My first week!!

Hi everyone!

I am so glad that I am done traveling! I went from Texas to Pennsylvania to New Jersey to New York to Israel and holy cow I am so excited to be done with traveling for a while! Although the flight was really long I had a blast on the way to Israel. I met so many people that I will be going to Ulpan with! I was a little nervous that there wouldn’t be very many English speakers at the Ulpan but now I know that there are a ton of us. I suppose that could be a good or a bad thing since I wont be as challenged to use my Hebrew everyday in order to communicate. But I am also really glad to have met so many fun people in my age group!

One thing that was hilarious and a little embarassing is that no one knew that this flight is actually a J-Date flight. In other words the flight was supposed to be focused on singles meeting singles….I am so not ready for that! I think I need to get a handle of the language before I can go and meet men!

When I arrived my friend, Alon, came and picked me up at the airport in Tel Aviv and was there to greet me when I first got to the arrival ceremony. It was really great seeing a friendly face in the crowd! Of course I met so many people I cant even remember all of their names! There were ~200 people on the flight with me.

In the last few days I have done some really fun things. Alon and I went to a show that is similar to stomp, but with more talented and varied performances. The lighting and the music was amazing and created almost exclusively by all of the performers. All of them could sing, dance, play instruments, and a few of them could beat box. It was especially fun when they got people in the audience involved. I left feeling exhilarated and excited about life! What a great experience!

I also got to go bowling in the is cool little bowling alley. It was sort of a surprise find and going there made me feel grateful that I have a friend here because it’s the kind of place that only locals know about.  I am not a very talented bowler but I do have to brag…I won 1 out of 3 games! Not too shabby! Of course the people next to us thought I was about 17 and on a birthright trip…but I suppose looking so young will come in handy when I’m not so young any more ;)

Today I got to do something so fun I would love to do it again! I got to go to a shooting range on a Kibbutz and shoot an M-16! This gun is powerful but the kick is minimal. I got out without a bruised collar bone which is more than I can say for my experiences with shot guns and rifles in Texas! The man helping me is named Ya’akov. He told me that I could not show too much excitement because I am a Texan and we are serious! So I put away my smile and somberly shook his hand. Shortly thereafter I jumped up and down and celebrated the fun I had just had. (I know Ya’akov was smiling on the inside!) After this Alon and I went and had some really delicious falafel at a popular place near his home. Can you believe that I have never had falafel in Israel?! Well I did today and  I practically licked the wrapping clean! 

Through all of my experiences since arriving the best of all has been just being here! I love being surrounded  by the language and culture. Naturally I wish I had a better command of the language, but I know that will come in my months of Hebrew Ulpan! Hopefully I will get back on to do another blog entry sooner rather than later!!!

All my love,

Jesyca