Everything is so....white...

That was my first thought driving into the city of Jerusalem from the airport in Tel Aviv. All the buildings are made of the same stone. Ever since Skye found out he was awarded the grant to come to Jerusalem, my emotions about coming were (are) in disarray. On one hand, I would get to see the Holy Lands! See in person what I've been reading and learning about my whole life! On the other hand...this is the middle east, folks, and I'm not that huge a fan of hummus (I know, crime against humanity)! Needless to say I wasn't feeling much besides anxiety and stress on the drive in. Being a tourist in the Holy Lands was the last thing on my mind. We needed to find an apartment so we wouldn't be homeless, and that's where my focus was.

We took a small van-ish/bus-ish-thingie shuttle from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem with about 6 or so other people who all pay a portion. It was actually pretty reasonable, around 15$ per person (hour drive) and they took us right to the hotel. This seemed so simple! Finding hotels in Europe is always so complicated because you have to get off the train at the main station and wander until you find it. So I was very thankful for the shuttle! Don't get me wrong, I miss me some Deutsche Bahn, but taking stress out of things is always a plus!

We arrived on the second day of Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year) so EVERYTHING was shut down. Thankfully there is a restaurant/cafe/movie theater next door to the hotel that must be run by Arabs because it was still open, so we stopped in there for dinner. We were boring and had pizza.

The hotel has an included breakfast buffet every morning. It is....interesting. The coffee, milk and juice....absolutely amazing! They have a variety of cheeses, those were all good, and a bread bin with fresh white and whole grain breads with a toaster. But then there were some bowls full of weird saucy stuff. One was mashed up chickpeas (not hummus-ish at all), one was beets, and the other was red, chunky and oily. I have no idea what it is still. It doesn't look so breakfasty though! haha. Then they have apples, hard boiled eggs, and usually some homemade egg dish. My jetlag also affects my hunger schedule, and being that breakfast time is the middle of the night in the states, I haven't been too hungry in the mornings. So without an appetite at all, I haven't ventured into the saucy items. I stick with the eggs, cheese and bread. They did have cantaloupe one of the days, it tasted so good I thought Jesus himself must have delivered it from heaven. I haven't had a chance to eat a ton of fruit here yet, but I think it will all be fantastic!

In an effort to keep my blogs to a short read, I'll tell you about the apartments in a separate email. One fantastic thing about being here is that we have connections with a ton of people, so it's basically like having built in friends! We met another couple from UW, also on the Mosse grant, Veronica and Dan, and had dinner with them one night. They're super nice, it will be great having them around.

There is really so much to talk about considering the little time I have been here, it may be rough trying to keep these things at a reasonable length! There are many main neighborhoods in Jerusalem, we hope to live in Nachlaot, but our hotel is in the German Colony (aka, where all the wealthy people live). The restaurants and night life are very lively though (when it's not a Jewish holiday or the Sabbath (Friday night/Saturday))

Here are some shots from our first evening after arrival!

Skye and I have an inside joke, in my reluctance to move here I would always say there is only dirt in Israel (even though I know that isn't true, it's quite beautiful here) But this is what we first saw when we landed! DIRT! haha

Lloyd George street, where our hotel is

YAYYYY for palm trees! I've never gotten to live in a place with palm trees!

pretty...edge of German Colony

There is a cool walking/running path near our hotel that used to be a train track, it's all covered with boards and landscaped. It was full of people and so pretty! 

These are just some of the first things we saw. Don't worry I'll take plenty of pictures that are more "Jerusalem-y"!