The Mandatory Travel Story Post

Greetings from Jerusalem!

I am finally here, and it is a huge bag of mixed emotions. Excited, because I’m here. Sad, because I am away from all my family, old friends, and professors. Excited, because I get to meet new people. Sad, because I’m so unfamiliar with everything.

I guess I can begin with the flights to Israel. Not too many problems. We go to New York City (JFK) and we chilled there for about 3-4 hours, but we got to run into other Rothberg students while we were there, so that was a plus. The security for El Al was something I had never experienced before. I got asked a TON of questions and they even asked some more than once (they want to make sure that you aren’t lying. My name got put on a list, for extra screening, but so did about 6 other people (we aren’t positive why, but we have a hunch).

We then had to go through security, which was not a big deal. We finally had some downtime, so we got to meet more of the students that would be on the flight. Then we got pulled over for the extra screening, which had some benefits, but also some drawbacks. Once we got pulled over for screening, we couldn’t do anything. We had to sit in the same spot until someone came to get us. So that means no bathroom, no getting a snack for the plane, etc. Then we went into this little room where they asked us more questions and swabbed our shoes and all that fun stuff. Even though I was being screened, I knew that this airline cared about the safety of everyone on it. I also was the second person on the plane. Since we couldn’t do anything because of the screening we had to get on the plane as soon as we were done. That was a nice benefit to that whole scenario.

The plane ride was long (11 hours), for which I couldn’t solidly sleep. So that kind of sucked. Like most long flights, it was crazy dry and I was taking in water at every opportunity that I could get. It was cool to see the different forms of Judaism just on one flight, and how the fact that we were on a plane didn’t deter them from practicing their morning prayer. At around the 9-hour mark everyone was putting on their prayer shawls and they would position themselves away from people towards the wall of plane. It was interesting, because I had never seen that on a plane before. They also didn’t care if we were up and out of our seats. Even the pilots were out and about talking to people all over the plane. I also had the best kosher meals ever, so that was cool too.

Once we got to Tel Aviv I was thankful that my bag had made it, and then we got on a bus for Jerusalem. We finally got to our dorms at about 2:15ish, and we had about an hour to unpack, wash-up, anything we wanted to do before our orientation. The orientation was a gigantic blur. Most of us had been awake for about 36 hours now, so we were pretty much brain dead. I had a splitting headache (not sure if it was from lack of sleep or lack of caffeine). Then at about 6pm we had to go shopping, to get things for our rooms and apartment. We all had to frantically find our roommates, which we had only seen for about half an hour and go shopping for the apartment. That was hard. We were ridiculously tired, and most of had not eaten since the plane since there was no food in the apartment when we got there. I pretty much just left my shopping to the essentials, and it was still a lot of money. Jerusalem is crazy expensive on some things, but not all things.

The expenses will still take some getting used too. When I went to Greece I had less money, since the Euro is stronger than the dollar. Here in Jerusalem, the dollar is stronger than the new shekel (roughly 3:1). It requires some math to exactly figure out what I am actually spending on goods. Naturally, when I am looking at getting a smoothie (since my headache was so bad I didn’t dare stomach food) and it says that it is 20 (of course after it says “NIS” to indicate that this is the New Shekel) but it is hard not to associate that 20 with “dollars” in your head. Still though, that small smoothie (12 oz) was still about 7 dollars, but we had no food in our apartments, and most of hadn’t eaten in a long time. Most of us caved.

Upon getting back to the apartment at about 9:35ish I proceeded to unpack everything I had purchased and then made my bed (fleece bedding - all the softness) and passed out. Thankfully, staying up for about 36 hours helped me adjust to the time change quite easily (8 hours). I woke up about 11 hours later, so yeah, I needed some shuteye.

We start classes today for the Winter Ulpan, which is essentially a J-term course. It is a month long intensive course, and for us that course is Modern Hebrew. I had to drop off forms, pick up books, figure out my phone and mail, and other stuff, so it may be another long day. So I am off. 

Peace and Plane Rides

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

Getting My Ducks In A Row

Well, it turns out that I will be a little pressed for some money when I go to Jerusalem. On one hand this is nice, because I will have to stick to a very tight budget, something that I am not completely against. However, I am saddened because I may not get to see some of the things that I may want to check out while I am there. I am not as concerned with travelling over the whole countryside and jet-setting to other countries. I feel there will be enough going on in Jerusalem for me to keep myself occupied.

In other news I am getting all of my flights figured out, so I will get to New York with ample time for me to ensure that I will not miss my flight to Israel, because that would be kind of completely terrible. I am already figuring out what to pack. It is hard to think about what you will need for 6 months. In January (avg. 43-54 degrees) I will need pants and sweaters, but by the time June (avg. 65-81 degrees) comes around it will be getting somewhat warm (well by my standards, maybe not by the locals). I am a fan of really hot weather, so 81 degrees is still on the cooler side for me. However, you can see the problem.

It sounds weird complaining about clothes and such material things, but clothing is one thing that I definitely cannot afford to purchase in Israel. I have also been advised by leaders on campus to pack the things I know I won't be able to get in Israel. Things like: face wash, razor blades, favorite deodorant  favorite toothpaste, etc. I am not too concerned about shampoo, because I will cope with that one. Probably deodorant and toothpaste too. I do realize that I will probably end up bringing at least one of all of these. I don't know when the first time I will be able to go out and hunt for all of these things, since the day we fly in we go straight to the university and register.

In other news, I am searching routes to learn Akkadian. The Hebrew University offers Akkadian, which is crazy awesome. For more information you can click here. I am aware that it is a wikipedia page, but it is a nice synopsis. If anyone should know one thing about me is that I absolutely love ancient languages. Akkadian is so ancient that it makes Biblical Hebrew (which I study now) seem like a modern language. I think it is a fascinating thing to study the languages that helped the foundations of civilizations that we are familiar with today. Language is a powerful tool. It can be used to destroy, but it can also be used to create. I think people could all stand to learn a couple languages in their time on terra firma.

As of today, I have finished one of my final papers for one of my classes this semester. I now only have my 25 page (minimum) research paper for my senior thesis. I also have a final test, but I am not too concerned about it, and will probably not worry about it until the actual day. It is probably not the best strategy, but it is a strategy at least. I am also getting all of graduate school materials together and then I will eagerly be awaiting to hear either affirmative or negative on my acceptance. That also means I will be putting in for housing and loans and all of that super fun stuff before I leave for Jerusalem. Lots of do and not too much time. My visa is hopefully going to be sent of next week, and then I will be able to actually be let into Israel and stay there.

But alas, my time for blogging must come to an end for now. That huge paper will not revise itself. I will hopefully do a nice celebratory post after I finish that righteous beast.