The last two weeks of art school are coming up, and I’ll miss the last two days of the semester. This is because my program at the kibbutz starts februari first, while my last classes here would be the second of februari.

This also means that I’ll be missing the critiques of some final projects, so I have to do them for next week. Most of my classes are on the two days that I’ll miss, so I ended up with five final projects that I have to finish in the coming week. I still have to start some of those, and with two of the others I just started. So I’ve got lots of work to do the coming days!

But right now I’m taking a little break. I got back from school one hour ago and worked hard today, so I deserve it. It’s cold, and raining on and off, and of course my drawig teacher decided that this would be the perfect day to draw outside. It was freezing cold, not exactly ideal drawing circumstances.

For my other classes I had critiques. That’s when you discuss work in class. You have to say something about it (sometimes) and the teacher and the class give their opinion. I had this for a sculpture and a painting today. I made the sculpture together with a friend. We made two people doing karate, a fight basically. It was life-size and we put it in the middle of an empty classroom. The pictures we took of it didn’t turn out very well, so I’ll see if they still stand next sunday and maybe I can take a better picture then.

For my painting class I had to make a painting from a screenshot from a movie. I want to do something with reflection in my final project, so my teacher told me to do a black-and-white picture with a reflection in glass. It was a little frustrating, because you have to paint a (detailed) reflection over a (detailed) part behind the glass. My teacher liked it though. I got the feeling she wasn’t very happy with what I wanted to do for my final project, but I’ll do it anyway. I’m here to have fun, after all.

My class at Rothberg, Evolutionary Psychology, has ended. We had to do a final exam and hand in a paper, both on January first. The exam was pretty easy, we als were allowed to have our notes with us. The paper whas a different story, we had some problems in our group and it was hard to collect enough data. We still managed to make a good paper out of it, and we got 95% for it, making my average for this class 97%. Luckily Rothberg will be on a seperate transcript from Bezalel, so I can show the good grades I got there without showing how I did in art school (that will definitely be less good).

I’m also quite busy preparing for moving to the kibbutz. I just bought a pair of good hiking shoes that I needed for that, and I’m trying to give away things I don’t need and put other things in smaller packages. If nessecary I can always leave some things here and pick them up later, I’ll be in the country anyway.

I’m looking forward to next week, when I’ll be done with all my projects. Untill then I’ll just have to do my best to finish everything in time, and I shouldn’t forget that grades don’t really matter for me anyway…

Yup, I had my first week of art school. It was great, really. Even though it was one big unorganized mess, with the teachers not knowing they were supposed to teach in English, one teacher being in Germany for two weeks, and running around that building trying to find the right room or person.

All my classes are three hours long, exept for the one I have on Wednesday, that one’s four hours. Between the first two periods there’s a one-hour break. I have six classes per week in Bezalel, and one (the Evolutionairy Psychology) on Sunday (that one’s three hours and 45 minutes)

On Monday I started with sculpture class. My teacher is an excentric lunatic, but a good-natured one. He is hilarious. His classes are al theory, we don’t get to sculpt anything in class. We have to take notes and that’s all we need to do to get a mark. He already knows what that’ll be: an 85. I quote: “Some will get an eighty-four, some will get an eighty-six, but it will be around eighty-five for sure.” But here an 85 equals an A, so that’s fine with me. He explained to us how to make a triangle with three corners that have a ninety degree angle each and, of course, three sides of equal lengths out of clay. I’m not going to explain how to do it, just try for yourself and if you manage to do it, I allowed photo replies on this blog so you should be able to send me a picture ^^

My second class on monday was Instalation. After two hours of rambling about the brilliance of ready-mades and what my teacher called ‘copy-paste’ we were sent home early because she wasn’t feeling well. Later during the week I heard all the international students got kicked out of this class because the teacher didn’t want to have people in her class that didn’t speak Hebrew fluently and/or that were in their first year of art school. To be honest, I planned to replace that class anyway, so I can’t say I’m bothered by her decision.

