On Tuesday January 23rd, I arrived at Tel Aviv University for new student orientation about an hour early. That is when I learned of the campus tour departing momentarily from the nearby dorms. I walked to the meeting place and waited for people to congregate. First, one very young person...then another...and soon a whole squadron. Foolishly, it never dawned on me that at 34, I would be ancient compared to my language study classmates.
I sat next to a quiet guy off on his own and struck up a conversation: from Poland, just finished an undergraduate law degree, headed to Berlin for an internship. My guess is that nearly everyone else on the tour was a Junior in college, making them about 20 years old. They seemed extremely anxious to meet each other.
The organizers of the orientation announced that this semester's class of overseas students was the largest in four years. This struck me as odd, coming right after a war over the summer. Perhaps some students originally scheduled for the fall semester postponed due to safety concerns and the current class represented an aggregated group?
The lack of heating in the dorms emerged as the key issue of the afternoon. Israeli buildings do not appear to be insulated, at least not to the extent of US buildings in the north east and Great Lakes area. In Tel Aviv right now warm sunny days still begin and end pretty chilly. Luckily, the family I am staying with in Ramat HaSharon has a wood burning stove in the living room, a kerosene stove in the entry area, an electric wall unit in the kitchen, and a small portable electric unit in my room.
I am happy to report that I placed into LEVEL 1 Hebrew and do not have to start at LEVEL 0. Clearly, I've learned to take pride in small achievements.
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