In case you didn't know...I am at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev because I received a Fulbright Fellowship for 4 months to work with Dr. Amir Sagi on a crustacean physiology project. I have not started the project yet, but I have arrived in Beer Sheva and am meeting with all of my colleagues individually over the next 2 weeks. The university is quite modern and has over 20,000 students (there are also over 300 cats). While I love my small campus in Juneau AK, it is refreshing be on a large campus again.
I moved into my fancy apartment that is a 40 minute walk from campus. I can also take a bus if I wanted. My aparment is furnished, although rather sparse. There is no coffee maker.
This is a view of the living area. There are 2 bedrooms and right now I have a great roommate from India (Vijay) who is a post doc in an ecology lab. He is showing me all of the ropes about living in this desert city. He is moving to a smaller place next Saturday. There is also a "safe room" that serves as my office. If there were to be a missile threat, then I would go to this room and shut the doors (quite thick) and the window which has a solid shield that would slide into place. I don't know if you can see it on on the next image.
Fridays and Saturdays are Israeli weekends, and there are no services from Friday afternoon until late evening on Saturday (no buses or anything). Vijay took me to the market (Shuk) south of the university to buy produce and spices. No one selling goods speaks English. I learned from Vijay that if I held my hand out with all of my money, that they would select the correct amount. Anyway I scored lots of amazing stuff including a bunch of cilantro for one shekel. What a deal! I think I will go to this market every Friday.
For more pictures of the first days in Beer Sheva
Click here
No comments:
Post a Comment