Happy Thanksgiving X3

This year’s Thanksgiving was like none I have ever had before. Despite the fact that I am over 6,000 miles from America, the true spirit of the day ran through the entire weekend. I have never in my life celebrated Thanksgiving as thoroughly as I did when I was not actually in Israel.

On Thursday, I woke up early to study more for my Hebrew mid-term. The traffic on the way to school was one of the many reminders that the day was not a holiday in Israel. I arrived 20 minutes late and immediately began my mid-term. It went well (I hope) and I got out early. I headed to the market to buy some wine, beer and soda for the Thanksgiving feast would be attending later in the day.

When I arrived at Boy Town Jerusalem, I was especially excited for class. On Tuesdays I teach 7^th graders that are behind in their English studies. They are just starting to piece together words having just completed learning the ABCs over the past two months.

On Thursdays I teach the 11^th and 12^th graders. Teaching the older students is more fun – they have more personality and have an English base on which to stand. Usually, we go over sections of their Bagrut (Israel’s Regent or high school matriculation exam) practice books. We read stories about space junk, book sales and travel clubs and then answer questions the passages. On Thursday I decided to mix things up in honor of the holiday. On Wednesday before I left the office I ran off some copies of Wikipedia’s Thanksgiving and Black Friday as well as two Black Friday advertisements to give the students a taste of what the greatest weekend in America is like.

When I mentioned to one of the 11^th grade teachers that I was going to teach my students about Thanksgiving he was surprised and concerned. I explained to him that Thanksgiving is not a Christian holiday, but is rather a great day for all to celebrate. When we started class, I soon came to realize the major error in my preparations. I should have spent the time looking for an easier passage that would be more understandable to my class. Unfortunately we had to make due with what we had. Reading through the Wikipedia articles gave me the chance to practice my Hebrew more than usual since I had to explain large sections of the passages. Nonetheless, the students enjoyed learning about Thanksgiving and at the end of class they said they like learning about America. One noted that he now had something to speak to Americans about. After the 11^th grade class, I was excited for the 12^th graders. They have the strongest grasp on English and I was sure they would understand more of the print outs. Before class I began editing the articles – crossing out sections that were unimportant or too difficult. 15 minutes after class was to begin, another English teacher came into the class room and informed me that the 12^th graders had taken a 3 hour exam for the air force to determine their qualifications for certain engineering units earlier in the day, and that the students had been sent home after the test.

On the one hand, I was happy because I now had time to go home and change and make it to Thanksgiving dinner on time, on the other hand, I was disappointed that I would not get to share with my students my enthusiasm for Thanksgiving. I decided that although it would be twelve months away, Thanksgiving will still be pertinent next week, and I’m excited to teach my 12^th graders all about Turkey Day soon.

After school, I headed with my friend Aviva to her friend’s home for Thanksgiving Dinner Round 1. It was amazing. When we arrived, the hosts already had the Thanksgiving Day Parade streaming through the internet and we sat around watching the parade sipping whiskey sours, a family tradition of one of the dinner attendants. The meal was absolutely amazing – the turkey named Carl was cooked to perfection and the pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes and cranberry crunch were all amazing. We went around the room sharing what we were thankful for and regaling each other with great Thanksgiving stories. To keep with my families tradition, I roasted chestnuts (not on an open fire though L) and many people had chestnuts for their first times. The meal was an absolutely great time.

After dinner we Aviva and I went to town and met up with our friends Rivka and Lisa. They had just come from another Thanksgiving feast that enthusiastically celebrated the holiday to the point that they had prepared themed hats for the meal. We wore the hats out in town and got a great range of responses. Americans enthusiastically wished up Happy Thanksgivings and Israelis rudely remarked that it was not Purim (a Jewish holiday on which people dress up in costume).

Indian and Pilgrim

The following day, I attended Thanksgiving Shabbat dinner at my friend Josh’s. Both the company and the feast were amazing. The turkey was again awesome and there was stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, the whole nine yards. Gideon, the token British guy at the meal decided to get very into the celebration of the holiday and brought song sheets that he said had “classic American Thanksgiving songs.” The song Albuquerque Turkey was his personal favorite – it came complete with a dance that he taught to the table and then made everyone sing and dance along. I have suspicions that he made the song up to “have a good piss at the expense of the Yankees.” The second dinner was also very authentic and a great time, but I still wasn't done yet.

