Day 1- Sunday January 24th

It’s been a very interesting beginning so far. Don’t really know how else to describe it. I can’t believe I’m writing on a blog, never thought I’d actually sit down at a computer everyday and blabbb my story to whoever cares to read it but it seems to be the trend here. I guess it makes it easier then explaining the same thing 800 times. Trust me- I won’t be offended if you don’t care to read it, it’s just a good way to keep in touch and keep everyone posted but I won’t be offended! I never thought I’d do this myself but it will be a cool little journal J

My internet isn’t working yet so im a little behind- hopefully it will be up by Sunday or im going to have a heart attack. Thank gd for blackberries or I’d be having a cow. Jappish to say, I know, thank you very much Scott Greenberg. The first day was a little sad. Got the airport, knew NO ONEEEE!! Then I finally saw my friend Dana Robin who I was in USY with In High School. We were friendly in it throughout high school but lost touch once we got to college. I saw her on the Hebrew University roster a few months ago and got really excited that she was going so we kinda started talking. I didn’t really know anyone else so it was good to atleast have someone. So I reunited with her at the airport on Wednesday. We said goodbye to our parents together and walked through security together. She knows a bunch of people from her school, Albany, and also from the Jewish camp she worked at the past few summers, no one she’s really close with but she introduced me to them in the airport which was nice. People were all clumped together throughout the waiting area making new friends and speaking with the people they came with.

I had an aisle seat in the middle row of 3 seats… SOOOOUNCOMFORTABLEEEE!! I’ve always had a window seat, especially on these long flights so I can lean on the window, but the flight was overbooked so I couldn’t switch. I sat next to 2 girls studying abroad also at Hebrew U. One is from Nashville, Tennessee and goes to Indiana. She’s in SDT= Rival but I was nice, we made friends. Little odd- but we made friends. Then the other girl is doing a gap year at Hebrew university, meaning she hasn’t started college yet, she spent 6 months in India and is now spending 6 months at Hebrew U, then shell go to college, so shes a baby! Whiteee whiteee blonde hair- knew right away wasn’t Jewish and I was correct. She thought it would be really interesting to study in Israel and learn Hebrew which I thought was really interesting. I tried to sleep the whole flight, but it didn’t work out, soooo uncomfortable.

It felt SOOOO good to finally land. If you can picture me schlepping 2 giant suitcases, filled to 50 pound capacity, + a giant laptop case filled with a computer plus all the crap I can stuff in there + a giant carry on duffel bag filled with sweat shirts and whatever crap didn’t fit in my suitcase galore, you’d die at this scene. I was schvitzing everywhere, finally we found carts, it was like heaven. So we all got our bags and collected and met our Madrichem- which is like our staff for the trip, kinda like RA’s, go to people. They were really cool. The busses were waiting outside for us but it was POURINGGG and apparently Israelis cant deal with rain because we literally had to sit with our bags for 45 minutes waiting for the rain to stop because they don’t like to get wet. I don’t know weirdest thing--- like go to Binghamton see what it’s like with rain. So after waiting forever we finally got on the busses—they separated us by last name on the 3 different busses. Not to be a bitch by people with last names A-H--- scaryyyy…. I was sooo scared that’s how they did the rooming, like grouping people together by last name, I was freaking out on the bus.



