So apparently Israel has wind days instead of snow days...

Hey everyone!
Sorry I haven't blogged in a few days - with the start of class it's been a little hectic, and I was going to blog last night, but the internet connection I had been using suddenly got locked, so I couldn't. I found another one, so now it's time for an update...

Sunday we had some more registrationy stuff, and then another trip to the mall - a lot of new people came, so they had to go buy bedding and stuff as well. I figured since we were getting a free trip to the mall, why not go and have a fun trip instead of lugging around pillows and a comforter. I went to the Michal Negrin store (!!!!) and got a couple really pretty necklaces.

Monday was the first day of Ulpan, but because it was the first day it started at noon instead of 8:30. I went with one of my roommates, Jessica, and another one of my friends, Amanda, to my new favorite coffee place - Cafe Aroma. It beats Gelman Starbucks hands down! I get their house speciality (Cafe Aroma) and it's sooo yummy! Plus, they give you a little bite size chocolate bar with every drink! After that we went over to campus, and were told that we didn't need to go to the orientation because it was the same as one we had already been to, so I went to lunch at the main cafeteria on campus, Frank Sinatra, with a bunch of friends.

After that we had our first session of class. I'm in the middle class of the third level, and while I could probably be fine in a higher level, I feel comfortable in the one I'm in. We have two teachers, one who does grammar and newspaper articles, and the other we haven't had yet but I think is doing more stories and stuff like that. Yehudit, our grammar and newspaper teacher, is really nice, and I like that we're actually learning about somewhat relevant things. On Monday we read an article about the upcoming snow that was expected, and it was nice that I was able to come back and talk to my Israeli roommates in Hebrew about something that was actually current.

When class was over, I came back to the apartment, and as a WONDERFUL post-Ulpan surprise, the boys had cleaned the apartment! When we moved in, it was pretty dirty in the common areas (kitchen, bathrooms, living room), but we came home and it was all so nice and pretty! Courtney, Jessica, and I were thrilled to say the least! Later in the evening, I went out with a bunch of friends to dinner downtown near Ben Yehuda street to celebrate the first day of class. We went to this restaurant called Tmol v'Shilshom and it was REALLY good!

Yesterday (Tuesday) was day 2 of Ulpan, which was spent almost entirely on grammar (EW!) but I'm glad we're reviewing it all, because my grammar is not the greatest. We also had about an hour long sing-a-long, with a very odd song leader lady, but it was a nice break from class, and we apparently have it once a week. We spent the evening hanging out in our room with all the roomies and my friend Amanda who lives downstairs. We had our first Israeli pizza (which Jessica, the camera-obsessed one felt the need to take a picture of), and hung out. It was really nice hanging out with all of our roommates - I've been having a lot of fun with Jessica and Courtney, but hadn't really spent much time with the boys. Guy and Roie (the boy roommates) are really nice, and we had fun all hanging out together. And we enjoyed watching the snow that started in the evening, and we hoped for a snow day (Courtney and Roie even wrote a snow day song, with Courtney singing and Roie occompanying on the guitar). Jessica taught me some wierd east coast custom about wearing your pajamas inside out for a snow day, so I did it...

And apparently it worked! At about 6am I got a text message from the university that classes were cancelled on account of...wind??? Yup, wind. It definately was very windy outside, and walking to campus would have been a pain, but I'm pretty sure everyone in Michigan would agree that it was a pretty big joke. I went to look out the living room window, and there was about a half an inch of snow on the ground. Again pretty humorous. But, after 2 days of class, we were ready for the break. I spent the morning and early afternoon on and off napping, while my roommates went to play in the snow (which I was very much not up for because it was all slush by the time they went down). We had a fun day hanging out though, playing scrabble with the girls next door, and teaching the boys how to play Uno. They even made us spaghetti for lunch - it was really cute! We hung out in another friend's room for a little while this evening, and then came back home only to find that the weather had gotten even worse!! There is definately more snow now than there has been all day, and we've been told by one of the madrichim that there will probably not be class tomorrow either. In fact, I'd be really surprised if there were.

But that's ok, because we are going to Tel Aviv tomorrow! I'm so excited, since I've only spent a few hours there before, so I can't wait to explore the city. One of our friends, Jordana, has access to her grandparent's vacation house right on the beach, so 8 of us are going there for the weekend. It should be a lot of fun, and we'll even be back in time Saturday night to enjoy another Saturday night out in Jerusalem.

