First Day

As with any first day, I'm ending this day with a sense of major overwhelm coming over me.

I went with my roommate and a couple of other girls to the campus.

We had a reception and a short orientation this morning. I met with the director was a fellow at Michigan last fall and thanked her for inviting my old professor from Smith to lecture here (I am so excited to see him tomorrow). We were given bags with program booklet and a map of the university (oh gee, thanks, I could've used it yesterday). I walked around a little. It seemed like everyone knew each other.... probably because of similar languages. I was surprised to see a number of Israelis that ultimately made up a good portion of the program. Even more shocking, there was also a good number of Eastern Europeans as well. Those whom I talked to wanted to take Yiddish to study their countries' Jewish history. I was impressed. I hope to learn more from them to see why it mattered to them.

I was placed in Intermediate 2 but the material in the book seemed right to me. But oh... my god. I thought my Hebrew would be good enough to handle the classroom but the teacher spoke rapid-fire Hebrew and Yiddish. I could not follow anything except for a few short moments when she did slow down. Even as we did some translations for the short story, they were translated into Hebrew. I had to admit that it would have been helpful to do a refresher class in Hebrew to jog my memory. But that's not the case. Luckily, I could follow the Hebrew in the book for instructions, some vocabulary, and guidelines. I kept thinking, "God, you had damn better know your Hebrew in order to do this program." My Yiddish instructor at Michigan had warned me but the e-mail from the program when I inquired said that the teachers were multilingual and would accomodate to the class. Well, since my class was mostly Israelis, the majority ruled.

I felt pretty shooked up during the second half of class. I couldn't concentrate. I had never felt so left out or lost that I began wondering what could I do to get out of this situation. I couldn't wish to be in New York at YIVO because that's just totally out of my hands now that I was already in Israel and everything's been paid for. I approached the teacher afterwards and explained that I couldn't follow that much Hebrew. She mentioned one other teacher who was an American and might speak more English in her class.

I spent the rest of the day getting my medical insurance card and gym membership. And of course, I ran 6 miles. First run in 2 weeks! It felt good even though it was hard being on the treadmill. It definitely did not help that I had a lurker at the end who did the follow things:
1) Stood right next to it that that I felt my personal space as a runner was being invaded that I tried to motion for him to stand away.
2) When he stood close, he rested his hand on the railing and *accidently* placed it over the emergency button, stopping my run just shortly before I was due to finish.
3) After I had gotten off, I saw there were other empty treadmills behind me! Why me?!
4) Within 3 minutes, someone else was on it, not that lurker.

So I ended up leaving the gym with ambivalent feelings.

Later, I took a bus to Levontin 7 Club for a buffet dinner for the program. The room was so loud that I could barely hear anyone. I had several glimpses of my old professor milling around but I decided it would better to approach him tomorrow in a quieter room. After dinner, we all headed downstairs to the basement to watch klezmer band. I liked it but I wasn't a big fan of music so I stayed for 15 minutes. The bus ride back took about 30 minutes anyway....

I was able to get ahold of Mor when I got back. It was really good to hear her voice and talk again. I might be mad with my Blackberry screwing up with my calls sometimes, but the call quality was wonderful. It was as if she was sitting next to me. She hopes that she'll be able to come in Wednesday.

Tomorrow, I will try again. I'm not real happy about all of this. Bad luck seems to follow me wherever I go and I must flip it over for the better. It didn't help much either to have learned that the program can end on July 23rd, not the 26th. And I had booked my flight for the following Shabbat. Given the circumstances at home nowadays, I would really have liked to leave then.

Oops, Too Early

Ooops, I arrived a day earlier. But that was okay. Classes actually start tomorrow, Monday.

I must say that I am extremely shocked by everything at TAU regarding preparedness and the dorms. The program did warn of "substandard" living so I thought it meant at least within same level as Haifa so I was willing to deal with that. Shlomi and Maayan gave me a ride to the dorms and helped me get in and with my bags. I entered in the apartment by myself and my jaw dropped. The tiny kitchen was on my immediate left, followed by a tiny bathroom, and then a large room consisted of two beds and two desks. The fridge was on the patio... because there wasn't enough room in the kitchen for the fridge. No joke.




