Friday, June 1, 2012

The First Week


VIDEOS


       This post will be reminiscing a little from my first week in Jerusalem, as I haven’t written it down and yet feel I need to include some details before posting about some other experiences I have had so far.
Where to begin? Since I arrived in Jerusalem on Saturday, it has been a mad mess of administration, buses, getting lost, starting work, ect.  I couldn’t count the number of mishaps that have occurred since arriving, by the end of each day, I have already forgotten half of the crazy things that happened that day. 

Me with two people from my mission, Anziano Banks and Sorella Jenkins, at the BYU JC

Here is a quick review of the first week in Jerusalem:
I arrive at 1.00 am Saturday morning May 19 in Tel Aviv, about an hour away from Jerusalem.  I have no visa for my long-term stay and was quite nervous about getting through passport control.  They asked lots of questions but let me through with no problem, phew.  I take a shared taxi van to an apartment in Jerusalem where Breanne, a former BYU student I’ve been emailing, was staying.  A crazy story occurs here at 3.00 am on the streets of Jerusalem that will be told after my parents are a little less freaked out about me living in the Middle East. But I make it to her apartment and sleep until we wake up for church
Church is on Saturday in the BYU Jerusalem Center, which is an incredibly beautiful building with amazing views of the city. 
            On Sunday morning (the work week is Sunday-Thursday) I show up at Hebrew University with my luggage and the secretary I’ve been emailing is out of town. No one knows who I am or what to do with me and to top it off, I am not an officially registered student yet so they have no record of me.  They finally worked it and I spent the afternoon in my lab, which turns out to be about a 30 minute bus ride from where I live.  I love my lab, the professor in charge of the lab, the people I work with.  I will talk more about my work in a later post. 
             The first week in Israel was spent working in the lab and running around Jerusalem on buses (hours and hours spent on buses each day), trying to buy groceries and things for my apartment dorm room on campus, opening bank accounts, meeting and spending time with the other LDS Hebrew U students (there are about 5 of them), getting lost, walking long distances.  The first few nights I spent having dinners with LDS families and FHE with the small group of LDS YSA here.  They have been extremely supportive and welcoming, and it has made the transition so much easier.
            My dorm room is small and dirty (the students don’t technically have to clean it before they check out, thus they leave it in pretty much whatever condition they want), but it includes a bed, desk, bathroom, and kitchenette, and it is all mine.  I had a post-doc student from Portugal help me check into the dorms and lend me sheets, pillows, and towels for the first week (thank goodness!).  It may be small (I cleaned it so it is no longer dirty), but it is my space and it has grown on me a lot.  I have a beautiful view of the garden below and it is very quiet.  I didn’t see a single person in my dorm building (5 floors too!) the first week, but it is different than other Hebrew U dorms because my building is for graduate students and post-docs and they are older and more subdued. 
            The food is ridiculously expensive here and I spent my first few days eating only bread and a strange cottage-cheese type cheese (I don’t care for it and it still sits in my fridge, untouched for over a week). My first real meal I put together on my own was a plate of bread, cereal, cheese, and left-over potato salad that Becky, a Hebrew U student, gave me. 

           

Things I want to post about soon:

Impressions of Jerusalem, how things are the same and different here
Religion in Jerusalem
What I have learned and experienced about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. 
The LDS branch in Jerusalem
Working in the lab, what do I actually do?
The high security level and safety here
Landscape and buildings; what does it look like here?
Israeli’s personality and dry humor
Daily life; my routine

Anything else you want me to share? Let me know!

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