I'm finally in Israel!!!

Soooo..... on Sunday night- about 11:00, I got to the airport, then stood in line for an HOUR to get checked in and to validate the fact that I was NOT a terrorist... and then the flight was delayed for half an hour but we didn't actually leave the airporttill like 3:30 ish Monday morning. I know- right?!? Then the flight took forever... and by the time we got in to Tel Aviv it was 8:30 local time- you do the math. On the upside, it gave me a chance to watch X-men again :) By the time I got to my apartment, it was alreay 11:00 at night.

The first day was so packed with activities. First they gave us debit cards for the apartments, and set us loose in the mall to go shopping. The name of our supermarket is Super Dush(pronounced Soo- Pair Doosh) :) We all got a kick out of it. Then we got a tour of the city and got maps... not like it helped at all- I have no idea how to get around at all. In fact, after dinner (which the girls decided to do pot-luck style the first night, we brought salad and drinks and they made noodles) I got us lost on the way home. It took half an hour what it should have taken 10 mins. But it's good that I had my map with me- not that it was accurate...

So- there are four Shalem apartments- 2 girls and 2 boys. 4 and 5 split for the girls- I'm in the smaller group with only 4 people in our apartment. It's me, Masha from Long Beach CA, Madeline from Long Island NY and Shayna from San Diego CA. I'm really glad we got a small group- it's much easier to manage as far as food shopping and stuff. Plus we get more room. I think the boys have the same set-up of 4 and 5 (there are also 9 boys- a perfect 1:1 ratio). Our apartment is sorta small, and the bathroom and whower room are two different rooms, but the shower room has a hole in the ground. Just a 3" diameter hole. In the floor. And no towel rack or shelf. Or air conditioning, and boy is it hot! the only time you don't sweat is in the shower and as soon as you get out, you wanna get back in cause you feel gross already. I'm glad the summer is ending, I don't think I can take that kind of heat :)

The rest of this week is more Orientation- rules, security, learning about our volunteering and classes, taking placement tests and trying to familiarize ourselves with our environment. Sounds like fun, right? But once we get into the swing of things and have a set schedule. Ta-ta for now- I'll try to update once a week for the first month then once every two weeks after that. We'll see how that works.

Love you all and miss you! Please call me- my Israeli phone # is 052-603-7010 Just remember that I'm about 8 hours ahead (in MN) - 7 from NY
<3 <3 <3