Study Abroad: What to Pack

I didn't get this post up in time to help the first Summer session students but hopefully this will help the next group of incoming students. Rothberg International School does list items it recommends you bring on its website here. Much of this post is just going to be my commentary on their list with a few additional items I think should be added. First thing to mention dress is very casual here. Even for the graduate students you can wear jeans and t-shirt to class. That was a suprise to me when I was getting ready to come to Israel. I know if I was attending grad school in the states I would likely have to dress up.

Clothing:

• Shoes- I brought a pair of hiking shoes, a pair of winter boots,two pairs of sandals, and a pair of slippers.
• Coats- I brought my winter coat,a rain jacket and several cardigans. Even if you are just coming for the summer bring a cardigan or two. It can get rather chilly at night. Sometimes you need a cardigan to study in the library if the air conditioning is on.
• Umbrella- If you are just studying for the summer you likely won't need this. Winter is the rainy season here.
• You need sunglasses and a hat. These are must haves for Israel during the summer.

Books: Note that this is for students in the MA program The Bible and the Ancient Near East

• Brown Driver Briggs(BDB) Dictionary-Even if you have it on your computer you still need a physical copy. Some professors will let you use the dictionary on a test but they won't let you use the computer version.
• Gesenius Hebrew Grammar- Several of the professors use this in their course. It's also just a good reference to have. This one can be on your computer. I've never had a professor let me use this on a test.
• Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia(BHS)- This is the main Hebrew text the professors use here. You need a physical copy of this book as you will be allow to use an unmarked copy on some tests. 
• Modern Hebrew/English Dictionary- This helps with the Modern Hebrew requirement. There are some decent dictionaries available on your ipod as well.
• English pocket Bible-You need a clean unmarked English Bible. You are allowed to use an English Bible on the archaeology exams. You can substitute a pocket Jewish Publication Society copy but you will still need to bring the BHS. In one of my archaeology classes I actually needed to quote from the New Testament so you might want to consider having a copy of that as well.
• An Israel travel guide is also helpful. I have one titled Let's Go Israel which has been helpful so far. 

School Supplies: You can buy most of your school supplies here.

• If you want a day planner in English bring one. The only ones they sell here are in Hebrew.
• They do not sell regular folders here. If you want regular folders bring them with you.
• Binders here only have two rings instead of three. Just in case that would bother you. :)

Bedding and Towels: You can buy this stuff here

• Wash cloths can be hard to find so you might want to bring one
• I brought a sleeping bag to use as my comforter. It packs small and doesn't weigh much.

Electric converters/adapters: The current here is 220 volts, 50 cycles. I bought my converter and adapters at home. You can buy two prong adapters fairly easily here. However the three prong adapters that you need for most computers are hard to find here.

Computers: If you need a new computer buy it before you get to Israel. If you buy it here you will have to pay tax on it. If you have a new computer shipped here you will have to pay tax on it. I definately recommend bringing a computer with you. There is free wireless internet in the Boyar building. You might want to look into how you could get your computer repaired if something goes wrong with it in Israel. Bring your warranty information with you. I had a problem with my computer last summer and it took quite a while to figure out who I needed to call and what could be done for my computer. My computer model isn't sold here in Israel so the part had to be ordered from Europe which took a long time. If you have a Mac there is only one Apple store in Israel and it is in the mall in Tel Aviv. If you need repairs on your Mac I think they have to send it to Europe. You might want to give your computer a checkup to make sure its okay before you come to Israel.

Medicine:If you take prescription pills bring enough with you for your entire stay. Or you will need to work out a way to get your medicine while you are here. I don't think the pharmacies will honor an American prescription but I don't know for sure. You need to bring a basic supply of over the counter medicine. Over the counter medicine is not sold in the grocery store here. Over the counter meds are sold in the pharmacy.