I have a lot of cousins from the US studying in Israel this year. It just so happened that several of them were in Jerusalem this weekend, so my sister had us for lunch and made a sumptuous Thanksgiving themed lunch, again I ate turkey, sweet potato pie, apple cranberry crunch, etc. It was nice catching up with the family and my sister made a beautiful meal.

When all was said and done, I did not feel Thanksgiving-ed out. I found that the more meals I attended that we went around the table saying what we were thankful for, the more introspective and appreciative I became. I am really thank G-d very blessed and fortunate and I often try to remind myself of that fact and need to continue to do so.

It's Raining America

One of the best parts about living in Israel is that many of your friends will inevitably come visit to see friends or family or to celebrate a family or friend’s joyous occasion – be it a wedding, bar mitzvah or army completion ceremony. Over the past few weeks I have been lucky enough to have a bunch of friends come to visit. In addition to catching up with friends I have not seen in a few months, I have started to plan their trips better and have been asking them to bring me things from that States that I either can’t get here or are more affordable in the US.

Two weeks ago, my friend David W was here. It was my first weekend in my apartment and my roommates and good friend Lisa threw me a surprise apartment welcome party. We had a nice time together and I really enjoyed seeing Dave. I also has my friend Aaron stay over who was here for work with E&Y.

This week, I got to catch up with Maital, another good friend from New York. We went out to the new Mike’s Place, a bar in town. If you have not yet been, you should go. They have awesome kosher bar food. Lisa Maital and I dined on chicken wings, chili fries and beef nachos. All the things I could not eat at bars in America for Kosher reasons.

In addition to getting to see Maital, which was sweet, she brought me much needed new running shoes. I have giant feet and am not sure that Israel would even have running shoes my size – especially in the brand and width that I run – Brooks Beast 15-4E. They are awesome running shoes btw, and I have been wearing the same pair since right after the marathon – December 2009. A new pair was well overdue. I used them the following night, running 8.3 miles around Jerusalem, coincidentally on a lot of the same course that the 2010 Jerusalem marathon/half-marathon will follow. I am definitely in for the half – maybe the whole. Come cheer me on March 25, 2011. Thanks again Maital for the great delivery.

In about a week and a half my friend Mike is coming and he has been gracious enough to also bring me new work shoes – I came with really old work shoes as well. Thanks Mike.

I hope you all keep coming and visiting. I am just passed the three month mark on my time spent in Israel – three more months till I am going back for a visit. Hope you make it hear sooner.

I GOT PAID!!!!!!

That, my friends, is the short of it. I got paid. The long of it is that after three months, four visits to the Ministry of Interior, two visits to the Office of Foreign Workers and one accidental visit to the Jerusalem Municipal Offices (that was a bit of a mix up on my part – I misunderstood where the Jerusalem Ministry of Interior was – the woman looked so confused when I told her I was there for a visa – then she explained I was at the desk where people come to work out property tax issues – something I hope to not have to deal with.) I finally got my work visa. I showed up to my appointment, waited an hour after the start time (of course) and sat down with David, the visa guy.

He looked at my paperwork and told me immediately that the visa the lawyer my firm had hired to arrange that took nearly 3 months would cost my firm an additional 8,000 shekel and that I could get the B-1 for free (should have spoken to Iain – my roommate a while ago). As he was processing my B-1, their servers went out (of course). David told me that if they did not come back online soon I’d have to come back. Thankfully the servers came back to life and I got my visa. It wsa kind of anti-climactic but I none the less returned to my office feeling like a champion. At the end of the day, HR gave me a check for the majority of my last three month’s wages and told me we’d reconcile the rest at the next pay period… no big deal. Finally having the visa resolved (until I need to renew it in 6 months) felt great. What a relief.

Now on to depositing the check. While this task sounds easy, don’t let if fool you, it’s not. That night (Sunday) I got back to Jerusalem at around 9 pm, the bank was beyond closed and my bank does not have an ATM. The upside of the no ATM thing is that I can use other bank’s ATMs at no cost – the downside is that if I want to deposit a check I have to hand it in to the bank. Monday was the same story – left to Tel Aviv at 7 am, and did not return until 8 pm. Tuesday was the day – I finish teaching English at Boys Town Jerusalem at 3:00 on Tuesdays and figured I’d run over to the bank on the way home. You may or may not recall one of my first blog posts about my bank and its odd hours. The short of it is my bank (and every other bank in Israel) keeps odd hours. On my way over I checked my blackberry and realized that the bank’s cashier/teller counter closed at 2:30. I called the bank and they told me I’d have to come in between the hours of 8:30 and 2:30 to make my deposit. This obviously makes no sense as anyone who is working to make the checks that one would deposit in their account is at work from the hours of 8:30 – 2:30. I decided none the less to see if I couldn’t convince them to help me out.

