adjusting

Last night around 2am, I heard noises outside my room. I freaked out. After talking to Kate (my flatmate) today, I found out that some of the neighbors have cats who like to walk around at night. So that's a relief.

I stayed up until around 3am last night (not including the numerous trips to the bathroom...yay for drinking water!), so I didn't wake up until 4pm today. It was Shabbat, so there! At some point I do want to find a shul, but that can wait. I then took a walk/jog and went exploring. I found a big park! Lots of green grass and people hanging out. Someone spray painted "Cental Park" on a metal electric box/thing, and it seemed appropriate. At any rate, I think I've officially found my jogging route. It's really scenic, not too long, and there's a playground where I can goof off when it's not overrun with small children. It is my goal to go and jog the route at least once a day as part of my Campaign to Get in Shape.

When I got back (around 7:30), I started making dinner. Kate showed me how to make Jerusalem salad, so I made some of that. I also made chicken!

Jerusalem salad is really easy to make. Basically, you cut up some cucumbers and tomatoes into little pieces and add lemon juice and a little salt. Kate got me a lot of cucumbers and tomatoes (she did some grocery shopping for me before I got here, since I came right before Shavuot, the holiday commemorating when the Jews received the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai), so I'm going to have to make/eat lots of the salad so that I don't waste the vegetables.

As for the chicken, I defrosted the 6 pairs of thighs and drumsticks. I then pulled off the skin and most of the fat. I put the chicken into a pan and covered it with random stuff: honey, lemon juice, basil, salt, chicken seasoning. I stuck it in the oven at around 170 Celcuius, or 338 Rahrenheit. I kept it in the oven for...I'm not sure, maybe 40 minutes. It's possible that I could have left it in the oven for 5-10 more minutes, but I was afraid the chicken would dry out since I removed the skin. Anyways, the food was really good and now I'm set for dinners through Thursday night! 

Tomorrow/later today (It's 1:12 am as I'm writing this), I am going to Tel Aviv, to the Egyptian Embassy, to get a visa for my trip to Egypt. I might explore a bit, but since I know I'm going to be going back to Tel Aviv and I don't feel compelled to do anything there but shop, I probably will only stay as long as it takes to get the visa processed. Aside from the aforementioned jog, I also need to go to the supermarket near my apartment and pick up some toothpaste and (maybe) a toothbrush, along with more groceries. I need some lunch food, as well as...I dunno, random things. Maybe some shoko b'sakit if I can find it. Shoko b'sakit is chocolate milk in a bag and it's absolutely awesome. I'd also like to go to Machane Yehuda (a shuk/open air market), but that probably won't happen until Monday at the earliest.

That's about it here. I need to see if I can find a bus route that stops nearby the embassy and I need to copy down the embassy's address/phone number and Hilary's contact info...and then I need to go to bed, because I want to catch a bus to Tel Aviv before 9:30am...

I have arrived!

The title pretty much says it all. I flew British Airways. It was uneventful, though afterwards I heard that they have a really big problem with losing people's luggage. Luckily that didn't happen to me!

My flight connected at the London Heathrow airport. I bought a sandwich there using USD and I got pence back! It was awesome. Also, on the flight from London to Tel Aviv, they served mini bottles of wine with lunch...for free! That was cool.

I took the sheirut from the airport to the apartment. A sheirut is a van that seats around 10 people. This one had coach bus-style seats. Basically, the driver waits for 10 people going to the same general area in Jerusalem. It took awhile, but it only cost 50 shekels, instead of 200. ($12.60 instead of $50.4) The ride took almost an hour.

I met my roommate, who is really nice. The apartment is cool. I went with my roommate to her mom's house for dinner (20 minute drive)...and now it is almost midnight here and I am seriously exhausted. Goodnight!

Today...

At around 5:30pm, my British Airways flight will depart from O'Hare and my adventure will begin.

I'd kind of rather just stay at home and watch Real Housewives of New Jersey with my mom. Basically, it's a good thing that this trip is already planned because I feel completely unmotivated right now.

