Arriving at JUC

Hello again! Well it's my first day on campus here at JUC. It's such a beautiful campus...if it wasn't dark out, I'd take pictures right this moment and post them here for all to see. Soon enough though. Our first night in Israel was interesting....we got dropped off about a block away from our hotel (Gloria Hotel), which would have been totally fine if we had spoken hebrew, seen the hotel sign, and had daylight to know where we were going, and din't have to lug around huge suitcases. But really, we were only a block away...so we found it fine, I just got a little nervous in a foreign country. haha.
Anyways, the campus is really nice. It looks a little "ghetto" from the outside, which i will inevitably take a picture of as well, but the inside is wonderful: gorgeous courtyards with an overlook of the city and wonderful stone decks and lawn chairs and stone archways and stone walls and stone everything. Today, a little gecko looking creature that was quite quick on its feet climbed through my window and took a tour around my room. I proceeded to leave the room and let it alone, hoping it would eventually leave on its own. haha
I've been sick which is really frustrating. I'd much more up for taking pictures and collaborating groups to explore if I didn't sound like a rhinocerous, or what you might assume rhinocerouses sound like if they could talk. My nose is completely plugged up and I'm a little woozy in the head. But other than that, I'm fine. Nothing a little (or a lot) of sleep can cure.
Lots of my fellow students lost their luggage on flights and stuff...I'm sOOOO glad mine was all there when I picked it up from the baggage area in Tel Aviv. Well, I'm missing out on stuff so I'm gonna stop writing.

It's so strange being here....it feels familiar and strange, dangerous and completely safe, all at once. I can't wait to get accustomed to the area. I feel like I should "feel" lots of stuff right now, but mostly, I'm just concerned about meeting people and sleeping. I dont' feel really emotional about being in Israel or anything like that....I just think it's cool to be in a foreign country with so much history that's close to my heart.

Well, until tomorrow. Or the next day. We'll see. ;)