Sashita's ISRAEL Blog

HELLO / SHALOM / ZDRASTVUITE / MARHABA | October 10, 2009

ahhhhh...........

Talia Dormitories from the outside

These are the four languages I have so far spoken in Isral. English/Hebrew/Russian/ Arabic.

Flight was ok, except i sat next to a weirdo. The flight from Philly to Tel Aviv (“hill of the spring” in translation i found out..) was 10.5 hours. He was sitting up in his puffy jacket, the whole time, his ticket in his left hand and his passport in his right…staring, blankly…at the dark tv screen in front of him….
 
I landed ok. Our family friend Sasha picked me up. We drove around for 3 hours, got to his house, had a great dinner with his wife and daughter. I asked them all sorts of questions. I was welcomed like family…how lucky! Then next day i hung out with their Russian-Jewish friends. All old folks….it was kind of funny, i was the only youngin. We went to a “woodsy” area up on a hill in Haifa, watched the sunset, grilled chicken, drank wine. Was good…except finally my jetlag got the best of me and i passed out on a lawnchair.
 
Now is my first day in the dorm. My apartment of 6 is still empty. I think this means that i’ll be living with all israelis…cause their classes start a week later than ours (international students). I met a couple people. 

Common Area

Its a holiday today, so a couple girls (one from Estonia, and another Ukranian from Germany) went to the beach. I have forgotten what sea water tastes like..its salty. And so clean…and soothing.

 
I still have this feeling of being in  purgatory…i haven’t taken a bus yet, haven’t really been around Haifa at all. Don’t know anything, dont speak Hebrew, dont feel self-sufficient. But….that will come. Oh, and i still dont know how to turn on the hot water in my dorm room….that kinda sucks…..

Aside from that, today filled me with an incredible sense of peace. Maybe it was  just the sea water……or maybe it is the contrast to my hectic departure….but maybe its being surrounded by multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-uknown people and customs….whatever it is…I hope it lasts.

And last reflections as I finish: my challenge to myself is not to loose sight of my daily experiences, to appreciate the small successes (getting hot water in the dorm) and take pride in learning new words or facts. My challenge is not to become overwhelmed by the foreignness around me. To keep my head above water and regard my experiences at an arm-lengh…as temporal occurences that will shape me…but which do not have to smother me.

Its now time to take a cold shower.