Traversing Israel by Myself

I had a meeting today with Ruder Finn (the company I'm working for). Those living in Jerusalem met with their employers when we were in Jerusalem last week, but my contact person there was at a conference so I was told to meet with her today. So I was extremely worried about traveling from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem all by myself. I had to leave ulpan early, and then caught a little bus from near where we are staying to the central bus station. The central bus station is massive..its like a mall and a large airport combined! I showed my paper with the address and the bus numbers it says to take and I ended up on one bus that I was told was what I needed. After we pull away I mention to the lady sitting next to me how I will just take a cab once we get to Jerusalem. She says "Jerusalem?! This bus isn't going to Jerusalem!" So I yell at the bus driver that I need to get off and he gives me my money back and basically just pulls over and lets me out. So I promptly burst into tears..I'm in a shady neighborhood in a strange city in a foreign country and I have no idea where to go! Then this nice lady sees me crying and asks "Slicha? Beseder?" (Excuse me? Are you okay?) I explained my situation to her and she was so sweet--she walked with me all the way to the bus station and through the station to the correct bus. It turns out the bus numbers the program gave me were for once I got to the bus station in Jerusalem (would have been nice if they had written that down). By the time I got to the bus station in Jerusalem (also huge) I didnt want to mess around looking for my right bus, so I just took a cab. The meeting went well. It basically lasted ten minutes! I will be working Sunday-Wednesday. Starting a workweek off on Sunday will take getting used to! She introduced me to people in the company. There are also nine employees there and they are all like in their 20s and 30s. They all seem very friendly. I then took a cab back to the bus station, somehow found my way onto a bus for Tel Aviv, and then took another cab back to our apartments. So it was a stressful and expensive (like $50!) ordeal for a 10 minute meeting. Fantastic.
Ulpan is difficult. I like learning the hebrew letters (in block and script) because that is easy for me (basically just remembering) but the speaking part is hard! She is throwing so much vocabulary at us. Five hours a day is a pretty long time to sit in a classroom learning one thing
Another interesting aspect about Israeli society: There are security guards at the entrance to all grocery stores and large stores. They look through bags and purses and carry a metal detecting wand. Definitely not something you have to go through to go to a Walmart in America!