Into The City

The international school ranks are starting to swell. Not everyone here is American either. In the program are people from Canada, Germany, South Korea, the U.K., Denmark, Hungary, and one guy from India. It truly is an international school. What has really surprised me is that not everyone in the program is Jewish. I guess I'm just shortsighted, but it never occurred to me that non Jews would want to come for a long term program in Israel.


I went to Shabbat evening services Friday night. Haven't done that in college for years. It was an orthodox service and not well attended. We did not have ten men there. Of course, had I been counting the minyan we would have been straight. There were 4 times as many women in attendance. This just reinforces that I'm definitely not headed in that direction. I just don't like the mechitza.


Still no hot water, although I'm hoping I can get that fixed tomorrow. I did pick up a little produce in the shuk this afternoon so I can feed myself. The day trip was pretty cool. The Baha'i Gardens are as beautiful as I remembered. It was much warmer in the lower parts of the city than it is on the Carmel. I went cheap for lunch, falafel from a stand in the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood. I tried out a little Arabic with the shop owner. It was forced and I'm sure my pronunciation was not very good but he smiled anyway. All in all it was a nice first Shabbat in Israel. Tomorrow is orientation and class registration.

First Impressions

I arrived in Israel Wednesday afternoon and it's been a whirlwind three days thus far. I took a rush hour commuter train from the airport in Lod to Haifa, then a cab from the train station to my cousin's house in the Ramat Eshkol neighborhood. Menachem is a professor at the University of Haifa and Devorah is a teacher in Haifa. Here is a photo of Devorah and I at their home in Haifa. I spent my first night in Israel at their house, before moving into my dorm on campus yesterday.


The dorm is nothing to write home about. First of all, none of my roommates have arrived yet. One of them is in the international school like me, so I assume I will meet him very soon. At the latest we have to be here by Sunday for orientation. The other three are Israeli and I don't know when they will arrive. School for the regular students doesn't begin until October 21st.
I haven't yet figured out how to use my hot water. I have a feeling I am doing something wrong, or at least I hope I am. There is a switch on the wall next to the bathroom that I think is supposed to heat the water, but I turned it on 45 minutes before showering and the water could charitably be called cool. At least this will make it easy for me to conserve! I even boiled water in the coffee pot so I could shave comfortably.

The area the dorms are in is beautiful. I have a garden right outside my bedroom window. There are trees everywhere, its warm and sunny, and the whole campus smells like flowers. I know winter and the rains will arrive eventually, but I don't mind that this weather will linger for a while.

I haven't had much of an opportunity to speak Hebrew yet. Most Israelis are not here yet, and everyone in the international school is speaking English. There are fewer Americans here than I expected. Many people are Canadian or from Europe. I did meet a girl from Lakeview and a guy from Wilmette, and also another guy who goes to school at DePaul. It's like I never left home at all!

There is a Shabbat dinner tonight for all the international students, and then a trip tomorrow morning outside of campus. I haven't figured out where things are here yet, but hopefully soon I will be able to start exploring the city on my own.