Hello family and friends!
This will be quick, but I just wanted to let y'all know that we have arrived safely at Jerusalem University College! I met two friends in Amsterdam without much difficulty (they wandered around the airport for a while, but I was just waiting blissfully), got to walk around the city a bit, and flew into Tel Aviv at 2:30 in the morning. We were very glad that all our luggage came through--there are probably ten students or so whose bags got "lost"--mostly those who went through Heathrow. Sarah and I know how that goes. We were planning to meet another NWC student whose flight was scheduled to land an hour after ours. The wait got a little longer when we found out that his flight from Germany had been delayed two hours (one of the engines wasn't working!). Since the campus wasn't open until 7 am, we decided it made perfect sense just to wait for him. About an hour after his flight landed, we were about to leave, figuring it took us about 30 minutes to get through immigration and get our bags, so we thought we might have missed him or something else happened. I happened to overhear some people who had just come through speaking German, so on the hunch that they were coming from Germany we decided to wait another half hour. Ten minutes later he came through the door, very glad to see us; he hadn't brought any of the info about how to get to JUC. We took a sherut (group taxi) to Jerusalem, and actually ended up with two girls who were on their way to JUC as well. We got our bags moved in, went to get some breakfast, then spent the rest of the day showering, unpacking, and sleeping. We had our first group dinner, then some of us went down to the Western Wall (you might know it as the "Wailing Wall," but they don't call it that here). We weren't allowed to go right up to the wall, but we were there--because it's the beginning of Shabbat (Sabbath) it was teeming with Jews. Very interesting experience.
I'm living with the two other girls from NWC--we weren't expecting to get all three of us together in one room, so that was a nice surprise. There are about 60 people living on campus, about 90 students total I think, but on campus there are less than 20 girls, probably closer to 10. Definitely not like Northwestern!
I will try to get some pictures up here when I can--I'm putting them on Facebook for now, because I don't know how to get them on this blog. I'll try to figure that out real soon!
Shalom!
31 August 2007
29 August 2007
On mail and other excitement
Just thought I would let y'all know my mailing address in Jerusalem:
Ruth Page
Jerusalem University College
P.O. Box 1276, Mt. Zion
91012 Jerusalem, Israel
These are JUC's mailing instructions:
Regular international post office mail is often erratic. A letter mailed to or from the US should take only 7 or 8 days for delivery, but it can be much longer than that. As an example, an Express Mail package mailed in mid-December from Tennessee to one of our students arrived here just in time for an April Christmas. While this is obviously not the norm, it happens frequently enough to not cause too much surprise. Stamps are sold on-campus, and mail is usually taken to and picked up from the post office 3 times a week. Remember: all packages received in Israel are subject to duty, although usually the duty is waived.
*** To minimize the chances of incurring duty, please instruct those mailing packages to you to list the contents of the package on the customs tag with the notation “no commercial value” and, if possible, the notation “used items.” All new packaging and price tags should be removed from the items that are included in the package. It is also helpful to keep the size of the package as small as possible. ***
Generally, you will need to pay duty on electrical, computer, video and DVD items received by mail. Know as well that any and all chocolate items or the like may have to be passed around to your classmates!
I will also be bringing an international cell phone with me--go ahead and call if you feel so led, but we were having trouble receiving calls on this phone in Europe. We'll see how that goes. From the US, you would dial +011 44 7924 009 958.
I still have tons to do--ciao!
Ruth Page
Jerusalem University College
P.O. Box 1276, Mt. Zion
91012 Jerusalem, Israel
These are JUC's mailing instructions:
Regular international post office mail is often erratic. A letter mailed to or from the US should take only 7 or 8 days for delivery, but it can be much longer than that. As an example, an Express Mail package mailed in mid-December from Tennessee to one of our students arrived here just in time for an April Christmas. While this is obviously not the norm, it happens frequently enough to not cause too much surprise. Stamps are sold on-campus, and mail is usually taken to and picked up from the post office 3 times a week. Remember: all packages received in Israel are subject to duty, although usually the duty is waived.
*** To minimize the chances of incurring duty, please instruct those mailing packages to you to list the contents of the package on the customs tag with the notation “no commercial value” and, if possible, the notation “used items.” All new packaging and price tags should be removed from the items that are included in the package. It is also helpful to keep the size of the package as small as possible. ***
Generally, you will need to pay duty on electrical, computer, video and DVD items received by mail. Know as well that any and all chocolate items or the like may have to be passed around to your classmates!
I will also be bringing an international cell phone with me--go ahead and call if you feel so led, but we were having trouble receiving calls on this phone in Europe. We'll see how that goes. From the US, you would dial +011 44 7924 009 958.
I still have tons to do--ciao!
26 August 2007
On a new adventure
Hello again, all!
I leave Wednesday for the next phase of my year of travel, a semester at Jerusalem University College (JUC). Right now I'm trying not to think about how much I have left to do-but it will all get done, I know. Here's what my travel schedule looks like:
1900 Wednesday 29 August: Fly out of Minneapolis
1015 Thursday 30 August: Arrive in Amsterdam (!) --Meet up with Janell and Ian, two friends from NWC who are also studying at JUC, and explore the city for a few hours!
2100 Thursday 30 August: Fly out of Amsterdam
221 Friday 31 August: Arrive in Tel Aviv, sherut (taxi) to Jerusalem
It will be a long journey, I'm sure, and I'm really glad I'm not arriving at 230 in the morning by myself! We're hoping that by the time we get through customs, find a sherut, and take the hour-long ride to Jerusalem, it won't be such an ungodly hour of the morning. I'll post again once I arrive; for now I have so much packing and cleaning and homework (yes, we have homework already!) that I try not to think about it, otherwise I start to implode. So I'm off to keep going on it all! Cheers!
I leave Wednesday for the next phase of my year of travel, a semester at Jerusalem University College (JUC). Right now I'm trying not to think about how much I have left to do-but it will all get done, I know. Here's what my travel schedule looks like:
1900 Wednesday 29 August: Fly out of Minneapolis
1015 Thursday 30 August: Arrive in Amsterdam (!) --Meet up with Janell and Ian, two friends from NWC who are also studying at JUC, and explore the city for a few hours!
2100 Thursday 30 August: Fly out of Amsterdam
221 Friday 31 August: Arrive in Tel Aviv, sherut (taxi) to Jerusalem
It will be a long journey, I'm sure, and I'm really glad I'm not arriving at 230 in the morning by myself! We're hoping that by the time we get through customs, find a sherut, and take the hour-long ride to Jerusalem, it won't be such an ungodly hour of the morning. I'll post again once I arrive; for now I have so much packing and cleaning and homework (yes, we have homework already!) that I try not to think about it, otherwise I start to implode. So I'm off to keep going on it all! Cheers!
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