Random Tips:

• Toiletries are expensive here. However bringing large bottles of shampoo and other products can take up a lot of weigh in your suitcase. I brought sample sizes to use until I could get to the grocery store.
• If you wear make up bring your own. Make up is very expensive here. The brands that you buy in Wal-mart at home are sold in the pharmacy here. The make up sections have representatives from the company that stand in front of the display, they are paid on commission and won't leave you alone to just look. And most of them speak English so saying you don't know Hebrew doesn't work. 
• Sunscreen here smells funny and is more oily feeling you might want to bring some from home. 
• When packing take everything out of the packaging in order to save as much weigh as possible.
• Bring a flashlight. There have been a few times where the power in the apartment went out and I needed one. Also if you plan on visiting Hezekiah's tunnel you will need one.
• Laundry bag- The laundry facities are only in building 2 which for me is across the student village from my building. I've seen some people using their suitcases for the same purpose. Don't leave your suitcase in the laundry room though, it won't be there when you come back.
• Stain stick-In the states I've never really needed one of these, here in Israel I must be a dirt magnet or something. I'm always finding stains on my clothes that I have no idea what they came from or when they happened.
• If you drink coffee you might want to bring a french press and a bag of coffee. You might also be interested to know that they don't really have coffee creamers here. Coffee is usually had after a meal and because of kosher laws if you had meat for your meal you can't have cream in the coffee afterwards.
• Bring a good backpack. I just grabbed a random backpack from my closet and threw it in my suitcase. I didn't realize the backpack I grabbed was from middle school and the inside lining had deteriorated. I had to get it replaced. I now have a sturdy backpack from L.L. Bean. It has a padded back and shoulder straps. This comes in handy on days when my backpack weighs close to thirty pounds. 

That's all I can think of for now. I hope it was helpful. If you are a new student and have questions feel free to ask them in the comments section. I may come back and edit this post if I think of anything else.

Summer is here again

It's hard to believe that I have now been living in Israel for a year now. Officially I flew to Israel on June 13th last year. In some ways the time feels like it has flown by and in other ways it feels like I haven't been here very long at all. So much has happened in this last year. I feel like I have learned a lot. Living in Israel has changed me somewhat, I feel like I've grown as a person more living here than in the States. Living in another culture has its own unique challenges.

Spring semester exams finished up last week on Thursday. Akkadian, the exam I was dreading the most was naturally the last one I had to take. It had to be the last one so I could worry about it. The picture to the left comes from my study sessions of Akkadian. After studying the various signs for hours I started playing around with them. The signs in the picture are from Lady Gaga's song Bad Romance there is no ro sound in Akkadian so I had to substitute ru. But other than that is the line from the song ra ra ah ah ah ro ma ro ma ma ga ga u la la! And then I realized that that line would insure that I never forgot those signs so I tried to come up with similar lines from songs to remember other signs. For the most part my strategy worked.
I still have one take home exam for the Assyrian sources class but I have until next week for that one. I'll probably work on that test this weekend.

The last several weeks there has been construction on the way up to campus. The city has been putting in bike paths all over Mount Scopus. From my observations the bike paths start and stop in very odd places. Entering and exiting the bike paths in some locations would be very dangerous to the biker and drivers. On the way to school the bike path construction caused them to tear up the sidewalks and eliminate a few parking spaces that were always full. Those who park their cars there now have to cross the bike path to put coins in the parking meter. Last week when I was walking to my Akkadian exam they were putting asphalt on the places where they broke up the sidewalk. Construction in Israel is mind boggling. They do not close the sidewalk you can walk by not even a foot from where a giant machine is picking up chunks of concrete. The construction workers do not wear hard hats but they do wear yellow vests. The supervisor will be the one sitting in the shade smoking a cigarette. They had put out the new asphalt with no signs indicating this. People were walking through the new asphalt and leaving shoe prints and none of the workers were bothered by this. I don't know how these people missed that the asphalt was still wet. It has a shiny quality to it, it smells awful and there is a guy in a steamroller driving towards you! I went around it which required walking out into the street and hoping a bus didn't hit me. Obviously I made it. Walking back the same way later I noticed they redid the asphalt because I can't find the shoe prints in it. They could have saved themselves some time by just putting up some signs.


The new students for the Summer checked in on Sunday and Monday this week. It was nice to already be in an apartment and not be dragging luggage everywhere. Every time one semester or session ends they try to kick me out of my dorm room even though I've paid for it. I tried to head it off buy going to the dorm office in person but it doesn't matter. My name is always on the list of people who need to move out. On the day they say I have to move out they sent by several maintenance men who tell me I have to be out of the apartment by a certain time. This requires multiple trips down to the office to get things sorted out. This time the lady in the office insisted I had to move because they had already scheduled my room for someone else for the Summer session. I had to throw a fit and it worked because I got to stay in the same apartment.


