Don't cook your food in a violin.

Today was test day. It was a hard test, but I think I did well. The first time through I got most of the answers down, but when I went through it the second time I found several mistakes. I went through it a third tme and found more mistakes. At the last minute, just before I turned it in, I found another mistake. Whew! I burned up a lot of calories taking that test!
I got back a story that I wrote in Hebrew, about a page and a half long, about Ethiopian Jews. Again, I proof-read it at least three times, and each time found more errors -- but not all of them! I think the teacher liked it, even though she marked in about 60 corrections! And she may have let a few things slide that weren't quite the way an adult would speak. (But hey, you have to start somewhere!)
Most of my mistakes were spelling mistakes (1 through 7).
List of errors (I love lists!):
1. writing "heh" for "xet" or "xet" for "heh
2. writing "kaph" for "qoph"or "qoph" for final "kaph"
3. writing "zayin" backwards (which makes it a gimmel)
4. writing "ayin" for "aleph"
5. writing "tav" for "tet"
6. writing "samech" for "shin"
7. leaving out alef or ayin in several verbs
8. wrong gender of "this"
9. wrong gender of adjective
10. leaving out the subject pronoun
11. using a wrong verb
12. wrong preposition
13. leaving out the definite article
14. singular instead of plural verb
15. several others
When you learn your first language, you first learn to hear, then speak, then read, then write and spell. So I guess I shouldn't be worried if I can't spell yet--it's only been 5 months.
It's fun to learn a few new words in class or out of the dictionary and then the very same day hear someone using the same words. Is it providence or just "odds?" Of course I know that "odds" are really providence, too.
When I get on the bus these days sometimes there is a strong smell of fresh vegetables. Meaning, onions. People sometimes have huge bags of produce that they got at the market. Today I sat by a lady who had a big bag full of nice-looking big leaves, sort of like sycamore leaves or grape leaves. She said she rolls them up with rice and spices and some other words I didn't know. Then I asked her if she cooked them in the oven. Only I mistakenly used the word "kinor" (violin) instead of "tanur" (oven). She didn't let on that she noticed my mistake, but explained that she cooks them over the gas. I mentioned my mistake, and she again explained that she cooks them not in the oven but "on the top, over the gas." (I just learned the word for "up" or "on top" today.)I spoke to her in a mixture of English, Hebrew and Spanish. There's no point in killing myself trying to speak Hebrew when a lot of people speak perfect English and a lot of them speak Spanish. But she answered me in Hebrew and a few hand gestures. (Whew! That short conversation burned a lot of calories, too!)
I wonder if most people here have gas stoves rather than electric, and if they have electric, do they still call it gas? Just like in Canada they call their electricity water (hydro) because it's hydro-electric power.