Moving Week!!!!!

Week two of the semester already looked very different from week one. All the classes are now hybrid and quite a few afternoon classes are strictly on zoom, including Hebrew. I think every teacher had problems with zoom in the hybrid classes. Some handled it with more grace than others haha.

Every first-year student had a prescheduled meeting with the MSIH social worker, and mine was on Sunday. Even though there are some deeper issues on my heart currently, our conversation remained on the surface level. It’s hard to feel comfortable opening up to a stranger during a 15-minute conversation.

A high of the day was Lauren and I finding a mattress on Facebook marketplace for her new room. It was a little on the expensive side, 450 shekels (about $140), but the woman we bought it from was willing to transport it with her car to our new apartment which was a HUGE win in my book (: Walking 25 minutes with a mattress didn’t sound very appealing to me haha. Plus, the car was much faster.

I think many people in my life know I really hate being late. It has been a longgg time since the people I lived with have had the same schedule as me. I know I don’t have to wait on my roommates, but it feels like the right thing to do most of the time. Plus, I enjoy their company. Monday morning, my groupies were running particularly behind. They told me I could go ahead, but I chose to help them finish getting ready and I accepted that I would be late. As it turned out, we were still the first ones to class. There was a mix up on the calendar and our teacher was in the wrong classroom. But we saw him on our way through campus and we were able to tell the rest of our classmates about the mix up. God reminded me that my timing isn’t the same as his timing, and it ended up being a beautiful morning (:

Later that afternoon, I got a text from Caroline asking if we would be willing help them move, they had more to move than they anticipated. Lauren and I had been unsuccessfully trying to study, so we happily headed their way. Honestly, it was so much fun and brought me a lot of joy. Nick provided a car he borrowed from the priest he lives with, and Caroline, Lauren, and I carried odds and ends the short six-minute walk between apartments. This included rolling carts, a bookshelf, a bike, a scooter, chairs, and other treasures (: Afterwards, Nick insisted we come to the parish and eat some of the leftover food there. We couldn’t refuse a man who seemed so desperate to share food haha. It was delicious and a wonderful time of fellowship (: There was even a machine you could get sparkling water from there and an electric saltshaker?? My mind was blown haha. Wow. I’m so blessed by these people.

Tuesday morning I woke up early and moved one of the freebee chairs we had acquired from the hospital trash pile to our new apartment. I have officially decided 5 am is the friendliest time of day. Almost every person I passed smiled back and replied, “boker tove” (good morning). Either that or people just thought I was cra carrying a bulky chair that early in the morning. In other important news I SAW A HEDGEHOG!!! I had been told they roam around the Dalet neighborhood at night, but this was my first sighting (: So cute, (and somehow a wee bit creepy haha)

Class on Tuesday was a little crazy. In the middle of the first lecture, the schedule changed for the rest of the day, shuffling the classes around. This complicated things for me. I had already planned to meet Yonah, one of the previous tenants at our soon to be apartment, to try and transfer the utilities. I had understood the utilities would shut off at 4pm unless I got them transferred, so I didn’t think I had much of a choice. It turned out it was nowhere near this urgent, simply that the Wi-Fi place would close at 4pm haha. But Yonah and I got the ball rolling on the transfer after waiting on hold for about 30 minutes. But other than that, sadly I didn’t make much progress on the utilities transfer that afternoon. Thankfully Yonah left with the promise of helping me later in the week. Phew. After class, Lauren and I made a salad for bible study (meaning I chopped things and she did the actual mixing and adding things to make it taste yummy haha) We moved more stuff to our new apartment before heading to Bible Study. This week it was combined with MSIH students and international students. I can’t stress enough how incredible these humans are and how rich the discussions of God’s word are. We focused on Mark 13:24-37. In Mark 13:32, it says, “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” How can this be if the Father and the Son are one? This raised a very deep discussion about the trinity and how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit fit together. Jesus shows he is in submission to the Father here and he displays his deep humility. The trinity cannot disagree. They are in perfect unison. The word and the spirit were there in the beginning and will never pass away (Mark 13:31). What does all this mean? Is Jesus under God? Someone I spoke with this last month, was under the impression that in Christianity, Jesus is simply our major prophet, like Muhammad is for Muslims. But if Jesus were just a prophet, all of what we believe as Christians has little meaning. Our beliefs would have nothing to stand upon. Mark 1: 10-11, “And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “you are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased”. Jesus died for me, he died for every single human being. He rose again after conquering death. He was fully man, but also fully God. Because of this, He is my redeemer and my savior, and he is one with the Father, while also in submission to the Father. 1 Corinthians 15:27-28, “For ‘God has put all things in subjection under his feet.’ But when it says, ‘all things are put in subjection,’ it is plain that he is excepted who put all things under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.” It can still be confusing, but it is also beautiful. He is Lord of ALL.

My summary and thoughts are a poor substitute to our meetings together, but I hope you are reminded of God’s grace, his perfect plan, and just how much he loves you.