Monday evening I attended the mandatory orientation. It was exactly the same as last year but they assured me I had to attend because they had changed their policies. It was interesting hearing the same information but from the perspective of someone who has been here for a year. I would have been at the school anyway for the shopping trip to the mall. The Burger King is no longer in the mall but there is now a McDonald's! So I got my hamburger and french fries fix. I also went to the bookstore down on the first floor. They only have a small section with English books but I spent quite a bit of time looking them over. They were having a book sale so I ended up getting three young adult books...in Hebrew. These books are above my reading comprehension level in Hebrew. I thought it would be fun to try and read these with the help of a dictionary maybe one chapter a night depending on how long it takes me to read. I had the sales clerk help me pick out three that were in easier Hebrew. I'm looking forward to reading these.


Yesterday was a emergency preparedness day. I don't actually know what they called it. Yesterday at 11am all of the emergency sirens sounded throughout the country for two minutes. During this time everyone is supposed to go to the bomb shelter in the building. Rothberg International School had special permission not to disrupt the summer classes so we didn't have to go in the basement. The professor told us that the police,fire department and other safety related departments would be running drills throughout the day. The sirens also went off a 7pm last night for two minutes. This was to make sure you are prepared at home and know where the nearest shelter is located. My room is the bomb shelter in our apartment so I didn't have to go anywhere.

For the first Summer session I'm taking Intermediate Biblical Hebrew. There are 10 people in the class. I have the class five days a week. On Sunday we meet from 10am-3:30pm. Monday-Thursday 8:30-2pm. It's very intensive but I'll be able to get Intermediate Biblical Hebrew completed. So far the class has been very interesting. Today we worked on translating Psalm 23 which is one of my favorites.

From the last post:
Uncle Joe- Yes Hebrew is one of those languages where you have to conjugate the verbs differently depending on the person's gender that you are talking to.

Study Abroad: Choosing Luggage

This post continues my series to help students get ready to study abroad. Here I focus on luggage in a future post I'll detail more about what to actually pack in your luggage.

 

Chances are you have several pieces of luggage you can use but they may not fit current airline regulations. Check your airlines website well in advance for measurement restrictions and weight guidelines. Most airlines you can have two bags that each weigh 50lbs. Check how much your current suitcases weigh when empty then you know how much weigh you actually have to work with. The suitcases my family has were bought before the new airline regulations on average weigh 15lbs when empty! That would only give you 35lbs for the stuff you want to pack.

If you have the money you want to invest in a good set of luggage that weighs as little as possible. In my research I found Eagle Creek's hovercraft line to weigh the least. I’m also a neat freak when it comes to organization on a trip so Eagle Creek’s pack it system of zippered cubes, and folding squares worked well for me. I also found out Eagle creek makes compression sacs like space saver bags only you don’t need the vacuum to use them. These saved me some space. They are great for items that are full of air. For example I compressed a twin size pillow as flat as a pancake, once you open the bag it puffs right up with no damage. 

Use unique luggage tags to help you quickly identify your bags on the luggage carousel my luggage has Texas A&M tags because it’s not likely anyone in Israel will have that kind of tag. I also recommend purchasing luggage locks make sure it says travel sentry somewhere on them. Mine are also Eagle Creek they are three number combination locks you set the combination and can change the combination whenever you want to. They have a key hole that airport security has the key to so they can search your bag relock it and no one else can get into it. It can also be good for locking up valuables in your dorm after you arrive if you need to. 

The wardrobe in the room is very small that’s where your compression sacs can come in handy. You can store off season clothes in the compression bags where they will be protected from dusts and moisture and slide them under the bed. Note that the beds may not have enough room under them to store your luggage. My suitcases are different sizes from the hovercraft line so I can store them one inside the other to take up less floor space.  I started to pack my luggage a week before I had to leave. This is so I could pack and weigh each suitcase multiple times to make sure I didn’t go over the weight requirements.

     

  Even if you are not going to study abroad this can be a fun philosophical exercise and you can learn more about yourself. Pretend you are going to live in another country for at least a year. You can only take 100lbs of stuff. At least 50lbs will be devoted to clothing and shoes. What would you use the other 50lbs for? For me personally most of my other 50lbs went to books.  I did get a kindle so I could have more books with me but some of my scholarly books are not yet available for the kindle. Some of the books just wouldn’t be the same on kindle, my Life Applications Study Bible for example I have made notes in the margins of it and I would miss It too much if I had to leave it behind. You can tell I’m a bible scholar though because there were two other translations of the bible I have that I wanted to bring with me but couldn’t.

