Sharim Shirim!!

As Ulpan finally and tragically comes to an end, I've had some time (5 hours a day) to reflect on the highs and the lows. One thing stands out as a far and away winner of the awesome category:

Sing Along Time.

Yes, the time when we sharim shirim. In Hebrew.

It is even more amazing than it sounds.

We get this blue songbook filled with various Hebrew melodical delights. I managed to swipe one, so luckily these songs will remain a part of my life even after Ulpan.

On the right side of the page is the Hebrew script of the song, and on the left is the transliteration. Thank goodness. Reading and singing at the same time? Insanity. Usually they also have the English translation at the bottom too, and some of the stuff is actually pretty religious. And by religious I mean Zionistic.

For example, from the song "Yerushalaim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold)"

We have returned to the cistern,
To the market and to the marketplace.
A ram's horn (shofar) calls out on the Temple Mount
In the Old City
And in the caves in the mountain
Thousands of suns shine--
We will once again descend to the Dead Sea
By way of Jericho!


I can't help but wonder what the ones they didn't translate for us say.

Anyways, I love singing these songs; it's probably the closest I'll ever get to being Jewish. Some of them just sound Jewish. Like this one: (Start the video at 1:52)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiDAGlFh4sU

It probably sounds a lot like that when we do it too. And we definitely clap at the more upbeat part. Obviously.

Personally, my favorite song is a really peppy one that turns out to be really cynical... The singer basically says he wants to scream and shout but no one wants to hear that, and if he wants to be on the radio he can only sing simple, happy stuff.

I felt really superficial when I found that out, since I love its happiness and simplicity, but I justify it by telling myself I can only handle happy and simple in Hebrew. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGzrzcc992E

When all of the Alef level classes get together and sing, it's a huge party. There's this woman who mysteriously appears and fills our mornings with cheery jazzy piano and yells at us to sing louder.

It took about a week to figure out what she was yelling at us. Now we know. And sing loudly.

Anyways, today was easily the best singing day ever because the crazy singing leader lady convinced one of the grad students to come onto the stage and dance.

And by one of the grad students, I mean a 50-some year old Asian man.

It was amazing.

Think arms outstretched to either side, a bit of grapevine, the occassional spin, and towards the end when we really sped things up (we were singing the song from the first video, btw), he started shrugging his shoulders in time to the beat.

Meanwhile, we're all screaming and laughing and falling out of our seats while still trying to sing and clap and cheer him on. It was chaos.

And it was beautiful.