On Tuesday I was supposed to have a so-called ‘meeting point’, if only my teacher wouldn’t have been in Germany. I didn’t know about this before, so I had came to school anyway, and I decided to read some books in the library while I was there anyway. The library isn’t very big, but it’s filled with books about all different kinds of art. Of course I speeded over to the Jewelry section and I actually found some great books.

On Wednesday I had the class I mentioned earlier. It’s in the Jewelry and fashion department. It is called ‘Breaking the Dishes’, a name that doesn’t make that much sense but it’s about dishes and cooking tools etc., and how you can change a person’s thoughts, habits or behaviour through your design. There’s one other international student in the group of eight people, so the lesson is partially in English, and the rest is in Hebrew. The teacher seems very nice and the subject seems very interesting.

On thursday I had three classes, what means I’ve been at school from ten in the morning to eight in the evening. First we had our sculpture class, were our teacher explained our assignment for the next classes and showed us around the workshop. In that class we’ll be working on our projects a lot, so there isn’t really much lecturing to it, that being a good thing.

My second class was drawing. We have a very nice teacher, and we did some good exercises. I liked the class very much, even though it was very exhausting to both my hands and my eyes.

The last class was painting. I didn’t really have much energy left for that one, and the class didn’t sound that appealing to me. It is about reality, so it’s very philosophic. Also, our teacher said she won’t teach us any techniques during this class. Since painting isn’t exactly my strongest point, I think I’ll change it to the other painting class, that one will hopefully provide me with some more technical support and it’s on a more reasonable time of the day then from five to eight.

On Friday night I went to a Shabat dinner together with my roommate Michelle. Someone she met here had invited her, and when she asked if she could take a friend with her he said that would be great. It was a lot of fun, we were with a group of eighty young people I didn’t know, but they were all very nice. Michelle and I were the only non-Israelis, so it was also a great oppertunity to practice our Hebrew, even though most of the people spoke English pretty well. Most of them were students too, and the meal was organized by five roommates who lived in an apartment close to the city centre. I’m sure we’ll go again next time they organize this!

Next week I’ll have a look if some of the Israeli students dropped out of the classes I wanna take. I’ll keep you up to date and if I finish any work at all, I’ll take a picture or scan it, and post it here.

First of all, sorry for the wait. I’ll try to update this blog more regulary in the future. ^^’

So, we had the final exam for the ulpan some time ago, I scored pretty good so I got an A+ as my final grade. It wasn’t all that hard, most of the class had an A or higher. Then the ulpan was over, and soon after that three new roommates moved in and Rumelle, my former roommate, went back to America. The girls that moved in were Michelle from the USA, Sarah from France and Victoria from Switzerland. They are all in the graduate program, so they already finished either college or university. We do a lot together, once or twice a week we all cook and eat together and we often go to the center of Jerusalem and to the market together.

My class in Rothberg, Evolutionary Psychology, started just after they arrived. It’s a very interesting class, and the lectures are very nice. Our teacher puts a lot of jokes in his presentations, and he tells everything in an interesting way. During the second part of the class we all make presentations in groups. It’s a nice way to see the subjects from a different point of view.

For the last month I only had one class a week, so I could spend the rest of my time doing fun things. My mother visited me for a week, during Sukot, when we didn’t have any classes at all, and we went to Ein Gedi together. Ein Gedi is a very nice kibbutz with a hotel close to the dead sea, surrounded by desert. My mother and I relaxed there for a few days, and we also made a beautiful hike in wadi Agurot. That’s a little stream in the middle of the desert, with a beautiful waterfall at some point. We also went to Ein Gedi Spa, but that wasn’t really something we enjoyed. In fact, I’m sure I’ll never go there again. The floors were very dirty, there was a sulfor and salt bath, a swimming pool, and tubs with mud. Not really my thing. After we stayed in Ein Gedi we went back to Jerusalem, were we went to the old city and to Ein Kerem. My mother’s flight was late in the evening, so on the day of her flight back we spent the day in Tel Aviv. We went to the art market and to the Tel Aviv museum. Both of them were amazing!

