Progress?

Ulpan is going well, and fast. I'm still doing Rosetta stone in the evenings, which helps to reinforce things.

A few details:
So far I've eaten in a few of the "cafeteria" places around campus... actually small restaurants. They all seem to have about the same options, with some minor variation and difference in prices.

You can get a large plate full of one meat dish, some rice, and two sides for about 16-20 shekels. That works out to about 4.50-5.50 for a good sized meal. A sub-style sandwich is usually around 7-10 shekels. (it's about 3.8 shekels to the dollar).

Today I visited the pool, where I can get in free until august 1. After august 1, it's a few hundred shekels for the year. It's an olympic sized pool, and pretty nice. I also visited the two saunas. One was a dry sauna and one was a steam sauna. If you want the same experience, just stick your head in the oven. For the steam sauna, stick your head in the oven with a pan of water that's been there a while.

After swimming, I was hanging around the cafeteria thingy attached to the pool, and I met a Computer Science/Mathematics student from Japan, who was folding modular origami. He shared a few pieces of paper with me and I showed him a new modular piece and made a vase. Then I was going to go to a free Jazz concert... but I misread the email, and it was yesterday. :(

I'm still waiting for an email back from a few people about churches and details.