My So-Called Internship

I remain undecided...

2006-08-17T10:14:00.000-04:00

...on whether I want to continue this blog or not. I will probably just archive it and start another one, if I have time for it in school.

Being at home

2006-08-14T09:22:00.000-04:00

At home, everything is weird.

After an 11-hour flight, everything is weird.

My mom and my boyfriend and my dad are weird. I can't relate to them anymore, but hopefully I will recover.

I think in Hebrew and begin my questions in Hebrew. At restaraunts, I want to order in Hebrew and I want to ask for directions in Hebrew, and at the same time, I am mortally afraid that I will lose Hebrew.

The conflict is no longer an hour and a half away, but a world away. I watch it all the time on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and it seems weird, because it's not the same thing at all. It's a bunch of soldiers marching on screen, so completey detached from everything I know. It's not people talking about the situation anymore, it's not an innate fear that comes up every once in a while. It's clean, sanitary.

Everywhere I go, it's too quiet. Not enough action. Not enough of anything. I forget that they don't sell humus in grocery stores. I have a dream about buying humus and pita in Giant. I feel lonely among people.

It's ridiculously hard to adjust. I miss Galgalatz at work every day and it's not the same when I listen to it online.

We go to a lake. We drive an hour to get there. We are still in the same state, almost in the same area. One hour is the distance from Tel Aviv to Haifa. In another 2.5 hours, you are in Lebanon. In another 2.5 hours here, you are in Pittsburgh, still in Pennsylvania. Everything is so big, so quiet.

But across the ocean, everything is loud and hot and small. And I wish I were there. Not in Tel Aviv, because I've learned that I hate the city, but in Herzliyya, or Ra'anana or somewhere quiet, where I can sit on a porch and think.

Because my thinking has just begun.

Lahzor l'baita (To return home)

2006-08-08T03:04:00.000-04:00

I am going home in three days. (two, if you don't count today.)

My flight is at 12:05 in the morning on Friday.

And after that, I don't know when I'll be back here. But I know I will. Because from the very beginning, I realized that, for better or worse, something in my mind tied me to this country for life.

HOME.

It's crazy. I just gave my final presentation for the bank for the e-banking division, and it was kind of sad, because I realize I'll never have coworkers this awesome in America. They will never wear jeans to work and text people during meetings and offer me cake for their birthday and just be ISRAELI. Everything will be tense and stressed out, as it is here sometimes, but every day. I will never be able to leave early just because I've finished all my work, or have falafel for lunch. I will never be working in an area that's possibly going to get bombed by Nasralla (maybe it's for the better that way,) and I'll never be closer to current events (unless I decide to check out Haifa and Kiryat Shmona before I leave.)

I'll never be able to go to the beach after work, or realize that, after two months of trying to speak and understand Hebrew, I understood much more than I realize, and feel triumph. There are no Hebrew road signs in America, no Hebrew menus, no Hebrew national anthems, no Hebrew anything. I hope I won't forget the language. And everyone needs to help me practice. If you are reading this, and you speak Hebrew, and you know me, DABER ITI B'IVRIT.

At home, there are no bomb shelters, no suicide bombings, no air raid threats, no refreshing the news every five seconds, no frantic cell phone calls, no adrenaline. At home is Dan. And Mer. And Russell. And everyone else.

But, at home, there is no humus (good humus anyway), no falafel (College Pizza does not count), no Yalla ya nasralla , no Israeli soldiers, no Jerusalem, no Neve Shalom, no nana, no Galilee, no Dead Sea, no right-wing Russian immigrants...wait, there are right-wing Russian immigrants (hi mom), no bookstores that sell the Torah in Russian, no Israeli salad, no Eyal Golan and Idan Yaniv. There is no Kotel Maariv, no small coffee shops, no Israeli fruit stands, no Israel.