Finally we got to the dorms. I was surprised. Lots of dorms. Very confusing. Had to schleppp my million pounds of luggage up these steps. Not fun at all. Where’s Kevin when you need him. We were given keys to our rooms and were told to go find them on our so of course mine was at the top of the steps so I had to schlep my stuff up these steps. I found my building, went into this elevator and was soooo freaked out I started to cry. The elevator was pitch black, I hit the 7th floor button, the elevator started beeping and saying things in Hebrew I started to cry I was so scared, I thought I was stuck in this creepy elevator. I thought I got to the right floor but the hallway was pitch black I had noooo idea what was wrong with this place, I got soo nervous I couldn’t find the lights, I started to cry, went back into the elevator, finally this barely speaking Israeli student walked into the elevator and I like asked her where my room was, while balling, so she showed me. Couldn’t figure out which of the 3 keys to use, my stuff was falling everywhere, I was a wreck! I opened the door to find this DISGUSTING apartment- it looked like 30 people were currently living there, there were like 12 pairs of shoes at the door (both boys and girls), dishes, cigarettes, alcohol bottles EVERYWHERE, it smelled like smoke. I realized Israelis were definitely living there and by the looks of it I was the only American. I opened my actual room to find a room twice the size of my UP bathroom, threw my stuff done, and ran out of the building crying. I went to the staff members at the bottom of the steps balling that they put me with all Israelis and I don’t speak Hebrew and I didn’t want to live with them and he apartment was a messs blahhh blahhhh- I looked like the biggest baby ever. There was a form we filled out back in December regarding our housing- it asked if we wanted to live with Israelis, I put no because I realized they would put you with ALL Israelis and id never meet anyone that way, then they asked if you want to live with boys, I put no. So I couldn’t understand why I was put with both of those, boys and girls. So I’m sitting there balling, telling my Israeli staff that I didn’t want to live with Israelis, didn’t go very well, but finally they understood by American bitch and made some calls and switched me. Same building, a few floors below, I opened the apartment to find another dirty apartment—laundry everywhere, dishes in the sink- sooo gross. But the staff looked up the room and they said there were 4 american students moving in, me and 3 others some being boys and girls, not thrilled about sharing a bathroom with boys, and 1 student that had already been living there aka his stuff. Even though I didn’t want to live with boys I obviously agreed, anything was better than living in a smoke infested apartment with people that don’t speak English. I unpacked pretty much all of Thursday afternoon, the apartment stayed empty, I was kind of lonely. Finally at like 330 pm- I heard a knock on the door and it was my 3 roomates who had just arrived at Hebrew U- 2 girls and 1 boy. They flew the flight after us and met on the plane so they were already friends. Then the other roommate came back, his name is Steve, he’s been living here since July and he’ll be at Hebrew University all 4 years. He’s American, from New Jersey, and he’s gay. I always wanted a gay best friend and he’s like the epitome of gay so I’m kind of happy. He was telling me all about his boyfriend and everything it was really cute. Since he’s been here for sooo long he’s been super helpful, he wants to take us on a campus tour, tells us where good places to go are etc… so he’ll be really helpful. The 2 girls are not so social- they really only talk to eachother. Kylie goes to Tulane and Fara goes to some school I never heard of. The boy, Max, is really nice I like him a lot- he goes to Pitt and he actually knows one of my good friends from wheels. But, Max wants to switch apartments- he was supposed to be put with his friend Alex, but they were separated, and are now trying to find a room together- so maybe bye bye max.

Thursday night we got out cell phones and they took us on a shopping trip to the mall where we bough bedding, towels, and all that stuff. Literally everything in the mall was in Hebrew, I couldn’t tell which store was which it was sooo hard + we were on like noooo sleep because of the flight. All over the mall you saw people from our program passed out on benches, chairs, tables we were sooo tired. We had like 2.5 hours in the mall and only 2 hands to carry things. I of course probably bought the MOST stuff, couldn’t carry any of it—pillows, blankets, towels, rugs galore- had to find some innocent boy to carry my stuff. It was fun but we were sooo tired and I jut couldn’t carry everything I was sropping everything everywhere. We got back at like 930 and I just set up my bed and passed out. It was a really bad sleep, these beds are hard as a rockkk omggggg

Friday morning woke up—went to the shuk with Dana and my new friend Sam whose from Scarsdale, fellow aephi’er at GW- obviously that’s who I would find. She’s really great I like her a lot, she is just like a long Island girl I guess that’s why I attracted to her. The Shuk is crazy on Friday mornings before Shabbat- it’s like tons of Jewish people everywhere swarming the entire place trying to buy really cheap bread, fruits, vegetables, and meat before Shabbat. We wanted to stock up on some food before Shabbat because on Shabbat here in Jerusalem, EVERYTHING is closed so we wanted to get food. I bought strawberries because they are yum. Then we went to lunch where I ate schwarma, obviously, what else do you eat in Israel?

Strange encounter on the way home from the Shuk: We were walking to our dorms in the Student village with all our packages, when this tiny little man, Jeff Seidel, approached me and my friend sam. He had friended me on facebook a while back so I knew exactly who he was and what he is does. Jeff Seidel is this creepy little old man that tries to recruit students to become orthodox and engage in as much jewish things as possible. So he ran up to us and like weirdly and randomly just invited us to Shabbat lunch Saturday afternoon at the king david hotel. For those of you who don’t know, the king david hotel is like THE hotel in Israel. It’s the Plaza hotel of Israel. It’s the most expensive palace like place in all of Israel. So we said yes right away, how could you give up lunch at the King David Hotel? Plus he mentioned that other students would be there as well. We walked away very creeped out but anxious. I’ll come back to this later….

