Roommates... and a new roommate?

I've been here for a week now, and I realized that I haven't really told you anything about my roommates, so here is a little info to get to know them:

Roommate #1

Ari doesn't like to take photographs,
so I decided to put up this picture
for the sake of aesthetics, enjoy!

Ari is a tall Jewish boychik who has lived in various places around the US. He has settled in Buffalo, NY and is currently a Junior at University of Buffalo. He is majoring in history and aspires to become a professor. He sometimes describes himself as 'brooding' but is much more cheerful than that word implies. He enjoys reading, long walks on the Tel Aviv beach, and when he is not socializing, a bit of alone time.

This is Stephen, he doesn't usually
look so surprised

Roommate #2
My roommate, Stephen, is a Senior at Franklin and Marshall College in PA. He is originally from Westchester, NY and is majoring in government. Some of his favorite pastimes include playing ultimate frisbee, trying to fix skype on his dad's computer (from 6,000 miles away), and snoring for the first 5 minutes he is asleep.

All silliness aside, they are really nice guys and I'm am lucky to have them as my roommates. It has been great to have each other during the first few days as we explored the neighborhood of Ramat Aviv without feeling alone.

On Friday Stephen and I went to Shuk HaCarmel, an outdoor market with everything from fresh produce to a wide array of Ran-Bin's (knock-off Ray-Ban sunglasses). We afterwards we went to the beach to meet up with Ari and a few other guys from the program. I left with some of the guys a little early and before Ari and Stephen left to come back to the dorm. After I took a shower I was getting dressed in my room and I hear the front door open. "Hey guys, how was the rest of the time at the beach?"

...no response...

I finished getting dressed and opened my room's door to find a stranger in the kitchen. "Hello..."

"Hello, my name is Nick!" said the stranger in a European accent. "I am your roommate." You can imagine my confusion. We had already spent three nights in the our apartment and the university didn't mention anyone else who was going to join us. It turns out that Nick is great too. He is full of stories from his many travels and has a thirst for learning about us too!

Roommate #3
Nick is German but has traveled a lot around Europe and around the world. He is a europhile who is not Jewish and has no prior knowledge of Hebrew. He is excited to learn Hebrew and many new things about Israeli and Jewish culture. His dream is to be able to go to the local supermarket and come back to find that all the groceries were the things he thought they were.

***Some parts of the roommate profiles were exaggerated for comedic purposes.  If you did not find them funny, please disregard the last sentence.****

Early Returns

Thank you all for waiting patiently on my second post. I thought I wouldn't be writing anything until tomorrow or the next day, but it turns out that a lot can happen in a short amount of time. I have decided that I will try to tell short stories of my travels in an attempt not to bore you too much with the particulars of everyday life. If you would like to hear more about that, send me an e-mail or a facebook message or just leave a comment at the bottom. I will start with the official beginning of my trip: the flight.

Well... we had to wait a little while before the actual take off. There was some trouble getting water in the plumbing on the plane (I didn't even realize that could even be a problem), so we were delayed for an hour and a half.  They couldn't fix it so they decided to put bottles of water in the bathroom and let the passengers figure it out for themselves. I was just imagining the Israeli pilots and flight attendants saying to each other: (insert heavy Israeli accent here) they are going to a country that is constantly in... emm... how do you say... drought. They might as well get used to it now.


Once we got to the campus in Ramat Aviv, they gave us our keys. I carried my bags up to the fourth floor of one of the dormitories. I could not remember whether I had signed up to live with Israelis or other American students. I weighed the pros and cons of each before thinking that it didn't really matter. Whichever room they put me in is where I would be and there was no reason to worry about it. I opened my door and I found an apartment style dorm with a well stocked fridge.  When I went into my room I saw the two beds, one empty and one made with a purse on it. Did they put me in a room with a girl?  I was really confused: I could see why they might put two different genders in the same apartment, but the same room seemed like a little bit much. It turns out is was just a mistake.  There was a girl who was placed in the with all guys, so I just moved into her original placement.

My real bedroom (check out the b-grams!)

After all that trouble coming to the country and then finding the place I would be spending the next five and a half months, my roommates were very kind and inviting.  Last night the three of us went looking for a place to eat dinner and ended up exploring a little bit (read: about an hour) before finding a place to eat. It turns out that if you follow the signs for "Center" it is really trying to take to the center of Tel Aviv instead of the center of Ramat Aviv (where Tel Aviv University's campus is located)