The Best Place on the Earth

I'm in absolute awe... I am in love with this beautiful country and most of all, with Jerusalem.  Getting to the dorms and settling in hasn't necessarily been the easiest task over the past 24 hours.  When I arrived at Newark for our group flight yesterday, it was mass chaos.  We stood in a huge blob of people for at least an hour before we even got to the Israeli security.  After being questioned about my Jewish background and why I was going to Israel, I had to run from counter to counter with all of my bags. Let me just tell you, 60 American students with an average of 2 oversize checked bags and 2 carry-on's each, maneuvering around the airport was definitely a sight to see.  

When we finally arrived in Israel we loaded the buses and headed to Jerusalem. When we arrived right outside the gates to the Kfar HaStudentim (Student Village) we all looked to the left and saw a gorgeous overlook of Jerusalem.  All I could say was, "Oh my God" over and over again.  That was the moment that I realized I was the luckiest person in the world to be in the best place on earth.  We immediately got off the buses and grabbed our keys to our apartments and began schlepping our bags all over the student village.  Naturally, I got an apartment on the 9th floor (top floor), so my roommates and I began our journey to our apartment.  I call it a journey because we took numerous elevators and got turned around several times, trapped on random floors with no lights, and we were locked out when we finally arrived to our apartment.  After  all of the chaos, we got into our apartment and began unpacking and settling in. I have 4 wonderful roommates, I was put with the 2 girls I requested, a girl from Toronto, and a girl from Ohio.  Once I showered, I went out to lunch with my roommates and met up with a friend who's been studying abroad in Italy for the last semester.  Next on the agenda was a campus tour of Hebrew University with our Madrichim.  I have always said that I was so lucky to go to the prettiest University, IU, but after seeing Hebrew University's Jerusalem stone pathways, beautiful buildings, and the breathtaking views of the mountains, Dead Sea, and Old Jerusalem, I very quickly changed my mind.  After the walking tour and orientation, I decided to pass on the chaos of going to the mall with the 220 people on my program and got dinner with a new friend on campus and then headed back to my apartment.  On our walk back to apartment, we were able to hear the Muslims praying on what sounded like a megaphone.  It was definitely a very cool thing to hear and a reminder of how holy Jerusalem is to so many different religions.  The rest of the night was pretty uneventful and I had a great sleep....until I woke up at 8:45 this morning to Arabic music and man repeatedly saying "Slicha" (Sorry) right outside my bedroom door.  Apparently he was here to fix the shower, but he didn't speak English so he was trying to explain why he was in our apartment without scaring us.  We were all a little spooked and agreed that our mothers would not appreciate a middle-aged man casually walking into our apartment without knowing ahead of time what he was doing here.  Anyway, I suppose him waking me up early wasn't the end of the world because it gave me the opportunity to blog before the long day ahead of me consisting of 3.5 hours of Ulpan (Intensive Hebrew), cleaning our filthy apartment, and other required get-to-know-you activities with our Madrichim.
Well I'm off to get ready for my first day of class.  Lehitraot!