Sorry for the long delayed first post from Israel but I started to write it a couple times got delayed and than started to rewrite and got more delayed. I got back from Jerusalem about and hour and a half ago, spent the whole day walking around, I’m exhausted so I think this will be a good time to finish the first post.
Where to begin? First, Israel is really hot and I haven’t stopped sweating since I got here. The good thing is that the heat is my least favorite thing about Israel. I arrived safely last Saturday, took a cab to the hostel that was right on the beach. I met some kids who were traveling from Canada and the UK and had a fun time the next two days hanging out with them. When I first arrived on Saturday the beach and restaurants were packed so I just wondered along the promenade to see the city. I would say 90% of the population in TA is under the age of 30, Tan and beautiful. I had a great time at the beach, partying with my new friends and even managed an ocean swim at 4:30 in the morning on Sunday.
Monday, I took a bus to Nes Zionna, and got settled into my new apartment for the next 5 months. My apartment is 4 people including me, one girl from California, and a guy and girl from Argentina. Everybody is really nice, I wish I would have paid better attention in Spanish class in high school because the girl doesn’t speak the best English but still, everybody seems pretty cool and we've got along well so far. As for Nes Zionna, it’s a small city, surrounded by larger cities, about 25 minutes outside Tel Aviv. The mall is in the center of town and it’s the place to be seen. The mall is packed 24/7 because it has the best A/C in the country. It’s a pretty well off town, it looks like it’s been built up somewhat recently since there are a lot of nice luxury apartment buildings everywhere. Spent the week hanging out with people from my group, eating falafel/schnitzel/schwarma, sipping ice coffee while people watching and just walking around getting to know the city.
Yesterday, I went with a friend from the program for an overnight trip to Jerusalem. He knew a couple of people who lived there so we went to meet up with them. Jerusalem is a pretty spectacular city, our hostel was in the old city, somewhat near the western wall so we decided to stop there first before putting our bags down. It was a very interesting ride to the Kotel, first we drove through a very religious and crowded Jewish area, reminded me of what you would think Krakow would have been like 100 years ago. Than we had to go around the Muslim quarter to get to the Jewish Quarter, very different and I wasn’t expecting to go to the Muslim side, I think next time I will take a different route. Not that it was scary but I would certainly prefer to be on the Jewish side. After that we went to our hostel, grabbed dinner and met up with some of Dan’s friends. Every Restaurant/Bar/Café was packed last night, had a great time out. Today we just walked around Jerusalem, got a hebrew Ravens T-shirt from the famous Ben Yehuda street and then went to a concert in a park with his friends, it wasn’t a rap concert but still the music wasn’t bad. It’s been a long, exhausting and exciting week for me, I’m going to lay down and take a nap.
The video is for those of you who have never been to the Western Wall, I promise to work on my commentary as the months go on. The big building is the mall in Nes Zionna and the other pic is the best hummus I've had in Israel so far, a little late night snack last night.
Where to begin? First, Israel is really hot and I haven’t stopped sweating since I got here. The good thing is that the heat is my least favorite thing about Israel. I arrived safely last Saturday, took a cab to the hostel that was right on the beach. I met some kids who were traveling from Canada and the UK and had a fun time the next two days hanging out with them. When I first arrived on Saturday the beach and restaurants were packed so I just wondered along the promenade to see the city. I would say 90% of the population in TA is under the age of 30, Tan and beautiful. I had a great time at the beach, partying with my new friends and even managed an ocean swim at 4:30 in the morning on Sunday.
Monday, I took a bus to Nes Zionna, and got settled into my new apartment for the next 5 months. My apartment is 4 people including me, one girl from California, and a guy and girl from Argentina. Everybody is really nice, I wish I would have paid better attention in Spanish class in high school because the girl doesn’t speak the best English but still, everybody seems pretty cool and we've got along well so far. As for Nes Zionna, it’s a small city, surrounded by larger cities, about 25 minutes outside Tel Aviv. The mall is in the center of town and it’s the place to be seen. The mall is packed 24/7 because it has the best A/C in the country. It’s a pretty well off town, it looks like it’s been built up somewhat recently since there are a lot of nice luxury apartment buildings everywhere. Spent the week hanging out with people from my group, eating falafel/schnitzel/schwarma, sipping ice coffee while people watching and just walking around getting to know the city.
Yesterday, I went with a friend from the program for an overnight trip to Jerusalem. He knew a couple of people who lived there so we went to meet up with them. Jerusalem is a pretty spectacular city, our hostel was in the old city, somewhat near the western wall so we decided to stop there first before putting our bags down. It was a very interesting ride to the Kotel, first we drove through a very religious and crowded Jewish area, reminded me of what you would think Krakow would have been like 100 years ago. Than we had to go around the Muslim quarter to get to the Jewish Quarter, very different and I wasn’t expecting to go to the Muslim side, I think next time I will take a different route. Not that it was scary but I would certainly prefer to be on the Jewish side. After that we went to our hostel, grabbed dinner and met up with some of Dan’s friends. Every Restaurant/Bar/Café was packed last night, had a great time out. Today we just walked around Jerusalem, got a hebrew Ravens T-shirt from the famous Ben Yehuda street and then went to a concert in a park with his friends, it wasn’t a rap concert but still the music wasn’t bad. It’s been a long, exhausting and exciting week for me, I’m going to lay down and take a nap.
The video is for those of you who have never been to the Western Wall, I promise to work on my commentary as the months go on. The big building is the mall in Nes Zionna and the other pic is the best hummus I've had in Israel so far, a little late night snack last night.
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