I Have Arrived in Jerusalem
I have arrived in Jerusalem and in our apartment, after a very smooth journey (if somewhat timeless- all the different time zones and whatnot and having left from home at 2:00 AM, and then sleeping for uncertain amounts of time really made me totally unable to judge the passage of time), all the way from New York through London to Israel. We had some delay in finding the sheirut (shared ride van), as we were directed to the wrong place first, and waited there for a while before realizing that we hadn't seen any vans, and that can't have been right. Once we found the right place, we just had to wait for the van to fill up, which took a good hour- and then we left with still a couple of empty seats, and the driver charged us an extra 5 shekels each to compensate, which was a pain- but which seemed unavoidable, even though the policy on the wall said that the van leaves when full or an hour after the first person gets on, whichever is first.
We (apartmentmate 1 and I) arrived at our apartment building and didn't know which apartment we had. We tried calling apartmentmate 2, who has been here for a few days already, but her phone was off- it turns out that it's dead and her charger is broken. So we called her sister, and used the wireless to send her an email, and that found us the right apartment, and then we all trudged our stuff up to the apartment. It being a 4th floor walk-up, this took some serious effort, but we managed alright.
The building that I'm living in is concrete and not particularly attractive, but our apartment is friendly-looking, if very bare. It's on two floors, with a rather narrow spiral staircase between them. Downstairs, there's a living room and a kitchen/dining-room, a bathroom with a washing machine, and a small guest room. Upstairs, there are 3 bedrooms, a sort of room/hall between them, and a bathroom. We've inherited/borrowed some limited cookware/silverware/flatware from roommate2's relatives in Israel, which is going to be a big help- of course, the less of that sort of thing that we have to buy, the better. My room has a bed, and a combination free-standing closet and shelves, and a bedside table. It looks sort of bare, but with my things unpacked and sheets and quilt on the bed, it's starting to look more like a room. The best surprise of unpacking was finding that one of my parents found and packed Fluffy, my father's puppet rabbit that was a significant favorite stuffed animal for me when I was a kid. It was a very, very nice surprise, upon unpacking.
This afternoon, we're going to take a walk to the shuk/around to explore a bit. I think I'll feel a smidge better once I have a bit of a sense of where I am and how to get somewhere, or several somewheres would, of course, be even better.
My lack of a regular night's sleep in the last couple of nights (if it is the last couple of nights) is starting to catch up with me. I'm going to go nap sometime soon, before we take our expedition.
We (apartmentmate 1 and I) arrived at our apartment building and didn't know which apartment we had. We tried calling apartmentmate 2, who has been here for a few days already, but her phone was off- it turns out that it's dead and her charger is broken. So we called her sister, and used the wireless to send her an email, and that found us the right apartment, and then we all trudged our stuff up to the apartment. It being a 4th floor walk-up, this took some serious effort, but we managed alright.
The building that I'm living in is concrete and not particularly attractive, but our apartment is friendly-looking, if very bare. It's on two floors, with a rather narrow spiral staircase between them. Downstairs, there's a living room and a kitchen/dining-room, a bathroom with a washing machine, and a small guest room. Upstairs, there are 3 bedrooms, a sort of room/hall between them, and a bathroom. We've inherited/borrowed some limited cookware/silverware/flatware from roommate2's relatives in Israel, which is going to be a big help- of course, the less of that sort of thing that we have to buy, the better. My room has a bed, and a combination free-standing closet and shelves, and a bedside table. It looks sort of bare, but with my things unpacked and sheets and quilt on the bed, it's starting to look more like a room. The best surprise of unpacking was finding that one of my parents found and packed Fluffy, my father's puppet rabbit that was a significant favorite stuffed animal for me when I was a kid. It was a very, very nice surprise, upon unpacking.
This afternoon, we're going to take a walk to the shuk/around to explore a bit. I think I'll feel a smidge better once I have a bit of a sense of where I am and how to get somewhere, or several somewheres would, of course, be even better.
My lack of a regular night's sleep in the last couple of nights (if it is the last couple of nights) is starting to catch up with me. I'm going to go nap sometime soon, before we take our expedition.