Ir Namel—A Port City (עיר נמל)

So, here’s a recap of my past few days:
The plane ride wasn’t bad. It was a US Airways flight out of Philadelphia, and there were a lot of empty seats, including the one next to me! In the end, I could have a window seat, an aisle seat, and plenty of room to stretch out, which was very nice! I finally saw “Julie and Julia” (with Hebrew subtitles, of course!) and tried to sleep so jetlag wouldn’t be too bad. Approximately 10.5 hours later, we landed at Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv and the weather was so perfect I could watch the houses below get closer and closer as we landed. However, once I get my bags, go through customs, meet up with Amanda, and board a sherut (something like a shared taxi-van), the sky has turned grey and the heavens open. With the pouring rain and hail, we make it to Haifa eventually, but it is already dark out. We got the keys to our apartments and moved in once we got to campus.
The sherut experience was really interesting. The driver spoke Arabic and Hebrew. The people behind us spoke Hebrew and Turkish. The woman next to me seemed to speak everything. I mean everything. She was from Switzerland, but spoke near-perfect Arabic, Hebrew, English, and so forth. Impressive. Thankfully, she helped us communicate with the driver a few times.
My apartment is very nice (pictures will be posted eventually!). As I mentioned before, there are 5 other girls—three Israeli, one other American, and another student at the International School from Mexico. We have a kitchen, and hot water for showering if we turn the heater on 30 minutes in advance. The dorms are built down the side of the mountain (where the university buildings are on a rather flat surface). So I have a metric gazillion stairs to walk up/down every day to get anywhere else on campus. It’s tiring now, but hopefully it won’t be so bad in a few weeks. I have honey-nut cheerios, cheddar cheese, and Lemon Pledge-flavored Nestea, so I really am content for now!
There are at least 4 Sara(h)s in the Ulpan program. Three of whom are in my Hebrew class.
Speaking of my Hebrew class, I was very happy and somewhat surprised this morning to find that I was placed in a Hebrew level that I could understand! Though there are parts that are harder to follow than others, the teacher assured us that was completely normal and I am glad I am in this class. Besides the fact that it’s an intensive language course, the other difficult part is sitting still for so long—classes run from 8:30 AM – 1 PM Monday-Thursday, and 9:30 AM – 2 PM on Sundays. There is a 30-minute break and a 10-minute one every day, though, so it shouldn’t be too bad.
After class today, we went on a tour of the city of Haifa. I learned how to get on the bus and pay for a ticket, and learned which numbers to look for to get me back to campus. We saw a few scenic vistas, which were BEAUTIFUL!



This picture mostly shows the neighboring suburbs, toward the bottom of Mt. Carmel. You can tell how overcast it was in the afternoon!



We also took the Carmelit, which our tour guide/social activities coordinator/Madrich called “either the world’s smallest subway or the world’s largest elevator.” It basically takes you up and down the mountain, and you go underground to get to it. I really liked the artwork on the walls there:



We also checked out the shuk, which is an open-air market. There was a lot of fresh produce and the bakeries smelled SO good!
I think that’s it for now—more updates to come!