At home, there is no Israel, and that is the probelm. But in Israel, there is no America, even though everyone speaks English and there is McDonald's and iced coffee. There is no peace, there is always nervousness. The country is small and surrounded by people who hate it. In America, there are no morbid thoughts, "Where do I need to be if something happens?" "What are my chances of survival if something happens in Tel Aviv?" "Will I be able to call people on my phone, or will the lines be jammed?" "How many suicide bombings are being planned right now?" "Why are there so many helicopters flying over Tel Aviv?" "What does it feel like to sit in a shelter for days in a row?" And then, "I am so naive and stupid for thinking all of these things."

Sof sof (finally), I don't know what conclusions I can make about my internship and my time in Israel in general. I may post about it after I get home, I may write an essay that I will post on my website, I may just do nothing at all and if you ask me, I'll give you some conclusions. For now, I just want to get on the plane and sleep a deep sleep that ends only when I am home, in my bed.

Until then,
L'hitraot.

Thoughts

2006-08-06T05:19:00.000-04:00

Not much time to report everything that's been going on lately. don't worry, you'll be hearing all about it. Just a few observations.

Today in the bathroom, I heard a woman talking on her cell phone. IN THE STALL.
You know you've been in Israel too long when you can sing and know every song on the radio
You know you've been in Israel too long when someone says "excuse me" and you are startled by why they could be saying that
I have the Yalla Ya Nasralla song stuck in my head:http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=87386
I am meeting my friend Ronen for lunch today! He goes to Penn State with me, but he's Israeli and Spanish. He's awesome.
We have our presentation tonight in front of the CEO, plus 30 other important bank people and I've been appointed to speak. Gulp.

Frustration

2006-07-31T05:36:00.000-04:00

The last couple days I have been in an extremely pensive mood, mostly resulting from reading A LOT of online news articles and commentary. I feel mostly pensive because most people are starting to hate Israel, big invader, puppet of the US, etc. and because I can't really do anything to help. At least I don't know. I've given blood, but I don't think it's enough. I've contacted a lot of people I know here, including some I don't, like various blogs I've been reading in America whose bloggers are from Israel. I need another way to help. Even if it's to visit people in shelters and be like, "Hey, what's up? Hang in there , guys. Israel is proud of you."

I only have 11 days left here. It's a scary thought. I really want to do something while I'm still here, but between being stuck at work and coming home and not really knowing what to do, I feel trapped.

Any suggestions?

My thoughts

2006-07-30T07:45:00.000-04:00

Usually, I don't get into political arguments with people. Or at least I try not to, because I end up looking stupid and I don't have enough information to back up my facts. And I'm not a successful arguer. But in this case, it is imperative to state my opinion.

Israel is fighting terrorism, and the world doesn't realize it. I am tired of seeing anti-Israel messages on talkback forums, on news websites, and hearing about it from people back home, but especially from Israelis who stand by the thousands in anti-war protests. What are you protesting? For the big bad IDF to stop operations? Who started this war? Wasn't it the terrorists who kidnapped two (plus one, all of whom we are still waiting for and thinking about) soldiers? What is the army supposed to do? Sit on its hands, like it's been doing for the last six years, waiting for more terrorist bases to build up in Southern Lebanon? Sure, we can do that. Would that be a proportionate response? What would appease everyone? A scenario in where Israel tried to bargain, plead, beg on its knees for the soldiers, and continue to let Hezbolla continue?

Sure, we could do that. But I am tried of being paranoid. In only two months of being here, I have experienced people that I know or that I know through friends being drafted into reserves, seeing waiters turn into soldiers in restaraunts,see the strain on peoples' faces, lie awake at night, paranoid at every noise that goes on under my window, and think and think about people sitting in shelters all day long.

And also of constantly calculating how small the country is-if there is a suicide alert in Kfar Saba, how long would it take the bomber to get to Tel Aviv? If there are rockets in Nahariya, how long would it take them to reach Netanya? If there are terrorists in Gaza, how long would it take them to get past Ashdod? All the time, calculations, looking at the map, seeing how small and narrow and surrounded our little country is, and how, for anyone, there is no where to go, but just to sit it out.

