Hello HerCampus GWU readers!
For those of you whom I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting, my name is Miriam Smallman. I’m a rising junior at GW from Charlotte, North Carolina. I’m a journalism major and Semitic Cultures & Languages minor and on campus you can find me at the gym for early morning workouts, hanging out at Hillel or at Whole Foods scoping out ingredients to make healthy recipes!
I am studying abroad this Fall in Tel Aviv, Israel, a far cry from the hustle and bustle of Washington, DC. I look forward to meeting everyone when I get back in the Spring, but for now I am excited to share some of my experience abroad with you!
It’s been a whirlwind month, arriving and getting settled in. Now that everything is in Hebrew it’s starting to sink in that I’m here. The atmosphere here is definitely more laid back than in DC, the beaches are beautiful (I’d like to claim I’m working on a tan, but with pale skin and red hair that’s just not going to happen…), and the food is ta’im me’od, or very tasty!
Speaking of food, one of the first things I did upon arriving in the Holy Land was go to the Shuk HaCarmel, one of the city’s most well-known markets. Fruits and vegetables are cheaper than processed foods here (a sweet relief from home, as my GWorld burned a hole in my pocket every time I stepped into Whole Foods…), and the atmosphere on a Friday—as everyone gets ready for Shabbat—is not to be missed.
There are a lot of different things happening at once as you meander through the Shuk: Vendors call out in Hebrew to attract customers to their stalls, smells of baked goods, challah (a Jewish type of bread typically eaten on Shabbat) and falafel permeate the air, and all the while you have to say slichah! (excuse me!) just to make your way around! I expect to be pretty good at dividing by 3.5 by the time I leave, as that is the dollar-to-shekel conversion rate.
Until next time, collegiettes!
Miriam