I got to the bank at 3:50, which was good because the bank closes promptly at 4pm. I spoke to my account manager who told me that if I could not come in to the bank to deliver the check, I could mail it in. I looked at him dumbfounded – “If I put the check in the mail it is just going to end up right here.” He understood that but did not want to accept the responsibility of keeping my check on his desk overnight and depositing it in the morning. It makes me wonder how secure the bank is if the account manager fears for the safety of a check on his desk, or even better, for safety sake locked in a drawer. I was happy to hear that someone else could drop off the check for me. Thankfully my brother-in-law had some time the following day and he deposited the check for me on Wednesday. That afternoon I optimistically logged onto my online banking. Like the bank itself, the online banking system keeps odd hours and often does not work. I managed to get online and discovered to my surprise that my account balance was negative 1,000 shekel!

I actually owed the bank about 1,000 shekel (rouphly $273.30 at todays rate o 3.659 shekel/$1). The credit card I was issued is automatically paid off at the end of the month. Many Israelis “live in the red” and the banks allow them to charge more to their accounts for small fees (I was charged 10 shekel). One reason that people live in the red lies in the timing of cash flows. Rents are paid on the first, and credit cards are paid at the end of the month; however, salaries are generally only paid monthly on the 7^th-9^th of each month, one month in arrears (only for past work not for the future month). This timing can require people that make marginally enough to cover expenses overdraft their cash balances until pay day. Other people just live beyond their means and are allowed to.

At any rate, you can now all rest assured that within a day or two, when my pay check clears, I will back on stable financial ground, able to pay back the loans I took from my kid sister to live and will be able to make my rent payment at the beginning of the month.

STREET FAIR!!!!

Last Tuesday night I was faced with a serious dilemma, go for a run or join my roommate Shimon at the Jerusalem street fair that was taking place on Emek Refaim, a popular street lined with cafes and restaurants. Expecting to be generally unimpressed, but succumbing to fatigue and appetite, I opted to skip the run and join Shimon. My decision was definitely the right one. What we saw on the street fair is hard to put into words.

Shimon had mentioned that at the last street fair there were all sorts of food vendors selling dishes that are usually hard to come by in Israel. I recalled the street fairs held in New York where two blocks of an avenue are blocked off and vendors selling socks, hats, nicks and knacks were intermingled among those selling hit dogs, smoothies, barbeque, funnel cakes and all sorts of other unhealthy but certainly delicious dishes. I was excited at the prospect of actually being able to eat the street fair delicatessens, as they would finally be kosher for once.

 We met up with Jeremy and Gavin and headed onto Emek. Our first stop was the burrito booth – kosher Mexican food is unfortunately hard to come by. At the street fair I got me a burrito with everything on it. Across the way from the burrito stand, some lights and speakers were flashing and blaring as a group surrounded a hip-hop dance group. We checked them out for a bit and moved on. Things at this point of the street fair seemed normal and expected. As we progressed down the street, thing got weird quickly. We passed the singing, mime-looking clowns and the hard to describe (lots of those) performing group.

After the burrito, I was not yet full and we were ready for more fun foods. We came across a giant pot of kubbeh – a Sephardic dish of meat filled dumplings in a sour soup. It was very tasty and the pot was just awesome. The street fair was a bigger deal than I had been initially led to believe. 

 

Even the Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat came out. I did not get a chance to snag a picture with him, but got one while he was checking out the kubbeh – notice the two body guards with the ear pieces – there were there to protect him from the street fair crazies.

An artist had created several large statues that reminded me of pictures I have seen from Burning Man. The statues were kind of scary – large skeleton papier-mâché with cloth and material on them. At one point I looked to my right and saw these large skeletal statues and to my left I saw a miming performing group. Loud music filled the air – a mix between the brass band near the statues and the break dancing troupe’s hip-hop music, bright lights were flashing and suddenly I felt transported into a "freak out" scene of a movie - the entire environment was very tripy.

