1st 24-hours in Jerusalem

So I arrived safely last night in Tel Aviv. It was extremely hazy and then it rained on our way to Jerusalem, so we couldn’t really get a good view of Israel on the drive. It took us a little less than an hour to get to Jerusalem. Once we got to the center, we had a little orientation meeting, a tour of the center and ate dinner before going to bed. It took a while to get unpacked and showered before I could go to bed. I didn’t have any problems sleeping though! I slept for most of the night and when I got up, my roommate told me we could see the Dome of the Rock from our room. That was when I started to really get excited that I was really here!

We had a brief orientation meeting before we left for a walking tour of the city. We walked to the old city, through Damascus gate, around the shops, back out through the Jaffa gate, and through a little bit of West Jerusalem. Then they had vans to drive us back to the Center. Total, it was only about a 3 ½ mile walk, which just shows how close together it all is! We had to cross over the Kidron Valley to get to the old city, the Mount of Olives is next door, and all of these awesome, historical, significant places are within walking distance! It’s pretty crazy. When we got back from our walk, we had lunch and now I’m writing during our little break.

My roommates and I will probably get along just fine. Actually, the roommate I was worried about might be the less drama-filled of the two. It just goes to show that you never really know who you can live with. Everyone is very friendly and seems to be in small-chat mode. I’ve had the same conversation with essentially everyone here, yet it is always interesting. Everyone is very different and are here for different reasons but they are here. So we all have something in common. I’m already looking forward to the rest of the summer.