Love from the City of Gold,
Leah

PS sorry no pics with this one, but the internet is being annoying and barely letting me post at all, so pictures might get added later once the people who set up internet in our apartment stop being annoying and actually come to campus.

PPS...it's hailing now...ya, hailing, in Jerusalem

First Friday/Saturday weekend

So apparently my natural sleeping until noon habits haven't transfered to Israel, and I've been waking up around 6am for the last few days for no reason...SOOOO I figured I'd use the ridiculousness of this wake-up to update about my weekend...

After the crazyness that was Wedensday and Thursday, the last two days were exactly what I needed to make me fall in love with this whole experience immediately. Friday morning we went to the shuk on Machaneh Yehuda, and as soon as we got off the bus all we could smell was the amazing smell of fresh baked challah. We hung out at the shuk, where we got challah for shabbos, delicious rugalech for breakfast, and lots of amazing and cheap produce.

My roommates and I at the Shuk

From there, a small group of us walked over the Old City and went to the Kotel (Western Wall) for the first of many trips. Going to the Kotel is always an incredibly spiritual experience, but I particularly enjoyed it because I had never been there without the construction and a big wall blocking the full view, but it's gone now so I could finally take the entire thing in. It was also something I really needed after the passing of my Papa, and I used the siddur he used every morning to do the morning prayers at the kotel.

Me at the Kotel

After coming home and resting for a little while, I went with one of my roommates and a couple other friends to an amazing minyan called Shirah Chadasha. It's basically an egalitarian orthodox minyan that uses Carlebach melodies. The service is orthodox, and men and women sit separately, but women can lead, and the melodies are simply beautiful. Apparently they recently changed locations, and so we had some difficulty finding it, but once we got there it was worth the wait. And their new building is definately much nicer, with a lot more space for the continuously growing and popular service.

Following services, a big group of us got together in someone's room for a potluck shabbos dinner. It was really nice, and I've had fun hanging out with this group of people. I can already tell that we click well together, and I think it's really going to be a great semester with them. We talked and laughed, enjoyed dinner together, and just had an overall good time.

Shabbos morning and afternoon was a lazy rainy day, and after a few non-stop days, it was definately exactly the break we all needed. After shabbos, most of us from Shabbos dinner went out to a grill restaurant near Ben Yehuda Street. For those of you who eat out with me often, you'll understand when I say that it was AMAZING to be able to go to a restaurant with friends and actually order ANYTHING I wanted! No more having to ask if soups have meat bases or what was in the food that was sitting in front of me, or having to find something vegetarian on the menu. Typical Israeli style, the meal started out with lots of salads of all variety: eggplant, tomatoes, hummus, corn, pickles, and so much more. Plus, there was endless pita, straight out of the oven, which was amazing!

Some of us at dinner Saturday Night

After dinner, we went to a coffee bar on Ben Yehuda street, and then out to the clubs. The nightlife scene is definately different here than in DC, especially because its all so centrally located - its not like there are clubs spread out all over the place, but an entire street of club after club trying to get you to come in. It was a lot of fun and we met some really cool people. It was really entertaining though because all the music that was being played was like 2 year old American clubbing music, and the sound system was based from a laptop with itunes sitting on the bar. It was really amusing.

Anyway, the rest of the people who weren't on the group flight arrive today. I definately think it was a great decision to come on the group flight, especially since so many people (about 120) came on the group flight and we've already made friends. Plus the first few days were so overwhelming that it was nice to have a few days to explore the city and enjoy being here before classes start. Ulpan (the one-month intensive Hebrew course) starts tomorrow, and while my Hebrew DEFINATELY needs improving, I've already begun picking it back up again which is cool. And, speaking of languages, it's really fun being able to read all three languages on the signs around town (Hebrew, Arabic, and English).

So now it's 9am and I've been up for like 3 hours, and I still have two hours left before I have to be up, so hopefully I'll be able to fall asleep! Goodnight...maybe?

B'ahavah,

Leah

37+ hours of no sleep...