We met up with my friend Aviva and picked up some “candy floss” (Australian for cotton candy) and moved on. A guy in a full monkey suit on a unicycle biked past me screeching like a monkey. I heard later that he had climbed a tree and was screaming at people below. We then encountered a group of “performers” dressed in rags. There were acting out some sort of scene that involved them standing in a picture frame, loving a post covered in advertisements and periodically being afraid of everything. They were amusing and terrifying all at the same time. At one point they were running through the crowd and one of the performers jumps in front of Aviva, screams and steals some of her candy floss. Later, Jeremy posed with them as they were worshiping the flyer pillar – again really bizarre stuff.

That is a guy on the right. A crazy guy.

Another group of performers we saw was a group of three Israelis dressed as quintessential Israelis sitting in booths on ladders yelling at each other. The crowd seemed to love this because they clogged the road to watch and we had to squeeze through. I climbed into one of the stalls for a picture.

We saw a group of slapstick comedians we named the Shims perform. At one point they were pantomiming a boxing match and they needed a girl to pretend to hold a sign between the rounds in the fight. I quickly volunteered my friend Elana. As soon as she got up there, they Shims, who dressed in futuristic jump suits and mohawk wigs, told her in their hybrid English, Hebrew, Gibberish language that she should walk across the stage “making sexy” while holding her hands up to show what round of the fight was about to take place. Her first attempt at “making sexy” by dancing like she was at a barnyard ho-down was not appreciated by the Shims. Her second attempt did the trick. After her strut across the stage announcing the first round of the fight she tried to leave but they wouldn’t let her. She cleverly escaped when she announced round two and ran off the stage.

The Shims

The Shims Getting Down

Round 1

Forced to sit

At the end of the street fair, a large group of senior citizens were dancing a dance that they knew too well – I tried to figure it out and couldn’t get it. Jeremy pointed out that they have probably been doing the same dance steps for 40 years. That made me feel better about my dancing skills. I attended a salsa class the night before the street fair with Aviva and Lisa (I know I owe a post on it too) and so Aviva and I decided to try out our dance moves in public – on the unoccupied stage next to the senior dance party. All was going well until the DJ came over to us and told us to get off the stage – apparently we weren’t good enough to be tolerated on stage.

Below are other random pictures. All in all, the street fair was complete randomness and kind of indescribable. If you have the chance to go to a Jerusalem street fair, you should definitely go for it.

My roommate Shimon and I and a guy in costume.

Man on a unicycle pushing a child in a stroller.

Hip hop dance group

Your guess is as good as mine

People could get trash everywhere except in the not overfilled can.

 

WOOOO STREET FAIR 2010!!!

Quick Update - The Return Of Im Eshkachech Man

A few posts back, I wrote about a guy that rides the train with me in the mornings whose phone consistently goes off during services (see:Israelis Aren't Feeling the Good Vibrations). This morning his phone rang before services. This afternoon I again heard the same Im Eshkachech ring. I immediately turned around to see if the culprit was indeed Mr. Im Eshkachech. To my surprise, it was not. Apparently Im Eshkachech is the prayer disturbing, ring tone of choice. For now, I will assume that in the past as well the Im Eshkachech belonged to someone other than Im Eshkachech Man.

As always, I'll keep you updated as I learn more.

Also, keep your eyes open for Street Fair, a post coming soon that will hopefully explain a fraction of the absurdity I experienced at the Jerusalem street fair next week... stay tuned.

I Bleed For This Place

Today (Thursday) started off frustratingly to say the least. My work had scheduled a meeting with Greylock for 9:30 in the morning. After the meeting, I was going to attend a conference with two coworkers on Israel’s Energy Infrastructure: Present and Future. The whole start of the day sounded great. I told my Hebrew teacher that I’d be missing class and notified Boys Town Jerusalem that I would not be able to make it due to work engagements. Unfortunately last night we were notified that due to the interest expressed in the conference, our company’s four spots had been reduced to 1. Okay, still I was going to meet with Greylock, the second oldest VC funds in the world. I set out with Shimon, my roommate—7:00 am morning services and—at 7:20 to pick up his 2 carpool mates to make the quickest commute to work – a 45 minute drive to Modi’in, a city between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The trip took about an hour and 25 minutes to get to my office – all in all not bad.

