Finally here!

I'm resting comfortably in my new bed after 24 hours of travel, more or less. Even though I'm seven hours ahead of where I was yesterday, it actually feels like the real time (10:20pm) because of how little sleep I got on the plane. The flight was generally fine - tons of movie options and a considerable Bollywood section (I watched Fashion, for those of you [Julia] that were in Indian Art Film last semester). My legs are still pretty swollen and tingly from the flight, but hopefully that should go away soon.

For as much worrying as I did about getting from Ben Gurion airport to my apartment, the whole thing went off without a hitch. I found my bags, almost knocked a couple of people over as I pulled them out from under other bags, got some shekels after figuring out how to put the ATM in English and not Russian, and found the sherut. The first obvious sign that I wasn't in America anymore was when a Hasidic man got onboard the sherut and looked distressed because the only available seat was between me and another woman - not kosher. The driver, recognizing the problem, got the one very obvious secular American dude to give his seat to the Hasidic man, and all was well. The American man was amused and pretty clueless - he asked the woman on his other side what was wrong, and she gave him a brief answer, and he said "Well, I like ladies!" in a loud, goofy voice.

The drive took about 45 minutes, and while I did trust the driver to get me there safely, I was also hanging onto my seat for most of the trip. He made use of his horn often, both to ward off the other crazy Israeli bus drivers and to announce that he was about to cut someone off. Nevertheless, I arrived at Bruria 7 with all of my luggage and all of my body parts. Two of the girls that have been living here all year were still around, so they introduced me to the place and showed me around the corner to the makolet (market). Tonight's dinner was cereal and yogurt, but hopefully meals will get more exciting as the summer goes on.

I'm reading The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, and it's wonderful so far - I highly recommend it if you're into books with fascinating, compelling characters, science fiction that's not overly technical, and religion. Orientation at Pardes starts tomorrow at 9am, so laila tov (good night)!