Shalom L'kulam! I arrived in Israel early yesterday morning, and it was a very long and interesting journey. I had what seemed to be unbelievable travel luck, not only did my flights arrive on time and luggage come and everything, but my flight to Newark was practically empty, with no one in my row on either side of the plane and no one in front of me or behind me, so I could stretch out. Then, after 5 1/2 hours in the Newark airport, I finally got on the El Al flight to find that there was no seat in front of my lovely aisle seat (aka endless leg room!). And when I thought I couldn't get any luckier, I somehow ended up with 2 empty seats next to me - and the flight was otherwise almost entirely full! Nothing makes a 10 1/2 hour flight easier than having 3 seats to stretch out and lay down on, plus endless leg room when I wanted to sit up. Basically, though, moral of that story = I'm in love with El Al. Even if I hadn't had the luck I had, the personal tvs in coach were awesome...especially since I got to watch 24 and Hairspray...all accompanied with Hebrew subtitles. Not to mention that the bathroom had actual room to walk in and a full length mirror (have any of you ever seen that on a plane, because I certainly have not).

Anyway, the luck stopped there. Let's just say Hebrew U's bureacracy makes GW look like the most organized place on earth (props to GW Housing Program for being better than Hebrew U's!) After landing at 6:30 AM, we went outside to find out that the busses had no more room for luggage and very few seats left...with 20 of us still left to load our stuff! So, the last remaining abandoned bus loners had to wait for another hour or so before another bus came to get us. Then we got stuck in traffic and it took us 2 hours to get from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which is usually only about a 40 minute trip. We finally got here and were basically told "ya, those housing forms you filled out? pointless. Find a group of 5 to room together!" ummm talk about scrambling, especially since all the rest of the people had been there for an hour and already had rooms. Well, we found five of us, and even organized for neighbors. And then we waited...and waited...and waited...for four hours. Yup, GW, there are your props, right there...be proud. We finally get in and they tell us that there are no more empty 5 rooms, so we'd have to split up and join people who were already here. So, my roommates: Courtney from Denver (Nanny - she's friends with the Levin girls), Jessica from New Jersey, and, the previous residents of the suite, Israeli boys Raie and Guy. The guys seem nice so far, and I've been having a lot of fun with Courtney and Jessica, and all the other people I've met here so far. Plus living with Israelis should help my Hebrew a lot, so yay for that! It's a really nice set up though - we each get our own room that is easily bigger than half of my room in the house with a nice sized closet and a big bookshelf and big desk and a full length mirror and everything. There is one bathroom with a shower, and then two toilets (so we have one for girls and one for boys) plus a sink outside the bathroom area, a kitchen, a dining area, and a living room. The view from my room is pretty classicly Israeli, but all-in-all, it's very nice.

That was followed by lots more waiting and filling out forms, and going over stuff we already did, and finally getting phones and...food! Yes, food, for the first time since breakfast on El Al at 4am, we finally got lunch...at 4pm!!! Sigh, ya, it was a long day.

Anyway, I just got back from a campus tour and then a trip to the mall to buy bedding and towels and kitchen stuff. And, of course, kosher Israeli food courts...yum!

This morning there is a group trip to the Shuk to buy vegetables and stuff, and then my suitemate Jessica and I are going to walk over the Kotel. Shabbos I'm supposed to try to go to a minyan I really like here called Shira Chadasha, so it should be a good Shabbos.

Until next time and B'ahavah,
Leah

Pre-Departure Information

Hey everyone! Welcome to my Israel blog!

So, I haven't left yet, but I figured I'd use this opportunity to give everyone my Israel contact and arrival information.

I leave for Israel on the Hebrew U group flight from Newark this Wednesday afternoon (I leave Detroit waaaay too early Wednesday morning), and am arriving at the airport in Tel Aviv on the morning of Thursday, January 23rd. From there I'll be going straight to the dorms in Jerusalem, so hopefully I'll be all settled in by Thursday night.

I'm hoping to get my cell phone shortly after I arrive, but am not sure exactly when I'll get it. However, I do have my number.

My cell phone, which can be used to contact me throughout my entire stay in Israel is: 011-972-52-569-7167. If you are calling from inside of Israel, it's 052-569-7167.

Also, for those of you who don't want to pay ridiculous amounts for overseas phone calls, please skype me! My skype username is schlossy15. I should have internet in my dorm, so I'll hopefully be accessible on skype reasonably often.

Anyway, I should be updating this blog regularly, so be sure to check it out often!

Next time from Israel,
Leah