Getting Ramat Gan/Tel Aviv in Before It’s Too Far

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have been staying with my sister and brother-in-law for the past three weeks during the middle of the week when I am working. Their apartment is in Ramat Gan, which is the same city as the office. The commute from Rachel and Itay’s was 25 minutes instead of about and hour and a half. Alas and hooray, they are moving to Jerusalem on Sunday. On Monday night, Rachel, Itay and I set out to take advantage of the benefits of their apartments location before they moved. I left work at 6:30, walked 2 blocks and hoped on the 66 bus. 25 minutes later I de-bused at Allenby Street in Tel Aviv… across the street from the famous and beautiful Tel Aviv beach.


I arrived as the sun was setting over the water – it was nice, but unfortunately the clouds blocked out a good chunk of the Sun.

Clouds or no clouds, it was about 27 – 30 C (80-86 F for you American readers out there). I changed into my bathing suit and just then Chel and Itay arrived to the beach. We went for a swim and the water was amazingly warm. It felt warmer in the water than outside. Once the sun was gone and it was getting dark, we dried off and Itay broke out his Pakal Cafe (camping stove) which he uses to make coffee. The Pakal was a huge hit on our family hike last year when my siblings and I hiked across the northern part of Israel from the Mediterranean Sea to the Kineret while on vacation. It was a great time.

We made coffee on the beach and enjoyed it with the best cookies known to man kind, Tim Tams. Tim Tams deserve a blog post of their own and I probably will make one. I’ll wait for a point where I have nothing worth writing about. The short on Tim Tams is that they are these imported Australian cookies, as far as I know they are not yet in the States, on their own, they are a formidable, delicious chocolaty treat. But pair them with coffee and eat them the “proper” way, as I was taught by Rachel and Itay, and you have hands down one of the best baked goods that has ever graced this planet. After we finished coffee, we headed home to shower, but our night did not stop there…

Rachel had for months from her friends at Bar Ilan (www.biu.ac.il) about a really cool brewery near school that she had not had a chance to try out. So after showering, off we went to Jems Beer Factory (www.jems.co.il). Jems was quite the gem (yes I just did that). The brewery was opened about a year and a half ago by an American from DC who moved to Israel.

Israel’s beer market leaves what to be desired; however, slowly but surely, pubs and breweries have been opening up (www.dancingcamel.com) that have added variety and quality to the traditional options of Maccabbi, Carlsberg and Tuborg. Jems was located in an industrial area and was housed in converted warehouse. Outside in the courtyard, there was a basketball court where patrons can shoot around, as well as some tables for enjoying a beer in the warm Givat Shmuel (across the road from Ramat Gan) night. Inside the place was really cool as well – awesome decor, lighting and music. The food was really cool with a unique menu; we had spicy sausage and smoked chicken wings. Oh and the beer, really good too. We had their stout and their special Belgian Ale (my favorite kind of beer). The Stout was okay – felt like it could have used a bit more, but it was very smooth and surprisingly light for such a dark beer. The Belgian Ale was really good, right on the money. It really brought me back to the time I spent in Brussels (two weeks earlier). All in all, Jems was really cool and good. If you are in the neighborhood, you should check it out. Sorry for turning this part of my blog into Yelp.com.

On our way out the bar, in classic Israel form, Itay ran into a friend from high school, Adam, who was living in the area. Adam was leaving the same time as we were and he gave us a ride home. After a day at work, a swim at the beach, coffee, a shower, dinner and beers, Yoel was a tired little kid. I fell asleep on the short ride home. Itay carried me upstairs, okay not really, and my siblings tucked me into bed. I’d say we made the most of one of the last nights we had access to Chel and Itay’s apartment in Ramat Gan.

I wrote the post above on the bus home tonight. As I am posting this I just heard news of a terrorist attack in Israel and want to put it here to share with you. It is stark - here I am having a great time, having just come back from dinner with my cousin and we heard the news in the article below. There is happiness and tragedy here all at once. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3947089,00.html

The Scary Sound in Israel

Uri, my office mate, just walked into our office, put his hands up in the Halloween scary way and said "Bah". I looked at him puzzled and asked "Boo?" Apparently "Bah" is the Israeli version of "Boo"... Who knew.

Lebron James of Jerusalem

When I was in New York, one of my favorite places in the City was Central Park. Central Park has a life to it. It is beautiful, homes all types of recreational opportunities: running (one of my favorite), biking, blading, fishing, sun bathing, Frisbee, baseball, boating and all the other great things you can do in a huge park. After having run what I estimate to be over 200 miles in Central Park and having spent many a weekend afternoon there, Central Park felt like home in New York. I was fearful that I would not be able to find anything like it here in Israel. Thankfully I have.