In other news, I bought Pride and Prejudice and Zombies yesterday and really look forward to reading it. Oh yeah, I went there.

So I didn't get my shit together in time to get my travel visa to Egypt from the Chicago consulate. Apparently it takes 2-3 days, not 1 hour. After I rushed around this morning to get passport pictures. At least I found this out before I took the hour-long train ride into the city. *sigh* If I had kept with my lie (that I needed my passport to get a visa for a trip to Jordan--a trip I'm actually taking), my mom would have mailed me my passport and I could have taken care of this in NYC. I've known that I wanted to do this for ages. Ugh. 

My new plan of attack is to go to Tel Aviv on Sunday and get the visa from the Egyptian Embassy. I can go in the morning, file the paperwork, and do some exploring while they process everything. Woo! Thank god I already have the passport picture...now all I need is Hilary's contact information in Cairo.

This replanning has gotten me more excited. :P

Happy birthday to me!

Today was my 20th birthday. Woo! I woke up at the ungodly hour of 10am and went to Lia's house for breakfast and hammocking (of course). I then decided that I don't care if my knee is all weird, I'm going to start running again. Even though I prefer nature to my dusty basement (as far as I'm concerned, both have equal amounts of allergens), I like running on the treadmill (on a pre-set program) because I know how fast I'm going and how much farther I have to go. It removes free will and I'm totally okay with that. Afterwards, I got lunch with my mom. 

I love birthday dinners because the birthday person gets to choose whatever they want. One of the things I chose was brussel sprouts. I think me, my sister, and my brother might be some of the only kids who like brussel sprouts. The secret is balsamic glaze. Anyways, we ate dinner and watched House Hunters International. My sister came home from school because she has an orthodontist appointment tomorrow, and I saw her new car. It's a red VW Beetle and is pretty cool. The birthday cards I got from my parents and brother involve either fart jokes or adorable dogs (one was a pug!), which I loved. My parents also gave me a DVD of Milo and Otis! For those of you who are in the dark, Milo and Otis was a VHS that came out when I was little. It's a story about a ginger cat (Milo) and a pug (Otis) who get separated from their farm and each other make their way in the world. They meet lady companions and have babies! The babies are so cute! They also get reunited and it's adorable. This video made me love pugs. When I get my own place, I want a little black pug so badly! Anyways, my parents paid for my plane ticket (which was really nice and a fantastic gift!), so I think that's it for my gifts. I'm totally okay with that...especially since my mom said she'd get me a new backpack before I leave, and those aren't cheap.

I just bought my Israel cell phone. I used TalkNSave, and I'm pretty happy with it. I bought 200 text messages a month! But they're only to Israel cell phones. Oh well.

Planning my mini adventures is the most exciting part of the trip. More on that (especially the Cairo extravaganza) later.

Suggestions?

The 2.5ish months that I am spending in Israel are my opportunity to see as many new things as possible. While I am using this experience to see if making aliyah (moving to Israel and getting citizenship) is something I want to pursue, I have no qualms about being a complete tourist. I want to get a feel for what normal life would be like, but I also want to see as much as possible.

This is where I need your help! I need to find a bunch of awesome places to go! However, I have certain time constraints:

During the month of June, my ulpan is 2:30pm-5:00pm on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I am also going to be taking a yoga class on Monday evenings. These are my only set things. This means that I can do day trips during the week and go on slightly longer excursions on the weekends. 

Here are the places I want to see:

~Cairo (duh)

~Petra (I think this would be a weekend trip, especially since I would need to start in Eilat, which is 5-5.5 hours away from Jerusalem)

~Haifa (I have never been here but really want to go! I was going to do a semester at the University of Haifa, but couldn't afford it.)

~Herzeliya (Maybe? I've never been and don't know too much about it.)

~Tel Aviv (I'm going to visit Ruthy while she is there, as well as a friend who lives in one of the suburbs...so I'm open to suggestions, but will probably go to my friend's favorite places or just wander around/check out bars/clubs with Ruthy.)

~Tiberias (I love Lake Kinneret. A lot. It's where I learned to skip stones. Also, as a native of Chicagoland, I'm a fan of lakes. My town has a beach and I spent my youth splashing in Lake Michigan. Also, I have eczema and salt water sometimes irritates it. Anyways, I want to take a trip to Lake Kinneret and Tiberias is a pretty interesting place.)

~Eilat (Since it's on the way to both Cairo and Petra, I'm going to be spending some time here. Even though it's technically a pit stop, I'll make sure to spend at least a day here. I'm not a big fan of Eilat, parts of it are somewhat tacky, like a mixture of Las Vegas and Miami Beach. But the Red Sea is awesome, and I can go snorkeling!)

That's all I have so far. I'm not a fan of the desert and Masada. I've been to Masada twice. Unless I go with my family or staff a tour group in the future, twice is enough for me. And while I love the north, I'm not sure what I would do there. Perhaps there are hiking trips? But since at least a few of these trips will need to take place during the week, I want to go to some places that are no more than three hours away.

Please, leave suggestions here or send me a message/post via Facebook!

And thanks!

countdown

I think that now would be an acceptable time to document the planning process of this trip. As I've mentioned (maybe?), I basically planned the entire trip by myself, since I'm not going through a program or anything. (After I was accepted at the JPost, I found out that there's an internship program that offers the chance to intern there. Oops. But if I'd done that I probably wouldn't have been able to do my ulpan.) I was given a lot of helpful tips and suggestions along the way! Here is where I will share them.

1. How to Land a Sweet Internship

This is actually a few years in the making. I learned about this internship last summer, but the road to get here has been in the making for several years. I've always been very interested in Israel. I was involved with both Young Judaea and USY. My junior year of high school I applied to and was accepted to Write On for Israel, an Israel advocacy and journalism program. The program spans 2 years (junior and senior years of high school) and along with providing a crash course in Israeli history and writing for newspapers/what have you, there is a free two week trip to Israel! Write On for Israel has branches in NYC, Chicago, San Francisco and Cincinnati, OH (or maybe Cleveland? But I think it's Cincinnati.) If any of you know high schoolers in those areas, send them my way because I'd highly recommend the program to anybody. (In fact, my brother is applying for next year!) Anyways, that program really sparked my interest. I've been writing the ocasional newspaper article for the Chicago JUF Newspaper ever since. Last summer, I was a Lewis Summer Intern for the Jewish United Fund (JUF) Newspaper, which was also a great experience (stipend included!). So this past fall I was considering my options for the summer (and was heavily leaning towards applying to staff a USY summer program). I emailed the editor of the JUF News (who was a Write On for Israel mentor as well as my Lewis Summer Internship mentor and an all-around cool guy) and asked who I should submit my "application" to. He found me the email addresses and got me a recommendation from someone who works there. I emailed them my cover letter, resume, and some writing samples, and I was accepted!

2. How to Pay for Aforementioned Sweet Internship

I have some money saved up. My parents deposited bonds and birthday money that I received. Also, the majority of my bat mitzvah money (the part I did not donate) was put in a savings account. (I eventually used some of it to buy a French horn.) This money is "to pay for college". My parents and I agreed that this is a good use of the money. I was planning on doing a semester abroad, but plans unfortunately fell through. I also got some stipends, enough to cover the majority of my rent.

3. How to Find a Hebrew Program (Ulpan)

My Hebrew is far from perfect. I decided to take this opportunity to take a conversational Hebrew class (ulpan). I researched a bunch of different programs and the one that best fit my schedule (I need to intern at JPost for at least 6 weeks, and I wanted to take the ulpan before starting the internship) is at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. Coincidentally, this is also the cheapest! It meets Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 2:30-5:00pm for a month. I'm not expecting wonders (the really good ulpanim are like 5 hours a day for 5 months), but I will hopefully learn a lot. Luckily, since JPost is an English language newspaper, my Hebrew skills should suffice. I've heard that they should be fine.

4. How to Find an Apartment

Craigslist is still relatively new to Israel. Also, I needed to find an apartment before I set foot in Israel. People suggested flathunting.com and janglo.net (janglo = Jerusalem Anglos...there's also tanglo = Tel Aviv Anglos). I found janglo.net to be the most helpful, although many people posted ads on both sites. I opted to find a room in an apartment rather than my own apartment. I chose this because I thought it would be cheaper and because I do not want to be completely alone. Having someone to go to with little questions like where the closest supermarket is, where it is safe to go jogging and at what times and how to use the public transit will be very useful. I was lucky enough to find an apartment in a decent area for a reasonable fee (I looked at A LOT of apartments) that included all the utilities and has a washer/dryer in the apartment. Also, the woman renting the apartment was nice enough to charge me partial fees. (For example, I'm paying a small amount for May, since I'll be there for 3/5 days. I'm paying half the monthly fee for August since I'll be there for half the month. That sort of thing.) Sending the wire transfer was a huge pain (due to my bank), but once that went through, the hardest part was over.

5. How to Find a Flight

I looked at Expedia.com and Orbitz.com to find the cheapest flights. I then went to the airlines' websites to make sure they had the same price. My dad does a lot of traveling for business and he told me to never buy an airplane ticket from a conglomerate. I'm flying British Airways because they had the most inexpensive and shortest flights with the fewest/shortest layovers.

6. How to Find a Cell Phone

I'm going to be in Israel for almost 3 months. I need a cell phone. Hell, when I was in Israel for two weeks, I had a cell phone. This was because my parents are very cautious. I thought it was awesome because I got to text message my friends at home, and I wasn't able to text message on my American cell phone just yet. I haven't actually gotten the cell phone yet. I'm going to do that tomorrow. I did some price comparing and it looks like the different Israel cell phone companies have basically the same rates and prices. I'm going to go with TalkNSave because a family friend uses it when she goes to Israel...and she goes relatively often. They also have this option where for $10/month you get an American cell phone number. Basically, I would have 150 minutes/month that would only cost 6.6 cents per minute. Normally it's twice that rate. Incoming calls are free for me, but my parents will still be charged. This way, I can talk to them for less. (I'll get text messaging to talk to my friends at home and in Israel.) I can also buy plans for regular minutes and for text messaging.

7. Other Stuff

If you're like me, you're allergic to lots of stuff. I'm going to need to call my health insurance provider and tell them that I'm going to be out of the country for several months and that I need to order 3 months' worth of medications in advance. It shouldn't be a problem. I also bought Hebrew stickers for my laptop. I'm going to see the dentist and the eye doctor before I go. I'm also going to see a doctor about my knee and hopefully get an MRI. I might get a haircut. Basically, take care of any medical things in advance. As for the haircut...I'm sure that I'll be able to find a place that has English-speaking people, but still. (Actually, knowing me, I'll be too lazy to do this.)

I think that this covers the majority of my plans. This has all spanned several months because I got really caught up in the possibility of transferring, so I couldn't focus on this.

I chose to do the ulpan in addition to the internship because it will be a different opportunity to meet people. Pardes' website said that the majority of the people studying there are in their twenties and early thirties. Also, it will be a totally different experience from the internship. I could have had the opportunity to intern at JPost for a lot longer, but I really want to improve my Hebrew. Also, since the ulpan only meets 3 days a week in the afternoons, I will be able to explore and chill for a month. If last summer's internship is any indication, I'm going to be exhausted when I come home from the internship and won't have the energy to explore. I need to set a routine while I'll have the time/willpower. This will be my chance to go down to Eilat for a day or so, cross the border into Jordan and visit Petra, visit the City of David and go to the water tunnels (one of my favorite things to do in Jerusalem!), go to the north and go on a Jeep tour. The internship is Sunday-Thursday 10am-5pm. I will be able to go on weekend trips, but that's it. Also, I might want to actually celebrate Shabbat, which will limit what I can do. Aside from when I arrive in Israel, I will have the most freedom in the time between when my ulpan ends and when my internship starts. Technically, my internship starts when I email the supervisor and tell him that I can come in. During this break, I will be visiting Hilary! Assuming that it is safe.

