I can hardly believe how much I've done these past few days. It really just blows my mind and I don't even know how to start. The flights went great and everything went down pretty much without a hitch. I finally met Rissy who is a perfectly delightful human being in every way and I'm so glad I had her with me. I also met up with Amy, a super nice grad student at the Tel Aviv airport and she took us all with her on the sherut (a combo bus/taxi for those non-Israeli people).
The school is pretty small and that makes it really fun. There are about 60 students, half of them undergrad, so we all got to know each other pretty well and by the end of the semester we'll probably be one big happy family. I share a room with three other girls and half of the room is a loft with two beds on it, one of which I stole. All the dorm rooms are kind of tucked in random corners of the building which I love and ours happens to be right down the hall from the lounge. Pretty much all the staff have apartments on campus so we've been to visit everyone and they're all so welcoming and wonderful. The campus also has a resident dog named Lucky and three cats, Dopey, Angel, and Mr. Orange (guess what color he is). The gardens are beautiful and overlook the whole city and the weather is very cold and slighty rainy, but that makes it that much more fun.
So far we've had a photo scavenger hunt in the Old City and a tour of both the Old and New City. There are so many amazing things to see it just blows my mind everytime I walk outside. The campus is situated right next to the old wall of Jerusalem which was built by the Ottomans in the 1500s and a section from the time of Herod. Awesome! I've also been to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional site where Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected, the upper room where Pentecost and possibly the Last Supper happened, the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and several other famous churches and synagogues. There's something amazing about walking past and into all these holy sites. You can't help but get quiet and think of the enormity of where you're standing. It makes me want to just sit down on the floor and bask in the reverence of it all. So far the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is my favorite.
You walk down the streets and they're lined with little shops selling all kinds of things from scarves, skirts, and rugs to wood carvings and icons. In the Jewish Quarter of the city you walk down the streets and every man you see is wearing a yarmulke and all the little boys running down the streets have little side curls and it is pretty much the cutest thing you'll ever see. I love it! I'm too lazy to post pictures now but I will later I promise.
