Summer in Jerusalem 2018

Woke up today feeling fairly sick (hmm...possibly a result of less than four hours of sleep??), but I had to make it to my free tour of the Old City scheduled for the morning! Because today was Shabbat, all the public transport is shut down, so I had to walk over and the tour itself, unfortunately, wasn't that great -- not sure if it was the illness, the heat, the fairly boring tour guide, or the fact that I had seen most of this yesterday -- but I left early to go explore on my own. I did, however, meet Lona, a wonderful woman from Peru (now living in Spain), so I got to practice some Spanish and hear about all the things I should do while I'm abroad there in the Spring! Now on my own, I walked around for a little bit, before buying some bread-type thing from a street vendor that I had been seeing all around the Muslim Quarter. I went to the near-by park to eat this and my free peach from yesterday, before heading back to the Old City for the Ramparts Walk. This takes you ar...

First day off! I started nice and early (6am...yes, after I went to bed after 2) with a call to my college friends Yael and Kayli (late the night before for their time zone). It was lovely to catch up with them and hear their voices (although I think all of us were falling asleep for our own reasons!). I actually really wanted an early start because, in Jerusalem, the entire town goes sort of dark during Shabbat (sundown Friday to sundown Saturday), so I wanted to get as much in as possible before than. I had been advised not to go to the Muslim Quarter of the Old City any time after noon because this is the big prayer time, which can sometimes result in protests/riots (so strange how causually everyone mentions that here!), so I headed there first to be done before any of that began. I lost a little bit of my early start however, because the moment I was on the bus I checked my Google Maps app to see where I needed to get off, only to find a single blue dot (my location) floating ...

Wonderful day, but as it's almost 2am Jerusalem time, I will keep it very short! (Hopefully -- I always think that and then end up writing an essay -- even just writing this sentence proves that point!) I went to one of my professor's classes today, as they were learning about protein docking in Rosetta, something I am working on this summer. The class was for graduate students, all of whom are most likely miles smarter than I am, but I spent the last week studying all of this from all day for a full week, and the past three months before reading papers on the topic, so it was pretty fun to sit there nodding along as she spoke. Afterwards, she was going to drive me back to the lab, but had to pick up her youngest son (around 10) first. I think she felt bad bringing me out there, but I loved it; her kid and his friends were all adorable, and they all stood around nervously trying out all their (limited) English phrases on me, before bursting out laughing. They had all been i...

Had a wonderful lunch with the other people in my lab today. I felt bad making the speak in English, but they all seemed willing to. I think I said yesterday that it seemed smart to save all of my more intrusive questions for the woman from Philidelphia, but she wasn’t there, so I got to talk to these three women about their experiences with the military, the different religious sects, and education in Jersualem. At the end of work, I talked to my professor for awhile, first about my project, and then she gave me a ton of advice for things to do in Jerusalem! I am really, really happy that she is my mentor -- so helpful and kind, and seems to have a real interest in making sure that I feel comfortable and happy here, and get to experience all Jerusalem has to offer. She mentioned a book fair (ending tomorrow) near the old city, so I of course headed over the minute I left work. It was located at a place called the First Station, the location of the old train station that got taken do...

Today was surprisingly good -- I think just having a general idea of where everything was and how I was supposed to go about it made it a lot easier. Got a cheese danish while I waited for the bus (I keep getting up and thinking that it’s hard to adjust to all this newness, I should get myself a treat for breakfast -- hopefully this mindset fades soon!). Everyone who has heard that I’m living at Mount Scopus but working in Ein Kerem (exact opposites from each other in the city) has told me that the commute is bad enough that I should really look into finding a different place to live. It may just be early infatuation with new experiences (it probably is), but I’ve found the bus rides to be one of my favorite parts of the day! Today I listened to a few Revisionist History and Fresh Air podcasts, and it got even better! I’ve never really been that into podcasts before, but realized that listening to them on the bus combines my favorite part of driving (listening to NPR) with my favorite ...

Another view outside my dorm! The Dome of the Rock is in the far left First full day in Israel! Started out meeting with the women in charge of housing/logistical arrangements for international students. She was lovely (actually from Philadelphia!) and helped me to get a student card and some more information about generally good things to know -- buses, student offices, general knowledge about Jerusalem. I had to catch a certain bus so we didn’t have time for her to finish up all of what she called the “safety information”; given the title, I think I would have like to wait and catch the next bus, but she seemed to think most of it was very self-explanatory (such as her one example: “If you see a riot forming, don’t move towards it ”). Got to the Ein Kerem campus (where my lab is located) pretty easily, and with a beautiful bus ride through the mountains, but finding the lab was a little harder. I asked the guy at the front desk and, with limited English, he said to go outs...

Welcome to my blog! This is mostly for me to keep track of everything I do this summer (as I have quite a bad memory), as well as for my mother to know that I'm still alive, so please excuse any typos or parts that don't make much sense. Feel free to leave comments or let me know of anything I should check out! I also haven't figured out how to put in pictures yet, so ignore references to images (: After a week of very intensive, but overall very fun, coding bootcamp in Chapel Hill, NC, it was time to travel to Jerusalem! Somehow, over the course of this trip, it seems as though every single bad travel experience that could happen did (I’m honestly trying to come up with one that I missed, and I’m drawing a blank). For starters, my first flight was delayed three hours, meaning that I had to sprint through the airport to just barely make it onto my next one. When I started running I was happy that I’ve been running so much recently, as I thought it would make this mu...