First few days, all in one entry!

Jan. 16, 2008
2:10 pm, Israel Time

On the plan and counting. Check-in was fine; waiting on the line to check my big (sort-of) suitcases—a rolly duffel and a rollerboard—was a little long, but not too bad; it took about 40-50 minutes, I’d guess. The individual screening and carry-on screening was really quick—no waiting for that, actually. Then I just had a few hours to kill. Which I did.

The plane took off almost an hour late, but apparently the flight is 10 hours, 10 minutes (vs. 11 hours), so we’ll make it at about the same time as we were due.

Dinner was fine. I requested a veggie meal so I didn’t have to worry about being fleishig. ‘k, (more) naptime.

5:10 pm

Breakfast was fine. I had red peppers, a roll, and fruit. Yay for being healthy!

Anyway, so I’ve probably slept about…lets see…7 hours or so? Not bad—like a normal amount of sleep for me.

My seatmate is cute—she’s in Touro’s nursing program and doing her B.S. at the same time!

…5:25- And we’re back! Pitstop/break to see the not-so-incredible sunset. But it’s okay, I’ll have a bunch in Israel—hopefully gorgeous ones. Random, but I have the lyrics from a song in my head—“Comin’ down, the world turned over/angels fall without you there./Life goes on as you get colder/

Yeah. Don’t know why. Speaking of words, I still don’t have a blog title. Nicole suggested, “In The Land of the Jew,” but that would make more sense for her, seeing as she’s not Jewish…Aaron suggested, “Journey Home,” or “My Trip Home,” or something like that, but those are too sappy for me. Jeremy suggested, “Lauren Unplugged,” but I won’t be unplugged…murgh.

Anyway, my seatmate, Shira, and her friend Micha are trying to set me up with this guy Chaim, who I actually met while I was waiting at the airport. He’s my class at MTA. Whatever. She’s determined, I think, to set me up on this plane ride.

January 17, 2008

Today was…um…my first day. Last night I got into Israel at about 7 pm—an hour later than I was supposed to arrive because we took off an hour late.

Rita picked me up and took me to her house where I had dinner, got linens, and then came to the dorm—Basi actually drove most of the way, then Rita took over when Basi dropped herself off at work.

So—I got to the apt. with all my STUFF. I’m in my own room, which is nice. There’s another bed, but so far it’s for someone else’s stuff.

I unpacked and took a shower and went to sleep; finally got to sleep at about 2:30 am, roughly—very roughly. As in that’s when I stopped looking at my watch.

Today I got up, straightened my hair (not so well, but okay), and went to school! Yay! pit-stopped at the makolet. Got chocolate milk for breakfast.

School. The first class was a Navi shiur with Rebbetzin Pavlov, which was really good. ,I enjoyed. Then was a class on Parshat Toldot—wait, before that I went to register. THEN came the class on Toldot. I’m in the 3^rd level (very original name of Level III) of most classes, except for one that I chose that’s a Level II class—but you can “mix and match” classes frlom different levels, which is good. I was a chavrusa with an older woman- probably about Mom’s age. We got through it, but I’m not sure we work well together…we’ll see how goes it- people seem to come and go quickly, for short periods. There were at least 3 new girls (women?) today, including myself and another who’s in my apt.- Penina. She’s form Queens and was actually on my flight, although I [obviously] didn’t know it then. Anyway, so people seem to go and come. The dorm I’m in is actually specifically for students who are here for only a few weeks—like me!

Back to classes. After that was a class on Megillat Esther that I really enjoyed. The teacher, Naomi, is sweet, and I like her style. I’m actually going to her for lunch on Shabbat.

After that was lunch—butternut squash soup, quinoa with a spicy tomato sauce, pasta with cheese or tomato sauces, carrots and peppers, and a fish thing. I didn’t eat the fish- it looked like canned salmon. Oh, there was also a salad- looked like an Asian coleslaw. I had the soup, pasta with cheese sauce, and quinoa—and was full. It was good.

After lunch I had halacha, and we were discussing the halachot of kashrut.

Then I had tefillah, followed by Jewish History. In Tefillah we’re doing the brachot of Shmonah Esrei, and in Jewish History we’re doing Spanish Jewry and are up to the Rambam. I’m not so into this Rabbi’s style, but whatever.

After classes I went to ZolPo, the supermarket. Went shopping—an adventure in itself. At the checkout, I was a bit behind on packing, and the guy behind me offered to help me—and then invited me for Shabbos in a few weeks—his wife is going to call me.

So then I attempted to go back to the dorm- by the way, lots of heavy bags. So I walked down the street, and went to wrong way. I saw #28, but since I had no clue where I was, it meant nothing to me. Then I saw 23. And thought I was crazy— because I thought I was going the correct way. (Clearly not…) The I saw 15, and said to myself, “This is SO the wrong way.” And turned around. I think I left school at—I don’t know, between 6 and 6:30, I’d guess, and got back to the dorm at about 8:30. Yeah. LOTS of fun. Not.

But I did get food—bread, milk, eggs, cheese, 2 nectars (mango and orange), diced tomatoes, chocolate powder, peanut butter (with honey!), oil, yogurt, water bottles. Foil, disposable pans, shampoo and conditioner, and soap. The soap was a 6-pack: Buy 2, get 4 free. WTF?

Finally I got home (back to the dorm), had dinner (PB sandwich), and did some studying for the boards—did miserably. I really need to study peds. But really, most questions of the boards won’t be on peds. So I feel better.

Then I was going to go to sleep and remembered I had to call Zip to tell her about the stuff I had for her. I did, and the phone died. Apparently, it did this with Avigayil, too, so I have no clue what I’m doing about it. Anyway, Mom called, spoke to Lis, too, and—yeah. Everyone’ okay. Grandpa’s doing better. He’s on aspirin to decrease more blood clots, and he does have an irregular heartbeat—atrial fibrillation. Then I talked to Lauren a bit, and then wrote all this. Now I’m going to bed—I’ll clean up my clothes in the morning— later.

January 18, 2008

We don’t have classes on Fridays, which is nice. But they’re Sun.-Thursday, so it’s a Friday-Saturday weekend. Whatever, it’s cool.

Woke up on time, but the phone has a snooze that you can pre-set. I did—but then it died, and then I woke up alter than I wanted to. Oh, well, such is life.

So I woke up, cleaned up the stuff I left out last night, got dressed, and davened. Then Eli called and he, Chani,a nd Oren are going to family in Ramat Beit Shemesh for Shabbat, so I took a bus (by myself! Yay! And didn’t get lost! Double Yay!) to the Tachanah HaMerkazit, finally got through security—and then Eli and I turned around and left. So going through all that security for nothing. Murgh.

We went down to Ben Yehuda because I had to change money. Rate was 3.70—it is DOWN—even Canadian dollars are more! Well, now that I have money again. My goal is to make it last until I go to Rita’s.

—cut out budgetary issues here, because they’re boring—

‘k, gotta go get ready for Shabbos. Finish this later