Dear Mother, I am wearing flip flops in the shower for the next four weeks because the bathroom was beyond description. Absolutely beyond description that the picture below can say 1,000 words. I asked the two counselors who stopped by this evening to check on me if all bathrooms were like this and they said yes. I'm still horrified. I'd rather have clean bathrooms than internet in the dorms!





After getting over myself, I went back out to find the orientation on campus. When I found the building and there was nothing in the room that I was supposed to meet the program people. I called the office and that's when I found out that I had the wrong day. I thought immediately, "You know what? At least you can get everything done today and be all set!" So I wandered around the campus for a bit in search for a post office to mail out some postcards and change in my travelers checks.

I found the sports center- woohoo! It took some searching for the main entrance... good grief with the construction next to it. A woman named Shani found me and asked if I needed any help. Then she offered a tour and I was all sure, why not. Almost immediately as we walked around, she noticed that I had difficulty seeing the ground (as I always do with new territory) and asked about it. She was really nice about it and helped me get around. The sports center had three freakin' pools- two indoor and one outdoor (complete with lounge chairs!). Everything was pretty good with plenty of air conditioning so I expect to do a lot of my runs inside. The walks around Ramat Aviv were made of brick so they're not great for my injury prone joints. When we got to her office, she explained that a couple people had already stopped by and wanted to join as well. As it turned out, they had only a year-long membership fee and we would be required to write a letter to the manager along with a letter from the program confirming our enrollment to ask for a monthly fee of 250 shekels. Alright, fine, fine.

Afterwards, I set out to find the post office and the mall as my phone wasn't working properly. The mall was ridiculously nice with lots of cafes. As it turned out as Maayan explained later, this was the heart of little Ramat Aviv. If you wanted to shop, you shopped here or in Tel Aviv. If you wanted to dine, you dined here or in Tel Aviv. No movie theaters though. The next few hours consisted of me getting impatient waiting for two women to finish up with the customers at Cellcom, asking for directions to the post office (shockingly, the first 5 Israelis I asked had no clue were the post office was), spending half hour at the post office for my travelers check to go through the system and getting stamps, eating lunch, and going back to Cellcom and waiting again. The woman who could speak English couldn't figure out what was wrong with my phone and said I should go back where I originally got the SIM card from. Are you kidding?! I spent the next hour looking for a damn bus back to Herzliya before I decided it was already close to time for Shlomi to leave work and I would ask him to give me a ride back at least.

He and Maayan did and they thought my story at Ramat Aviv mall was stupid as well. I eventually got it straighten it out in Herzliya with a couple of keystrokes to change some settings. The guy mutted that it's the whole Blackberry thing.... I gave him a glare and resumed to figure out what hidden control Verzion must still have over my Blackberry. I realized that I would have to learn to memorize the last 7 digits of every phone number as when I press speed dial, it adds 1 in front of the whole number which was incorrect for the Israeli phone system. Fantastic. Did I mention that a good number of Israelis now have a touch phone (generally Samsung)? And still no Blackberrys!

Finally, I took the bus back to Ramat Aviv and actually went food shopping. Breakfast was covered for the rest of the time. Whoo hoo.

I came home and met my roommate. She had a fairly thick Eastern European accent so I asked her where she was from. "Belorussia." she said. I told her that my great great grandparents were from there but the town's probably destroyed by Shoah anyway. I look forward trying to get to know her more. This was her second time in Israel. I had to pause for a minute before responding to her that I had been to Israel 4 times when she asked in return. She seemed really excited about the whole Yiddish program so I hope that some of it will rub off on me.

