new apartments, old friends

I did end up meeting my mother for lunch. Following her Ulpan, my friend Molly and I took a bus down to the central bus station and then walked to a small shopping mall right next to it. There we met up witih my mother and Devo (shortendd hebrew version of the english Deborah). It was avery nice lunch, and I thoink we all enjoted it. Of course, thats wthout me mentioning the fact that because of traffic jams (P'kakaim) the bus ride, which ususally takes about 20 minutes, took about an hour. Ouch. Yeah, it was a bit painful.
Sunday evening there was an activity with my Madrichim (counselor/ra thing). It was fun, it was definitely a twist on some of the icebreakers and team-builders I've seen. Also during the activity I was speaking with Heather, one of Tobeys (a friend who came with me from the states) apartmentmates and this blog came up, so I promised her a shout out! I went to bed early that ngiht, all just to make sure that I'd be completely fresh and well rested for my Ulpan (hebrew language course). Well, Monday rolled around and I just bumped around for the first part of it, after all there isn't that much to do on a college campus when your not in class and don't know the area well...yet. My first day of class was actually fun and I felt really confident that I was in the right level (section 2 of intermediate). The past few days of Ulpan, however, ahve made me reconsider, but I'll get to that. Monday evening there was an opening night of a Toah study program where if you come on Monday nights and study a jewish topic with a partner for a bit then you get dinner. I went with a bunch of friends and had a really wonderful time. I found an awesome view of Jerusalem, won a bottle of wine in a raffle and spoke with some really cool people. I left being unsure if I would sign up for the program or not, I don't want to have too many commitments during my "semester off". Whatever. Tuesdays Ulpan was okay but at times I did get a bit lost and on Wednesday during break I met with the teacher to get an extra bit of help, something she said shed be willing to do whenever I needed. It was also on Tuesday that I signed up for the gym (sooo expensive, but I need it) and on Tuesday night I went to a really cool concert. It was right here, on campus, and was free, atleast for international students. What was really cool was the factthat it wasn't simply some no name band, it actually a very well known and repsected Israeli musician. Also at the concert was this blonde girl with dreadlocks that make Bob Marley look silly. It was cool because she had been working at the cafe that I went to last Thursday night. Wednesday I really wasn't feeling well and decided that I would need to go to the doctor. That was also the day that completely bombed a quiz. Not my greatest moment. The fact that I'm struggeling with Ulpan really bothers me becuase of how I usually do in classes, but its so tough when Im missing key background information. After Ulpan and my bombed quiz I went to see if Elain, Hillel at HU's liason to international students and a really cool gal, could help me figure out the whole doctor thing. We figured it out together and then I helped her develop a program, which was later nixed. That evening I worked on some hebrew and hung out with some israelis.
Thursday, yesterday, was a bit hectic. I had Ulpan at 8.15, a doctors appointment at 11.30, an activity fair from 12-3, my friend Yael was coming to visit, I had to move, I wanted to go the gym and that evening I was supposed to hang out with Molly and a friend of hers from the military. It all went well. To sum it up, the Israeli medicine system is strange, the fair was cool, I love how BU jews basically create our own fmaily that spans class years and continents, the gym will take adjusting too and sometimes the best times are getting lost in cars and not finding a place to sit.
oh, and I love my new place!
More to come, I miss you all! *shout out to BU, WNEC, ADK, and UofS people that i miss terribly*