Diary - Three days in life of an ulpanist

Yom Rishon - Sunday
6:30am - Alarm clock rings. It's immediately turned off. Five more minutes. It's way too cold to get up right away. Heater in the room is broken.
6:55am - Realize that I need to be at work in 5 minutes. Get up right away, but it's still way too cold. Need to remind the office that I need a new heater. Run to brush teeth, put on work clothes and rush to the factory.
7:00am - Clock in and work begins. Don't think I'm awake yet. Why is Gaston laughing at me? Oh yeah, forgot to look in the mirror.
7:05am - Look in the mirror. Really should have done it earlier. Not a good hair day. It's alright, nothing that a bit of water can't fix.
7:10am - Now work begins.
9:00am - Breakfast. Sandwich - 3 shekels; an egg - 80 agorot; yogurt - 1.50, tea - 55 agorot. Eating with Israelis - priceless.
9:40am - Back to work.
10am - Thinking that I should write a post on blogger.
11am - Coffee break. Drinking tea, talking Hebrew. Everybody's discussing upcoming soccer match. It's called Kadur Regel here.
1pm - Lunch. Get to choose from three types of chicken. I settle on the most safe looking one. 5 shekels.
1:15pm - Everybody's still discussing Mishak Kadur Regel. I see that half of people is for Maccabi Haifa and the others for Beitar Yerushalaim. Decide to find out who to root for.
1:40pm - Returning to work with new information. Maccabi has won a lot but is down this year. Beitar is in first place and has a great stadium but their fans are "monkeys". I should watch this game.
3pm - Coffee break. The discussions about the game are getting louder. I'm leaning towards rooting for Beitar.
4pm - Clock out.
4:05pm - Shower. On the way pass through the kitchen and realize that it's very dirty. There is also a strange smell. Probably should clean it.
4:20pm - Finishing howework. I have to talk about my family in front of the class for a few minutes.
5pm - Class. Make up session for having a short one last week.
6:25pm - With 5 minutes left, it's my turn to speak.
6:45pm - I'm done with the story of my family. Half the class hates me now. They really wanted to leave on time.
6:50pm - Supper. Yogurt, bread with cheese and cottage cheese. Talk to Mike, Matt and Aaron about watching the game tonight. Mike and Matt decide on supporting Beitar and Aaron immediately calls them "monkeys".
7:30pm - We're still discussing Kadur Regel. Spend a couple of minutes looking at the homework for tomorrow.
8:15pm - See the kitchen again. Definitely need to talk to others about cleaning it.
8:30pm - Gather around the TV. Time for the game.
8:35pm - Commentator looks funny. Stadium is really nice.
8:45pm - Kickoff. Maccabi fans light flares near the Beitar net. Lots of smoke. We're surprised that they were able to sneak those through.
8:48pm - GOAL!!! Maccabi player shoots from far but because of the smoke, the goalkeeper doesn't see the ball. We're stunned. Aaron is dancing.
9:15pm - Beitar is attacking furiously but can't score. We're jumping and yelling like crazy. Joined by a few more people. Koreans and a Brazilian.
9:45pm - Start of the second half. Still can't believe the "smoke goal". Matt is having fun watching his first soccer game.
10:15pm - Lots of attacking from Beitar and lots of chances but no goals. Passions in the TV room are high. A couple of Russians are also now in the room. We don't know the names of the players so we give them nicknames. There's "D. Bo" and "Mullet Man".
10:20pm - GOAL!!! Pretty goal for Beitar. 1:1.
10:25pm - I think Matt is going to have a heart attack. I'm a bit scared to let him see another game. He's way into it. Beitar makes a substitution for a player we name "Token".
10:35pm - End of the game. This was exciting. Everybody liked watching it even though the level of play is subpar.
11pm - Discussing The Game.
11:30pm - I start my homework. It's not that much.
12:15am - It's cold in the room. I should have reminded the office about the heater. Time for bed.

Yom Sheni - Monday
7am - Alarm clock rings. It's immediately turned off. Five more minutes. It's way too cold to get up right away. Heater in the room is broken. I think I was supposed to do something this morning.
7:10am - Oh yeah, I needed to finish my homework.
7:15am - Homework.
8am - Class.
8:30am - Discussing news of the day. There is a Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem this weekend. Learn the Hebrew words for pride, parade and gay. The last one is "Homo".
9:30am - 20-minute break.
10:30am - Hebrew is great! It's logical and easy. It's like math. I'm going to do well in this language.
10:32am - Sorry, false alarm. Ignore the above written statements. Hebrew is just impossible to learn.
11:20am - Second Hafsaka (break).
1pm - Lunch. This is a bit strange: usually when the lesson is good, the food is also good. I guess it wasn't that good of a lesson...
1:45pm - Back to class. For some reason there are less people coming back from dinner. Seems like a few are sick. Hope it's not the food.
2:15pm - We're broken up in groups of two and get to talk to each other in Hebrew. My partner is a woman from Australia and she can speak well.
3:15pm - This was a good class. Now it's over.
3:20pm - Get on the internet. Wow, lots of emails. I also need to write a post on blogger.
5pm - Answered some emails and checked on the news but didn't get time to post a blog. My uncle called to say that he's picking me up in half an hour.
5:30pm - New heaters are in the office. Run to grab one.
5:35pm - Ride to Haifa to pick up warm clothes from the relatives.
7pm - Do a bit of babysitting. Ah, just like old times...
8:15pm - Get on the bus to Ein Hashofet.
9:30pm - Back on the kibbutz.
10pm - Find people studying. Immediately break up their fun by joining them.
10:15pm - They weren't really studying. Just talking.
10:30pm - Make fun of Russians with Matt. In english.
10:32pm - Make fun of Americans with Raya. In Russian.
11pm - Decide to drink coffee together with the "students".
12pm - Time for bed. On the way to the room see the dirty kitchen. It really needs to be cleaned.
12:30pm - Deciding that it's probably not a good idea to drink coffee so late at night.

Yom Shlishi - Tuesday
6:30am - Alarm clock rings. It's immediately turned off. Five more minutes. It's way too warm to get up right away. Heater in the room is working.
6:40am - Quick shower.
7am - Work begins.
7:30am - What was homework for tomorrow? Ah, that's right, to write about how we spend a day. What can I write...?
8:30am - I really want to write a post on blogger. But what about?
8:50am - What if....? Could that work....? Yes, Eureka!!! I will write about my day on blogger.
9am - Breakfast. Same as the one on Yom Rishon. Discussing The Game.
9:40am - Back to work.
10am - Thinking about the blog.
11am - Still thinking about the blog.
11:05am - Coffee break. Discussing The Game, but I'm thinking about the blog.
12pm - Gave papers for a temporary Israeli passport. Without it, can't leave the country if I intend to come back. Should take four days.
1pm - Lunch. Pizza. Pizza. Pizza. I took three slices.
1:40pm - Work. Work. Work.
3pm - Coffee break.
4pm - Punch out.
4:15pm - This kitchen is a mess!
4:20pm - Talk to Aaron about the kitchen. Coming to a consensus that it's dirty.
4:25pm - No, we both agree that the kitchen is a mess.
4:30pm - Decide to clean it. But not now.
4:35pm - Shower.
5pm - Homework.
6pm - Cleaning my room. Practicing for tackling that messy kitchen.
6:30pm - Dinner. Once again, milk products.
7:30pm - Homework.
9pm - Coming to start on a blog. All the computers are busy. The Russians are looking for love.
10pm - Free computer! Emails, conversations and typing a post on blogger.
11:15pm - Posting on blogger.