My Summer at Technion University, Israel

05/28 Time has passed so quickly and slowly at the same time. I have just completed a week of being in Israel and I am thoroughly enjoying myself! Continuing from where I had left off in the last post, I stayed in the hotel at Haifa for a couple of days until I was able to move into my apartment on campus. Technion University was founded in 1912 and has a large gated campus with over 90 buildings. It has about 14000 students enrolled with about 600 faculty. It has a large emphasis on research with more than 60 research centers. Being on campus here feels vibrant and I feel welcomed. --------- The view to my left as I walk from home to work -------- The first day that I arrived on campus, I was greeted in my apartment by one of my flatmates, David who is a research student from France. He helped me find my way to the international student office on his way to work. The same evening I met my other flatmates, another David from Spain, and Li from China. It is a

05/19 Last night was long and tiring in Tel Aviv. I messed up my hotel booking and reserved a room for the night that I had left America, not realizing that I would be arriving in Israel the day after. I was not aware of this mistake until I reached my hotel and the gentleman at the reception told me that I was supposed to have come in the night before. I was obviously very flustered and I couldn't believe that I had made that mistake. The receptionist was an extremely helpful and worked with me till I was able to find another place for the night. Later that night I also realized that in confusing my arrival day, I had also not taken into account that the office that I was to pick up my apartment keys from in Haifa would not be open on Friday and Saturday, given that it would be the weekend. I spent the rest of the night finding a place to stay in Haifa for two more days.  -------- My bathroom window in Haifa -------- For those of you who got through my ran