Hello all! I apologize profusely for lagging so much on the blogging…but as promised, here it is! My life in Israel…via blog!!! I had many posts written in my many notebooks and journals, but at this point, I feel it’s most informative to just take the time to write one horrendously long post to get you up to speed… So here we go:
My time in DC was absolutely phenomenal…I mean, when is it ever not? Getting there, however, was not the easiest travel experience I’ve had. I missed my flight to DC (although I was there on time)…don’t ask. I ended up being re-routed to San Fransisco then to Chicago then finally to DC a million hours later….or so it seemed. Once I arrived in DC, I had a wonderful two weeks with a great deal of my favorite people in the world…I got to learn a piece on Tuesday night and perform it the next day with Capital Funk, I spent a weekend in NY and sold some of my bags in Union Square…like a true artist, and I explored DC more than I ever really did living there.
My flight from DC to London went smoothly…I didn’t sleep at all, landed at Heathrow at 7am london time (which, I believe was sometime in the middle of the night in whatever time zone i had previously been), and off I went! It took me almost an hour to get through passport control…only to tell them, I’d be spending a mere 14 hours or so in London. Nonetheless…I found my way to the tube (yes, all by myself), got on the Picadilly line (i’m not even sure if that’s the correct spelling), i learned what “Mind the Gap” truly means, and I got myself to the stop where I was meeting Philly.
Of course, once i arrived, i realized that the notebook in which I had written Philly’s international cell number in was in my backpack which i had checked for the day at the airport. So here i was…no phone…foreign country…alone…and here was adventure number one. First, I decided…she’s my best friend…i’m sure she’s waiting for me somewhere in a cute coffee shop on this street…So i walked up and down the street where the train station was a few times and stopped in every coffee shop that I felt like maybe she would like. No Luck. Then I decided I would ask someone where I could find a computer with internet access. Someone pointed me in the direction of a nearby hotel…I used the business center, opened my email, wrote down her number, and called from a very british payphone. Eventually we found each other…and the next 12 hours were really a blur.
We did everything there was to do in London in a matter of hours…Big Ben, Parliament, The London Eye, Fish and Chips, Cider, coffee shops, markets, fountains… Awesome! And…I felt it very appropriate that the first time I wore my newly finished Flag Scarf was in London!!! Pictures are at the beginning of this post…click to make them bigger!
Exhausted and barely standing…in fact, I believe I fell asleep standing on the tube back to Heathrow…I made it back to the airport with plenty of time before my flight to Tel Aviv. In the haze of exhaustion and a dead iPod with no charger (and we all know how well I do without my iPod)… I will admit that boarding my flight to Israel was slightly overwhelming. Everyone around me was speaking Hebrew and because I apparently look Israeli…even to Israelis we now know, people were speaking to me in Hebrew, to which my only response was “i speak enlgish” in badly pronounced Hebrew, of course. Everyone in Israel speaks englsih…I know now. I couldn’t help but naturally…and very briefly think…”what am I getting myself into?”
I slept through my entire flight to Israel…passed out the second I sat down and woke up in just enough time to look out my window at the Tel Aviv shoreline in very early daylight. I managed to get through passport control and get my bags (neither of which were overweight, thank you very much) in a very short amount of time. I exchanged my american cash for shekels (which always feels like more money than it is…as the exchange rate is 4 shekels to one dollar). I got myself an Israeli cell phone in the airport, which was surprisingly more difficult than one would imagine.
By 7 am or so, I arrived at Kibbutz Tzuba…nestled in the Judean Hills? I had no idea where to go. I got dropped off with my bags near the sign that pointed to a building reading “ulpan.” The doors were locked. I walked up to the chadar ocheil (dining hall) and to the first person I saw, I said “hi, i’m here for ulpan and I’m not really sure who to talk to or where to go.” Let me tell you…It’s never been so clear that God was with me in that moment. This wonderful Israeli womam…a resident of Kibbutz Tzuba since she was ten years old…said, “I’m going to help you.” She dropped everything she was doing…and help me she did. For the past 3 days, she’s practically adopted me.
There was a lot of confusion between the Jewish Agency in the states and the kibbutz itself…the starting date of my program had been pushed back from October 18th to October 25th…a change which we had been notified of by email, but we were also told that because most of already had our flights booked, we would have a place to stay on the kibbutz. Apparently this was not true. So there I was…all my stuff…alone in Israel…with apparently no place to stay. I called the few friends I have in Jerusalem to know that I had backup…however, my Israeli saviour, Rachel, went incredibly out of her way to find me a room to stay in for the past two nights on the Kibbutz. A very nice girl, who’s 23 and works with children on Tzuba, offered to stay a few nights with her boyfriend so that I could stay in her room on the kibbutz and rest off my jetlag. Everyone I met told me I was incredibly lucky to meet Rachel…This is absolutely true, as about 8 more people arrived for ulpan in the last few days (I didn’t meet any of them personally) and were sent away until Monday, when the ulpan housing will be ready. For the weekend, I am planning on staying with different friends in Jerusalem.
Yesterday, I took the bus into central Jerusalem. Yesterday was incredibly overwhelming. I managed to get lost EVERYWHERE I WENT. I finally found my way to my Israeli friend, Ira, who worked with me at camp this summer. She helped me get my bearings a little more. We walked around the center of the city…I bought the most fabulous shoes since my last pair of fabulous shoes…for 60 shekels (15 american dollars)!!! On my way back, I found my way on the bus from the center of the city to the central bus station…once I was there, however, I had some serious trouble.
I knew this whole Israel thing would be a learning experience, but to be honest, I never thought the lessons would come at me this obviously. I thought I was going to have to search for meaning in everything. The biggest lesson of my time in Israel thus far (and oh man, was it a lesson I needed to learn)…Ask For Help!!! After asking several people where I was supposed to be, I found my way back to the correct bus and got back to Tzuba… in the rain. Of course the first rain of the year in Jerusalem was on my first day in Jerusalem.
Today, I managed to find my way into central Jerusalem without getting lost at all. I found The Coffee Bean (I swear it was glowing)…and alas…free wireless! The Coffee Bean here also has a full menu of salads and sandwiches…Very Cool. So here I am…of course this is the poorly written, still slightly jetlagged version of my story…but now you’re all updated on my whereabouts. I will do my best to update my blog as often as possible. Please be in touch…by email, facebook, myspace, and if you want my israeli cell number, let me know by email at jordynjacobs@gmail.com and i will send it to you.
It’s been an adventure already…I am very grateful for the people I’ve met and for the friends I have in Israel who’ve been very helpful! I am anxious to get settled on Monday in the place where I will actually be living…and to start Ulpan in one week!