When I got to work I had a candid conversation about the visa with my co-worker, which of course is still not resolved. A few minutes later as we are about to leave the office, we get the call from Greylock cancelling the meeting. Now I was in Tel Aviv, missing Hebrew class for nothing. I left to head back to Jerusalem and decided to go to the Ministry office again (they see visitors on Thursdays). I went home to get my passport and then headed to their office. By the time I got there, there was a pretty long line so I took a seat and waited. After about an hour wait I sat down with the foreign workers permit lady who informed me that the process was pending, my company still had not sent in one form, but she did not know which form it was that was missing because she didn’t have my file with her (as in blue folder with papers in it like all the other ones strewn across her office… and this is the country that brings us the latest semi-conductor and communications technologies.) She said that the process was not being held up and that my file was being reviewed by a committee, but that we would need to submit that form in order to have my application finished.

As you would expect, I left the Ministry pretty upset – the frustration just kept growing. I met my friend Lisa near bye for lunch. It was nice seeing her, but I could not shake the disappointment stemming from this whole mess. We walked to the bus stops to go our separate ways. Next to the bus stop, there was a portable blood donation center. In Israel blood donations are made often and in addition to holding blood drives, organizations operate mobile blood donation units that are essentially trucks that have blood donation beds. I decided it was a worthwhile stop over and I headed for the truck. After filling out the forms I climbed aboard.

I like to donate blood – I think it is important and that it is amazing that at some point some of me could end up helping/saving someone else – that is huge. Whenever I donate blood, I get very chatty and try to make it a fun experience for myself and the blood drawer. As I was waiting my turn I started making small talk with the girl who was taking peoples blood. She was a 20 year old preparing to attend university. I asked her the record bleed time of the day – 4 minutes. I vowed to beat it. When my turn came, she put the needle in and counted off a “Ready, set, go.” At “go” I turned on a song on my phone and was timing my progress. I am a pretty good bleeder, which is good for donating blood and bad if I ever get cut, stabbed or shot (G-d forbid). Although I did not break the 4 minute professional bleeder, I put up a respectable 4:30. Not too shabby considering the average is 8-10 minutes (I have mad skill).

After my donation, I got a juice bag (like a box but made out of foil instead of cardboard) and a sticker. Later at the supermarket, two people gave me kudos for donating. When I walked out of the blood mobile, my mood was suddenly transformed; I was in a great mood, cheery and singing along with my country tunes. I called Lisa to tell her the good news, and she said I sounded high. I was feeling great. I think it was really caused by my forcing myself to be silly and light hearted, which I always do when I give blood – in three months I’ll be back at it, aiming for the 4 minute mark.

Welcome to Israel

It was bound to happen. I really should have expected it. I don’t think that as an American I could be equipped to handle it no matter how much I mentally prepared myself. On Sunday I had a day of Israel.

Let’s start with the back story. I arrived nearly 10 weeks ago. When I entered the country I was given a tourist visa, which allowed for a three month visit to Israel. My company hired a lawyer and started the process to get me a work visa. Until I have my work visa, I cannot be paid by my company. The visa process seemed simple enough – the company here needed to submit a bunch of forms and I needed to supply my resume and my diploma to prove that I was a technical worker that the company needed to hire. It took me a while to get my diploma to Israel since it turned out that the copy I brought was not sufficient. I got my diploma to the company on October 3^rd and was certain that the visa would soon be in order.

As the weeks past my savings that I brought with me to Israel were eaten away, and I became increasingly anxious about the visa and when I would get paid. I continued to ask my company for updates, but everyone seemed to be relying on the lawyer and had few answers. Last week when it dawned on me that my tourist visa would expire on November 17, and I would be in the country illegally or have to deal with the hassles of extending the tourist visa, I reached a new level of frustration. When everyone still had no answers for me, it was suggested to me last Wednesday that I go to the Misrad Hapanim (Ministry of Interior) to try to work things out at their office face to face. On Thursday I was out of the office and received an email in Hebrew. When I read it, it stuck out to me that the email said the process takes six weeks. Without reading further I called my office. It was clarified that the process generally takes 6 weeks from the start, not from where we were now, which was in the 5^th week of the process. I asked if I should still go and was told it could help.

When I moved into my apartment on Friday, I mentioned to Iain my Australian roommate that I did not have my work visa and I described the complex process my company was working through. He looked perplexed and explained to me that he has been in Israel for three years now on a work visa called a B-1, which is very easy to get. He told me he has been able to renew it each year in a quick office visit. I figured I’d figure it all out at the Ministry’s office on Sunday.

