Nativ 30: The Journey Begins

It's weird to be writing this entry, because it's my first entry written from Israel. Though I've only been here for a few days, I feel as though I am completely at home (even though half of my belongings aren't yet unpacked. I am living at Beit Nativ at the Center for Conservative Judaism on Agron and King George in Jerusalem. A guy named Benjamin Netanyahu (if you don't know, he's the Prime Minister of Israel) lives across the street and Gilad Shalit's parents are camped out in a tent about a block down from the center. There is a constant chorus of car horns as we live at a busy intersection and Israeli drivers don't know what patience is. The building is beautiful. Like most other places in Jerusalem, it is made primarily out of Jerusalem stone, which is the same stone as the Old City was built with (google it if you don't know what that looks like). I'm loving it.

We haven't done much yet on the program. The first full day, we had some orientation and then took a walking tour around our neighborhood. We're about a 5 minute walk from Ben Yehuda street, which is a fun shopping area filled with both tourist stores and bars (among other things), and there are 2 big parks within a 3 block radius of us. That night, the 30 members of the kibbutz group went to a BBQ in Independence Park where we hung out playing frisbee, music, and having some good old fashion bonding time. That night, a large group of us enjoyed the perks of being in a country with a drinking age of 18 and hit the bars (safely...don't worry). It was an interesting experience to be an american in an israeli area, since the large group of us practically had the words "WE ARE TOURISTS" written in large letters across our foreheads.

Today, after having a doctor's appointment for the lovely pink eye (thanks Dr. B), I went to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem to have my orientation for the minimester that I'll be taking before real classes begin in mid October. I won't burden you with telling everything we did since it was rather dull, but I will talk about my favorite part - our walk through the botanical garden. This garden is known for having every plant that grows naturally in Israel in teh garden at some place. I find it cool that so much history is contained in the greenery.

Tonight, the group is going to the Israel vs Malta soccer (I mean football) game as the Israeli national team begins the quest to qualify for the European cup.

That's it for now, and I'll check in soon.

Becca