Friday night we had a group Shabbat dinner at the Regency Hotel which is right outside our campus. It was really nice because the whole entire group of us went, all one-hundred something of us, so it was really nice to all spend our first Shabbat together. I sat with Dana and Sam and a bunch of other girls and we all became friends. It was really nice because since the dorms are so spread out and we’re all over, we got to meet new faces. In Jerusalem a lot of the night life shuts down on Friday nights, not all, but a majority of it, so its pretty much a quiet night out. Some people went out but I personally feel funny going out on Shabbat in Jerusalem. Most people ended up staying in and drinking in apartments. Me and my friend Sam went to this girls sarah’s apartment where there were like 20 kids sitting around drinking. I of course met the token Asian student, ****NAMED LINA---nooo joke*** (for those of you who don’t know, Lina is my Asian goddess at school- she works at the Chinese restaurant right outside my building at school and makes me hot and sour soup just the way I like it on a daily basis- we’re literally best friends, business is probably suffering without me now) So I met a lot of new faces, people were sitting around playing kings and stuff, it was ok- didn’t really make any strong connections. These kids are very different from typical Binghamton students. Lots of California and Canada students.

Saturday afternoon Dana, Sam & I took a cab to the King David Hotel. We were very excited but nervous and confused at the same time. When we got there we sat down in this gorgeous ballroom at a long table set for 20 where we were the first ones there. We waited for a good 20 minutes when finally this whole crew of people came in. These people were not students, it was the strangest thing. We were blatantly lied to. In came a mixture of some very orthodox boys with the long curls, 2 young women, jeff seidel and his entire family, some other people, and this man named Asher Milstein. Asher Milstein is one of the sons of the Milstein family. Apparently they own tons and tons of real estate throughout the US and everyone knows them for being loaded. So Asher Milstein basically sponsored this whole weird lunch. He came and sat next to the 3 of us and we were so confused. The man Is in his 30’s or 40’s, not married, loaded beyond belief but very very very strange. He talked to us about his money, drug and alcohol collection, his health problems and all this other weird stuff that made him very unclassy. He was like trying way too hard to be “cool” with us but he came off as a creeper. He wanted to like go to Greece and Egypt with us—like you’re 30 years old, get some friends. He kept pouring us glass after glass of what he calls “the most expensive wine in Israel”- showoff. He tried to put on this act that as long as you’re Jewish it doesn’t matter what kind of Jew you are, but we knew his intentions—to make us one of them, orthodox. At the end of the meal we graciously said thank you and literally ran away creeped out beyond belief. It was one of the most bizarre situations ever. Best meal we ever had but definitely the most awakrd and strange encounter EVER. When we got back we literally told everyone we knew about this!

Saturday night Sam’s friend called her. He played for the Haifa basketball team and gave her 2 tickets to the Haifa VS Jerusalem basketball game. She called me so excited right away but we didn’t know what to do because she only got 2 tickets and we were 3. She called her friend back and he couldn’t get her anymore tickets but he said we could just buy an extra at the door. So we figured we would go to the game, buy a ticket that supportively costed 40 sheckles (10 dollars) and split it 3 ways to be fair. However, when we got there we found out that the tickets were 90 sheckles, not 40. Sam left her wallet at home and Dana and I combined had 100 sheckles because we hadn’t exchanged a lot of money yet. So we had nooo idea how we would buy a 90 sheckle ticket and pay for a 40 sheckle cab ride home. So of course we didn’t end up going in, we sold the 2 tickets and went home. Very exciting I know.