So, Sunday morning I head to the office in the center of Jerusalem to go get my visa. I asked my brother-in-law Itay to come with me so that I’d be able to negotiate the language barrier. I arrived before Itay and thought I’d get to it. When I got off the elevator on the 13^th floor of the Ministry’s building, I asked the security guard where I go to get a visa. His first response was “you can’t do that today – you need to come back on Tuesday or Thursday. No one can speak to you today.” Apparently the bureaucrats have visiting hours that you can meet with people.

I did not accept his initial rejection and pushed on – I took out all the forms my office had given me and showed them to him. He asked me if I was a mitapel, a helper – a lot of foreign workers come to Israel to be aides for senior citizens. He was asking because the visa that my company’s lawyer advised I get is the visa for mitaplim (plural mitapel). Why this visa needs a diploma and resume is beyond me, but in any case, the lawyer recommended a considerably more complex visa than was necessary. I decided that rather than arguing in my Hebrew I’d wait for Itay and see what he could do.

I went downstairs and met Itay. I told him of my progress, or lack thereof, thus far. As we boarded the elevator he put a hand on my shoulder, smiled and said “Welcome to Israel.” When we got upstairs, the guard first looked at Itay and said “I already spoke to him and told him to come back on Tuesday.” Itay asked respectfully if there was someone we could speak with. Initially the guard responded that we could speak with him. Despite the fact that he was being a smarty Israeli, he actually was very knowledgeable about the visa process. Eventually Itay convinces him to call someone who could look up my application in their system. The guy picked up the phone, dialed a few numbers and handed Itay the phone. The person informed Itay that my company had not submitted several forms for the visa to be considered! This was a very upsetting revelation to me. I immediately called the guy from my company that advised me to go to the Ministry and informed him of my discovery. Remarkably this was not news to him. “I know that – it was in the email I sent you on Thursday” he responded. I was nearly dumbfounded. I asked why he then re-advised me to go to the Ministry knowing that they did not have all the forms. He said it was a good idea to meet with the people face to face so they’d know me and care more. Ironically – I was unable to meet with anyone face to face. After I hung up with my office I figured it would be a good idea to at least try to meet someone face to face, so I asked the guard where the person that Itay was speaking to on the phone sat. Remarkably, the person the security guard called was on the very floor we were on, around the corner from the reception desk. However, no matter how I asked, the guard absolutely refused to let us meet this person. His simple repeated response “Asoor” (it’s forbidden) was unbudging. All of this was going on as a government worker was smoking a cigarette ten feet down the half from us, as if that were the office’s smoking room (Oh Israel).

I left the Ministry of Interior utterly frustrated with the bureaucracy I had just experienced and with the visa situation at large. After I left the Ministry, I called my office again and was assured that all of the forms would be submitted that day (Sunday) and that things would move along.

I did some research on my own and found that my roommate is indeed correct. This whole visa nightmare could have been resolved with a simple offer letter and a few other forms. I could have filed for a B-1 visa, which can be issued anywhere from the day of application up to 2 months to get and things would have been fine. I now find myself in a dilemma, I am considering filling for the B-1 and seeing if it comes through before the visa my office filed for, but I am fearful to find out how the Ministry of Interior handles two visa applications for the same passport – who knows what kind of creative trouble they could make with that. So I now find myself trapped in bureaucracy, with nearly three months of unpaid salary owed to me. I asked my company if they could “loan” me the pay, but they are not allowed to do so, because “that would be like paying me.” Hmmm… we wouldn’t want that now would we?

My Israel day did not end there. I left the Ministry at 10 and decided that there was no way I was going to the office at that point and that I would go and do work from home. My apartment building is located on a dead end street. Next to my building is an elementary school at the end of the block. Sometime in the afternoon, around 3pm, I heard a megaphone in front of the school. I could not hear what was being said and imagined the kids were getting out of school. Suddenly I heard a loud explosion. I looked out the window and saw police trucks. I immediately rand to my room, grabbed my camera and bolted for the door… the Oracle was on the story.

