It's Like Freshman Year All Over Again!

I’m now a real student of Hebrew University: I have a student ID card, email address, computer login, dorm room, map, and other essentials branding me a member of this University. Yesterday morning I moved into my room—one of five singles in a suite-style apartment in the Student Village about a 10 minute walk from the rest of campus. I got a little lost finding where I was supposed to check in, and as I rounded a certain building and looked up to figure out where I was, I saw the iconic picture of Jerusalem: the Dome of the Rock and old city wall surrounding it. I had no idea that our dorms had such an incredible view of the Old City and seeing that for the first time really punched the reality into me…I’m in Jerusalem. And will be. For the next 5 months. It’s pretty unreal.

Anyway, yesterday was filled with hours of wandering around campus with new acquaintances, a campus tour, settling into the dorm, and multiple pinch-me moments every time that picturesque view came into sight again. Today I got to see my wonderful grandfather for a little bit and then did some grocery shopping (trying to do price conversions in my head in the middle of the aisle while typically pushy Israelis are shoving past showed me that shopping will certainly be an endeavor that will take practice). Tonight is orientation, where I’ll meet a lot more students and tomorrow I start the Ulpan! Up until now every time I try to formulate a concept in Hebrew my mind jumps straight to German, because my brain thinks “not english” so it goes directly to the foreign language I know best, which is German. It’s great because it means I’m speaking German to myself better than I’ve ever spoken German before, but not so great because saying Enschuldigung instead of Slicha or Danke instead of Todah doesn’t do much for me. So hopefully after a few days of 5 hours of Hebrew/day I’ll have kicked the German habit. Next time I blog I’ll be a step closer to knowing some Hebrew.

Here’s a few pictures for the benefit of whoever it was that hat the gall to comment ANONYMOUSLY that they want pictures.

That's the view of Jerusalem from the walk between campus and my dorm. The camera doesn't capture it too well, but you can see the Dome of the Rock in the middle. The picture below is the entrance to the student village where I live. It's pretty nice, apparently way nicer than the old dorms. More pictures coming soon, I promise (Kathryn...).