I gotta say, there's something about these Israeli malls. They're almost refreshing in a way with different stores, some imported American and European stores like Zara and Nine West, and cafe and restaurants. Everything you need is there- real cellphone booths, a supermarket, a booksore, a drugstore, and all other things. It's also a little weird for me to see people sitting around in the middle of the mall sipping their cappaccinos away while conversing and reading newspapers. I'm not saying that I feel like I've been transported back to America but the whole atmosphere is a lot more peaceful.

Whether it's a good thing or not, I'm afraid that I will be spending awfully a lot of time in that Ramat Aviv mall.

Eilat- A Desert Oasis

(Pictures are coming soon- just having a little trouble uploading 100 pictures on Facebook...)

As the bus traveled by the sign that said, "Eilot", I looked around. Where's the water? It looks like we're still in the Negev... this can't be right. The mountains were dry and of light red in color. Cars were covered in dust and sitting under the hot sun. Everywhere I looked as the bus creeped its way through Eilat to the Central Bus Station, everything just looked sleepy. Probably what you'd expect from a place in the desert.

It was hot when I came out of the bus to find my way to the hostel, Beit Aharva. I had reservations for the prior weekend but had to cancel them. I came up with an idea that I might as well ask for a credit of 160 shekels and stay in the dorms for 3 nights at 50 shekels each. Off I went looking for it with my backpack filled with clothes, a towel, and accessories that I would need for the next 3 days. The directions were actually easy once I realized that the hostel had written Ha'amogolanim in one word in English as the English on the street sign was different (Ha Ma'Golanim). Heh, gotta love Israel sometimes.

I wound up arguing and pushing the front desk guy to settle for my deal- I was here already and I hadn't paid this yet, and I might as well get a damn bed. He also might as well have my business and for me to give a good word. After a good 10 minutes of straight talking, he gave in and showed me a locker to store my stuff for the next few hours until he could figure out which bed I'd sleep on in that particular room (each dorm room was made up of 2 bunk beds). I pulled out my smaller knapsack and put some stuff in from my backpack to roam around with for a bit, including water. At this point, I was a little peeved with the whole thing but forced myself to get out there and figure out Eilat's landscape. And it was hot, did I mention that already? I pulled on my Michigan baseball hat *gasp* which wasn't usual of me to do that- actually wear a hat.

I descended down a small hill towards the water a'peeking through several high rise buildings. I saw the airport, built literally right in middle of the place. European tourists came here- if anything, my guidebook said that Europeans vacation here and never see the rest of Israel. That's just incredible but I must admit, with Eilat's remote location and reputation as a beach resort, why make the effort to see the rest of the country? Just like Americans did with Cancun, Mexico. Anyway, I took a stroll along the boardwalk that lined along the water and gawked at ridiculously fancy architecture of several hotels- Hilton's Queen of Sheba, Dan, Herod's Palace, and few others. They were very ornate that I wondered what's with Israeli hotel architecture. It's still a cultural shock for me given that many hotels in the United States were simple in their external design. I glanced over some amazing clothes and jewelry and handbags that jammed in stalls. I wished that someone had told me that I would find all the clothes and jewelry that I would love, then I'd save way more money! I really liked the casual, easy, and drapey style of the dresses and a lot of the jewelry had pretty gem stones, held by leather strings.

The rest of the day consisted of going back to the hostel, confirming my bed, eating the rest of the sandwich from lunch, and reading for a little while. Still jetlagged, I had a lot of trouble falling asleep at night. The fact that I had air-conditioning blowing in my face on the top bunk didn't help much until I turned to the other end of the bed.

In the morning, I woke up around 9ish and got ready to begin my day. I grabbed yogurt granola from a nearby market for breakfast. While waiting for a bus (I was warned that it came every half hour), a cabbie came by and said, "C'mon, the buses are slow! Where do you want to go?" I protested a little and looked in the cabbie's eyes, "Coral Reef, chamah?" "Twenty shekels." Eh, c'mon, it's less than 3 1/2 miles, I could go for fifteen. He said sixteen. Beseder. Then he coaxed another woman to come in the cab with us. She protested and negotiated as well. He gave her fifteen shekels and I said, "Hey! I want my fifteen too!" "Okay, you get fifteen, and you get fifteen, we're all happy!"

