First Shabbos!

Shabbat Shalom! It's day four of my experience on Nativ 28 and I'm just overwhelmed with loving it. It's been very busy so far, thus the lack of posts, but although I'm keeping Shabbat by not using my cell phone, skyping, or iming, this is the perfect rest period for me to update all of you.

The flight was good, I slept the whole way. The first night in Jerusalem we weren't allowed to go out, so we all took the time to go to sleep early and get rid of our jet lag. On Wednesday we had ice breakers with our groups, as well as services, meals, and a tour of Jerusalem. The groups are based on what tracks you're doing (of which there are three choices) and my group is Yerucham, since that's where I'll be volunteering next semester. I really love all of the people in my group, and it's a good mix of friends I already had (like Ashley) and people I'd never met before. Wednesday night was our first night out, and I went to a bar and a dance club with some of my friends; it was an amazing time. On Thursday we had our Hebrew University orientation, during which we received our student IDs and our mini-mester schedules.

The mini-mester is strictly for Nativ students and goes from this Sunday to the end of September. It was designed to give Nativ students more transfer credit. My schedule is Ulpan, or Hebrew language, Sunday through Thursday from 9 AM to 1 PM, and then three days a week I also have a history of Jerusalem course that goes from 2 PM to 5 PM. For the mini-mester, Nativ provides buses to and from HebrewU since we all begin and end class at the same time, although not everyone takes the same classes. On Thursday we also took a tour of the campus, and HebrewU is much prettier than I expected. There are a lot of open lawn areas and gardens surrounded by buildings, and the entire campus sits on top of a mountain overlooking Jerusalem.

Last night we went out again, although I took a break from drinking, and I had another awesome time. Although I was in Israel last summer, we weren't even allowed to go to the supermarket across the street without a staff member, so being able to walk around by ourselves and do whatever we want is an amazing feeling. I also had my first frozen yogurt, shoko bisakeet (chocolate milk in a bag - delicious!) and falafel yesterday, all of which I had been looking forward to for some time.

As far as my dorm room goes, it's pretty small compared to others here, but still bigger than many that I've seen at colleges in America. My roommate is from Chicago and her name is Becky, and she's a great roommate - we both stay out late and sleep late, and we also agree on many other roommate issues, such as drinking and using the computer on Shabbos. We lofted our beds to give ourselves more room, so we both sleep on top bunks. We left one bottom bunk so we could sit and relax while using the computer and so we could have guests sleep over, and we hope to buy some plastic shelving units to go under the other lofted bed, since we have very limited closet/drawer space.

Today was our first Shabbat, something we have all really been looking forward to. It definitely lived up to our expectations. We walked to a random patio that overlooked the old city, and we prayed, sang, and danced as a group. We also then had a wonderful dinner on base and afterwards a lot of us hung out on the roof and played board games.

More than once during each day, I feel totally overwhelmed with happiness. And as much as I miss everyone at home and wish they were here, it doesn't make me sad because I'm just too busy being so completely happy. I know 100% that coming to Israel this year was the right choice for me and that everything else can wait til I come home. It feels like I've already been here for months. I'm excited to start classes on Sunday and continue meeting new people. I know that the next nine months are going to be some of the most amazing times of my life.

Love you all!

Kari