Epically long entry...

So in today's entry we have the good the bad and the strange, not in that order.

The Bad

Adjusting is happening at a snails pace, if at all. Mostly due to the language barrier which is very hard to overcome. It was much easier to pick up basic Italian, but Hebrew just seems impossible to remember and pronounce. Unfortunately today was a wake up call that if I dont try I very well might end up leaving this country frustrated and unhappy. I don't want that. Today even on campus I learned some cashiers dont speak any english, not even the numbers so they have to write it out for me which is embaressing and holds up the line. I also feel that people see me as ignorant because I'm at a hebrew university speaking not even a word of their language. It also makes me feel extremely isolated. People say there's plenty of English here, and while there is some, at the univeristy there's less because it doesn't cater to tourists, even some of the international students know enough hebrew to get by. I hadn't anticipated this, I thought we'd all be in the same boat, and while I'm not completely alone in this boat, it isn't as full as I would have hoped.

I'm also terrified of taking the bus because of my first two mishaps the day I arrived. They really are sticking with me. Also in Italy I had a very unfortunate encounter on a crowded bus with a man who was extremely inappropriate. Since this is public I wont go further but really my public transportation experiences in foreign countries have been consistently traumatising. However our campus is too far from the main part of the city to avoid taking a bus. I asked Greg to help me on Friday and come with me to the old city, kind of acting lame because I didnt want to admit how nervous I am about doing it alone, I just pretended to be very confused. I know I need to force myself to get over this hestitancy I have developed but in this area it's particularly hard.

Today I tried just that, I very well could have eaten back at my dorm but I wanted to try and figure out the cafeterias so that if I was starving and on campus I wouldn't be helpless. This morning I noticed the one inside my school, which is the international school, was crammed with english speaking kids. It was like I was back in America, just with more accents. The cashier knew english because everyone there spoke english, it was self serve and I felt very relieved. Though seeng everyone hanging out and talking- these kids have obviously been here for a while, maybe even the year-made me feel lonely. Anyway, after class I went to get a sandwhich there but they were closing. I looked at the sign which said open til 18:00 which is 5:00. It was only 2:00. I was confused but didn't ask anyone, afraid there would be some answer that made me feel dumb. I don't know why I'm so self conscious all the sudden but it's horrible.

Anyway, I went off to the other main cafeteria, where security was at the door. I presented my ID but again I was wrong, he needed to check my bag. In 2002 there was a terrorist attack in this building so they are extra careful here. The other guard asked my name and what it meant. I was pleased to be able to answer that Amy is a french name and it means beloved. He said that was a good name to have. Here I was feeling okay, so I walk in and look around. Only I find there's no ready made serve yourself sandwiches or yogurts or anything. It's like a traditional cafeteria. Only there was no one behind the counter. So my new found timidness kicked in and I scrambled to find something to buy so I wouldn't have to admit A) I had no idea how it worked and B) I spoke no hebrew.

I selected an ice cream bar, rationalizing that it would be a nice treat on a hot day and was really what I had wanted all along. The security gaurd comes up next to me and remarks "You dont want real food?" Now it's apparent he knows english, and is friendly so I should have asked. But by then I have the ice cream in my hand and it would be so embaressing if he knew I did want real food and had been too afraid to ask a single person anything. So I tell him I'm just really hot and go to pay. The guy tells me the price in hebrew even after i ask in english so I hand him ten shekels and pray it's less. It is and I look slightly less idiotic.

On my way out the secrity gauard smiles and tells me to come back there tomorrow. I say maybe if I'm on campus. He tells me it was nice meeting me and I say the same. He's so friendly and would have been helpful but suddenly all my good sense has gone out the window. Looking back it wouldn't have been so bad to ask how it worked, or if someone was on break. Anyone would wonder why there's no one behind the counter- even at home it would be a perfectly reasonable question. Yet in the moment I was seized with embaressment and didn't even think of that.

However I was determined not to leave without eating so I stop at another cafe that has some yogurt cups. I go to the counter and ask how much and he answers in hebrew. this time I admit I have no idea what he said. Huzzah, progress! He pauses and Im afraid I'll be stuck with an unpaid yogurt in my hand forever when he finally comes up with "fifteen" Unfortunately, the carefully previously counted out coins I have are just under this and I have to root through my bag for a twenty. I am still frustrated by the coin system. The smallest bill they have is twenty. I actually had to by another Israel friendly wallet since mine has a teenty tight pocket for change on the back that is impossible to use here.

Anyway so I get it and sit down at a table, refusing the be a coward and run. The yogurt has fruit on the bottom and granola on top, which seems very yummy. Only the fruit isn't what I usually associate yogurt with- its melon and watermelon! And the yogurt is a tad sour. But I sit and try to look like your average university student, eating my yogurt. Savvy and knowledgable. Now, there had been one of those dome tops with a opening for a straw, like the kind on dunkin doughnuts coolattas or smoothies. I hadn't thought much about it, just taken it off and started digging in with my spoon. To my horror another man sat down at a table with a sandwhich and the yogurt and plunked a straw in and started drinking it. The people with him didn't even blink. I started down at my mixed cup and spoon and my resolve broke. I got up and started walking home.

