Arrival

I arrived in Israel yesterday, safe and sound but exhausted. The first thing I learned about Israel is exactly how informal things are; as another student put it, they basically said to us, “Great! You’re here! Now go at it.” We arrived at Hebrew University a bit before 8am; the only thing they had scheduled for us after we went through the registration process was a campus tour at 4:30 (16:30), which I slept through. Today’s a bit better: campus tour at 16:30, orientation at 17:30, shopping trip at 19:00. I wonder, though, how they’re going to orient us in an hour and a half to a whole new country. Somehow, I have a feeling that they’re going to leave us to our own devices, to figure out what stores are nearby and what interesting and exciting things are on which bus route—or even how the busses work! That’s what the madrichim are for—our Israeli RAs—but sometimes “just down the street” isn’t literally just down the street, and “the best place to exchange your money is the postal bank” doesn’t necessarily mean the people at the post office will know what you’re talking about.

I seem to have beaten the jetlag. I’m not sure what my body feels like right now, but I think it’s closest to “I just woke up at 7am and am still tired” than anything else—which is exactly where I want it to be. Minus the whole awake-at-7am part, of course. Maybe I’ll take a nap later; there’s only so much time that unpacking can fill, and I’m hesitant to wander around on my own, even with a map.

People say the cats are like squirrels here, and they weren’t exaggerating; they’re everywhere. (Story is that when the Russian immigrants got here they brought cats into the city to get rid of the rats, and they brought just a few too many cats.) I can’t adopt one because we’re not allowed to have pets in the dorm, but maybe I’ll make friends with one or two. There’s one cat that was hanging around the Social Sciences building yesterday who looks like a long-haired version of my friend’s cat Winkie, and I sorta fell in love. So cute; so friendly! My first kitty friend.

I have yet to meet many (any) students other than those who were on my flight with me. I don’t know if it’s because I’m antisocial, because I was absolutely dead yesterday, or whether it’s because most students are arriving today. It’s probably a mix of all three, but I refuse to generalize about my classmates based on meeting only six of them.

More updates to come. This is just the beginning.