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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