So it's 2:45 on my first day in Haifa. First of all, the weather is absolutely, without exaggeration or embellishment, perfect. It's warm but not hot and breezy and cool at night and it's just beautiful. Especially compared with that 3 feet of snow I left behind in Washington!
The flights were long and tiring, but nothing out of the ordinary and certainly easier than the 14 straight hours to China. The first flight was to Heathrow, and I occupied myself by watching An Eduction on my computer and Bridget Jones's Diary on the plane (it was British Air...). And I was lucky because a woman sitting near me asked if I was going to Haifa and she and another boy near us all happened to be doing the same program, so we kind of stuck together at the airport. And I got to see Lisa! I found her as she was in line to board her plane to Frankfurt, and it was such a relief to talk to her and see a familiar face. The second flight, into Tel Aviv, was a little rocky and the plane was older and kind of shitty, but by that point I was so disoriented it didn't really bother me. The other two people doing the Haifa program and I got our bags together and got surprisingly easily through customs (at least I did, with my student visa). Then the three of us walked right outside of the airport and a sharoute driver gathered us up and we got on the van with a bunch of other kids going to Haifa. It was dark by the time we got up the mountain, so unfortunately we didn't get to see much of the view. The University of Haifa is on top of Mount Carmel, and the view out of my window is absolutely incredible (pictures soon).
After getting settled in my room and stuff I went on a mission to find a computer lab. I asked a guy standing outside his dorm if he spoke English (turns out he's from Texas) and he was really nice and let me use his computer in his dorm room and then invited me to go out for a drink with his friends, so I met a few more kids who were all here doing the Ulpan for the past month. They're all learning Hebrew and most of them are learning Arabic, too, which was really cool. I was kind of tired but I figured I should trick my body into thinking it was on a normal schedule and it was kind of early, so I did go with them into town (I forget what it's called but it's a little ways down the mountain) and we had a few drinks before taking the bus back up, and then I went to sleep.
I had to get up kind of early today because Shabbat starts in a few hours and I knew I needed to get some stuff done before everything closed. I was lucky again when an American girl asked me for help getting somewhere and she and I met up with one of the RA people who took us to a bunch of other international students and we went back to the same place I was last night to get groceries, change money, etc., before everything shuts down (at around 3 p.m. until tomorrow night for Shabbat). I thought I needed to get a new adapter for my plugs (turns out I was wrong) but I was proud of myself for getting to a little electronics store and buying the right thing before I got home and realized that my old one actually works too. Oh well. And I bought some postcards in this huge mall while everyone was buying groceries, and then we went to get falafel (duh) which was pretty much the greatest thing I have ever tasted, and had to catch the bus back before they stop running.
Everyone here is really friendly and accommodating (not just the Israelis, but the other international students). I met my suitemates but I don't think they speak English (fortunately we all speak the international language of smiles...). A lot of the kids here aren't religious or aren't Jewish at all, which I think is really cool. There are tons of kids who are Middle Eastern studies majors and I've met a bunch of German students studying here for the semester.
Right now I'm outside the student center, which is already locked because of Shabbat. I don't have wifi in my room, but I live literally one second from the student center, so I'm not as worried about it as I was. Tomorrow I won't be able to do too much because of Shabbat but I think the international students might be going on a hike around Mount Carmel. I really want to go to the beach just to see the Mediterranean, but it'll have to wait until the busses start running again tomorrow night.
Culture-shock wise, nothing really stands out yet. There are guards who check your bags at the entrance to most big stores, and an Israeli soldier (a woman) was with us on the bus with a huge gun, but other than that it's decently familiar, at least for now.