He dropped me off at the Coral Reef Observatory and Marine Park. I saw some "rare" fish- I didn't know, I felt that I had seen at least some of the in some aquariums in the U.S.. I crammed between families to watch a scuba diver feed sharks with cut up bits of fish. Interestingly, one of the shark breeds in the tank was supposedly be a man-eater but I supposed that after living in a tank for a while, they realized that the man was their sole provider of food... Then I watched a film, Oceanarium, and sat in moving seats to follow the action of the camera. It was pretty neat that way but nothing too interesting. It wasn't really worth paying another 10 shekels for. Finally, I meandered my way to the famed Underwater Observatory. I climbed down the stairs underwater to see the coral reefs. I couldn't believe my eyes- this was real stuff, no pretty paintings in the backdrop. I could see the descending floor and the fish swimming down there. It was so neat! The coral reefs were just beautiful to see. For a few moments there, I felt as if I was in Ariel's world, the world of the Little Mermaid!

By the way, all the signs here are in Hebrew, English, and Russian. No Arabic.

Even better, after lunch, I walked 10 minutes to the Coral Reef Nature Reserve Park. The only thing you could do was snorkeling! No swimming or anything of that sort. The woman at the desk offered to watch my stuff while I went snorkeling. I had never really snorkeled before but I remembered how my parents described the differences between snorkeling and diving so it took me a little time to figure out how to breathe. I used to breathe through my mouth and I stopped doing it years ago thanks to speech therapy. So it was hard to adjust and I had to practice swimming around a bit. By the way, the water was cold. It was strange because sometimes Tel Aviv's beaches could get fairly warm sometimes in the summer from intense sun rays and I had expected Eilat's waters to be warm by this point.

Once I got used to the tube and googles, I went snorkeling. I almost shirked back when I saw a big fish nibbling at a reef. Whoa, no glass between me and that fish. I felt a little nervous when a school of fish swam past me. Somehow my brain kept thinking that these animals were going to attack me or hit me or something. Nevertheless, the reefs were just breathtaking and I wished that I had a protective case for my camera for underwater photography. If these reefs were only the surface of the entire reef in the Gulf of Eilat, I could not imagine how amazing the reefs down by Sinai must be where a lot of deep dives occur. I hoped that my dad still had his scuba license so he could go diving for a day to see more than these reefs. I swam and snorkeled, much to my surprise, for almost two hours! Then I laid on a bench to dry off my bathing suit. The combination of the heat and sun dried me off in no time- no towels necessary.

I took the bus back to the town. Apparently buses actually run only once an hour. Ridiculous. I saw plenty of cabs but you know, tourists. I walked along the boardwalk once again for a bit. It was getting mighty dark out so I grabbed some take-out sushi on the way back to the hotel. There wasn't really much to eat in town- the real eateries were actually around the boardwalk and hotels. Anyway, the sushi wasn't worth it- they were so tiny....

I woke up from a long night of peaceful sleep, finally, on Thursday morning, ready to see the dolphins! I took a bus to the Dolphin Reef. The driver almost kicked me off because I wasn't ready to pay or something but I yelled at bim a bit, no way I was getting off, and he made a hand motion moving me to the back of the bus. How aggravating.