May Flowers Part III

I had my oral exam for modern Hebrew this morning. We had to write a dialogue with a partner, memorize it and then preform it for the teacher. The second part of the exam was individual. We had to choose one text in the book and be able to summarize it and answer questions about it. I was very nervous but I think I did okay.

Since I haven't been doing anything exciting lately I have more flower pictures for you. I really can't get over how beautiful the campus looks with all the flowers.

I was playing with the close up mode on my camera for this one. I this flower has the same yellow color I like from the previous flower post.














All the flowers featured in the post line one of the ways that I leave campus. So I get to walk down flower row almost everyday. These flowers come in several different colors.

Here we have the same flowers as above only in purple. I think they look better in purple. I was lucky when taking these pictures there didn't seem to be any bugs flying around. Right now the bugs are everywhere. I guess that last year arriving in the middle of June I missed the bug season. Right now there are lots of gnats and mosquito type bugs flying around. The mosquitoes are the worst if they bite you it swells up and itches like crazy worse than in the states. It's a good thing I brought Benadryl with me.









For those of you that were interested in the post on the Western Wall tunnels I found this article on Yahoo this morning talking about the tunnels. The picture that is in the middle of the article is the claustrophobic tunnel I mentioned in my post on the Western Wall tunnels tour post.



From the last post:
Uncle Joe- You are right it is called Turkish salad. I had been calling it Turkey Salad as a joke and I guess when I was writing the post I just typed the wrong word. I had never heard of lip dubbing before I don't think I will be attending the event anyway. They do sing Hava Nagila here in Israel. I think it might have been one of the songs they taught us last summer but I don't remember.

N.T.- How busy the garden is at any given time is rather hit or miss. The weather has been nicer lately so there have been more people in the garden.  The garden is undergoing some renovations of its pathways and stone staircases so some days its too loud to sit in the garden.

There are several nice smelling flowers here. I love the plant I called lavender in my post titled So it's Spring Now. The bell shaped flowers above also have a nice scent. My favorite smelling flower was blooming back towards the middle of March and the start of April. They were little yellow flowers on a bush that was on the way to school. I never did get a picture of that one though. The national flower of Israel can be seen here.

The tower in the background of the desert garden picture is the Hebrew University tower. I'm not sure what is in the tower. It's one of the landmarks that you can use to oreint yourself when your down in the valley as it can be seen easily. It has also featured in a few other posts of mine I think I've mentioned it to help show where I am in relation to campus. I think it was in the post titled Misadventures in Israel when I was walking to the post office. I think the tower also appears in my post titled Geography of Jerusalem.

The corn chip Doritos in the last post do not taste any different that the ones in the states. However the other flavors of Doritos do taste a little different here they have more oil on them and sometimes you taste the oil more than the flavoring.

May Flowers Part II

The weather here has been pretty nice this week. On a few days we've had a preview of Summer heat, it has reached 80 degrees. It doesn't really affect me since most days I'm in school before the temperature reaches the high for the day and I leave school after it has cooled down a bit.

The next few weeks are going to be busy as the Spring semester winds down. Lots of projects and reading assignments to finish up and of course studying for exams.






I love all the flowers in the garden. When I have time between classes I like going out and wondering in the garden. I'm always finding a new plant that I haven't noticed before. I thought the plant to the right was interesting enough to take a zoomed in picture. I like the shade of yellow on these flowers. Unfortunately this plant makes me sneeze. Even here in Israel I have seasonal allergies.

This picture is from this past Tuesday when Claire and I had lunch in the garden. The view wasn't as hazy as it has been in my earlier pictures.

If you remember from earlier posts the botanical garden has sections that represent the plants from different areas of Israel. I don't think I've posted too many pictures of the desert section. So I took this one, the desert section isn't as pretty as the others. The red spot in the background is one of the people who works in the garden. They are constantly working in the garden. It takes a lot of work to keep all the plants from the varied climates alive.

Now for a little change of pace I've been a little homesick lately. So I decided to self medicate with food. :) The grocery store recently started to stock Doritos corn chips again. I love chips and salsa but I don't have time to make my own salsa. The container next to the chips contains Turkey Salad. Claire was the one that originally found it and told me about it. It is basically salsa it has tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers that add a little kick to it,and various spices. I have no idea why it's called Turkey Salad. It's not from Turkey and it doesn't have turkey in it. Despite the strange name it tastes great. They were training new cashiers this week. The trainee rang up all of my purchases and I had already bagged them up when she hit the wrong button and had to rescan everything. She had already taken a long time to scan in the first place because she was still learning where all the bar codes were, the loaf of bread took forever because it wouldn't scan. Thankfully the trainer rescanned everything very quickly and apologized. I didn't have anywhere I needed to be so I didn't really mind I just thought it was funny. I made some dumb mistakes when learning to work a register.