I got out to the front of my building in time to hear a second explosion. As I reached the end of the building walkway I looked down the street and saw a scene right out of a movie. At both ends of the street, police trucks had blocked the road and in between them was a large yellow robot with a mechanical arm looming over a bag on the floor. I was witnessing a chefetz chashud, or suspicious object. In Israel, the rule of “If you see something say something” is taken very seriously. If a bag or package is left alone in a public place, a bust station or mall for instance, it is not taken lightly. Security will quickly be notified and the bomb squad is called in. In the case on Sunday, a bag was left across the street from an elementary school. While the bag likely belonged to a forgetful child, security at the school knew that it could also be something considerably more sinister. Likely after asking children in the bag’s proximity if it belonged to anyone, the police were called. The explosions that I heard were the sounds of the robot shooting the bag with a powerful shotgun that would set off an explosion if in fact the bag were a bomb. Once the bag was shot twice, the robot first lifted the remains of the bag and shook them around and then drove over the bag several times. Once it was relatively clear that the bag was no more than a bag, a member of the bomb squad walked over to the bag in full Hurt Locker gear and checked to make sure that it was in fact a false alarm. Thankfully, the bomb scare down the street from my apartment was nothing more than a scare.

My first thought after witnessing the bomb scare was a reinforcement of the morning’s lesson, welcome to Israel. I then had a series of realizations, which I think say something about my acclimation to Israel. The first realization was that things could be worse – although I have not been paid in nearly three months – at least there was not a bomb in front of my apartment building in front of a school full of elementary school kids. I find it funny that I am seeing the glass as half full in these conditions – at least there was not a bomb at a school.

I then realized that it is kind of crazy that this is the place I want to spend my life –I feel such a strong connection here that I want to sign up for a life of having to deal with bureaucracy and threats that one would never face in America. I also realized that in a country where a bomb in front of a school is a real possibility, one has to accept that there will be bureaucracy and other absurdities to deal with.

Sunday really was a welcome to Israel of sorts. Many of the magical things that I find happening here are quickly taken for granted. I need to focus on keeping these positives in the limelight and not get weight down by the other side of my welcome to Israel. I have mentioned in previous posts about the friendliness and openness of people here – about bank managers giving me a lift from the bus stop and my company’s Yom Chevra (day long outing). These are things that also only happen in Israel. Welcome to Israel Yoel – you get the good and the bad. I still believe the good outweighs the bad.

See You Soon, But Not That Soon

Hey all. Sorry I have not posted in a while. Things have been pretty active here lately. Since my last post I moved apartments, changed my travel plans to the states and had the most Israeli of days. In this post I am going to just update people that were expecting to see me at the end of December… I’m sorry to say, but that will not be the case. I had planned on returning to the states to attend the wedding of Aimee and Jeff and Chaim and Julie, both of which were within the week between Christmas and New Years. Fortunately, two friends from childhood got engaged within two weeks of each other and planned their weddings two months apart (beginning of March and end of May). These are two of my closest friends and I will (better) be in their weddings. I cannot fly back and forth so many times, so I pushed my ticket to the middle of February – the last day I could push my return to was February 17^th due to a foolish rule mandated by Jet Airways that a return ticket cannot be pushed more than 6 months beyond the departure date of a trip. So I will be back for about 2 and a half weeks in the states and hope to see people then. I will also be going on a double bachelor party to Vegas, which should be a jolly good time as well.

Stay tuned for the upcoming post: Cribs the Oracle Edition, where I plan to take you all on a video tour of my apartment.

My Cool Run in Jerusalem

There is nothing quite like the feeling of running hard, as my adrenalin pumps and I suddenly get in the zone and feel like I can just keep on running. I have been getting back into running and working out and am starting to feel the results of my efforts (4.5 runs last week). So far since Friday I have run twice and played basketball.

Last night when I got home from work I really needed a run. I had a lot on my mind and came home thirsty for a run. I changed my clothes and off I went. I knew that I wanted to put down some good distance but didn’t quite know where I wanted to go. I started off on my regular path to Gan Sacher. Then, like Forrest Gump, when I got to the top of the park I just kept going. I ran up to Kraft Stadium, the field sponsored by Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots. I saw some women’s flag football games being played as I ran on. As I kept going I decided it would be cool to run over the Jerusalem Chords Bridge that goes over the entrance to the city and will one day be used by the Jerusalem light rail. 

The bridge is a controversial structure – all the buildings in Jerusalem are built of the same stone, giving the city a unique and consistent ancient feel. The bridge as you can see in the picture is all white and has a very modern design.

 

 It is a work of the world renowned architect, Santiago Calatrava, who has designed many bridges as well as the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia Spain that I visited with my sister during out Europe Trip in 2006. A special thanks to my sister Atara for teaching me just about all I know about architecture over our trip.

His designs are very modern, even futuristic looking and are beautiful. The pictures do not do his work justice. Fell free to check out more pics here: Santiago Calatrava Works

I personally think that the bridge is beautiful and I appreciate the stark contrast it presents to the skyline of white brick on every other building. Many Jerusalemites vehemently disagree.

