First day in Jerusalem--August 17

I arrived in Jerusalem on yesterday morning, after taking the bus from Ra’anana with a bunch of Israeli soldiers (they go home for Shabbat, and then all head back their posts on Sunday morning). I had been planning to take a taxi to my apartment, but was told that the taxi drivers sometimes drive in circles to rack up the charges on the meter if it’s clear you don’t know where you’re going. So, with the help of a friendly teenage boy, I somehow managed to shlep my two suitcases onto the local bus to get from the central bus station to Talpiot, the neighborhood where my apartment is. It was crazy; the most crowded bus I have ever seen—there was barely enough room for everyone, and me with my two giant suitcases blocking the aisle. Needless to say, people were pretty annoyed with me (and I learned the Hebrew word for “suitcase” as a result).

I got to my apartment and met Tobie, the current tenant (she’ll be moving out soon, but she’s leaving her furnishings for us to use). The apartment is great—not at all the penniless post-college-student’s apartment—big and spacious, with lots of windows. Then I unpacked…and realized that I’d left my sleeping bag on the bus. I was pretty sure it was gone forever—in Israel, unattended bags are treated as potential explosives and are disposed of by the bomb squad. But, Tobie called the bus station, and it turns out they had my sleeping bag—I just had to go to the end of the line to pick it up.

Next, I headed to my first Ulpan class (Hebrew intensive language class). It went well—but there’s so much that I’ve forgotten! My teacher told me that all of the verbs are a balagan (mess) in my head, and we’re going to have to straighten them out. It’s true; they're all up there, but I can't remember what means what, and how to conjugate a whole bunch of them.

It turns out that my Ulpan is just down the street from the Conservative Yeshiva, where I studied for a summer 5 years ago. So, after class, I walked down to the Supersol, got a snack, and sat in Gan HaAtzmaut (the park across the street from the Conservative Yeshiva), just for nostalgia’s sake. It already feels good to be back in Jerusalem. Just being familiar with the city and the streets makes a huge difference—while it was so nice to stay with Julie in T”A, I already feel much more comfortable here.

After Ulpan, I met my roommate Carra—she’s a highschool friend of Mad Weiss and is really nice. My second roommate, Natalie, arrives in a couple weeks.