Whenever I arrive in a new place, one of my favorite ways to get acclimated is to run all over it. I have a pretty decent sense of direction and I greatly enjoy putting on my running shoes, heading out and exploring. On Friday I set out to go see Gan Sacher which is about a mile away from my apartment. Gan Sacher is a relatively large park for Israel standards, and it is similar to New York’s Central Park. Gan Sacher has basketball and soccer courts, a roller rink, skate board park, and a field – a long, open, slightly hilly, field. People are at Gan Sacher at all hours of the day and there are always Israelis there having Barbeques there.

A few pics of Gan Sacher

On Friday as I was running through the park, I saw a group of people playing Ultimate Frisbee! As some of you know, I am a bit of a Frisbee nut – playing Ultimate is one of my favorite Baltimore past times and I play almost every time I’m home. I joined the game for the last 20 minutes, and then spoke to the people who were playing. To my amazement, I was told that there are pickup and league Ultimate games held almost nightly in the park!

Yesterday I went for another run and just had to return to the Park. A large part of the field was being used to set up a large stage and sound tower for a concert being held in the Park this coming week. A bit further down the hill were a different group of Frisbee players throwing around discs before their game. I was so excited. I played catch with them and was invited to the game but had to head out to meet a friend. I was told to come play whenever I want. A bit further down the park, there was a group of people playing Rugby. I have never played before so I stopped to watch them practice for a bit. There was a smattering of Hebrew and Australian, British and American English spoken amongst the group. I asked them if they were on a team and they told me that they played in a league that started in October and I was welcomed to join them. I told them I had never played before and they told me it would not matter. The organizer/captain named Ziggy told me they practice every Monday and Wednesday and he took my number and told me he was going to call me to make sure I come play.

The people here are so friendly – I was never invited to play any sports in Central Park, nor did I have the opportunity to join pick up Frisbee games and rugby leagues. I have definitely found my new park home away from home.

In October, the AFL (American Football League), a flag football league starts up. When I studied here during my year abroad, a bunch of us from my school played in the league. It was a great time. We were pretty good but could not outplay the teams of grownup that had been playing together for years. We could handle the other 18/19 year old teams pretty well. I was planning on joining the AFL in October and playing on one of the adult teams that we were unable to beat. Its now my chance to beat up on the next generation of 18/19 year olds.

I now find myself in a unique situation – I have so many opportunities to play with different leagues/teams/sports that I need to decide where to “bring my talents,” as I don’t think I will have time to play all three sports. Now I know how Lebron felt having to pick where he wanted to go… I feel like the Lebron James of Jerusalem.

Where Else in the World

I have now been in Israel for 6 days and have been in two total stranger’s cars. I’ll explain.

In Israel, hitchhiking is a part of life. Although its popularity has declined, partially as a result of hitchhiker abductions by terrorists and a ban by the army restricting soldiers from “Tremping” (hitchhiking), people, especially young people hitchhike all over the place.

(1) On Saturday night, my sister, brother in law and I had to go to the central bus station to catch a bus to Ramat Gan, the city where they live and also where my office is (opposite sides of town). We decided to go to the city bus stop and wait for a bus and see if we could get a tremp before the bus came. Sure enough in less than a minute, the fourth or fifth car to pass us pulled over and took us to the bus station. On the way, I got to speaking to our driver, a 19 year old who was from St. Louis and moved to Israel with his family. He is now in the army and was off for the weekend. We happened to know a lot of people in common and he was friends with some of my St. Louis friend’s younger siblings… small world/country/community.

(2) Today, I was walking back from Emek Refaim, a popular street with restaurants and cafes. I made a wrong turn and found myself a bit lost. I approached a girl as she was getting in her car and asked her how to get to my street. She told me to hop in and she drove me home!

Where else does this stuff happen? I love it!!!

The Office - My Arrival At GSE

I started work at GSE on Sunday. I arrived at 8 am, not wanting to show up late. When I got there, the receptionist and partner that was speaking to her both knew who I was… the guy from Duff. The receptionist called my boss to be, Udi, and informed me that he’d be in in about an hour. In the mean time, per partner suggestion, she showed me around the office. We wend down the hall where I was shown my seat – a pseudo desk at the end of a real desk.

I'm on the left

Living the Dream

 I dropped my stuff and we continued the tour. It consisted of “here is where we get coffee, milk and eat lunch… and here is the mens room.” The tour finished with “let me know if you need anything.” That’s Israel nice and blunt.

 An hour later, Udi arrived and I spoke with him about what I did at Duff and what he does ad GSE. He has a very impressive background and I am sure I will learn a lot from him. When I got back to my seat – in the office directly across the hall from Udi’s, I realized immediately that my new boss can see me at all times from his seat with both out office doors open…  Udi is watching - joking.

The view when I swivel around... that's Udi's seat.

