Taking in the Scenery...

I have this constant mindset when traveling around Jerusalem that I'm always into finding a good view. I'm not sure if it's just because I'm not used to living in a city, but there's something incredibly beautiful about seeing Jerusalem sprawled out in front of you. It's not unusual if I'm out somewhere to walk well out of my way just because I think there may be a great view from a certain spot. And once I find a spot I like.... there's nothing quite like lingering and taking in the scenic view. I am studying abroad in a once in a lifetime city after all.

Anyways, the pictures add up and I don't necessarily want to flood Facebook or Instagram with a bunch of random landscape pictures. So here are some of the best I've collected in my wanderings along the way:

A view of the old temple wall and the Dome of the Rock from a vantage point off the highway on Mount Scopus.

Just off to the side of a building in Jerusalem giving a nice view of the center of the city on the hill on the right and the surrounding area.

A different angle of the religious epicenter of Bethlehem. I loved the way the clouds were descending in relation to the minaret.

The not so unusual phenomenon of me trailblazing along the way to some new vantage point. Here I had just climbed over the guard rails along the edge of a street near my apartment complex to check out the view over Jerusalem.

The view of Tel Aviv in the distance from a roof I was standing on in Jaffa.

Another roof top, another view.

Jerusalem at night from behind the Israel Museum.

I wanted to attach this photo because it's scenic in its own way. Cause, you know, um, the ocean...

An awesome view from a rooftop cafe I recently found in the Old City.

Another view from the cafe.

If you look from one side of our campus you can see the Jordanian desert sprawling in the distance.

And my academic building offers this lovely view every time I walk past.

Looking out over Jerusalem from my apartment building. There's no place like home.

The View From Here

Amongst the chaos in Jerusalem it's always nice to find a spot to get away from it all. It just so happens one of the best spots to do that is exactly where we already are; just add a few stories.

This is my apartment complex as seen from the roof of my building.

If you look at the tower with the red light on the top in the skyline that's the building where my classes are at. 

Everyday I make the treck from the building you can see in the bottom left over toward the horizon, aka campus.

A picture Noah captured of me looking out over the edge of the roof.

Jerusalem. (Photo credits to Noah.)

Shout out to my roomates for discovering how to get to the roof and passing on the knowledge.

Mandatory Roommate Meeting

So my apartment decided we needed to have a mandatory meeting for us to all sit together and talk about our apartment ettiquite.

And by that we mean, we picked the second novel for our apartment book club and discussed investing in a nicer tea kettle because our current one is getting a ton of use due to all of us being constant tea drinkers.

I have never loved my roommates more in my life.

So... Our Water Boiler Just Exploded

After a long day of Arabic, grocery shopping, and going to get my student public transportation card I returned back to my apartment to rest up for a bit before my Zumba class this evening. I sat down on my computer about to update my blog when I heard a subtle hiss, a bang, and then a very loud and continuous hiss. Wondering what went on outside I looked out of my apartment to see that it was actually our boiler that exploded! At which point I realized I couldn't find my phone and my Hebrew speaking roommates were gone. 

After running around our floor and figuring out if any neighbors were in and if they knew what to do we realized no one could find their phone or the emergency number. So, I sprinted for the security gate of our apartment complex, praying that whoever was on duty spoke enough English to understand our current trauma.

You can see the resulting clouds from our water boiler exploding from outside the apartment.

Water was absolutely pouring everywhere. Essentially, we managed to unleash a monsoon in the desert. Thankfully one of the guards understood my English and proceeded to put in some sort of call to a walkie talkie. During my sprint our neighbor Lorenzo had managed to find our circut breaker and figured out that there was a water switch. 

Kati and Lorenzo freaking out at me that I would take pictures during an "emergency".

So with an apartment full of water but with none available through any of our sinks, we waiting for maintence to show up. And waited. And waited. Funnily enough, it took over an hour of calling the emergency phone line before they ever picked up. And in Israel, even emergencies are handled at the time of their convienence. So, three and a half hours later, we've still yet to have anyone show up at our apartment and our water is shut off. One can hope we may be able to use our bathroom before everything shuts down for Shabbat (in 2 days). Insha'allah.

(Belated) Shabbat Shalom!

As if going to the Dead Sea wasn't enough, I returned home on Friday unknowingly about to experience some truly Jewish culture. I opened my apartment door, shoes still covered in Dead Sea mud, to find a frantic apartment. Roommates and friends frantically preparing before the clock hit shkiya (the time when Shabbat starts). But the night was still young.

