First off: the last couple of days have been hectic. And trying to find a reasonable hour to type all of this and still sleep at a decent time is hard. But I succeeded. Next journal update should be soon. And not a week late.
Enough talk, let's get down to it.
I wake up yet again early in the morning, only this time at a reasonable six and not an ungodly eight. Decided to unplug the computer from the charger after an overnight charging so that I had enough battery to last me for the rest of the day to finish up typing the last journal entry. At around 7:30-8ish, I got dressed and went to the living room to let my aunt know I was already awake and she didn't need to wake me up.
We did a quick go over to see what else I needed, which resulted in a ton of towels coming at me (both body and face towels, so those of you IN Israel can be rest assured I'm covered in the towel department). My grandma called shorty before we started to move all the luggages (and while my aunt was feeding the baby) and asked that both she and my other aunt can come as well. My aunt (the one feeding the baby), quickly took the phone and declined the request stating that the car is small enough as it is, and with the baby, luggages, and food we were going to get, there was simply no way that she could come. Asking the uncle to drive the two was also out of the question if only because he was currently occupied with work and for the most part, he was mainly going to be the GPS for the day.
After shoving all the towels into the back pack my uncle allowed me to borrow while I'm here, we then went to place all the luggages in the car. The first heavy luggage, I stupidly decided to carry down the stairs, instead of putting it in the elevator, which my aunt did. The elevator door kept on smacking me while I was tugging the TV pillow out of it's spot from between my carry on and back pack, but I managed to preserver and get all the bags from the elevator with only one bruise on my thigh.
The car is fairly small to begin with, and with the baby and the baby seat to keep in mind, placing all the luggages in the car became a game of Professor Layton mixed with Tetris, a few good shoves was all it took, but the placement before shoving was what was important. We succeeded to place all the luggages and a comfortable spot for the baby (we arranged the placement based on the baby) and started to drive to the super market when my aunt realized she forgot the cloth she uses to carry the baby without the needs of hands. We opted that we get the stuff first, put her part groceries in the apartment really quick, and the drive off. I won't go into the detail of how we shopped, but we had to get two carts and I was watching the baby in the cart. The baby doesn't like really loud noises, but a very cheerful smile, a good distance, and quietly remarking how smart and strong he is was the ticket to win the baby over. Giggling and flailing around the room while giving me a huge smile.
We started to drive when we got a call from the oldest daughter's school, stating that she had a stomach ache and wished to be taken home. Aunt, while taking in the groceries and me watching the baby in the car, was talking on the phone and when she came back we drove straight to Tel Aviv, understanding that the kid was just asking to be with me. Made me wish I could give a proper bye but we both knew that it wasn't worth it cause I was bound to see them, hopefully, later on in the week. Traffic was clear, we chatted about how an amazing time I was about to go into, and listened to the directions from my uncle over the phone.
Once we made it to the street, we looked at the area. To be blunt, it looked like the slums. With only two people sitting outside drinking coffee, I asked in hebrew if this was the place to be for Wujs (the program I'm typing about), turns out it was and I was talking to the madrich (a.k.a the RA). We shook hands and I stepped in dog crap. "Don't worry! It means good luck!" He cheerfully tells me. Great first start. With my aunt unable to leave the car considering she was with the baby, me and the RA carried the luggages up to my room, which was on the third floor. I opened the door to this room
Spacious, nice, and it has all the basic kitchen equipments I need. While there, I was welcomed by two girls who are going to be my roommate for the next five months. I was relieved that I already (somewhat) met them online, making the actual in person meet up less awkward.
Instead of writing their names (and most of the other residents in the complex), I'm going to go with the state and/or city name.
So my two roommates were from London and Maryland, and were very happy to meet their third roommate (at least, I hope). The RA came and showed us that one floor above of us is the door to the rooftop.
I was more ecstatic at the sight of BBQ more than anything on the rooftop, knowing all too well that the first few weeks (and possibly month) was going to be cold and rainy, making rooftop shenanigans almost rare. I went downstairs and gave my aunt a grand hug as well as my thanks (to which she insists was a pleasure more so than anything) and drove off while I went back upstairs and commenced the unpacking.
Maryland asked which music we liked and we ended up listening to various genres: Techno, Coldplay, and Maroon 5. While unpacking and cleaning at the same time, we met our neighbors (females) who lived across our apartment; New York and Belgium. We talked for a bit and asked who was doing what internship when two more girls came upstairs, L.A and another girl from Belgium (this is going to get tricky… um. Okay. The Belgium girl who lives across from me will be Belgium M and the other one Belgium D. …Until I can think of a better nicknames for them). We talked for a bit before deciding that around two we would all go out to grab some lunch.
Some guys came up the stairs to discover more of the complex as well as get to their room, Texas, Hungry, and Indiana. Texas was very nice and home-y, Hungry was quiet, and Indiana didn't really speak much. Two hit, any attempts to try putting the bed sheet on my bed was shot and me, London, Maryland, New York, L.A, and Belgium D went downstairs. We met with Belgium D's roommate, a fellow Floridian who lived in the same city as me. Except that get's complicated, so I'm going to call her by the land she was born in which was Puerto Rico. We asked the RA for a good location and we just ended up walking around, meeting up with another girl living in the complex, Australia.
Yes, this sounds like a lot of women.
After walking one block away from a restaurant, we called it quits and went in to a cafe. Most of us got lemonana (lemonade with mint) and some meat related meal. We had to be back to the apartment at four so we can go as a group for the official meeting. When we came back, the group multiplied (meaning yes, more guys did show up) and we left for a youth building of contemporary art. After a good 15-20 min walk, we climbed four flights of stairs to a room with chairs in a circle. I sat down next to New York and a guy next to me from Spain. We played some ice breaker games such as things we would do for one day without getting into trouble or damage to our health, write questions on each others' backs (on paper, of course) and so on.
A man walked in a bit later and handed us our phones while Ricky handed us our packets the consisted of our keys, bus pass, phone card, directions to our workplace, and the itinerary for the next two weeks. Belgium M and I started giggling over our bus photos, grabbed any remaining boxes of pizza (there were plenty) and brought it back to the apartment. I stupidly brought the one with corn on it.
While walking home, a weird man came running at me yelling something at me, I quickly muttered "help me" and jogged to the group of boys that were with us and saw the guy running at me leave for anyone else. When we got back home, I left the box of pizza outside, and the three of us wished each other a good nights sleep. Cause we had to wake up at 9 tomorrow morning for a trip to the super market.
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