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Published: August 5th 2015
Hello all,
The last few days have been a whirlwind of events. When my dad and I flew into JFK, we decided to take a tour bus to see Times Square. I've never seen so much traffic in my life! By the time we got to Times Square, it was already 330pm and we had to leave by 530. I was so excited to see all of the buildings and electric lights. It was very beautiful and we couldn't wait to explore. There was only one problem. It had been raining on and off all day, and about five minutes after we stepped off the bus, it started to pour. Neither of us had an umbrella. So we had to run to the nearest pharmacy to buy some. However, the umbrellas didn't seem to make much of a difference. We were drenched from our dripping hair to our soaked tennis shoes. It was miserable, but it was still an awesome experience. We got back to airport around 830 so that we had time to buy new clothes, but we vastly underestimated the size of the line we would have to stand in. It was jaw dropping. About 2 hours later, we finally got past security and barely had time to get out of wet clothes before our plane left. It was exhausting to say the least.
The plane ride wasn't so bad, though. I sat next to two kids my age who were going to visit their family in Tel Aviv. They told me about Israel and gave me some insights into the culture there.
Once we landed, we had to take a taxi to Haifa, which is about 2 hours away from Tel Aviv. The hotel we booked turned out to be very nice, and the concierge was really helpful. It was an older, artsy hotel right in the center of town just below the Bahai Gardens. My dad and I had fun walking down the street and seeing all of the restaurants and night life. It was a very vibrant atmosphere. They had a lot of stores and places to buy things. However, I seemed to run into countless problems when it came to buying the things I needed like the correct converter, hangers, etc. Eventually I got most of it, but I'm still missing quite a few important things.
It was really hard for me to say goodbye to my dad. It's scary to be by yourself in a completely foreign country especially when you still haven't sorted out where to get the stuff you need, where your classes are, or what class you're even in. I had my orientation that day, and it all seemed like a huge mess. In Israel, there is a different attitude towards how quickly things get done. It's much slower and easy going here. Which meant that we all had to stand in line for forever to get all of our orientation stations completed. So, I missed all of the tours and information sessions. Then, nobody where my placement exam had gone so they didn't know what level to place me in. Therefore, when I showed up to class for our first day on Tuesday, I was in a much higher level than I should've been in. The teacher was speaking extremely fast and everyone else expect for me seemed to understand what was going on. So, after class today, I had to talk to her about switching levels because even though I know a lot, I am definitely not fluent. So I got assigned a new class today, and I hope it will be a better fit.
We got to go on a tour of Haifa yesterday, and next week we get to see Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel is a very beautiful place and it's exciting to see the sights here. The only thing I don't like is humidity. It is pretty much the worst weather ever. I thought 115F in Phoenix was hot, but this definitely wins the prize. Not only is it like 90F here, but after you add the humidity to it, it's almost unbearable. All of the windows have water drops running down them because of how humid it is. I can't go anywhere without sweating buckets. I saw in the news that an 18 year old guy actually died from the heat this week. It's really bad.
But other than that I'm having a good time. I've made a lot of friends and everyone is really nice. I hope to see you all soon and I'll try to post some pictures here as well!
להיראות
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michelle Secker
non-member comment
Proud of You
We are so proud of you Katie and are grateful for the many learning opportunities that God has provided you through this trip to Israel!! Your family loves you, prays for you, and misses you! We can't wait to hear about your adventures!!