Settling in

On September 14th, 2005, I finally settled in to the dorms.

And sometime this weekend, I will be unsettling and resettling into the other dorms.

So the Federman dorms, where I was originally slotted to stay, are nice and all, in fact, they're nicer than most of the dorms at Queen's, mainly because they at least include a kitchenette. But they are double rooms, and the washrooms are claustrophobic especially if you have to share one toilet and one shower among 6 people. And the thousands of tiny red ants marching six by six from the cereal box to the air vent are totally disgusting (Until you spray the hell out of them with "instant bug-death" spray. Which I did.). So I asked Nogah, the counselor, if it was possible to move to the even-more-upscale-single-room-your-very-own-shower-and-more-spacious-common-area Talia dorms, and that if it was not, then I was okay with it. She told me no promises, but she'd look into it. And six hours later, I am officially a resident of the Talia building! Yay!

Except I haven't moved in yet because the housing office wasn't open and so they couldn't get me a key. Which I hope they do soon, because there's a creepy water stain emanating from a mystery spot on the other side of my bedroom, and the creepy water stain is inching ever closer to my bedding, and I would like to move in before it actually gets anything creepy-water-wet.

But other than that, I think everything is going rather smoothly. I've made new friends, seen a lot more of Haifa than I should have (more on that later), and gone shopping for most of my necessities. In fact, I even bought a desk lamp, but when I opened it up, there was no lightbulb. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Which explains why it was so cheap. All I need is a pot and a spatula. Also some food. A lot of food. But I'll save that for when I actually have a permanent address. Actually, same thing goes for internet; I'll only be online sporadically, until I get the internet set up in my room, which I can't do until I discover where my new room actually is.

Today at 9 in the morning, there was a quick campus tour followed by a walking tour of Haifa. Both were great. The Haifa tour was casual, as in at any given point, we were allowed to leave and go back to the university. So I saw the church where the Carmelite Christian sect says that Elijah used to live, then a nice walk/hike down a hill, and then I saw the cave where everyone else (Jews, Christians, Muslims, etc) said he used to live, bought some pita druzit (laffa bread, labaneh yogourt/cheese, za'atar and olive oil), saw the Baha'i gardens, and bought a map of Haifa. After the Baha'i gardens, Eliad, the other counselor as well as the impromptu tour guide with hysterically inconsequential anecdotes, told us that those of us who could leave just had to cross to the other side of the street, walk yashar yashar yashar (straight straight straight), and we'd get to a bus stop where we could catch the 37 sherut back to campus.

Except when you go yashar yashar yashar on the other side of the street, you definitely do not pass any bus stops going toward the university. Mainly because you are on the wrong side of the street. You do pass arab restaurants and fat bible-belt tourists, but you had better believe that you aren't getting a bus/taxi/sherut up the mountain any time soon.

Hint: if you go to school on the top of the mountain, and are trying really really hard to get to the top of the mountain, and are heading toward the beach which is conveniently located at the bottom of the mountain, you're going the wrong way.

So Hannah, Sonia (Sonja?) and I walked around a bit until we finally found a bus stop with a 37….except we got on the 24, which a)arrived first and b)was also going towards the university…After stopping at every freaking bus stop on the entire freaking mountain. Instead of taking a direct route up (approximate ETA: 20 min), it zig zagged all the way around Haifa. And I do mean all the way around. Like, scenic route to the extreme. So we left the group at 12:30, got lost at around 1, got on a sherut at 1:15, and got back to campus at….2:30. Wow. What an adventure.

I am at Safta's now, waiting for Yaeli and Na'ava to arrive, having already spoken to Michal last night on the phone.
Shabbat shalom all,
J

PS: Eliad, we love you and your crazy Cochin-Jew stories, but you suck, hardcore, at giving directions.