אני מצטער מאוד

So, it has been almost a month since I have made a post. Quite a bit has happened in said month, so I will give you the Reader's Digest version. I am very sorry about the immense posting break that happened. 

1. Day trips to Tel Aviv, Galilee, and Haifa. (There are no huge stories behind this. We honestly just don't like going to the same beach all the time.)

2. My mother and sister came to Israel. 

     This was a very busy and fun week. It helped me remember that there are cool things here. A lot of the big things (Dome of the Rock, Western Wall, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, etc.) had become so commonplace to me that I forget about the awesomeness of where I am. Not only did I get to see my mother and sister again, but I also was able to see Jerusalem with fresh eyes.

3. I went home for graduation.

     I flew home for graduation about one week ago. Now I am back in Israel. Jetlag was crazy, and then I got sick on top of all of it, but I wouldn't have changed any of it. I will just have to plant a tree to offset my currently huge carbon footprint with this study abroad. 

These are the top three things that have happened within the past month. This past month was when school really set in, and we all got into our ruts of schoolwork and everything. My classes are all awesome and my experiences everyday here are all awesome (whether they be great acts of kindness, or great acts of de-humanization), they all leave me speechless most of the time, and fill me with awe that this could happen.

The pace of Hebrew has picked up dramatically. We think that this is because our professors realized we have less than one month left here (only 25 days) and we apparently need to finish our book (or at least get really close to finishing), and we are currently on page 340 of 469. So either this month is going to get crazy, or we are going to be doing the "highlights" of level Aleph. We are JUST starting to learn the past tense in verbs, which is awesome, since that is what I am more familiar with (having studied Biblical Hebrew). 

Conference Calls and Packages

The conference calls are done, thank goodness. They were extremely informative, but since I don't live in New York City, I had to phone in. Also, since I don't have a speaker phone, I had to sit with the phone near my ear for about 2 hours. We were told about practical things, like: what to bring, where to go, and what to wear. We learned that we shouldn't worry about bedding and stuff. One of the first trips that is made is a bus to a local mall the night we get in to buy towels, bedding, and other things.

I won't find out who my roommates are until I get to Israel. They are in the process of pairing us up with roommates right now. The rooming works with 5 bedrooms (furnished with a closet, bed, and desk) and then shared common spaces (living room, kitchen, bathroom). I will also have two sets of keys, one for bedroom and one for the actual apartment. With 5 people living in the apartment they recognize that someone is always bound to lock the apartment at least once, so there is a second line of defense so to speak.

If anyone is wondering about my safety while I am there I will be quite safe on campus. Every person needs to have a student ID to essentially get anywhere on campus, including getting into the campus itself. Guests are allowed, but they have to wait at the gate for their friend or child to sign them into the campus. Bag checks will become a regular occurrence. Just to get into the mall you must wait in line first and have your bag checked.

In case anyone is wanting to send packages, I will know the address once I get there. Since I don't know my apt. # yet I can't give you much more information. Although, I do need to inform you that you need to put ample amount of postage on packages, and me as well. The mailing system is not like the US, if there is not enough postage the package will just be rejected (it was unclear if the parcel would be sent back to you), and the campus won't cover the extra costs and send us a bill, like most schools do here in the states. That means that you could send a package and it could make it all the way to Israel only to be rejected. Hopefully I will have more information about how to avoid this once I am there. They actually even advise not to send care packages, but only necessary things. That would be like a medication that the student needs. That would be sent to the New York offices and then to Israel, since the mail (in general) is not very reliable. So even if you or I write a letter it is not guaranteed that it will follow a certain time frame like it does here in the US.

If there is anything that you want to see leave a comment on this post and I will try and make it happen. Don't worry about photos, they will be coming. Also, does the new format of the blog look okay. This picture is from Greece, but I liked it better than than the one that was previously up. I still will probably be working on the look of the blog for a few more days, but it will have a steady look soon enough.

Peace and Almost Time