As I crossed over the bridge I had a huge grin on my face and felt the return of Running Yoel. I tore down the bridge, past the central bus station and realized that I was far from home. I started to think about the different routes that I could take to go home. Somehow in my mind I made up to take one of the longest, indirect ways home. As I passed various turnoffs I considered taking them but kept on going. I ran down Yaffo Street past the shuk (market), passed the center of town and Ben Yehuda where a political rally was being held. I made a right at the David’s Citadel and ran passed down King David Street passed the YMCA and King David Hotel. I then headed past Gan Hapamon (the Bell Park) and made a right down Emek Refaim (a popular street of restaurants and cafes). I ran down Emek Refaim and then made a right on Rachel Imeinu, up the hill at the far end of Rachel Imeinu and took a left on Lamed Hey, where my run finally ended.

Now many of you might be scratching your heads now asking why I am posting an obscure list of pseudo landmarks to tell you about my run. Well last night when I got home I hooked up my Garmin watch (GPS Running watch – once you run Garmin you’ll never go back) to my computer and downloaded the run to see what it looked like on the map. I logged on to http://www.mapmyrun.com/ and I discovered possibly the coolest thing that has happened to running since the shoe lace. Please see below – the flight simulator of last night’s run.After that whole long description of the Chord Bridge, I am sorry to say that the satellite images used are old and they do not actually show the bridge. I'm sorry about that.

Also a special shout out to my most loyal reader for his continued support and inquiry into my running progress. Thanks ZZ

Alternative Jerusalem Nightlife: The Renaissance Fair

Last Thursday night, Lisa and I headed to the Old City of Jerusalem to see the Renaissance Fair that was being held in all parts of the Old City. We did not realize that the Fair was ending shortly after our arrival, so unfortunately we did not get to see everything we had hoped to. When we arrived, we saw actors on stilts performing a cute skit as dozens of kids looked on. We quickly moved on to inquire what else there was to see.

When we approached a group of “maidens” in costumes and asked them what their part was in the Fair and what they were doing, they replied very out of character that they were getting paid. Despite their lack-luster enthusiasm and breach of character, we still took a picture with them.

 We then headed into the Old City and toured in the Christian Quarter. The Old City of Jerusalem is divided into four parts, the Muslim, Christian, Armenian and Jewish Quarters. The Renaissance Fair afforded Lisa and I an opportunity to see parts of the Old City that we had never before seen. We saw all sorts of costumed actors and enthusiasts partaking in the festivities. I could not help but notice that most of the actors were not as enthusiastic as would be expected. In retrospect, this was likely caused by the fact that we arrived to the Fair 45 minutes before it ended. At that point, the actors had probably all “had enough.” Although in retrospect it may not be fair to compare the actors to the enthusiasts. The non-actor enthusiasts were probably looking forward to this event for much longer than the actors were. I saw one man wearing metal armor - how often can he wear that when it is not the Renaissance Fair... not often - especially in Israel, where you need to go through metal detectors to go to the bus and train stations, malls and other large public buildings. Also, truth is, for those that know me well, I'd be the same way if Kenny Chesney or any American Country Music artist came to Israel - I'd be decked out in my country music getup hella quickly.

This guy was on stilts when we arrived. He was an actor in the Fair

This guy however was just an over-enthusiastic Renaissance Man - he was not in the show.

He has a friendly side too

We fought through the crowds to make our way deep into the Arab Shuk (market) to see a stage where yet another performance was just ending. Lisa and I struck up conversation with some students who were studying in Jerusalem on a post-high school one year program. I was surprised and Lisa was flattered when they asked us what program we were on… just about 7 years late on that one guys. We discovered from talking with them that we had missed fire breathers, a battle royal of armored nights and what sounded like an all together fun time.

One of the highlights of my night came as it was time to go. We had just fought our way through the crowd to reach one of the main performance stages, only to discover that the performance was over and that we had to come back the way we came, this time flowing with the massive crowd through the narrow Shuk of the Old City. As we were preparing for cramped walk back, I thought of an alternate route that lead us in a completely different direction than the mass of the crowd and we were able to comfortably jaunt through the Old City and make our way back to the centre of town. I was so proud of myself for thinking of the alternate route. For a guy, that is the exact opposite of asking for directions… what a rewarding feeling. :-)