless, we had decided to study that afternoon, as we sorely needed to go over several other concepts. We took a 30 minute break between class and studying, during which we laughed hysterically about silly things and made an even sillier plan. Perhaps it was because our brains were desperately trying to figure out how to use up the excess energy that had been building all day, but we seemed to think it would be an excellent idea to put on bathing suits and dance in the rain. Unfortunately, it wasn't raining anymore.

Shortly after we began studying, it started raining a bit. Eric and I bolted from the room, threw on bathing suits and started running around, laughing and screaming like maniacs. Normally the poised, mature, young adult, it was a welcome break from my usual more serious endeavors. (Although I must admit, working with children so much and living on a kibbutz with few major stresses has helped me get in touch with my inner adolescent). I haven't laughed so hard or had so much fun in quite a while. The rain stopped shortly thereafter, and we went back inside, as though nothing had happened, and started going over gerunds. Half and hour later, it started raining again, more intently than it had all day. Eric and I gave each other a quick look before we both simultaneously jumped up and ran outside again. This time, our fellow ulpanists came out of their rooms to watch us make fools of ourselves, and pictures will undoubtedly be up on facebook soon. We attempted to give a few people wet hugs, but most of them ran away. We also ran and slid on the wet, muddy sidewalks. On my only attempt at this, I fell spectacularly on my behind, but luckily made it out unscathed.

Contrary to popular belief, the Negev Desert is not warm this time of year. The rain was frigid and pretty soon, my toes were going numb. All of a sudden, it started to hail. The large bits of ice pinged of my bare arms and hurt my feet as Eric and I dashed back to the room. We realized then that immaturity really out to be thought out more in advance, as we'd have to run out again to get towels... We ran through the pounding hail as fast as we could and grabbed a few towels from the office. Swathed in towels and sweatshirts, we studied intently for another 20 minutes and then, having accomplished our study goals, went to our own rooms to take steamy hot showers.

Oh, what a fantastic, fantastic life experience. And that, my friends, is immaturity at it's finest!