Hello everyone!!!

I'm FINALLY updating my blog, because I finally have internet!! Yaaaaay! Anyway, I've been making video updates on my computer all along even though I couldn't post them yet just so by the time I had internet, I could have a record to show you all of my time here so far! It's August 9 (well, it's just past midnight and thus technically August 10 now here in Israel), and I arrived in the late afternoon on July 31. Today, all in a flurry, I'll be posting a bunch of stuff from the past week and a half to catch you up, so if this is your first time checking here, there's probably a lot to catch up on!

Unfortunately, there's some glitch that's preventing me from uploading my 4 videos that I've recorded as updates along the way straight onto my blog's video page. So I'm uploading them on YouTube and posting the links in written blog updates. Here's the first one!

Intro video (night before my flight): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVxmQruT0x4

There are 3 more videos on their way, but our internet connection is ridiculously slow at this point (but should get better once we get a 2nd wireless router), so it's taking about an hour to upload each video and this is the only one that's ready so far. Meanwhile, I'll be posting the other written updates I've made occasionally in the past 10 days to supplement the videos. Keep checking back!

But for now, let me say: my journey so far has been challenging and stressful and logistically frustrating in a variety of ways, but I'm so glad to be here. I feel so blessed to get to spend time in such a unique and significant place, plus I'm learning a lot of Hebrew (which I love) and have met some awesome people! I'm looking forward to the interesting classes I'll get to take when the fall semester starts in October, and the opportunities I might get to intern somewhere in the city and get involved with a church. I've gotten to go to some very important religious sites so far, and I might be going to Tel Aviv this weeken with my flatmates (apartment-mates; one of them is British and says flatmates, and it's just so much less of a mouthful!), and who knows what other adventures I'll have?

I miss you guys!!