The Beginning (aka Orientation)

  Hi! I'm here! In Jerusalem, in Israel, in my beautiful seminary! It's been an extremely long 30 hours. The flight was pretty smooth, and I even slept in and out for about 6 hours out of the 10 hours it took to get here.

  We landed at about 5 pm Israel time, and since then, we went through ridiculous baggage claim, then drove to Yerushalayim, to the Rova (the Jewish quarter). Then we had some dinner, got our room keys, and after relaxing for an hour or so, went to the Kotel to pray. The walk to the Kotel is a mere 5 minutes long, and as soon as I saw the Wall lit up (about 3 minutes after I started walking), I knew that this year would be something special. Honestly, it may take a little bit for me to get used to the learning schedule, but that was to be expected. This week is orientation, and we're going to spend Shabbat together at the Midrasha (the seminary), and then begin learning on Sunday. I'm very excited to be able to choose between different types of classes, instead of being handed what I have to learn.

  My roommates are all very nice, it was exciting to finally meet them after talking on facebook this past month. We're going to get along fine (at the very least), we'll just have to work out where to keep all of our stuff first. There are a lot of girls in the program. There are about 75 North American girls, 10 Southern Hemisphere girls, and 20 Europeans. There is also an Israeli part of the seminary, but for the most part, they're a completely different group.

  Our building is made out of cobblestone and marble, one of my favorite things about the Old City. It's gorgeous! I can't wait to walk through the city and explore.

Well, I'm going to go unpack and figure out where I'm going to fit everything. Everything's so new right now, I'm sure I'll be writing again soon!

Ellie