I was invited to join them in lighting the shabbat candles, and even got to light one personally. A few hours later and a couple of borrowed tables and chairs, my apartment was officially the place to be for shabbat.

It was a wonderful wrap up for my first week in Israel. Apartment mates, neighbors, friends, and family gathered around the table for a delicious meal. Sitting there, surrounded by people who were simultaneously strangers and family, I knew I was home. Conversation soared over plate after plate of food and just as much wine to wash it down. English, Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, French: it was all heard at the table. People from every corner of the globe sat crowded around my kitchen table bringing their own faith, language, stories, culture to this centering tradition that brings it all back and grounds it in the land we're all experiencing together: Israel.

Sitting at the table.

Gathered around good friends and good food.

Our neighbors Tony and Moses bringing their unique personality to the dinner.

Noah talking while I took a photo that apparently no one wanted to be in.

Home is Where the Bombs Aren't

Another fun little fact about my life in Israel is that I'm actually living in a bomb shelter. Certain rooms in apartments throughout the buildings are designated safe rooms. In case of an alarm we are supposed to go into the room and secure the window and door. The bomb shelter for my apartment is literally my bedroom.

With that little tidbit, I figured I would take this post to give you a little virtual tour of بيتي, or my house.

This is the main common area of our apartment. It's sort of a combined living room / dining room / kitchen.

This is a close up of the door you can see down the hallway in the previous photo. It's the outside door to my bedroom. I have a secondary door that shuts behind that one as well.

This is my bedroom / bomb shelter.

This is what my window looks like when it's all closed and locked up. Technically there's another solid metal barrier I can slide across between the metal blinds and the glass.

Another culturally interesting part of my room (and our apartment, and most dwelling areas in Israel) is this Mezuzah which is attached on doorways about 3/4 way up to the top of the door frame. Inside the case is a scroll which is inscribed with specific verses from the Torah.

Between freshman year in Ravine (literally a building in the middle of a ravine), sophomore year in Baldwin (a freshman only dorm), and junior year in a bomb shelter, I think I may be collecting some of the most interesting college housing experiences.

Apartment Complex(ities) in Jerusalem

When I had finished my first day of classes I attended a sort of international student tutorial trip on how to find your way downtown, where’s good to eat, where’s good to shop, and how to get to the old city. Due to my long day I didn’t even manage to get back to my apartment until well after 10:00pm.

My first downtown view of the Old City.

After returning I packed up my bag and walked to the nearest wifi hotspot in a building a little ways from my apartment. Unintentionally, the night wore on full of cultural conversations with others in the computer center until it was after 2:00AM. Returning to my apartment, I realized I had a problem. My roommates had gone to bed, dead bolting the door.

After about 10 minutes of knocking and ringing the door buzzer I heard the sound of water from a sink… in the apartment behind me. Slightly mortified, I knocked on my neighbor’s door praying I hadn’t ticked off my whole floor in my loud attempt to wake my own roommates.

It took an awkwardly long time before the door cracked open and one of the guys who lived in the apartment peered at me. At first I figured he was probably just confused as to why his brand new hall-mate was knocking at his door at 2:30AM on a Wednesday morning, however he greeted me, “Oh thank God! I thought you were security!” Confused, I stepped into the smokey apartment.

Apparently he was drunk. And, as he explained to me, once well liquored up he likes to attempt to cook. He had set the fire alarm off trying to make Cajun chicken. I pleaded my case and he let me borrow his cell phone to call my roommate… who didn’t answer. Just to make sure I wasn’t crazy, I had him check the door and spend a few minutes leaning against the buzzer to no avail.

A little concerned due to having spent the better part of half an hour switching back and forth between knocking and rapidly hitting the buzzer, I cursed the fact my roommates had ever called themselves “light sleepers”. And, a little shook up, I turned to the only place I could think of – technically the only other apartment I know. I went to go beg for help from my friends.

Knocking on their apartment at 2:40AM also didn’t help a whole lot. I took the stairs back out of the building and circled around the side. I knew my friend Noah was probably still awake as he had been hanging out in the computer center with me. Thankfully, he had also left his window open. With an awkwardly loud and echo-y whispered shout of his name, he actually appeared in the window. I tried to quietly yell my story to him, before I decided to just run back up the stairs.

Acting every bit my savior, he marched back over to my apartment building with me where he held the buzzer nonstop for a good 5 minutes before I finally heard shuffling footsteps inside. By the time I had the door open whoever had woken up had disappeared. I went to enter my dark apartment, thankful that even if I may have terrorized my roommates only two days in, at least I have friends willing to come to my apartment at 3:00 in the morning and terrorize them with me.