Rewind: Week 1 Part 1

In this post, I will do my best to fill you in on what went on during my first week here.  I've definitely forgotten some details, but I think you'll get the gist. 

Tuesday, September 14th:

We started the day off with an info session regarding logistics of the apartment, health, and security.  Ya know, the usual stuff: emergency numbers, no drug use, don't ride transportation that goes through any of the territories, don't sit in the front of a cab if you are traveling alone, stay away from suspicious objects (Chefetz Chashud), do not leave your belongings unattended or else it will be considered Chefetz Chashud and probably blown up.  Yes, that's what happens.  They don't mess around here. 

We then walked down to an adjacent neighborhood, Talpiyot, where we were introduced to the drug store, Superpharm, and to the supermarket, Supersol.  You will learn from my posts that Israelis love to put the words "Super," "Mega," "Deal," etc. in the names of their stores.  We grabbed a few things at Superpharm which carried a decent amount of American brands.  Going grocery shopping was another story.  I am normally an extremely careful shopper.  I prefer to buy items that are on sale, I spend a lot of time comparing prices of various brands, and almost always use coupons.  Here I was, without coupons, without the ability to quickly convert shekels to dollars in my head, and without the ability to fully read and understand the language, and yet I was expected to purchase necessary items so that I would not starve, or at least so that I would not end up eating out at restaurants every day.  Needless to say, I gave it the old college try but left feeling pretty overwhelmed.  I definitely did not get everything I had intended to purchase.

After the shopping trip, we had an activity to help us learn about the different neighborhoods in Jerusalem and even played a game to test our newfound knowledge.  Then we met Mike, the director of our program, before venturing out for a neighborhood tour conducted by Liyan, a university student in Jerusalem.  After the tour, Ruth and I explored Emek Rafayim (a nearby main street full of various shops and restaurants) in search of dinner.  We ended up grabbing delicious veggie/dairy sandwiches at Cafe Cafe which I think is a chain restaurant here.  (In case you don't know, most restaurants here in Jerusalem are Kosher and are either classified as dairy or meat restaurants since we cannot mix meat and dairy.)  On our walk back to the apartment--Ruth had to get back because her cousin was picking her up to take her BACK to the airport to get her luggage.  Yes, she was one of the unlucky ones affected by the airport strike--we ran into a friend of Ruth's, Aviva.  Ruth knew Aviva would be in Jerusalem this year but hadn't made plans to see her yet.  Turns out Aviva is from Princeton Junction, right near Ewing, and we even went to the same day camp most likely at the same time.  We also have loads of mutual friends on facebook because Aviva also lived in NYC.  Speaking of mutual friends, Ruth and I became facebook friends prior to getting to Israel and discovered we know many of the same people.  Ruth was a Jewish Campus Service Corp (JCSC) Fellow for Hillel after college; I have many friends who served as JCSCs across the country.  Oh the wonders of Jewish Geography!

Wednesday, September 15th:

We had some more info sessions about the program, services available to us, etc.  We met Keren, a representative from Merkaz Hamagshimim, the Young Judaea aliyah absorption center.  (Aliyah is the term used to describe the act of permanently moving to Israel.  This word is literally translated as "ascent."  Moving to Israel is considered an act of going up.)  The center hosts events such as plays, parties, etc. and can be a resource to us if we want to plan an event.  We also met Dan Krakow, the Director of Young Judaea Programs in Israel.  As a side note, Young Judaea is the Zionist youth movement in which I was involved from 8th-12th grade (through my synagogue, conventions, and sleep-away camp).  It's exciting for me to be participating in a program today that is also a part of Young Judaea.  Also there are 3 other Young Judaeans on my program, Danit, Ethan, and Rachel Z.  The 3 of them were campers when I worked at Young Judaea's Tel Yehudah Camp in 2004, though they weren't my campers so we didn't know each other.

My roommates and I took a trip down the street to Mega- a sort of hardware, home appliances store to pick up some extra kitchen utensils (we were only given the bare minimum in our apartments), a bathroom rug, and hangers (I forgot to mention that I purchased a make-shift closet, clothes rack thingy at a store literally called Home Center, but kept running out of hangers.)  Afterwards, we met with the rest of the group but split up into our tracks.  The WUJS program has 4 tracks in Jerusalem:  Intern, Arts, Peace and Social Justice, & Learning.  I am on the internship track.  Most activities are for all 4 tracks, but our regular day-to-day responsibilities will be somewhat different from each other.  Next we came together to lay out some ground rules for our group, specifically related to social dynamics and how we should treat one another.  Everyone agreed that respect for each other's differences in extremely important in group settings especially since we are going to be living together for 5 months and will inevitably engage in discussions with sensitive topics.  Our group is extremely diverse.  We've got people from NJ, NY, CA, CT, OH, Mexico, Russian, and Ukraine to name a few.  We range in age from 22-31.  There are 5 guys and 20 girls.

Next we met Rachel Goldberg (Rachel #4 as our group already consists of Rachel G., Rachel Z., & Rachelle B.), an educator who will be our Judaism expert during the program.  Rachel gave us an amazing lecture entitled "Everything you wanted to know about Judaism but were afraid to ask" in about 45 minutes.  The lecture focused on some texts related to the high holidays.  I am looking forward to the monthly classes that Rachel will teach on various topics in Judaism during the program.

We divided up into committees: Green Team, Birthday Committee, Shabbat B'Yachad Committe, Shabbat B'Yachad Food Committee, Tiyulim (hikes/trips) Committee, etc.  I volunteered to be on the Shabbat B'Yachad Committee and the Birthday Committee.  I couldn't be in 2 places at once so I joined the Shabbat B'Yachad committee first and never made it to the birthday committee meeting.  Throughout our program, we are going to have 3 times when we will spend Shabbat together as a group instead of having a free weekend.  The first time is actually not Shabbat but Sukkot, an upcoming high holiday.  Danit, Josh, and I discussed, with the help of Rachel Goldberg, how we want to convey the meaning of the holiday to everyone while having an enjoyable, positive group experience.   You'll hear about how it turned out in a later post. 


I have to stop here to study hebrew and go to sleep.  More to come soon!