I am here for only two more weeks. And I have already built up a psychological tolerance to any sirens that might sound, to the pangs of panic that sometimes build up, to the fact that Hamas wants to open a third front in the middle of Israel, to everything. And it's sad.

Maybe I have been rambling for a while, but my point is this. Actuall I have two. The first is:
I saw it on a post somehwere, and it says "you can't negotiate with people who want to kill you." And it is absolutely true. And I wish the army best of luck and I applaud what they are doing.

And the second is that, if you are for Israel, speak up about it. We need some good PR right now. Post a comment on a blog. Write something to your local paper. Tell your friends. PR is of the essence. Spread the facts. Spread the truth.

Ok, that was my politicizing for now.

Thought on Aliyah and Mint Tea

2006-07-26T03:40:00.000-04:00

As my days here are dwindling, well, not dwindling quite yet, but seriously decreasing, I am plagued by a number of thoughts. These include, whether Nasralla is indeed capable of launching rockets further than Haifa ( http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3281439,00.html), how else I can make an impact on Israel, and how I can transport falafel back to the United States, listed in order of increasing importance.

Yesterday, I bought some Zionist propaganda posters from the 1950s. I really like propoganda, and I have no clue why. I have a lot of it in my room in college. Now I have some Hebrew ones to add. Yesterday, also, when I was walking home from work, I think I saw a K-9 training unit, like the one whose officers we met a couple weeks ago. They were all in plain clothes though, but they had maybe 10-15 German Shepherds near the mall that were severly muzzled and they were just standing around with them near a car. Some children came up to pet them. Only in Israel, only in Israel.

Later in the night, we met up with Talia, who is living in her brother's apartment in Tel Aviv this week, so she doesn't have to commute from Kfar Saba. We were talking about the north, and I wish I could go up to the North to see what is going on. I feel like I always see things in the media, but not ever live. Obviously, you are not big fans of this. But I feel like I'm not doing anything again, just taking, taking, taking from Israel. Giving blood made me feel better, but not enough. I suspect the only thing that will make me feel like I'm contributing will be participating in a paratrooper raid of Bing Jbeil; but for now, I will have to find some way to help out. I'm thinking of doing Table to Table, http://www.tabletotable.org.il/?gclid=CPalwLPrroYCFRJ-Vgod0ECnAg , which drops off food at certain points in Tel Aviv to take to the north. Maybe I can buy some toys for children and drop it off, along with an encouraging note. I know if I were in a shelter right now I would want some warm falafel and a note from someone saying "you are awesome! Keep defending the homefront! More falafel to come later!"

So I will get back to you. But I want to do something big. As I mentioned before, I will also volunteer with the army, to provide any moral support that the soldiers might need.

Other conclusions I've come to: I don't know Israel nearly enough, and I think I am getting the wrong perspective of Israel. I live in the biggest city; that would be like finding out the US by living only in Manhattan. I really think that skews my vision. Sometimes I'll get glimpses of palms or of the beach, and I'll remember how I felt about Israel when I was here the last two times. A feeling of complete love, of peace, a feeling of belonging, such a strong and deep feeling that I can't even explain it. It's the same feeling I get whenever I see Israeli flags in America (although probably not anymore, since we've had an overkill of those since the war started). It's how I think Zionists feel about Israel, when they see past its problems. It is the pure Israel that gets blocked out for me by the everyday noise of just going to work, being treated rudely at the grocery store, not knowing enough Hebrew, feeling lost, feeling out of place. Although I've been feeling less of that lately, and there are some moments when I just think I fit in. The first month was the hardest, and the second month is easier. And the third and fourth would be too, if I were here for them.