Maybe it's that there's no one who seems as los and confused as me. The other kids have all had just find experiences so far or have been here before or know some hebew or any combination. I'm just not sure why the confidence I had in Italy is nowhere to be found. I'm trying to put myself out there though. I signed up for every trip they had and in class I spoke up trying to make conversation with two different people during our intermission. I suppose I should talk about class now.

The Good

Today was my first day of class and for the first hour our professor just sat down on the sort of platform/ stage they have in front and chatted with us. He told us this course is about Jerusalem and it's like no other anywhere in the world because it's taught out in the field IN jerusalem. he says there's no way of really getting an understanding for the hstorycal geography without being out there. However, the university cut his budget so we dont have as many trips as he usually does. he says he fought it again and again saying how we would miss out and suffer from this. normally he teaches two classes inside. Two. That's it. But they have us there 4-5 times with 8 field trips insead of 11-12. I like that he was honest about how angry he was about this and that he shared it with us. He was very informal and says he prefers to teach outside in the city.

One boy, Corey spoke up and asked if we could take the trips with him outside of class time and pay ourselves. He said for insurance reasons, no the university wouldn't allow that. So another girl asked if us students could get together as a group and go see the extra sights on our own. She took down out email addresses and seems like she's determined to organize something, which is so great!

Though then we have a two hour lecture which left my head spinning. I am so in over my head. The prof went around asking us what sights we knew in the old city. I know the western wall (previously the wailing wall) and that's it, and it was the first one said. And I was the third to last in line. Luckily he got distracted and I never had to answer, but it was then I realized I had four days to up my background.

We covered the basic geography, the three valleys Ha' Gai, Kideron, and Hinnam, which roughly translate to The Valley (this was the main one), The darkness (well, the hebrew word meaning darkness is what Kideron is derived from) and the Screaming valley. The Kideron and Hinnam have such names because they are where the followers one of the pagan religions of the ancient times would sacrfice their children, to Mulich by throwing them into a fire.

We also learned about how caves and underground tunnels are formed when rainwater combines with carbon dixiode to form H2CO3 which eats away at limestone. Why did we learn this you ask? Because the main spring , the Gihon spring (gushing spring) comes from a cave and when the water reaches a certain level it gushes out the mouth of the cave and downward. So it intermittenly gushes and when it did people back then saw it as God providing water.

We also learned some history, okay A low of history, from 1800 B.C.E to 586 which marked the end of the first temple period when the Byzantines destroyed the cty and the temple.

We went all the way from the canaanites, to when the hittites and jebusites lived in the area, migrating down from modern day Turkey, to when Joseph defeated the then Amorite king of Jerusalem (but didn't bother to take the city, weirdly) and then Judah came and conquered the city didn't keep it either (prof supposes this was because it technically belonged to Benjamin and Judah didn't want to settle there only to be contested by Bejamin in the future and get kicked out) so the Jebusites came and finding it unsettled settled there naming it Jebus. Then David came centuries later and conquered it and made it the capital of Israel using it to unite the 12 tribes. Then Solomon ruled after David and did fine but then his son was not such a good ruler and the people revolted and Israel was split, the North staying as Israel and the bottom becoming judah. The in 722 the syrians invaded the north and forced the tribes out. Jerusalem was in judah though, not the north. But in 705 Syrians conquered all of Judah except for Jerusalem. Just as they were going to in 701 though, a plague struck their army and a revolt at home called the ruler back so Jerusalem was saved. So hooray! But in 598 Judah was conquered by the Babylonians, including Jerusalem this time, though the city wasn't destroyed. Unfortunately the king the babylonians placed in Judah decided he didn't like being the Babylonian's puppet and wanted to be a bigshot himself, and revolted. Bad idea, BAD IDEA. In 586 The Babylonians defeated him and this time were sure to exile everyone and destroy the city and temple. Thus the end of the first temple period.

Whew. Well at 5 there is a meet and greet type this outside to meet the madrichim who are like our support system, kind of RAs that aren't in the dorms and other students. I am going to go to that, I am trying to make friends really hard!!!

Tomorrow I am free all day until a field trip at 8:30, I think I will do some reading then for class and try to study some hebrew. I am going to try really hard to overcome the fact that honestly, I am not very well preprared/ qualified to be here.

NOw I guess onto the strange?

The Strange

Every apartment has one room that has two doors. one regular and one huge heavy metal door. Joel, the man from the netherland's is in one of these rooms. he says inside all the furniture has another layer, like the desk and stuff. he thinks this is the room everyone must go to if there's an attack, it's like a built in mini bumb shelter type of thing. At least that's what his guess is. I think he's right. I like that they think ahead.

Today i realized I like all the school security. No one gets in except someone with an ID and there is a fence around the whole campus and the gates are gaurded. It makes me feel safe. HOly Cross' gates are just show, compared to this school our security is pathetic, and we have had strange and suspicious people wnadering campus because of it.

You cant leave your bag unattended, it will be considered a suspicious object. If someone reports it, not only do they remove it but they blow it up. I'm not joking, they dont just search it and hold it, they blow it up. Period.

OMG EDIT EDIT EDIT: One of my roomates, the nice helpful one- Elinore, just knocked on my door to see how I was. She hadn't seen me in a while and just wanted to ask how things are going. HOW EPICALLY NICE. She is so wonderful. <333

Okay almost time for that meet your fellow...students thing but I think this has been epically lone enough for now.