Deserts and Dry Goods

                Well, I’ve successfully completed my first week in Jerusalem.  It’s been, and still is, a little hectic, but I think it’s going well. My Hebrew is better than I suspected it was when I only used it a couple hours a day, and it’s definitely improving. On the one hand, I feel like I haven’t been gone that long, things are going so fast. On the other hand, I feel like I’ve been here a really long time because so much has happened.

                I did take the trip to the Judean desert I wrote about last week. We met Bedouins, slept on mattresses on the ground, rode camels, took pictures of the desert…

                “Wait,” you say. “I’ve already read this blog post.”

                Well, yes and no. This time was a little different from Wadi Rum. For one thing, it was a lot shorter; it was less than twenty-four hours. For another, the Bedouin camp was a little different. In Wadi Rum there were a few tents for the tourists at the bottom of the hill and a larger tent for the Bedouin at the top. Here, we were in a village constructed entirely for tourists, and we slept inside a large communal tent instead of under the stars, which was kind of disappointing. However, we did have good food, awesome tea, and a bonfire – although the wood burned really quickly and kept setting small fires in our extra wood supply.

                The next morning we rode camels, but this time we actually went somewhere; we didn’t just hop on, take pictures, and hop off, which was nice. The camels had double saddles, which were pretty uncomfortable, but we rode them for quite a while. Afterwards we hiked (strolled, really) back to camp, with a guide who told us about geography and fauna and demonstrated starting a fire with flint and iron. He also went back and found the few people who managed to get lost on the way back. I wasn’t one of them, but it was understandable; with so many hills, you could be twenty yards away from someone and not see them.

                The trip also proved a good opportunity to meet people. It was the first week; most people still didn’t know much of anyone, and we were all looking for friends. After we returned, we had enough time to shower and nap before it was Friday evening and time for Shabbat (Sabbath) dinner. There were a couple of songs, and I realized just how much I’ve learned since Middlebury: I could actually understand the words now, even without having anything to read.

                Shabbat itself was nice. I spent most of it continuing projects I began over break and didn’t have time to finish, so it wasn’t all relaxation, but it was nice to stop and breathe. Shabbat in Israel is kind of like Ramadan in Amman; a lot of things shut down. Offices and stores are closed, so there’s no way to run errands, even if you wanted to. It’s an enforced day of rest, which is really nice. It was a fairly hectic week, and I needed some time to just sit back and think over everything that had happened. Apparently there’s a word for that in German – bedenkzeit, ‘thinking time’. It’s my favorite word at the moment.

                Class itself is challenging, which is good. We’re doing a lot of vocabulary at the moment, things like ‘cost of living,’ ‘addiction,’ ‘tendency,’ and the like. We’re also doing grammar; we’re covering all the things I never formally learned, like passive voice. We also read newspaper articles and discuss current events, using the new vocab and verb structures.

                There are a couple of problems that make class interesting, though. For one thing, the bookstore ran out of textbooks, so copies have to be handed out to everyone whenever we start a new section. For another, our room is fairly small and stuffy, so half the people want the window open, but it’s also still chilly outside, so the other half want it closed. Which means that, in the end, we just switch every few minutes. Exacerbating all these problems is the fact that our class was pretty large in the first place – about 20 people – and about eight people from the class below us have decided to move up, so our already-cramped room is now overflowing with desks, chairs, and students.

                The main stressors in my life aren’t related to class, though. I only thought I had a lot of errands before this semester; between food, toiletries, phone issues, and paperwork, I have much more to occupy me. I did, though, go to the market this morning with a couple of friends, and so my shelf has gone from peanut butter and bread to a bunch of fruit (see pictures below). All the little worries are wearing on me, but we get a sort of holiday tomorrow (we have to go to class Friday to make up for it; no one’s sure why it’s there), so hopefully I’ll have some bedenkzeit and be able to regroup. In any case, it’s good to know that all of you are reading and/or praying, and I certainly appreciate it. Until next week!

Intro to Jerusalem

                Welcome back! I’m sitting in my dorm room on a mountaintop in Jerusalem, admiring the view. It’s been quite a busy week, and it’s not over yet, but I thought I’d take a few minutes to let you know how it was going. A couple of notes to start off: one, I’m staying here for the entire semester, until the beginning of June, and two, the time difference between the central US and Israel is 8 hours.

                My jet lag isn’t as bad as could be expected, probably because my schedule wasn’t that normal in the first place, so even though I haven’t settled into a routine here yet, I also don’t have to get out of my routine from the states. The plane ride over was very nice – I’d never flown Turkish air before, and they give you three meals and a whole variety of accessories. Besides that, the flight wasn’t that full, so I had three seats to curl up and nap on during the 11.5-hour flight to Istanbul.

                Sarah picked me up at the airport, and I stayed at their apartment for the night. The morning was a little hectic because of the two little ones and a meeting Josh and Sarah had to get to, but Sarah was able to take me to Jerusalem and drop me off at campus (all before ten in the morning). I filled out all the forms, got my key, found my room, and started settling in. There was quite a bit to worry about yesterday – not only settling in, but finishing my placement test, signing up for trips outside class, and all the other little things that go with moving in.

                The scenery around Mount Scopus is breathtaking enough that even if it weren’t Jerusalem, I would love to stay here. It’s about a 15-minute walk from my dorm to the other side of campus, where my classes are, but it’s a very nice walk, and the weather is beautiful right now. There’s also a really beautiful botanical garden en route.

                In case anyone’s worried, by the way, you have to go through a bag check, id check, and metal detector in order to get onto main campus, and only staff and students can get in without prior notification. Basically, imagine that all of Israel has the atmosphere of an airport in the States: no jokes about terrorism, no unattended bags, etc.

                Anyway, by noon yesterday I was exhausted from so many unfamiliar situations and people and trying to worry about so many things at once. When I’d gotten everything done for the morning, I went back to my room, locked the door, closed the window, wrapped up in a blanked and just lied there in silence for half-an-hour or so. I don’t know how extraverts relax, but sometimes I just have to lie down by myself and think, or I hit a shutdown point. Anyway, after that I felt my energy coming back and headed out for the rest of the day.

                The main event of the afternoon, outside of several other errands, was orientation. I usually find orientations disorienting, since they usually involve trying to take in a ton of information and cultural/security warnings in the space of an hour or two, but this one wasn’t that bad. And afterwards, the leaders took a group to go shopping for kitchen utensils, bathroom supplies, food, and etc. I don’t think anyone got everything they wanted, but it certainly helped for immediate needs.

                I also got to translate for the first time. We went to a bagel shop yesterday and, since most of our little group didn’t speak much Hebrew, asked for an English menu. The waitress explained (in Hebrew) that the English menu wasn’t right, which I translated, and we ended up with Hebrew menus. As it turned out, what people wanted wasn’t on the menu anyway, but it was nice to know I could translate if needed.

                And the week isn’t over yet. The weekend here is Friday and Saturday, but I have my first class in a few hours. And after class, there’s an overnight trip to the desert in which I’m participating, that lasts until tomorrow evening. And then there will be time to rest and recharge, and get ready to start classes and start exploring Jerusalem and Israel. I’ll let you know how it goes next week – I’ll probably be posting Tuesday or Wednesday, so stay tuned! Oh, and hello from Jerusalem!