The more I think about aliyah, the more strange it seems to me; leaving America for a totally different country. It seems really crazy. And the more I think about the real process, the more distant the idealism that I felt before fades away: getting used to the tax system, never having the ability to even remotely influence or experience the weight that is American policy, feeling trapped by the glass ceiling that is Israel's promotion system, feeling trapped by the smallness of the country and not enough opportunities to advance. etc. But then I think about the things I am giving up: the ability to say to people who have opinions about Israel "i am here. you have no right to say anything, because you are not voting. I am making a statement by living here.", the ability to contribute and volunteer all I want, I guess those are the most important things that bother me about not living in Israel. The fact that, once I leave, I will not be able to say anything for or against it, because I have no right to. Just like right now, American Jews, British Jews, etc, that have opinions about the war sound silly to me because they are not here. They cannot know how they would act. This is why I can't really ridicule yerida (the opposite of aliyah, immigration outside of Israel,) because I don't know if I would do the same. I get very nervous, and I don't think I could keep up the same level of pressure. I just can't say. I will also miss the food. Oh, how I will miss the food. I can tell you exactly what I will miss: Atala hummus, coke in glass bottles, mint in my tea and lemonade, salad at every meal, including breakfast, and falafel. Ahhh.

That's it for now. I will write more about work later (maybe.)

Funny stuff

2006-07-24T12:13:00.000-04:00

http://www.tapuz.co.il/North/Game.asp -beat Nasralla

http://www.cagle.com/news/IsraelGaza/images/stephff1a.gif

More to come.

Sushi Rivers and Suicide Bombers

2006-07-23T03:16:00.000-04:00

Boker tov la'chem (Good morning to you),

I will relay this entire weekend, including most of the parts I have already related, because I am too lazy to write two separate accounts for you and the blog: This weekend was probably the most productive I've had in Israel. Earlier this week, I decided that giving blood was the way to make a small but important contribution to Israel, so I found out how to do it. In Hebrew. All by myself. This is the thing I am most proud of myself for. I looked it up in the Israeli Yellow Pages, called them, somehow formulated my question, somehow understood their answers, and understood what time I should come in to give blood. I decided to do it on Friday, since this is our weekend (again, I get messed up by the Friday/Saturday thing) On Friday morning (like Saturday morning in America), I got up at 8:00 am. Yes, that is earlier than I have ever gotten up for a college class in my life, excluding the first semester, when I was stupid enough to take English 30 at 8:00 am, but that's beside the point.

Anywayyy, so I got up early, and walked to the building (which I figured out how to get to using the Hebrew map search feature!), and went up to the second floor, where the Bank HaDam (Blood Bank) was. There, I was presented with an application in Hebrew. Obviously, I'm not at the level where I can decipher it yet, so I asked for one in English. The only other one they had was in Russian. Excellent. So, after I filled out the application, I was given a glass of water to drink and a small, energetic old woman named Estri took a sample of blood and ran it through the blood reading machine (I have no clue what it's called) and I was set to go. I didn't have anything for breakfast but I lied and said I did. Obviously, Estri did not believe me, because she gave me coffee and cookies, and then I went in to the actual room where they put me on a bed and hooked me up to a blood machine. There were about 4 other people giving blood with me in the room and the atmosphere was quiet but not serious.

There were also two Tel Aviv University students doing a study on blood, and they took a test tube of mine and also asked me questions about where I was from, how much I exercised, whether I had been in the Yarkon River or not (the River in North Tel Aviv...it is rather toxic,) etc. It was very exciting. Afterward, I sat recovering and the woman who had been giving blood next to me turned out to be from California. Well, she was born in Israel and then her parents moved to California and she finished school there, and now she is back here. She said, "your parents must be terrified-mine are." And her parents are Israelis. I was kind of disgusted with them, that they decided to just leave and that their daughter is now here, but lately, I've been realizing that I have no right to judge anyone about anything because just the other night I wanted to go home immediately.