The Dolphin Reef was an oasis itself with lots of palm trees and wooden structures that reminded me of pictures of the South Seas or like Hawaii. I could choose to snorkel with the dolphins or try my hand at diving. If the fish yesterday made me a bit nervous, then I wasn't ready to deal with the dolphins yet. Besides, it's something I'd like to do with my parents so I wanted to save it for another time. I paid the entrance fee and walked to the observation deck. There, I watched the staff feed the dolphins and give lecture in Hebrew about the dolphins. The last time I remember being close to the dolphins was that fateful day at the Sea World. They didn't come to us visitors so we just made do with watch them play with the staff and in the distance with each other while splashing our feet in the water. Taking pictures of them was hard because they moved unpredictably and quickly. I watched the divers on the shore, preparing for their 20 minute dive with the dolphins down below. I was sure that the dolphins had fun playing with the divers. Afterwards, I peeked in a little room to watch a couple of dolphins films, including an award winning one, and read about each dolphin near the deck. The original pod originated from the Black Sea in cooperation with the Russian Academy of Sciences. They have had several new babies since the late 1990s and the male leader died a few years ago, so no new calves for the time being for this place.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach. I was very surprised to see fish swimming around there as well! A couple of kids attempted to catch them with their hats but for most part, people swam a bit and laid on their floating toys. The water was very calm as opposed to the coast since the wind was coming from the north, driving the waves in the other direction. I just sat there, staring out to the blue sea with the dusty red mountains of Jordan in the back. My mind was truly at peace. I could think of nothing. My brain was routinely overactive that it's difficult for me to find a place or time that truly quiet it, put it in position where it just fail to comprehend an idea or a thought.

Before leaving, I went back on the deck to watch the dolphins some more. It was peaceful to watch them play and swim. What I noticed was that they loved touch- they're always close to each other. It would be problematic to see a lone dolphin. I wonder how they worked for the deaf and blind in terms of providing therapy.

I hailed a cab back but the *gasp* woman driver refused to negotiate so we used the meter. Good thing I bargained the day before- Dolphin Reef was quite bit closer than Coral Reef so I got a big deal with the other cab driver. When I arrived at the boardwalk, I took a stroll, once again, just to see what I wanted to buy. I was so tempted that I had little idea of what I really wanted to buy. So I bought a bag for 20 shekels while figuring out how much I wanted that beach dress for 80 shekels. I treated myself to a good dinner of salmon steak in a dairy fish restaurant. It got dark quickly again so I made my way back to the hostel. The shopping would have to wait until the morning. Maybe by then I would come up with something else to buy.

On the last day, I had a little time.... and I was in pain with sunburns in areas that had been covered by my running shorts when I got my first layer of tan in San Francisco. Owwww.... maybe that sundress would be good for the skin. I tucked in my tank (which I never, ever did) to protect the skin from my shorts and that was better anyway. I bought some aloe vera at a drugstore before going anywhere. As for shopping, well, I ended up with a necklace with a gemstone. The seller was awfully nice that I was sorry to be off quickly to catch my bus back to Tel Aviv. He asked about my CI and apologized for asking and I told him that I was 23 years old and I lived with that all my life, so no big deal.

The bus ride back to Tel Aviv seemed a little faster than usual. It was a good thing that I bought my round trip ticket as it appeared that it's really recommended to buy a return ticket as the bus was full (as well as the previous bus that whizzed by me when I went to get the aloe vera). I wound up sitting next to some French snob who didn't want to share her seat and told me to move back when she saw my ticket. I got really annoyed because for god's sakes, the rest of the damn bus was full! Then an Israeli saw my ticket and pointed out to that empty seat and a couple of other Israelis motioned for me to sit there while the woman looked away and avoided my glare. Again, gotta love this country.

The Negev, by the way, was really spectacular with its rock formations. It's really worth taking a bus at least once to Eilat just to see the desert. There were flights from Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem for $100 round trip for future reference.

I was almost kind of sad to be leaving Eilat, it was a paradise in a way. I need more beach vacations, like to Fuji or Hawaii. As long I'm in my 20s and still a student, I can still get those student travel deals to those places for cheap. And my Michigan student ID doesn't expire until 2013 anyway.

As for the hostel? They waived the 160 shekel reservation fee and charged me 150 shekels. I told them if I see the first charge on my credit card bill, I would call them. And when I looked at my credit card bill hours later, they stood by their word. Thumbs up for Beit Aharva then.

Connected!

After doing some careful research and purchasing an Israeil SIM card with pay-as-you-go plan, I called up Verizon to get the unlocking code.