Last week we had some orientations for the Art program in Bezalel. We had a library orientation (something like: “Is there anyone of you who has never used a library? No? Oh…”), a safety orientation (“when there’s water on ze floor, ze floor gets slippery, and zen it is dangerous to walk on ze floor”) and a warehouse orientation (that one was given by a student, it was actually pretty interesting and very useful). Although the first two orientations weren’t very interesting it was nice to see everyone from ArtJerusalem again. We’re a group of approximately 20 people, so we all know each other and I get along with most of the people. We also got to see some of the exchange students. They’re in Bezalel fulltime, and they can choose their department. I think it’s a great program, but I can’t do it because I’m a freshman. I expect most of our classes to be toghether with the exchange students.

A few days ago our fifth roommate, Sylwia from Poland, moved in. Now the safety room isn’t locked anymore, so that’s good (room nr. 1 is the safety room, with an extra bomb-proof door etc., but it has been empty since Rumelle left us). Now that I’m talking about safety anyway, there was a security alert about a week ago, so we have to be careful when going to crowded places, and the security guards around campus have become a lot stricter. It’s because an arab boy stabbed a seventeen-year-old israeli. The victim was seriously injured. Also, apparently the government got a tip that there might be a terroristick attack in Jerusalem.

My art classes are starting the day after tomorrow, on Monday. In a week I’ve got three sculpture classes, one painting, one drawing and one instalation class. Maybe I’ll change some of my classes during the first two weeks. I’ve got to look if there’s room in some classes in the other departments. I’d love to take some jewelry classes, but it’s said to be close to impossible for overseas students. Of course, I’m going to try anyway. I’m looking forward to my classes a lot.

I hope I can update this blog again soon!

I wish all of you a happy and sweet new year!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlcxEDy-lr0

Today we had our last big test before the final exam of the Ulpan. Tomorrow we have a quiz about the infinitives. The final exam is coming monday. We’ll have normal classes on Sunday (and of course we will learn lots of new things, yay!) and Monday morning we’ll review the material covered by the exam.

Also, it’s almost Rosh Hashana! I’m very exided about getting to celebrate the holidays in Israel, but the timing this year is not that great. Since Rosh Hashana is on a wednesday and thursday the shops will be closed for four days (shops are closed Friday and Saturday for Shabat), and during those days there will be no busses driving. For the ones that don’t know what I’m talking about: Rosh Hashana is when the new jewish year starts. It’s celebrated by all jewish people, the schools close and nobody works.

But for now school is going on and I’ve got lots of homework. Tomorrow I’m going to visit a museum and buy some art supplies together with a friend who lives in the center of Jerusalem. She’s also in the Art Jerusalem program. Maybe I’ll take some pictures when I’m there.

Good news: I’ve finally got internet in my room! After two weeks of trying to get the people from Bezeq to do their job I can now write blogs from my apartment.

Better news: It’s weekend.

During one of the times that I went to Israel with a group from Haboniem we had a guided tour around the campus of the Hebrew University. A friend of ours who used to be a madrich in Haboniem studied here at the time, so he showed us around. I remember that as we walked through the botanical garden I thought it’d be fun to study here. But I thought staying in Israel for three years was a bit long, and the studies in this campus (the other campus, the one for the sciences, is in the centrum of Jerusalem) aren’t really my thing. That’s why I didn’t take the information sheet about how to apply to a study here with me.

This morning I had a guided tour around campus again, this time with my Ulpan class and a Hebrew teacher from the Hebrew University as a guide. We visited some of the places I visited with the haboniem group, and also the botanical garden. I remembered my thoughts from back then, and I realized I found the perfect way to study here, but only for a short amount of time. I guess I’m going to visit the botanical garden more often from now on, it’s a beautiful place for doing your homework, after all.