Getting used to it?

I've been here just over a week now. I wouldn't say I'm fully settled; I still need a lot of things to make my room feel like home, and there are still a bunch of administrative things that need finishing. But it's definitely feeling far more comfortable now than it did a week ago. I know my way around, in about a 15 minute walk radius, as long as there aren't too many side streets around. Those of us who have been here a week have even caught ourselves giving advice to the people who have only been here a day or two! It feels like it's been much longer. Also, I haven't posted anything for several days, so this one might go long...

I'm not always sure where the day goes. I've been spending parts of days out, shopping a little, exploring, finding new places, and asking silly questions at HUC. We've done a lot of errands. The greatest accomplishment so far was that Amy, Karen, and I had to set up what is basically a property tax in our name. In Israel, this tax is usually paid by the renters, not the owner. Our landlord had told us what street the office was on that we had to visit, and that it was near the big post office. Except that Israeli English usually confuses conjunctions (to be fair, I do the same in Hebrew), so we weren't sure whether the office we needed was near the post office, in the post office, across from the post office, or anything. We also didn't know where on Jaffa street the post office was located. We set out and asked several people along the way how to get to the post office. We only had to turn around once. We didn't see any other official looking buildings nearby, so we went into the post office. We asked a couple people simply "arnona?" (the name of the tax), and they pointed to the long line. So we stood in line. It went faster than we thought it would. Once we got to our window, we explained in a combination of English and Hebrew, that we needed to change the names on the account. She told us we had to go to a different building to do that, and said it was across the street. We went outside, and found very little across the street, except a security guard who didn't speak English. I managed to explain to her in Hebrew what we needed, and she told us where to go. (When someone points you to the building with all the people waiting outside, that's not usually a good sign.) It turns out the crowd outside was just the line to get through security. Once we were inside, and found our way to the massive room where we needed to be, we checked in at the information desk and were handed a number (#106). The board showed they were currently on #92. It was an impressively efficient system. There were somewhere between 8 and 15 desks open, and an electronic sign posted which number was next and which desk they should go to. It didn't take all that long before it was our turn. We learned fast that the first question to ask anyone is "Do you speak English?" This one didn't. So again in the not-so-impressive Hebrew we explained what we needed to do. This time we were in the right place, and got it taken care of! I'm sure the Israelis were amused to see the three of us walking out giving each other high fives and giggling. But we were proud of ourselves!!

The fourth of July was another experience. The HUC interns organized a dinner for us at Norman's, an American-style burger place...but kosher! One of my classmates had been told by a friend to try the kilo-burger. He didn't even look at the menu after he came in late, just told the waitress what he wanted. He also didn't realize that was 2.2 pounds of meat. Needless to say, it was rather large. And he got help from other late people, to whom he passed off a portion of the burger. I think he ate a third to half of it though, which is still sickeningly impressive. I enjoyed my normal-sized burger immensely:) After dinner, we all went to the same synagogue where we had been for Shabbat services. They were hosting a band to celebrate the fourth of July for the Americans in the city. It was...a Simon and Garfunkel cover band. Let me tell you, you've never heard a Simon with an Israeli accent. It was a lot of fun though, and really funny to watch some of the Israelis get SO into it. They were actually pretty good, and it was a fun way to spend the 4th. We then all headed downtown to a bar to celebrate a classmate's birthday. The bars and streets were PACKED with people watching the World Cup, which, sadly, nobody in the program has any interest in. We got a back room all to ourselves. We had no TV. It's been so much fun though, hanging out with my classmates and getting to know everyone in such an informal setting, knowing that orientation and then classes will be starting before too much longer. There are some great people in the class, and I'm looking forward to spending the year together! The picture is a bunch of us before the July 4th concert. Top row, left to right: Mary, Matt, Josh, Karen, Matt, Jesse. Bottom row: Courtney, Amy, Me, Carla, Cassi, Sarah, Sarah. There really are more guys in the class than that.

One more thing I'll put into this very long post...I've now taken my first (two) trips to the shuk, a gigantic Israeli market. Take the biggest outdoor market you can think of, and then triple it and slash the prices. And then do it again. It's an experience, and if I feel like playing tourist, one of the next times I go there, I'll try to remember a camera. It's stand after stand after stand, with aisles going off to the side and all the way around, selling produce, meat, fish, olives, nuts, seeds, spices, cheeses, and anything else you can think of. And it's higher quality and so much less expensive than the supermarkets. It's a 20-25 minute walk, but probably a place we'll be going every week or two this year!

That's all for now...please keep in touch! Comment, send me email, call my skype, I want to hear from everyone! I'm feeling very far away, and I'm not really sure who's still reading this...
Talk to you soon!