In Haifa

Alright. First blog post from Israel. This might be long.

I just got to Haifa and moved into my dorm today, but I've been in the country for three days already. The plane ride was pretty uneventful except for the fact that it was full of rowdy Young Judea kids. I looked out the window just in time to notice when we were flying over the Cape and got all emotional.

Shimon picked me up form the airport on Thursday and took me to Tel Aviv. (a quick explanation for any of my friends who might read this and not know who I'm talking about-- Lois is my mom's cousin, Shimon is Lois's husband, and Samadar, Michal, and Hillel are their kids. Jeremy is Samadar's husband, Eitan is Michal's fiancee, and Anat and Avigail are Hillel's wife and daughter. Lois and Hillel's family are in the states right now so I haven't seen them yet.) Anyway, we went to Michal and Eitan's apartment and I fell asleep for a couple hours, and then when Michal got home from work we went out to pick up Samadar and bring her home and walk around. Michal and I went to this really good gelato place and met Jeremy, who is a dogwalker and had just found a puppy that had apparently been abandoned in an apartment building. So we walked around a bit with the puppy and named her Phoebe, but later in the day Samadar convinced Jeremy to bring her back to where he found her because she probably belonged to someone. Turns out she did, but they're obviously not good owners because they left her locked out of their apartment and wandering in the building, and everyone else in the building felt sorry for her. (Samadar and Jeremy have a big fluffy white dog named Merlin who is very sweet, and I've been telling him how much I miss Kenai.)

That night I went out to Mevasseret, where Lois and Shimon live. Everyone gathers there for Friday night dinners, so Friday was nice and relaxed. I slept a lot and actually by now I'm pretty well adjusted to Israel time. Yesterday (Saturday) I went into Jerusalem with Michal, Samadar, and Jeremy. We walked around the Old City, in the market and the Jewish Quarter, and went to the Western Wall and the church where they say Christ was buried (I forget the name of it). Everything is so old there; the stones are worn smooth from so many people walking on them. And basically everything in Israel is built out of tan stone, so everything looks light and bright. Israel is also full of showers with handheld sprayers, toilets with buttons, super concentrated juice that you mix with water, walls along the streets, and wild cats. Not to mention cucumbers, tomatoes, and hummus.

Anyways, I just moved into my dorm here in Haifa a few hours ago and I don't know anyone at all yet. So hopefully I'll meet some people sometime. I have an oral placement exam tomorrow and then I start class on Tuesday. I miss home and everyone there a lot. It'd be cool if you could leave a comment or something if you're reading this--I want to stay in as close contact as possible. I don't know how often I'll update here, but maybe I'll have more to say in a few days. I miss you all!

Welcome to the tales of my (future) travels.

For a while now, I've wanted to start a blog. I just didn't feel like I was justified in doing so. You see, I've never really understood the concept of using a blog as a daily journal-type thing. I like reading other people's journal-blogs, but writing in my actual journal every now and then is enough for me--anything more public than that seems like oversharing.

But then I got accepted to study Hebrew in Israel this summer, which is the perfect opportunity for a TRAVEL BLOG. (I also want to start a food blog someday...but that's a whole other story.) For two months I will be living in Haifa, Israel's third-largest city. It's in northern Israel, on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean, and it is the only city in Israel where the buses run on Saturdays (meaning that there's less tension there than in other places--my professor told me that in Haifa I'll be more likely to meet Arabs than if I were in Jerusalem, for example).

Basically, this blog will hopefully be a good way for me to keep in touch with friends and family while I'm in Israel. I'm fairly sure that I won't have internet access in my dorm, and I'm not expecting to be able to call home either (which is why I'll be introducing my family to Skype). My Hebrew class is going to be very rigorous and time-consuming (it's an Ulpan, which is just an intensive Hebrew course--they have them all over Israel, and many of them exist to help new immigrants learn the language). I don't know how frequently I'll be able to update this while I'm there, but I'll try to chronicle major events that happen and interesting things that I do. I hope that everyone who reads this blog will comment on the posts and help me to keep in touch with you. I've already decided on a rule that I am required to take my camera with me everywhere, so expect lots of pictures.

At the moment, my trip still feels really far away. I'm just finishing up my exams (my second year of college is almost over--how did that happen?!), and I have two months to go until I board a plane and fly over the ocean. I've never been on another continent before. In fact, the only time I've ever been to another country was when I spent a few days in Montreal a couple years ago--and even though they speak French there, Canada hardly counts as a true international experience. I mean, back then you didn't even need a passport to get there from the US! Since I can't go abroad during the school year, I'm really glad that I'm getting this opportunity over the summer. I know it will be fun and rewarding and different from anything I've ever done before, and right now I am really, really nervous. I know that I'll only get more nervous as the weeks go by and my time at home dwindles.

So I'll be spending the next two months at home frantically trying to re-learn all the Hebrew I've forgotten, and reading lots of books and watching Doctor Who and running and maybe working at art camp. Oh, and being nervous. But hey, at least I'm not spending another summer testing telephones.

p.s. No, the name of this blog has nothing at all to do with being a student abroad in Israel--but it definitely means something to me. Although I don't expect anyone other than my parents to pick up on that. haha.