After I gave blood, I left immediately and decided to go to Azrieli (the huge shopping center) before it closed for the day (3:30 on Fridays), but in the meantime, feeling extremely satisfied and productive, I called my friend Vitaliy, who was also in Israel on an internship with the David Project (http://davidproject.org/), which is a political organization that gives the foreign media backgrounders, etc about Israeli current events and presents Israel to the foreign media in conjunction with the Government. Needless to say, they have been extremely busy the last two weeks. Vitaliy does a lot of research and actually gets to meet with the media, which is very exciting. He's been to the Jerusalem Post office, met with Important Israeli figures, and Eitzan Schwartz, who won Israel's Ambassador program last year (http://www.shaister.com/index.php/?p=506; http://www.keshet-tv.com/hashagrir/),who I've heard smells really good.

Anyway, we met for lunch at the Azrieli Mall (with Vitaliy and his grandma, who lives here) and just talked about what we were doing in the various projects. I kind of felt bad because Vitaliy's grandmother speaks Bulgarian and a little Hebrew and no English (Vitaly is from Bulgaria) and I speak Russian and a little English and no Hebrew, so Vitaliy and I spoke in English. But when he explained things to his grandmother, I could totally understand them! Russian and Bulgarian are apparently very close. So it sounds like he is on a really cool internship, but they had to leave because they were having lunch at home. I was left to frantically buy things for everyone before the mall closed, and afterwards, I took a walk down Allenby Street,which has A LOT of Russian stores, where I bought my movies. There were HORDES of people outside because it was Friday, and in my usual morose mood, I thought," It would be easy to perpetrate a terrorist attack right now and no one would notice." I usually think about things like this. Like, if I'm near a bus I'll think "If there is a terrorist on the bus, how much time do I have to run away from it?" Or, "If Nasrallah decides to strike Tel Aviv, where would be the best place?" Or, "How much time do I have to get to a bomb shelter?" Or, "Did that security guard check my bag properly?" Things like that. But I try not to let them dominate my life.

So, after the Russian store, I went to the grocery store, which was jam-packed before Shabbat, to buy hummus, pita, and grapes. And then I sat out on the balcony eating them. Such is the life.

On Friday night, Batami and Schneid went out to eat (I didn't want to spend money,) so I wandered out towards the beach by myself. I thought about sitting down at one of the cafes at the beach and ordering a plate of watermelon to eat and just sit and watch the ocean, but then Batami called me and said that there was a suspected suicide bomber in the Greater Tel Aviv area. Great. I walked home by myself, extremely paranoid. Every man had a huge bag that was a bomb and every woman was hiding something under her dress. Every loud noise startled me, and I hoped I would get back ok to the apartment. I did indeed, and we stayed there for the rest of the night. I was miserable. Batami and Schneid started saying that if it was fate you die in Israel, then it was meant to happen. I totally don't buy that. You are not fated to do anything. The things that happen to you are a direct result of your actions and if something happens to you, it could have been avoided by making another choice.

The next day we woke up and found this out: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3279470,00.html

And we were relieved. We spent all day at the beach and went to a sushi bar for dinner. That was exciting, because not only was it sushi, but it was ON A RIVER!!! That means that the sushi goes by and you can take as much as you want, as the picture shows:http://www.pre-motion.nl/uploadedfiles/producten/Close_up_sfeer.jpg
. The plates are colored according to price, and they just add up the colors of your plates. Schneid and I were in our element because we love sushi. Then we went home.

Today I am at work.

Me Ha Lev

2006-07-19T03:03:00.000-04:00

While it is a little scary living in a country with military operations going on (although none of them near me), it is also interesting to see how people under pressure react. For example, I've reacted by eating falafel and going to the beach....or else the terrorists win. Bank HaPoalim has reacted differently. In the meeting we attended about shivuk (the marketing department) a couple days ago, Eli Mizroch, the head of the department (I think...or pretty high up) told us about the various campaigns the bank has done to remodel its brand image from that of a bank associated with the Histadrut (trade unions) to a dynamic, privatized bank that is flexible for its clients. The results are visible in the red and white colors, as can be seen on the website (http://www.bankhapoalim.com/ or, if you read Hebrew, which you don't, but I'm just throwing the option out there, http://www.bankhapoalim.co.il/) and interesting advertising campaigns.

