Exploring Jerusalem

Shalom, readers! Today was my first full day in Israel – wow! And it’s not even over yet :) I woke up at 9:00 this morning, listened to some music, futzed around with my iPod, and eventually got up and get ready. I took the bus to downtown Jerusalem so I could buy a power converter (so glad my laptop is alive again!) and meet up with some friends. After getting seriously lost (a.k.a. thorough exploration?) we walked around for a while, then took a taxi back to campus in time for a campus walking tour.

Here, I have decided, is the problem with campus tours: you will never take that route to get to any of the places on the tour, so it really doesn’t help you to know how to get to anything. But Ido, our tour guide and one of the madrichim, showed us some beautiful and interesting spots. I got my first look at the Old City from the campus’ amphitheatre, and Ido gave us some tips on how to meet and get to know Israeli students on campus. After that we had an orientation, which basically taught us about health insurance, warned us against a lot of unsafe/insecure places, and reminded us of some basic security tips. I won’t bore you with the details.

After this, I suddenly realized I hadn’t eaten all day. Oops. So I walked with some friends to Burgers Bar, the chain burger place in the same plaza as the pizza place I went to yesterday. Sadly, as they are certified kosher, no cheeseburgers :( But I did have a delicious burger with barbeque sauce as well as some very interesting French fries – they were potato slices!

Now I have returned to my dorm to write this. Soon I’ll venture out into the courtyard, where it’s rumored there is wi-fi, and then Alison, Kate, and I plan to have a pajama party and watch a movie. Stay tuned...this may be my last post for a while, as this weekend I am going on a Shabbaton trip to Tel Hai where I will hike, swim, enjoy a Shabbat dinner, and hopefully have an enjoyable last weekend before ulpan classes begin!