Ani Gara Bi-Tel-Aviv.

WOW! We've been here about two weeks (although it feels like forever) and we just completed our first week of ulpan! So when we took the placement tests for ulpan, I hadnt written or really spoken hebrew for soo long so I placed in level C. Within a few hours of ulpan (which we have sunday-thursday 830-1), everything started coming back so I asked to move up to D. My teacher made a little mistake and moved me up two levels to E...woops. It was to pretty overwhelming at first but I've decided to stick with this level. Thankfully, Tufts doesnt accept ulpan for credit or for a grade so really this is just an opportunity to learn hebrew- I think it is better to struggle through this level and hopefully come out having learned more hebrew. I can already see after how a week how my writing has become more natural and reading without vowels is normal. Even in everyday activities like ordering at a restaurant, taking cabs, or talking to Emma's cousins I find myself feeling more comfortable asking questions in hebrew. Certainly, listening to hebrew conversations has been really beneficial as well. So three more weeks of Ulpan to come!
Since ulpan is from 830-1, we have all our afternoons free. The weather has been pretty good this week so on monday I went into tel aviv with a few friends via bus which we are just now starting to conquer- and i bought a bus pass..so local. We walked all around the city center and through the good shopping on shenkein street- even with a 4:1 sheckel us ratio we still had to refrain from doing lots of shopping. We ended up walking around for 6 hours which was tiring but really fun.
Emma and I had lunch with my cousin Jay this week as well. Jay and his family made aliyah in the early 1990s and live in Jerusalem but Jay was in tel aviv for business. We went to the ki-kir medina which Emma and I hadnt seen or heard of. It is a huge rotary with tons of shops and restaurants. We had lunch in a cute cafe' and then walked around the rotary...we certainly wont be shopping there- Prada, gucci...etc. for a second i thought we were abroad in paris!
Today (friday) we went to a street party on Rothschild street. My friend Yatir (a soldier on my birthright trip) told me about it and we got an email from our program advisors talking about it as well. We assumed it was going to be street party slash flea market but nono it was just a street party- Tons of DJs, beer, food, dancing it was insane! There were soo many people there just hanging out with friends and dancing away.
Below are two photos - one is the street party and one is a dinner emma and i made. We have been trying to be real people and cook so we dont waste money on restaurants. thus far we have mastered frozen chicken, beans, and corn...with hummus on the side.

xoxoxoo