I woke up early again on Wednesday. It was officially moving day!! I planned to make two trips to our new apartment in the cool of the morning before class. My first load was chair number 2. I had my headphones in and was about 1/3 of the way there when a guy on an electric bike stopped me and started speaking in Hebrew. Being the ridiculous person I am, I took out my headphones and replied with “Ma?”, which is Hebrew for “what???”. There was no reason for me to answer in this manner because I wasn’t going to understand him with or without my headphones haha. After he kept talking, I replied with the only other thing I could think of to say. I said, “Ani beseder” (I’m okay). By this time, he must have caught on because he then asked if I speak English. I was caught yet again haha (: He offered to help me carry the chair. I was very skeptical of his offer because I didn’t know how it could work with his bike, but he literally put it on his head and told me to get on the back to I could hold the chair on. Incredibly it worked for about half a mile until we hit a big bump and something on the back that I was sitting on broke. Yikes! The bike was still functional, thank goodness, but I thanked him and carried it the remainder of the way, which was now much shorter. For load number two, I definitely overestimated my carrying capacity. I had a big backpack, another large bag, and then a large crate full of cooking supplies. I should have turned around and lighten the crate load, but I was much too stubborn at 5:15am in the morning. So instead, I suffered haha. When I was a little over halfway, I was beginning to feel concerned. I knew I would have to begin stopping and resting frequently, and I had no idea how long it would take me to get there with this strategy. But praise the Lord, he provided yet again. A guy I had passed on my way back after the first trip stopped me and again asking me something in Hebrew. For some reason, I tried my previous strategy again, “Ma?,” I asked. He helpfully continued but I knew I had to give it up haha. So I resorted to, Do you speak English?”. Thankfully he did, and he proceeded to take the crate from me and asked where I was going and why I was up and carrying so much stuff so early in the morning. It turned out he lives in my new apartment building. He even walked with me all the way back to the dorms. His name is Ivan, and he is studying some type of computer science/engineering. Eventually he wants to go back to Russia. Yay for new friends, especially those I meet early in the morning (:

After class was done, we focused on finishing packing up and cleaning the dorms. We had to be completely out with everything clean before 6:30pm. I was thinking we would have to take a couple loads via the bus, including a 7-minute walk to the bus stop. This wasn’t ideal at 3pm (the hottest part of the day), but we could make it happen. But God was so kind and generous to allow Nick to borrow the Priest’s car again to help us move! We got everything that was left in one full load and one-half load (: Thank you Nick and thank you Jesus!!! Moving in was kind of difficult because in Israel, I think they have very different expectation for moving out of an apartment. The previous tenants were very kind to leave us many things we need and will use, but also many things we didn’t want or need haha. On top of that, the apartment was very dusty and hadn’t been cleaned.

Another problem was I could not find my dorm keys. This was the first time I had lost them the whole time I have been in Israel, and of course it was also the day I needed to return them. It was possible I had left the keys on campus, but it felt like a longshot. Lauren encouraged me to go back and check. I truly didn’t think they were there, but I surrendered it to God. I can’t express the amount of relief I felt when they were just sitting on the counter when we walked in. It might seem like a little detail, but when everything here feels 10 times harder than it would at home, I felt so thankful and loved. We returned to the dorms in time to finish sweeping and mopping. We have almost concluded it is impossible to keep a floor clean here in Israel haha. We were right on time, and the dorm manager seemed very impressed with our job cleaning, even though it was quite subpar by our standards. To celebrate our successful checkout (and because we didn’t have the energy to prepare food) we ended the night by going to a nearby Indian restaurant. We came across several classmates on our way and they were all too happy to join us (: This was my first experience with Indian food. It was fine, but it is weird people would willingly pay that much for food without any meat in it.. Haha, I think that’s just a Kansas farm girl thing though. The company made it more than worth it . When we returned to the apartment, I cleaned and tried to get enough stuff out of my room to lay down on my bed haha. Sleep was not hard to find that night.

Thursday was completely on zoom except for Histology lab in the afternoon. Several of us zoomed together from campus. This made it much more enjoyable, because we could discuss different concepts among ourselves and help each other learn that way. We had our first histology quiz, which I was grossly unprepared for since moving had consumed almost all my free time this week. But it went okay overall (: And of course, after class, we convinced a small group to join us for ice cream at Golda. I HAD BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ALL WEEK. And it didn’t disappoint. Sooo yummy.