Soon enough, I was connected to Cellcom's network. Unbelievable for a cellphone that was under very tight wraps of Verzion. So now I am happy to report that I can continue to use my Blackberry and charge it through my laptop (as I forgot to bring the actual charger).

I suppose that if my parents really want to, they can steal my phone for their Vienna-Prague trip.... or they can just get my mom's Blackberry unlocked. It's just that simple.

That had to be the highlight of my day. No more paying to rent a phone for 12-15 shekels a day. If I'm going to be in Israel for more than 3 weeks, it really makes better sense to buy a new SIM card each time for 250 shekels.

In other news, I got up way too late today- 2:15 PM. I had to double and triple check to assure myself that my watch wasn't playing a joke on me. Everyone in the house left about 8 this morning so... I told Linda tonight to please wake me up tomorrow so I can start getting used to Israel time and make it to Eilat!

Until Friday, I will be heading down to Eilat. Finally. I will stay at a hostel that will give me credit with the 160 shekels that they were going to charge me for canceling the reservations. I will explore the coral reefs for the first time in my life. I will see dolphins swimming in the Red Sea. Maybe I'll even get to see Saudi Arabia! This will also give me an opportunity to check out possible tours for Petra for future reference as my parents want to visit it.

I still can't get over my excitement right now....

Is This Bad Omen?

To be honest, I wasn't quite ready yet. Maybe God thought it would best that my flight ought to be cancelled in order to get me really excited about Israel. I felt a lot of anxiety before because of Flight 447, and slightly bit of Iran-Israel issues (even though I knew way better). I mean, if I have to die in a plane crash, I'd like to be inside a plane, not falling out of the sky without a parachute.

I had everything all set up for my free week leading to my Yiddish program. I would arrive in Jerusalem for Shabbat and spend the weekend with Tobi. Sunday morning, I would leave for Eilat and Petra with Meredith. Monday morning, we'd be doing our tour in Petra with a guide. Then we'd head back to Jerusalem on Tuesday.

That didn't quite work out. Neither did the cell phone situation with Tel Aviv University's preferred rental company. It wouldn't ship a cellphone to me in the U.S. and I couldn't count on anyone being home to sign for the phone in Israel.

So I felt really depressed when I came home from the airport for the last time (I went out for a bit with Dad while waiting for my "bumped" flight to take off- my last chance for Newark). On Friday, I felt better and more settled. But I wasn't happy with the way my plans blew up in my face. Not a good omen.

People were still traveling apparently as I couldn't get on any flight up and down the East Coast bound for Tel Aviv until Saturday. I couldn't believe it given the economy.

So fast forward through uneventful and timely flights on Saturday to Sunday morning when I finally landed in Tel Aviv.

I was very worried because I had no final confirmation of where I could stay. Tobi hadn't answered her phone on Friday. TAU never really got back to me if I could move my stuff in the dorms that day, one day before the official move-in. Linda had said that it was fine but I wasn't sure if the house was locked or not. I also still needed to take care of the cellphone business.

But a moment at the passport control briefly cheered me- the guard never said a word to me as she stamped my passport. I was prepared to give a speech that I was staying with family friends but I didn't have to say anything! I guess this is what happens when you have at least 4-5 pages of Israeli stamps plus an old student visa.

After getting on Skype to make some calls, I finally decided that I would just go to the kibbutz and decompress from my aggravation with not going to Jerusalem or Petra. It's now my fail-proof place to go, my base.

It worked out for the best. I got a nice cab ride that took me right up to the walkway to the house so I didn't have to drag my bags. I could just leave my stuff here for a week and Shlomi could take me to school next Sunday when he goes there for work. I could just repack a little if I wanted to do some trips this week.

Fortunately, I was reading a really great book that kept my mind off everything else- People of the Book. I've decided that I really do like historical fiction that involves a bit of suspense, drama, and mystery. It's a bonus if the story takes place outside of western Europe and North America. My aunt has been doing a great job with sending me the right kind of books lately.