Saturday night at around 8 oclock-Sam, Dana, our friend ethan and I left campus and headed towards Ben Yehuda street where we enjoyed Falafel and all you can eat French fries for dinner. Its very strange here—restaurant workers don’t wear gloves for anything they do, its sort of gross. So we ate a nice dinner together then headed towards the night life scene at 830 pm. We started off at this bar called Zollies, this was my FAVORITE place to go out when I was here in May on the Meor trip. When its outside you basically sit at long tables on the sidewalk, order drinks galore, and smoke hookah all night long. Throughout the night all different people come and sit and hang it, its sooo nice. But its freezing here now, so it just wasn’t the same. They have a see-through tent on the sidewalk with heaters where you sit and do the same thing, not as fun, I got sad L I really missed my trip in may and all the fun people and the long tables, it just wasn’t the same. Since we got there so early we were literally the first ones there and just hung out for a few hours. Dana and Ethans Israeli friends from camp ramah nyack came and hung out with is, it was pretty chill and relaxing, we ordered lots of drinks and smoked hookah. Eventually we left and went to this all Israelis bar for 5 minutes. No one spoke English so we left. Then we went to this random dance club where EVERYONE in our program was. It was this tiny little dance floor with all Hebrew U students, girls mainly, and like 8 creepy Israeli men trying to grab any girl they could reach- No one else. It was soooo sketchy, you would look around and all you would see was Israeli guys grabbing Hebrew U girls and Hebrew U girls running away from them and grabbing their friends. When you looked back and watched, it was hilarious. It was really fun because I got to meet a bunch more girls, more of the “normal” girls studying at Hebrew university. After a while we all left and went to this different bar where we sat at a table and ordered shots and hung out. I met some girls that I really liked. They are the Solomon schecter girls who all came together. They all live on the same floor, the shomer shabbos floor. I am really jealous because they are the only students on my program that share a floor which is something that I always wanted, so they pretty much have a set group to hang out with all they time- they all share a hallway. Its weird how the religious girls on this trip are like the most normal girls and look the most look me. I didn’t really expect that. We exchanged numbers but I probably wont see them much because they’ll be in a higher level ulpan so Im sad L As we were running to cabs at 230 am- Sam and I spotted JEFF SEIDEL AND ASHER on the street- like coming out of the bar we were coming out of!!! It was the creepiest beyond creepiest thing ever, I could not believe they were out where young kids go. They saw us and we ran away!!!

Sunday morning Dana, Sam and I took a cab to downtown Jerusalem where I had to get a special internet plug for my computer at the Talk n Save office. Hopefully, this will work and I wont have anymore problems. We ate lunch at this really good bagel place where they load up your bagels with vegetables galore--- sooooo gooood!!! Then we came back and took a campus took and had orientation. Today the rest of the group flew in, 60 more kids!! So there were tonssss of new faces. I sort of feel bad for them because we all met 5 days earlier and started the program of what feels like forever ago and now they are just starting. After orientation, we went food shopping at a supermarket outside the gates of our school. What a pain in the ass---literally everything was in Hebrew, I had nooo idea what anything was, I was soo frustrated—I got like gd knows what. We don’t have dishes, utensils, pots, pans or anything in my room now. Our kitchen only has a refrigerator and a stove—so cooking is really hard--No microwave or toaster or anything so I had no idea what to get. It was a project. I could not figure out what was laundry detergent and what was fabric softner, what was skim milk and what was regular milk--- I misss wegmans!!! After the supermarket, me, dana and 2 of her friends, who are freaks (not exaggerating at all) cooked pasta in Danas apartment. Dana is living with 3 boys that lived there last semester so their kitchen is fully stocked with everything they need, which made cooking very interesting. Then I got to skype with drew which made me J and play on my internet but it sucks- it keeps going out every few minutes, have to do something about this. Tomorrow is the first day of Ulpan, which is Hebrew Intensive learning program. We have this Sunday-Thursday until February 18th, then we start regular classes. Ulpan is 8:30 am-1:15 am oyyyy gavult. I’ve never had a class in Binghamton earlier then 10:00- this should be interesting. If this is anything like Hebrew 101 with Daniella Cohen, I am going to cry. She literally picked on us and humiliated us in front of the entire class if we didn’t know things. It was so embarrassing!! Going to sleep now, very happy im all caught up on this blog thing, Sorry it was sooo long—had to fill you on the past few days. Should be shorter for now on until I eventually give up!

All in all, this has just been very interesting. Its been very different from what I had expected. I really thought we would all be living in 1 or 2 dorms which would make it MUCH easier to meet people. Im really disappointed about that aspect and also the campus itself. The campus is situated ontop of a mountain, Mount Scopus. Pretty much all that is up here is Hadassah Hospital, Hebrew University, and all these arab Villages. Once you walk out of the gates of my school, you are basically in Arab villages which is a No No. So pretty much your subject to just whats in the gates, the school & the dorms, or you have to take a cab or a bus to Jerusalem—theres no way to walk. So sitting down to do your homework at a nearby coffee shop is out of the question, which is something I like to do. You really cant go anywhere alone because everything is a bus or carbide away and I like to do things on my own. Its definitely going to be a hard adjustment but I guess I’ll grow from up..

I miss my friends… and drew… and wegmans … and Lina