The rest of the afternoon/evening consisted of intense cleaning and organizing. Apparently, I am quite unable to focus when I am surrounded by a mess. After several hours, I was exhausted. But one of our classmates, Sam, was having a “we made it through the first month of school” party at his apartment with a wickedly wonderful rooftop balcony. Lauren said she would drag my dead body there if she had to, and I decided not to make her work that hard. We arrived around 10pm and wow, the view and balcony were WOW. Unfortunately, the first thing someone said to me was, wow you look tired.. haha I hadn’t realized it was quite that obvious lol. I think this is the first real “party” I have ever been to. I drank some juice, ate some chocolate, and laughed with many people. Unfortunately, we all discovered Israel has a law about the noise level after 11pm. The police showed up and took one of Sam’s Israeli roommate’s ID numbers and said there would be fines to follow if we didn’t quiet down. It took quite a lot of convincing, but eventually almost everyone moved inside with the hope the group would quiet down. This wasn’t as effective as they hoped, so they announce the party was moving to a bars. It was after midnight by this point so we decided was our cue to go home and get some sleep. Somehow, I still managed to stay awake until around 2:00am but overall it was a good night. Also, Risper left Thursday afternoon to go to Kenya for the next couple of weeks to be with her kids and husband!! Classes being offered as hybrid do have a purpose and are a blessing especially for this sweet human. I’m so thankful she was allowed to go and now gets to spend extra time there.

I think I have successfully reset my internal clock because I wake up at 4:40ish every morning without an alarm. Normally I am able to go back to sleep until at 5:20, which is ideal for running (: So Friday morning began with a run and then I worked on cleaning and organizing my bedroom. I am very satisfied with the ending arrangement, and I am already feeling more at ease here than at the dorms. Yonah came over in the morning to help me with utilities again. It turns out it is a very complicated process. Since I don’t have an Israeli ID number I have to go through about 5 extra hoops to get the electricity and water under my name. The forms also require the ID numbers of the previous tenants. With Yonah there, you wouldn’t think this would be a problem, but it was. I discovered that Yonah and her roomies had never switched the utilities into their names. The electricity was still in the name of the people before them, while the water was in the name of the people before the people before them haha.. Yikes.. After struggling to figure out all the paperwork I would have to go through, we just decided we wouldn’t switch the names either since the bills will continue coming to the apartment and I just have to scan an IQ code and it allows me to pay with my payment info from there. So complicated and slightly weird. But we did get everything done to switch the WiFi. There is also a bill called Arnona here that you pay when renting. It is a type of property tax you pay every two months. We will need to switch this account, and hopefully we will be able to get the 50% discount because it is quite pricey.

In the afternoon Lauren and I went to the BIG mall to get some general home goods stuff like curtains, storage containers (there are no closets or storage in apartments here), and food from the grocery store. Even after spending a couple hours shopping, I ended feeling like I still had no idea what I was going to feed myself during the Shabbat weekend and the next week.. Which is honestly extremely depressing. Almost all the restaurants were closed when we got home as well as all public transportation. I was feeling extremely tired, as a combination from not getting enough sleep all week, shopping, and just general hopelessness. My favorite pizza place was open, although it’s a little pricey, but it was my best option, and I am thankful I made this decision. I tried to study after I ate, but instead I proceeded to fall asleep. I cleaned for the rest of the evening and fell asleep with ease.

I have been experiencing a lot of internal frustration recently. Because not only I am experiencing cultural shock from the transition from Kansas to Israel, I am also experience some culture shock from living with roommates who are also from very different backgrounds and cultures. You may not think this would make a very big difference, and I didn’t think it would, but my own feels have been surprising me. My standards for the niceness of furniture and other household supplies are very different from my roommates. My expectations for what we need/should purchase as a group are also very different. It is like there is no safe place for expectations even in my own apartment haha. I am learning a lot about what it looks like to be truly humble in these situations and working to understand my roommates’ positions while also standing up for my own feelings so I don’t feel completely run over. With respect to the overall feeling of culture shock, I could very much tell that I was previously in flight or avoidance stage, but I think I have now moved to the fight stage, which includes anger. It’s not anger in the form of me yelling or seething. It’s a quiet type of anger that turns to sadness and isolation. Like why don’t I feel closer to more of my classmates? Yes, many are my friends, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable having deep personal conversations or inviting myself to hang out with most of them. It has hard to study and focus with this and so much more swirling around in my brain. I feel angry that I can’t sleep at night so instead I fall asleep during class. When I was walking with my new friend Ivan, he asked me why I would come to Israel when I was living the dream on my family farm in Kansas. And even though I laughed and jokingly said I don’t know, there is a lot of truth in my answer. I don’t know why I left so many people and things I love. It’s easy to get lost in my anger and sadness and focus on these feelings. But for every reason I feel lost and alone, there are God has given me abundantly more reminders of his love and faithfulness. As I write about my week, I can see it in the little moments and also in the big moments. I have said it before and I have to say it again, because I need the reminder. In everything that God brings me through, if the only reason I am here or anywhere is to bring God glory and experience who he is, it is enough. It is the only thing that can be enough. I would appreciate prayers that I would submit to God with humility and that I would allow the hard to draw me closer to him.

Love you all and miss you!!

P.S. I don't know how these just keep getting longer.. If you have any tips for ways I could keep it shorter, let me know please! (: