Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Update

Wow it has been a while since I have updated here. Soooo much has been going on since Rosh Hashana. Every other day has been a holiday so it has been really hard to settle into a routine, but I am still having a blast with my new friends.

The program itself is still going well. We have had some amazing speakers. I didnt always agree with everything they were saying, since a lot of it was politial, it was still really important to have the chance to hear speakers from radically different perspectives. One example was an Arab-Israeli who came in to speak to us about what life is like for Arabs living in Israel. It was quite a controversial lecture based on what he was saying,but to me that was not the important part. what was important was that we were getting to hear his perspective, whether we agreed with it or not.

It is getting to the point that we are finishing ulpan. We move to Jerusalem next week, go on a hike in the Golan and then finally start to work. I cannot wait to start working and find out what exactly I will be doing. It should an amazing experience :) I will keep everyone posted

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Rosh Hashana

I cannot believe I have been in Israel for almost 3 weeks. The time seems to be flying by. This past week/end was Rosh Hashana. I had an amazing time visiting with family and friends. Every day on my way to synogogue I passed a tent full of people supporting the return of Gilad Shalit. As on most weekdays, Gilad's parents were sitting in the tent. Many people were walking up to them and wishing them shana tova (a happy new year). As much as I wanted to, I just couldn`t face them and hope that their year will be good. It made me think about my own life and how I should be happy with everything. It could always be worse and we all need to appreciate what we have.

Aside from that, ulpan is going great and my Hebrew is really improving. The holidays definately make me feel a little homesick, but it truly is an amazing feeling to be in Jerusalem. I hope everything continues to go as well as it already is.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Orientation

Wow! what an incredible whirlwind since starting Career Israel. Today was the last day of orientation and then we moved into our apartments in Tel Aviv. Since I will be doing my internship in Jerusalem, I am only in Tel Aviv for 3 weeks for Ulpan (which is a Hebrew language intensive course). Since the program started on wednesday, I have had the opportunity to make 120 new friends. Does that sound overwhelming to you? Well it was! But by putting myself out there and pushing myself to be social, I have already met some amazing people.
 I am really enjoying everything so far. I finally took the kotel tunnel tours and my mind was blown. Being able to touch the western wall as it was built by King Herod and walk on the ancent street with the columns from the market is pretty incredible. In fact, all of the tours we have done so far have been so good. I cannot wait for more :)

I cannot wait for Ulpan to start and me to improve my hebrew.