Day 2 -- 06/11/18

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 outside and look for a big round building. This seemed wrong, but I did, and it really is a very rounded, wonderfully-designed building! I’m working in a section attached to the dome part, but still very beautiful with a wonderful view of the surrounding mountains. (Interesting fact -- when the state of Israel was forming, they thought they would shift the heart of Jerusalem to Ein Kerem, so built a huge hospital there. That didn’t end up happening at all, so now Jerusalem’s major hospital is actually quite far from the city itself -- and gives me quite the commute!).


I got to meet my Professor, Dr. Furman, as well as two of the Master’s students who work in her lab -- Adi and Alisa. All of them were very welcoming. I should probably have seen this coming, but was a little disappointed to find that they all default speak in Hebrew, which makes it difficult for me to listen in on their conversations. They of course speak in English to me, but I would have enjoyed getting a better sense of their research, as well as their personalities/casual conversations. The two Master’s students only have limited English -- I’m working most directly with Alisa, and everytime I asked a question she laughed a little in a way that made me think I was asking a very stupid question! But by the end of the day I realized she was more nervous laughing in anticipation of trying to explain complex computer science/biology complex in a foreign language, which is something I can completely understand! Or, at least, I hope this is the correct interpretation! For the most part, I spent the day reading through various documentations, getting set up with their computers, and fooling around with the software. I’m excited to actually get into this project -- even though it is still not exactly my subject area, I feel like it’s a good level of difficulty and will teach me tons of new CS skills, which is far more relevant to my future work than learning a ton more molecular biology/organic chemistry.


After work, I had a couple of errands to run (so weird to have errands in a foreign city -- and far more complicated!). I went to buy a discounted student bus pass for the summer and was successful after lots of Google Translate and broken English -- and I think I accidentally skipped over a line to get into the office (but have no idea because all the signs are in Hebrew!). She took my picture at some point during this process, and I was so disoriented my picture looks very confused (I told Aida about this the next day, and she laughed and said almost everyone in Jerusalem has a bus pass with a picture like this!) I also picked up some basic clothes since my luggage still hasn’t arrived -- I thought I had been charged a ridiculous amount for them, but it turns out my ability to divide by three (the conversion between dollar and Israeli shekel) is not as good as it perhaps should be.

The (actual) market

Once I had all of these things, I realized that I was just a short walk away from the Mahane Yehuda Market, Jerusalem's open air street market. Walking around, I wasn’t that impressed with it -- seemed like mostly small shops and restaurants tucked into their own areas, similar to most of the other streets I’d seen -- until I realized I wasn’t actually in it! Once I found the actually market, it was much more impressive; tons of smells and food and people and different languages. Then, I turned the street again, and realized that I still wasn’t actually in it! I had only been in a smaller offshoot. But both were amazing; I was so overwhelmed by all the options, and had no clue what the word for any of it was, so I didn’t buy anything.


I think the real thing to do at a market like this is to sit outside and buy some of the food from the market and watch everyone go by, but I was so hungry after not really eating much besides a chocolate croissant for breakfast and worried about finding something vegetarian in such a crowded market. Instead, I sat at a very lovely little restaurant down the street -- delicious vegetarian burger, and still a good place to people watch (and read a little)! Walking back through the market after dark had fallen was even more wonderful -- they have small twinkly lights hanging over the whole street, that makes it feel like you are looking up and seeing all the stars! Unfortunately my phone camera completely fails to capture that, but it was definitely one of the best moments of my day.

The market at night 

Afterwards, I shocked myself by correctly identifying the bus I would have to take the get back to the dorm. I was so exhausted (I couldn’t figure out why, until I remembered that jet lag is a very well-known thing!), but managed to pick up some sandwich makings from the little market in my dorm for the upcoming week, and say hi to my mom and sister!