First morning in Tel Aviv!

As I write this, I am sipping on a coffee and sitting outside on Hamelekh George (King George Street) in the heart of Tel Aviv!  The location of our apartments couldn't be any better...walk out the front door and you are on a bustling street, with everything just a few minutes away...coffee shops, restaurants, TA Mall, shuk (outdoor market/shops) and probably loads more that I haven't discovered yet.  So as I haven't been able to get online the last few days, there's a lot to catch up on, seen so much already!

Yesterday (Sunday) was a pretty hectic day - I knew right off the bat that at some time we would be moving out of Jerusalem and into our Tel Aviv housing, and there was a lecture about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (always a joy, oy).  Breakfast was pretty early compared to the usual schedule, but I had to savor it, as this would be our last day with meals provided for us....so I pretty much went to town on the buffet, which always has lots of fresh veggie salads, fruit, cheeses, etc.  After breakfast and loading our bags onto the buses, we settled into the affectionately dubbed "vault" room, although i prefer to call it by its actual name - bomb shelter.  Now, I don't have a very political wired brain, so generally during these types of discussions I tend to check out...which I feel badly about, but I think I am getting a basic gist of the situation here.,...albeit from a skewed perspective.  After the talk, we loaded onto the buses to take a driving tour around Jerusalem to see some of the areas of separation, as well as neighborhoods that have been affected by the conflict during the last boundary shift.  It was pretty profound to be driving next to one of the secure borders between Israel and Palestine territories...and to see the signs, barbed wire, police, etc that are preventing Israeli & Palestinian people to cross freely through the border.  Surreal to see a neighborhood that once was united, but now is divided by the seam line, which refers to the new boundary around Israeli territory set by the 1967 resolution. To see the wall that the Israeli police are constructing (and reconstructing) between Israeli territory and the West Bank - which by the way, doesn't look like a war torn wasteland...rather just another neighborhood about 200 yards from where I was standing.

Again, took some interesting photos, and clearly left my camera back in my room, so I promise to post photos later, hopefully our internet in the apartment building gets fixed and is working properly today!  Heading to our first class of Ulpan (Hebrew) lessons now....wish me luck....after the placement exam last week, I'm going to need it!

Love to all!