From Saturday January 26:
Well, Hi! Right now I am sitting in my room in my suite at the Student Village at Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem. It really has been a whirlwind couple of days. I left Boston at 4 am on Wednesday Jan. 23 flew to New York to get on the flight to Israel, and I arrived in Israel at 6 am on Thursday Jan. 24. From the airport we had a full day. And what a day it was, we arrived at Hebrew University at around 8 am where we were told to make groups of 5 people to become our suite for the semester. So even though many months ago we all had sent in form to request housing, in the fashion of most things in Israeli, those forms did not matter and we had to create our own housing. So we sat, and we sat, and we sat (all of this by the way was outside in the courtyard, and it was not warm that day) and for 6 hours we sat around until we allowed to head down to the office where they gave us our housing. There we sat for another few hours because, we came to find out, there were not any open suites left and they had to split people up and move them into any open rooms that were left. So eventually at about 3 pm (now remember I had been up for over 24 hours at this point and hadn’t eaten anything since getting off the plane) my friend Rosie who I went to high school with and I were given two rooms in a suite that two French guys and one full year international girl from Connecticut already lived in. Now, don’t get me wrong, all three of them seem very nice, Allison is great and will be able to show us the ropes since she has been here so a while already but so far I have only seen her for a few minutes at a time. Now, Stephen and Hillel, well they seem nice and Stephen speaks pretty good English but the kitchen in this suite is ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING and if you know how I am OCD about cleanliness you can understand how MUCH this bothers me. Also, Hillel hardly speaks English or Hebrew and I don’t speak French so that will be interesting. OK, so back to the kitchen, there are bags upon bags of garbage left out and not garbage can, dirty dishes everywhere, things just strewn about on the counters, the kitchen table is really dirty as it the stove. And I won’t even get into the fridge, it smells SO BAD like I want to puke when I open it and the freezer is worse. So since they took us to the mall on Thursday night and the market and Friday morning, I now have a bunch of food and cookware that are all staying in my room because I refuse to leave it out there with their stuff. But I did have to put my perishables in the fridge (OYE VEY) so I will need to find a way to get them to help me and Rosie clean up this place.
Ok, you ready for a new subject? The People here and it has been so far so good. I have been meeting a lot of people and trying to talk to everyone I can, and of course as it is in the Jewish world, everyone is playing the Jewish geography game and everyone knows someone that someone else knows, it’s hilarious. I have been spending a lot of time with Zach (if you’re a Brandeis person, I’m the one and only Zach Barr) and we are having a lot of fun together. I also have been spending a lot of time with this very cool girl named Anysley, who is a non-Jew here to study the conflict but she is so into everything Jewish I didn’t know she way a goy until she told me. After going to the shok in the morning, which was so much fun and really made me feel like I was here for real. Anysley and I and a few other girls who wanted to celebrate Shabbat headed down to Emek Rafaim last night to go to Friday services at Shira Chadasha (an egalitarian minyan with a mechitza that sings Carlebach melodies and the congregation is made up of almost entirely Americans) it was an awesome service and it was just like we do it at B’deis! And so Shabbat dinner last night, all the Brandeis kids were invited to this woman Cheryl’s house because 1) she lives really close and 2) she is the Israel study abroad liaison so she wanted to make sure everything was going good and give a us a free meal.
Oh yeah, by the way, did I mention that I have to cook for myself this semester! So I am assuming I will get used to knowing when I need to eat and I will soon be able to buy exactly what I want but because of the disgusting state of the kitchen and my own problems with reading the labels on food in the super market, I only have fruit and vegetables and some pasta to eat right now.
Alright, last couple of things to note:
I) It is raining right now in Jerusalem, which is cool because there has been a drought
b) I will not have internet in my room for about another two weeks but I will be bale to check my email and stuff on the computers in the International building. But if you want to call me, here is my Israeli number 0526136687
3) I have not yet finished unpacking because it has been so crazy but when I do I will post pictures of my room and suite and my really nice view.
Ok, much love to everyone and I miss you all so much, and I can’t wait till I have internet and can talk to you all.
Adra
PS- jbl <3>
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