I got back to my seat and to met my office mate Uri… yes I sit next to Uri and report to Udi, as does Uri. Uri is the sweetest, nicest guy a newcomer to an office could ask to sit next to. In my three days here, he has already given me a ton of helpful insight and advice into the workplace and Israel as a whole. He is by no means a pushy guy, but he keeps telling me “In Israel if you want something you have to take it.” I have not been here long, but I can tell that its the truth. Uri just joined GSE a about two months ago, and was previously an accountant at BDO Seidman in Israel. He is also a really smart guy and in addition to working as an accountant, Uri has been teaching auditing at several universities for the past few years.

As the day progressed, people from the office came by to speak with Udi or Uri and I was introduced to a lot of people in the office. The most Israeli moment of the day came when I stood up to shake a guys hand and he said to me while sizing me up and down “wow, you are a lot taller than you looked sitting down. You must have odd proportions.” I was kind of shocked and didn't know what to say. I just looked at him for a minute, kind of laughed it off and said “haha maybe.”

I spent my first three days in the office working on projects and assignments that I had been working on in New York. So far, I described it to my old roommate, Michael Shiner, that it’s like I’m working in New York, only I get in very early, people don't respond to emails till the afternoon and I get emails all night long. Obviously there are many differences, but thankfully so far the work has transitioned well.

Eco Friendly Dish Washing Lesson

Over Shabbat (Sabbath), I learned how to wash dishes the eco friendly way. After lunch, I volunteered to wash the dishes. In Israel, water is very scarce, and everyone is very conscious to conserve water. This afternoon when is started to wash the dishes, my cousin advised me to be conscientious of the water use. I started with rapidly washing all of the utensils together. She immediately stopped me and showed me how it is done.

You start by running the water to wet all the dirty dishes in the sink. Then turn the faucet off and wash each dish with a soapy sponge. As they are cleaned, put the soapy dishes on the counter top. One all the dishes are out of the sink, clean out any refuse from the sink, return all the dishes to the sink and rinse off the soap from each dish. This method keeps the faucet off the longest and separates the clean and dirty dishes. Once all the dishes are on the drying rack, use a sponga (essentially a squeegee) to clean off the counter top. Israelis love spongas – rather than moping water, they spill a half bucket of hot water on the floor and sponga it across the floor, pushing the water into a built in drain or out of the home. The counter tops in Anat’s kitchen are made of marble, and so the excess water is easily squeegeed into the sink.

White sponga on the counter top cleans up the suds.

I Got My Bank Account On My Second Try

Thankfully, the bank which had been closed on Thursday at 4 pm, despite the websites claim that it would be open from 4:30 – 6, was open on Friday from 8 – 12. I made sure to be there on the earlier side, as banking in Israel is known to be cumbersome and to take a while to get things done. There was no receptionist at the front desk, so in good Israel fashion, I saw my way to the back of the bank, walked into the first office and asked if this was where I was able to open an account. To my good fortune, it was. I sat down with Chezy Mehlman, a very capable Account Manager, and watched as he deftly filled out an excessive amount of paper work. I initialed and signed about 25 pages of forms, and an hour after I sat down in the office, I had a bank account. Throughout the process, I began to see the many differences between US and Israeli banks. In the US, banks entice customers with “Free Checking”, giveaway gimmicks and high interest rate accounts. In Israel, the banks charge you to hold your money! 

At Bank of Jerusalem, there is basically a fee for everything I do with the bank and my own money. Writing a check – 2 shekel (NIS – New Israeli Shekel), cashing a check – 2 NIS, depositing dollars in my account via a check from my US account - $4, converting those dollars into NIS - $6 or some percentage depending on the size of the conversion. Withdrawals from the teller also cost money. I was told to basically stay away from the bank after I had just handed them over a check. ATMs, online bill pay and online banking are “free” to use. Other banks take a different approach with their customers. Rather than nickel and diming their customers, they simply charge monthly or quarterly fees for “all you can bank” checking!

Chezy was also told me that there are certain banking services, such as withdrawals in dollars, that I can only use at my “home” branch, where I opened my account. This was partly due to the fact that each branch keeps its own reserves on its own accounts and other branches won’t “front me” their capital if they don’t hold reserves on my account. This is apparently another great feature consistent in Israeli banks, not just Bank of Jerusalem.

I hope to find people who can explain to me how the whole banking system here operates. I am interested in gaining a better understanding of the differences between the US and Israeli banking system. All I can say is that there is likely a business opportunity to open a US style bank here that does not charge fees on everything, assuming you want to deal with the tons and tons of regulation, and Americans are lucky they do not have to deal with the relatively more complicated and expensive banking system in Israel.

