My Official First Day in IL

First off -guess where I am sitting (and don't say "in Jerusalem")...give up....ON THE ROOF OF MY APARTMENT! As I am starting to realize, in order to make it in this country, one must be willing to get creative. haha. I don't have internet set up at the apartment yet, and it was too late to get lost looking for an internet cafe - so, here I am sitting on the roof, happily mooching wifi off of some poor, unsuspecting Israeli. :-D Hooray!

Okay, so yesterday was my first full day. Much to my surprise, I woke up and still found myself in Jerusalem. So, I guess the only option is to start figuring things out. This translates to hours of walking! I dropped my things off at the apt, took a quick shower (water is *expensive*), and laid out three missions for myself:
1. Find the 'Menachem Begin Center' where my program is based out of
2. Get an Israeli bank account
3. Get an Israeli cell-phone (so that my parents can pester me as much as they want-haha)

Mission 'ehad' (1) was a 'great success'! The center is about a 20ish minute walk (I was only taking the main roads) and is very easy to get to. Once there, I made friends with both of the Russian security guards and met the entire IGF team (director, organizer, ect). Great people, ready and willing to help. I was given a folder with a packet of info about cell phones, banks, ect ect, a map, a monthly bus pass (sweet) and a card with emergency phone numbers. After shmoozing for a bit, I decided it was time to go after mission #2!

Mission 'shti'im' (2) was yet again, a great success! The IGF program worked out a deal with one of the banks here (called Leumi), so that IGF'ers get some discounts and what not. The lady who is working with all of the IGF'ers is Russian (surprise!), so that was not a problem.

By this time, it was around 2:15pm, so I made my way back to the Begin center to report on the ease of setting up an account (I was the first to do it) and send my parents a quick 'still alive' email. I didn't want to go home, so I figured I would try to make it to city center to check things out before dark....this is going to require a new paragraph.

All this time that I am walking around, I have a map and stop to ask for directions every now and then. How hard can it be to get to city center right? As I quickly learned - the Begin center is right on the border with an Arab town. I'm not saying 'terrorist heaven' - because it's more or less okay to be there during the day, but nightime is not such a good idea. Anymoo, after figuring out that I am not in the right neighborhood, i went back and tried again. This time, I managed to get myself to the Jaffo gate.

**Quick clarification for those that don't know: the Old City is surrounded by a wall which you can enter via different gates. The Jaffo gate basically opens into the Armenian/Christian quarter**

By this point (as I was noticing that there were less and less Jews around), I kind of started to feel uncomfortable. So I sat down on a bench trying to figure out where I am and if I should just head back or keep trying to be adventurous. This big white guy starts walking past me and I go to ask him where I am. Turns out he is an American cop from Missouri on a 'Security Tour' with a bunch of other cops, FBI, ect ect! I asked if he would mind if I tagged along with him, he said no problem, and so I entered the old city with my very own personal security guard. We walked through the tiny streets with all of the vendors. Within just a minute or two, we were in the Christian quarter and lo and behold - we get to Jesus Christ's crucifiction and burial site!!!!! Yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that Jerusalem is one of those places where the most amazing historical/religious sites are, quite literally, easy to stumble upon. My security guard was really into it, as he is a believing Christian, and was telling me a few things here and there (he took a tour the day before). We heard the priests chanting and it was pretty incredible to see people kneeling to kiss the holy site of JC. We walked out and Mr. Missouri wanted to keep going around (towards the Moslem quarter) but I decided that I had had enough for the day and needed to catch a taxi back to where I felt comfortable and knew my way around. After some hesitation, I flagged down a mercedes benz and prayed that I wouldn't get *completely* ripped off or kidnapped. Turns out, my driver was Russian (Uzbekestan), didn't rip me off one bit (17 NIS = $4.25), gave me his card (his name is Dimitry)! AAAAAAHHHHHH

So, after 7.5 hours of walking around, I called it a day and made it back to my flat. Took a shower, unpacked what ever things I could, got my room in order, and scrambled on to my roof where I made my great WiFi discovery!

Other tid bits:
* Ate my first felafell - yes, you should all be drooling
* Met one of my neighbors from upstairs - funny and slightly shleppy guy named Tal
* Decided that Israeli's are way too good looking (men and women)
* Weather is fantastic (not too hot and pleasant evenings)
* There is still much to be done!!! Oi!

On that note, it's about 7:45 am here for me, which means that I have to start the day and get moving! On today's agenda - go back to the Begin center, go back to the bank to get a credit card, and try to get a cellphone again. Wish me luck!