Monday, July 18, 2011

Conclusion? It looks like a good start!

And then you might ask, why should you read all this post if the conclusion is already in the title? because so many things happened, so many places, so many new people, some "old" ones that matter...
I don't think honestly that i will make too much sense right now but I decided I must take a few minutes to put down my thoughts or else i'll totally forget them.
The first day of being in the Ulpan Etzion Beit Canada finished. It was a full day. But a nice one. And everythings looks promising . And i feel that living in the Vienna LBS campus was a good "foreplay" :) for what is here.
At a point i'll also make a list of comparisions between them cause it's worth it.
So, after i've been picked up yesterday night like a princess from Tahana Merkazit (the Central Bus Station) in Jerusalem by my dear dear friend Tomi and brought to the door in one piece, i got to meet my new baby: The pink laptop from US. I'm very fond of it. Just to let you know. And i know that we'll get along just great and that I won't try to feed him anything: this pinky guy won't get no milk, no shoko and no tea. Learned my lesson. the hard way.
This morning, 8:30 in the ceremony hall: opening. Speeches from the Menahel ha Merkaz (Chief of Merkaz), Menahelet ha Ulpan (Chairwoman of Ulpan) and introducing the staff. Each country's name was shouted to see who comes from where. Guess what? of course i'm the only one from Romania:) We got into groups and played little silly funny ice-breaking games. In my English speaking group (Russians and French had their own groups - yesh:P) we were about 20 people. 80% Americans, 10% Turkish, a girl from London and myself. not much to say about this here, just that the teachers really tried their best to get us involved.
Lunch: Yummy lunch (VERY yummy compared to LBS). After lunch buses departed to Mount Herzl where we had a tour. We've been told that, as everything about the State of Israel began with Herzl's dream, this is the place we need to be in our first day of Alyia. And i really think it was a good idea. There is a new Herzl Museum (opened 6 years ago) which i really enjoyed. And here comes the "less facts, more feeling" part of my post. I was totally impressed of the museum. Surprisingly so. It's an audio-visual one. It's really hard to explain. What is for sure is that i think the idea of it, is really good and they made of what could have been a rather boring museum one that gets you into the actual story of Herzl. And at the end, i even got a bit teary as it shows what Herzl's dream was and what the reality of Israel nowadays is. Which is not very close to the idealism of Herzl but still it made me soooo proud to be here. Once again you could see how Israelis have achieved sooo much out of nothing. And it made me feel this is definitely the place where I belong. Where I can "play my part". Where i want to play my part and where it will be appreciated. I know, i know, I'll hear voices telling me "Wait until you get your first job" "Stop being idealist". I'm not. I'm as realistic as i can be. But i know that, if there is a place where i can feel i'm both giving to the country and the country gives you back, this is Israel.
By the way, there was a whole discussion in my group about what Israel is for us. And from one to another, people said that here they don't have to feel that Jewish is the only thing they are, cause here they're more than that and not a minority anymore. Well, i'm having mixed feelings about this. Because i have my worries that here i won't be feeling as Jewish as i did back in Bucharest. I don't have my segregation:) And i'm afraid not to take Judaism for granted here as all the Israelis do. This is a note to self.

Back to Mount Herzl, once again, I highly recommend the museum to anybody!

I was very pleased to find that the weather is even better than i thought. I know that if there's a place in Israel that can be bearable without mazgan (air conditioning), that's Israel. And it really is so. Much lower humidity and it even gets chilly in the evenings. Jerusalem, what are you doing to me? You try your best to make me like you? Keep it this way and we're on the right path:)

Horrible news came out that about 15 minutes after we left huge firest bursted in the forests next to Mount Herzl and the museum of Yad Vashem was evacuated. At the time of me writing this it seems fires were under control but that also fireman consider the fires to have been started by arson (on purpose). horrible.

Back to the campus, dinner - weird weird weird one, some kind of gummy textured pancake, not sweet, not salty, not nothing. lucky me and cottage are in a relationship and there were salads to color my dinner too. Oh, and i already met a bunch of really interesting people that i get to hang out with. But more about them in other posts. Oh, and as usual, most of the Americans (and not only) find it "wow" the fact that i come from Romania. I think it's funny. It sounds so exotic to them. And they're surprised i speak english. And say i have an israeli accent. That's bad, isn't it?:P

And then there was the party. Again a few speeches, some live music and dancing. I danced some, not a lot of people stayed though but we had fun.

I know for sure there was a lot of other stuff i wanted to tell you and in a less fugitive way but i'm a bit sick, and need to catch as much sleep as possible.
I still have a lot to tell you about the karmiel festival and how i slept with 15 Turks at once, on the floor (;P:))) ), about salsa in Tel Aviv, about beach with Iulia and Rina and of course about Eytanush and Taliushkush who are sweeter and sweeter.

Tomorrow: first day of classes. 8:30 again. This hour will hunt me for the next 5 months. Oh, and i got a very interesting full time job offer that i had to decline because of the ulpan. So i'd better study well:)

So, the next post will be about all of the above and about how i think the Israeli drivers are the definition of multitasking, about how in some fields i really wished things were different, and about how frustrated that is, and about how there's something in the air of Tel Aviv that...:)


3 comments:

lyaver said...

imi place ce si cum ai scris,imi pare bine ca te simti o.k relatarea pe blog e o idee buna,ca relatare dar nu conversatie! singura chestie ca esti mai departe ,decit te-as auzi si vedea...la mine merge skype

ina said...

iieeeeiii ce imi place postul! hai, ma tii in suspans pana la urmatorul!

taigo1 said...

sounds like a good place to be in! i wish you lots of fun, do good things, be a good citizen, hopefully if the "foreplay" was so good- the rest will be even better.