My First Day In Country

I woke up far later than I had hoped and began to acclimate myself to my surroundings… I checked Gmail and Facebook. I had one goal for the day on Thursday, to open a bank account. Since Friday is Israel’s Sunday, I wanted to open my account so that I could arrive to work on Sunday (it's a work day here) with my account information for the HR people at GSE.

I do not know a lot of people in Israel, but everyone I know here has been really nice and welcoming. In the morning I received an email from Ely, a friend of mine that moved to Israel two years ago and just completed his MBA at Ben Gurion University. Ely was leaving to America for a month visit to see friends and family the day I arrived (I landed 12 am Thursday his flight was 12 am Friday). We got in touch and Ely invited me to his farewell happy hour later that day. Ely also strategized with me on how to go about opening a bank account. He warned me that the banks and postal offices in Israel have odd hours. Banking hours at most branches are something like 9 am – 2 pm and then 4 pm – 6pm. The bankers get a little siesta in the middle of the day. I looked online and saw that the Bank of Jerusalem branch that I intended to go to was open until 2 pm and then again at 4:30 pm – 6 pm.

I set out to walk over to the bank at 3:30 pm. As I am about a half block from Anat’s apartment (my cousin), a car pulls up from behind me and the driver yells “Hey”, which startled me a lot more than it should have. Sure enough, Ely is pulled over on the side of the road. He just happened to see me walking and offered to drive me to where I was going. Run ins and coincidences happen like this all the time in Israel. Maybe because it's a small country. On the way, Ely took me to get plug converters so that I could charge my electronic devices in Israel. Once I got to the bank, I was told by the security guard that the bank was open from 9 am – 4 pm. It even said it on the wall of the branch. I left kind of dumbfounded that the internet and actual hours would be so disconnected. Everyone who subsequently heard the story shrugged it off and said “Welcome to Israel.”

My Trip to Israel

The trip over to Israel was a great experience. I flew to TLV via Brussels on Jet Airways, an Indian based airline with a hub in the Belgium capital. I was very happy with Jet Airways. Upon check in, the ticket agent paid no heed to the fact that both of my bags were grossly over the weight limits, which was a really big relief. Per the rules on their web site, I was in for some massive fees. I was also seated in an emergency exit seat without having to request it, which is huge for a 6’5” guy like me.

On the flight to Belgium, I was seated next to a soldier named Tim from Northern Colorado. Over our 7 hour flight, I learned more about Tim than I know about a lot of friends. He was a very open and friendly guy, and it was a unique experience to sit and speak with a member of our armed services who has served for 8 years and done 4 rotations through Afghanistan. Tim broke and dislocated his shoulder jumping from a helicopter in March and was on his way back from a month of leave he was given to recover from his surgery. This had been his second serious injury in the Army. When I thanked him for his service, he really thought nothing of it.

Once we landed, I said my goodbyes to Tim and went on my way to see Brussels in my 10 hours layover. I took a train to the center of the city and walked all over the city. Highlights included:

·         I took the train to the central station and walked all over from there. I saw the city’s cathedral and then walked down Rue Royal Koningsstraat down to Place Poelaertplein – a court house. It had free wifi and was grandiose.

 ·         From there I went to the European Union campus – the buildings that house the EU. Unfortunately I did not have time for the tour. The buildings were massive and very futuristic looking.

·         I walked through a nice park to the Musee de l'armee et d'hostoire militaire. Which was a museum and a monument.

·         I took a train back to the center and went to the Grand Place, a really beautiful bustling square with chocolate shops, bars and really nice architecture. A lot to take in. It was one of the few parts of the city what was actually bustling. Overall, Brussels was a really calm place – it was like a serene city.

·         I saw Manneken Pis – a famous statue of a boy peeing into a fountain

·         I walked all around the upscale shopping area and narrow roads with cool different restaurants.

·         Of course I also made sure to have a few Belgium beers at different bars and pubs. I discovered a delicious beer called Kwak that was just so good. I also had some Belgium chocolate. How could I not?

One of the bars I stopped at.

Publish Post

This picture is for the Hebrew readers out there... it took me a minutes to figure out what DOLOKOSH was.

 Upon my arrival in Tel Aviv, I was surprised by my sister and brother-in-law, Rachel and Itay at the airport. They told me they were going to bed and jumped me as I cleared customs. It was a great surprise.

Background

At the beginning of the summer, I approached my employer of four years, Duff and Phelps (Duff or D&P), a New York headquartered global consulting firm, and asked for permission to work remotely abroad in Israel . I was fortunate that Duff had just created a strategic alliance with an Israeli consulting firm, Giza Singer Even (GSE). An arrangement was made wherein I was able to work for GSE in Israel and am now living in Jerusalem and working in Ramat Gan (across a highway from Tel Aviv). I departed to the Holy Land on Tuesday August 17, 2010 through Brussels and arrived at midnight on Wednesday August 18, 2010.