Well, here is is...the first post of five months abroad. On this site you'll share my experiences, walk with me through ancient streets, practically taste the local cuisine through my eloquent descriptions...when I remember to post, that is. I guess I'll start with an overview of the first week.
I arrived in Israel after a sleepless eleven-hour flight, on a plane with about fifty other Rothberg students. We were put on busses and driven to Jerusalem in pouring rain, which had thankfully stopped by the time we had to lug our suitcases up the staircases to our respective buildings. I was surprised at the size of Kfar Hastudentim (Student Village), which has twelve big buildings, and also at the location. The Mt. Scopus campus is located on a mountain right between West Jerusalem and East. From the Kfar is a view of the Old City and most of downtown, and from the Rothberg building on campus, a panorama of East Jerusalem is visible. Needless to say, even short walks grant some pretty spectacular views. Anyway, after getting our phones on campus, we were all driven to the mall to pick up supplies, and then it was off to work through some serious jet-lag until the next day.
The first Friday being in Jerusalem was pretty fun-filled. A group of us went down to Mahane Yehuda, the big shuk(market) in Jerusalem. On a Friday afternoon, that place was absolutely packed with people preparing for Shabbat. Despite the crowds, it was easy to see that this was the best place for groceries. There were stalls with huge piles of the freshest vegetables and fruits, stalls with bags full of spices and teas, and some with pastries and challot that you could smell from a distance. Brunch was a zatar-coated pita, mint-lemon tea, and pistachio baklava dripping with honey (jealous?). We wandered around the market a bit, and eventually made our way to Ben Yehuda, Jerusalem's #1 tourist magnet behind the Old City. We did return to campus evetually, though, and that night enjoyed a buffet Shabbat dinner at the regency Hotel a few blocks away from campus as a group.
The next few days were full of excitement, as well as exhaustion (the whole jet-lag thing really didn't work for me). Time was spent napping and reading under olive trees overlooking the Old City, meeting up with Jacob at Ben Yehuda before he finished his AMHSI trip and returned to the states, improvising dinners in apartment kitchens, and starting ulpan. Yes, ulpan, which entails waking up at seven-fifteen in order to trudge uphill to campus to begin at eight-thirty. At least the sun's out by then. In my class, the teachers don't coddle us with a word of English. Complex grammatical concepts, irregular verbs, and the like are all explained in Hebrew, which makes learning both interesting and a bit frustrating. First rule of ulpan: don't zone out. If you do, you're bound to miss something important, or at least it seems that way. I once left the class for five minutes, only to come back to an incomprehensible yet obviously indisposable diagram on the board. Hint taken.
Other than ulpan, however, responsibilities are few, and it is nice to get the chance to study Hebrew before the actual semester begins. Once that happens, there will be other courses to worry about, and having just this on my plate makes it easier to learn at the pace which is required.
I'm sure more has happened, and that more will happen that I will write about, but for now, I've got to study for my quiz tomorrow on numbers, both masculine and feminine. L'hitraot!
P.S. I may be posting most of my pictures on Facebook, as it takes forever to load them onto the blog, and hasn't even worked after two attempts.