For example, for Yom Haazmaut (Independence Day), people usually put out TONS of Isaeli Flags everywhere, but in recent years, it has been declining. Bank HaPoalim put an ad out in the paper last year offering people free flags. These are quality flags, mind you; full size and made out of rayon/nylon. They spent about $2 million on this campaign and it paid off for them because not only was it a success in reviving the tradition for the country, it also boosted Poalim's brand recognition. This time, they really outdid themselves. While I can't say I agree with what they did simply for publicity/customers, I can see how it's nice from a philanthropic viewpoint. When the war started in the North, the bank closed about 68 branches, out of a total 318. That's a lot of branches to close. People in the North still have banking needs, so, Poalim organized about 10 busses (pictured here and I'll post the picture that I have later:http://www.bankhapoalim.co.il/icmm/uploads/images/230x160.jpg) and armed them with all types of banking services. Today, they are sending them up to the North. Basically, the vans/trucks will drive around in the North and people can come to them to do banking stuff. When there is a siren, they will drive as far south as they can, and then come back. Obviously, it was very hard to find people who want to drive the vans, but they got this operation together in maybe 3-4 days. This is A HUGE DEAL. However, I'm disappointed that Eli Mizroch told us that the reason they did it was for publicity and to enhance Poalim's image over Bank Leumi, Poalim's main competitor. I really wish they did this just because. But I guess that's how business works. Now watch Leumi come out with something similar. As far as I know, they haven't.

Today, when I came to work, I saw the vans/trucks outside of our building (there was a huge press conference) and a bunch of people wearing shirts that said "MKol halev"-from the whole heart launching the trucks to go to the north. Big deal, lots of security, fortunately I got one picture of the van, which I will have to upload.

Other than that, not much has been going on. I had to go to a hacking conference yesterday which would have been informative for me, had it been in English. Right now I am working with Google advertisements and figuring out if they would be good for e-banking to implement through tons and tons of Powerpoint presentations. I am becoming a Hebrew Powerpoint Pro.

Disregard the last post...

2006-07-18T05:53:00.000-04:00

..it was written late at night and in a strange state of mind. I am feeling 100% better today and am not at all paranoid. I will write more later. I just didn't want anyone to worry about me going mental.

Tension

2006-07-17T11:16:00.000-04:00

Tel Aviv is still the safest place to be in the country, but I've become very paranoid, as someone who has never been exposed to tension will be. Ever since yesterday they said there was a possibility of rockets hitting Tel Aviv, I have been extremely nervous. I shouldn't be, because there isn't a likely chance, but it's always in the back of my mind.

They showed me where the bomb shelter was at work and the safest place to be anywhere: a stairwell. I know what the siren sounds like and that there is one minute from when it sounds to get to safety. I need to be inside, away from windows, preferrably in a staircase, with my head covered. I'm 30 times as likely to survive laying flat than standing up. And I am not leaving Israel. I am staying until my internship is over. Because I will be fine. Even though I can't sleep at night because I think that the busses on the sreet are really missiles, or I get paranoid when I hear people speaking Arabic or I jump at loud noises and I rehearse the route from my apartment to the emergency exit every day. This is how Hezbolla wants me to live, but I am trying not to. It's very hard. And I hate them. Hate them, hate them, hate them. Hate them for making me jumpy at work, for figuring out if I can hear the siren over the movie I'm watching, hate them for making me feel like I am trapped in an area, waiting to die.

I wish the army would hurry up and destroy the installations. I wish that they would stop the stupid Katusha rockets on Haifa. I wish so many things. I wish I didn't overreact like my Israeli friends do, I wish I could be more calm, I wish I could do stuff at work. I'm not as rattled as I sound, but last night I heard people talking underneath my window in Arabic, and I prayed that they would go away. One thing is for sure. I am going to come back to America a completely different person than when I left. But I will not let them scare me out of Israel.

