First day in Jerusalem

My first full day in Israel can be described in one word: hot. I am apparently far to used to the Portland rain and cooler weather. Today was 90, tomorrow is suppose to be hotter-- oy.

My plan to conquer jet lag by screwing up my sleep schedule before coming to Israel apparently did not work. I work up at 5:30am after about 4 hours of sleep. I spent the morning adding all my education classes and homework assignments into my calendar (a rather time consuming task). Because of the time difference I was also able to watch a bit of the Giants game online (nice 14th inning win boys).

I headed to the campus early this morning to check in on campus, get my registration forms, and pick up my phone. Note that I do now have my phone here so feel free to call me!

Sign at the entrance of the campus

Later in the day Elle and I headed to the grocery store so I could have food to eat! It was quite an experience-- I spent much of it staring at pictures on labels and hoping I bought the right thing. Guess I'll find out soon enough!

This afternoon I headed back to the campus (which is a very nice 8 minute stroll from my apartment) for a campus tour. On the way to the tour I ran into my friend Gertz from camp, which was very exciting! The tour was awesome. I didn't realize how big the campus was! I'm pretty sure I'll spend my first few weeks around campus getting lost since its so large (and since I have zero sense of direction).

Afterwards, there was a mixer on campus for us to meet our fellow classmates. It was really great getting to meet everyone and see who I will be spending my next year with. Its a small class,  37 students (last year's class had 65), and thankfully everyone seemed nice. We'll see if I have the same opinion in a few months! After the mixer, I accidently ended up passing out for a few hours and did not make it to a jam session that some fellow classmates were having. I suppose I'll just have to wait until a later time to show my classmates my special music skills. 

A few other random things to note:

There is constantly music playing in the streets outside my window and fireworks going off. Last night I fell asleep to the sounds of a klezmer band playing and this morning listened to people singing to a newly married couple. 

In my apartment all the light switches are outside the room you want to be. So if I want to turn on/off my bedroom light I have to go into the hallway. As you can imagine, this has resulted in me tripping several times. 

Cats are the squirrels of Israel. They are everywhere. So along with the music outside my window, I'm often treated to the sounds of cat fights. 

Some pictures for your enjoyment (happy Mom?):

 The YMCA in Jerusalem. Yes, this is a gym. I'm pretty darn excited to check out the inside.

Entrance to my apartment complex. Soon I'll put up actual pictures of the apartment.