We take turns buying to toilet paper in our apartment and this week it was my turn. You are looking at a package of 48 rolls of toilet paper. Families here are bigger than in the United States. I think the smallest package of toilet paper you can buy here is 24 rolls. I've seen packages with 96 rolls. The case of toilet paper has its own carrying handle on top. As I've mentioned before most people walk to the grocery store here so they carry everything back. This brand of toilet paper is usually cheaper than the others and comes with the added bonus of red hearts on it. There is another brand that is more expensive that has the outlines of puppies on it. The fun comes when you exit the store and walk down the street towards the student village. You pass by a few cafes that have outdoor seating. People look when a single person is carrying a package of 48 rolls of toilet paper. They probably think I have some horrible disease. Or maybe its just me feeling self conscious about carrying that much toilet paper at once maybe they weren't really looking. But buying the larger package saves having to make more frequent trips to the store.

This picture is actually from earlier today. Claire pointed this sign out to me and I had to take a picture. This is outside the cafeteria at Rothberg. The Mechina program is hosting an event called Lip Dub. Our best guess is this might be karaoke but we're not sure. 















From the last posts:
Uncle Joe- I forget which plants I've already posted pictures out so I might have posted that tree before. I can't comment on the word play in the New Testament as I can't read Greek. In my Biblical Hebrew class we are currently looking at Amos there is some clever word play.

Renewing Your Student Visa

In my post titled Preparing to go to Israel I gave a brief overview on how to obtain a student visa before you come to Israel. The student visa you get in the States will be good for one year and then you will have to renew it. I just renewed my visa this past Thursday.


About a month before your visa expires you need to go to the Ministry of the Interior and make an appointment. They do have a phone number but you will get an appointment faster if you go in person. Your appointment will typically be one  week before you visa expires. If for some reason they give you an appointment that is after the date your visa expires you will need to carry the appointment slip and your passport with you at all times.

To get your visa renewed you will need the following items: your passport, a passport photo,money for the visa(bring exact change),your transcripts,letter from the Vice Provost, your financial report from school,your rental agreement, and proof you can support yourself financially. I did not give the price of the visa because it is subject to change. The school told me one price but when I went to get my visa the price had gone up by 20 NIS.  When you make your appointment they assign you to a booth/cubicle number. Each person that runs these booths is different so they might request some or all of the above documents listed.

The visa I received on Thursday is only good until the end of September, then I will have to go and get another visa. I've been told this is because Israel is trying to crack down on foreign workers. Apparently some people get into Israel on a student visa, sign up for classes and then disappear into the country. This is why you have to give them a copy of your transcripts to prove that you have actually been attending classes. At the end of September you will have paid for and registered for fall classes and that will tell them you are a serious student. I'm not sure how long the visa I get in September will last.

I hope this brief overview of renewing your student visa was helpful.

May Flowers

Today I have a long break between the end of modern Hebrew and the start of Archaeology. So I decided to eat lunch out in the garden. Since it was such a pretty day I decided I would wander around and take some pictures. To my surprise I had a furry friend join me in my walk through the garden today. I think she was with the tour group of students that were touring the garden but she found following me more fun.

As usual I don't know the names of most of these plants. The garden is a great opportunity to practice my photography skills.  Its also a great opportunity to practice my avoiding the buzzing bees/ other nasty bugs skills. :)

I loved the color of these flowers. This one was taken with the closeup mode on my camera.

These are the benches next to the tombs from previous posts about the garden. I like that they have let the flowers grow on the steps. I think these flowers are snap dragons but I'm not sure.

These look like peppers. I wonder if they are?

And here we have the one of the greenhouses in the garden.

And now for a little humor. When I went home in February for winter break I got a Mac for a late Christmas present. I started to put some of my photos into the iphoto application. Iphoto is smart and can be taught to recognize faces. I forgot I had a few pictures of the paintings of Jesus from the Holy Sepulchre. My Mac quickly caught on "Is this Jesus?" Yes Mac, yes it is.  I laughed for a good ten minutes over this. My Mac knows Jesus!






That's all I've got for today.  I hope you enjoyed the flowers.