Dresses

At some point, I might write about the whole process of setting up my internship/summer. Because I did it all by myself. I'm awesome like that.

I'm worried about meeting people. What happens if the other people in my ulpan are really old or worse, boring? Who will I go off galavanting with in my spare time? It's quite worrisome. Even more worrisome than the whole not being able to hold an intelligent conversation in Hebrew thing. But that's what the ulpan is for! To compensate for JTS's subpar Hebrew program. Seriously, I don't think I'm even capable of reading the Talmud/Bible/whatever in the original text, and that's what the JTS Hebrew program is supposed to teach me. But it's okay, I'm done with that shit. Or stuff. Whatever.

I have one day left in NYC. In 12-15 hours the Manhattan Mini Storage people will come and help me move the rest of my things into my storage space. I'm pretty confident it will all fit. I'm good at stacking things. The only annoying thing I still have to do is pack for home. I'm only bringing one suitcase, and it's not that large. I figure that since the apartment I'm staying in has a washer and dryer and since I'm paying all the random Israeli facility fees that I can wash my clothes more frequently than I do here. This will be a challenge! Plus, I'll have less shit to worry about. I have enough things that are slowly turning me into a stereotypical Jewish mother (without the annoying JAPpy vapid children and pushover husband), one less thing making me neurotic would be good! (Side note: My family is nothing like the crude generalization I just made. That's all I'll say about that now.)

It's hard to anticipate the things I'm going to want to have/use for three months. Packing for college was easy: I took all of the things I used regularly, semi-regularly, or things I thought I might possibly want and packed them into bags. I only use a fraction of them. I have a huge Bed Bath & Beyond bag filled with clothing that I'm donating because I never wear it. I accumulate a lot of clutter, but I don't really use a lot of things. 

Packing for this summer is challenging because I only have one tiny fucking suitcase and it had better stay under 50 lbs because I am not paying that overweight fee. And what's worse: I'm interning for 7 weeks and need appropriate clothing. I've heard from some people who used to work at the Jerusalem Post and they say that the dress code is relatively casual. I interpret that to mean that it's like living on the west coast. I've never lived on the west coast, but my uncles live in southern Oregon and they used to live in San Francisco. Whenever I go to visit them, they wear khakis and nice button down shirts to everything. Sometimes the button down shirts are Hawaiian print. But the nice kind of Hawaiian print.

Sadly, since I am female, I cannot wear khaki pants and a button down shirt everyday to my internship. I need to dress a bit nicer. I hate wearing nice shirts in the summer because they are made of a very thin material and when you sweat in them, it makes the shirt cling to you and it's way grosser than when you wear a normal t-shirt. 

Sadly, I still have to pack nice clothes. And since I'm only bringing one small suitcase, that's probably going to be the majority of what I bring. My beloved Columbia t-shirts (well, most of them) will have to stay here, in storage on 134th St. How unfair! I might actually have to dress in a way where people might actually think that I look my age! The indignity. But seriously, if I dress the way I normally do, to a person who didn't know better, I might be able to pass as my brother's fraternal twin. And he's turning 16 in a month. I know, I bring this upon myself. But yeah, I'm going to basically be required to dress nicer almost all of the time. I'm even going to bring some of my dresses, to make it easier. I don't know why I buy dresses. It's not like I wear them anywhere except to shul or the occasional party. 

But my mom likes buying me girl clothes because she thinks it'll turn me into a girl. I was on the phone with her two weeks ago and in a moment of weakness I began a conversation which led to her suggesting that I get a makeover this summer. I told her that we don't have the money for that and that it's a waste of time. I take myself way seriously and if other people don't, I'll just judge them. Loudly. I'm not talking about people in positions of authority. I get along with them well enough.

In conclusion, I haven't packed my suitcase yet and my room is still messy. But not for long.