Work on the other hand is good. I finished everything they have for me so far and am waiting for an assignment on google. Today we had presentations about the marketing department, which is very successful, and more about global private banking, so I didn't actually have to go to work. It's really interesting learning about the bank's infrastructure and hearing them use terms I've used in my classes: CAGR, NPV, and other methods they've taken from Harvard. I'm glad my Penn State Education is being put into global use :)

Hmmm...

2006-07-16T07:52:00.000-04:00

Everything is fine with me. However, I found this amusing:

Khomeini praises Hizbullah attacks on "the Zionist tumor"

Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, praised Hizbullah's rocket attacks and called them, "an attack on the Zionist tumor spreading in the region."
In a television interview, Khomeini added that "the Zionists see Lebanon as meat in their teeth, however recent days and the strong actions of Hizbullah have showed them differently." (AFP)

Too bad the Zionist tumor is destroying most of Southern Lebanon.

Kav Ham

2006-07-13T09:08:00.000-04:00

A kav ham is, literally, a hotline. Bank HaPoalim has set one up for customers in the North because four branches were closed. Our office was in a bit of a crisis because we deal with the web aspects of everything, so we were busy setting up stuff to facilitate information on the Internet and Dafna, who was supposed to have lunch with me, was overwhlemed trying to organize the details. It's ok though, some other day. Here are the resutls:http://www.bankhapoalim.co.il/. I wish I could be doing something important like that, but today I only filled out more award forms. Not that it wasn't exciting for me, because we are under deadline, and I had to interview a woman who headlined the "Poalim on time" project and handled over 80 staff members on a very short deadline and budget. That was really cool. I feel like my English skills are coming in very handy.

Important stuff is going on. Here is part of an e-mail I wrote to my mom and Dan about it:

So, there's nothing much going on to report today. Mom, STOP FREAKING OUT. The stuff going on up north doesn't affect me at all. If you were here, you would know that it's true. The radio that's on at work doesn't play upbeat songs anymore. Thousands of hotel reservations because of birthright have been canceled on Army demands. I don't blame any of this, and I don't blame people around the world for being terrified, but unless you live in Nehariya or Maalot or any one of the towns near the border, it doesn't affect you. The only way it affects you is that family members are being called up in the draft. Talia was really upset yesterday is because her best friend had to go and she went to Kfar Saba to try and see him before he left. We went to see X-3 at the movie theater. I wasn't really in the mood for a movie. More like a "sit and contemplate" mood.

I don't feel right enjoying myself right now, and as I keep telling everyone, I wish there was something I could do. I feel so disgusting, like I'm just taking advantage of the State and not giving anything back. It's strange, but I don't feel like I owe America anything, but like I owe Israel a lot that I haven't given yet. Jon called his mom to send his MADA jersey so that he could maybe go help out ambulances up north. Maybe it's a little crazy and probably he'd never do it, but everyone is feeling a little crazy these days. Ben Bloch said if a full-out war broke out, he would go straight to the aliyah office. I would like to think I would do that if something big happened, but in reality, I would probably chicken out. And then when I think about it, I feel disgusted with myself. And this circle of thoughts goes on and on.

What really disgusts me is that France and Russia declared it unnecessary agression. It's nothing new, but I mean seriously. I'm not really sure what Israel can do to get approval, short of all the Jews committing suicide, but before that, cleaning up the country so that the Arabs can live there in comfort. Nothing will ever win Israel international approval and we should stop trying to appease people (the UN, the EU, the US, etc, etc.)

...and here's Lebanon

2006-07-12T07:34:00.000-04:00

While Hezbollah was getting ready to kidnap two soldiers, we were at the Dead Sea:

We had to get up at 6 in the morning to leave to meet my building where I work (there are at least 3 Poalim buildings within a 4 block vicinity of one another. This bank owns a LOT of real estate. ) However, the night before that, Jon was complaining of stomach aches/pains and took a LOT of Batami's medicine (she has everything, from Ben Gay, to Pepto Bismol, to Advil.) Right before we went to bed, he came and said he might go to the hospital. We said, don't go alone. If you need to go, we'll go with you. Just wake us up and let us know. And he's like, "No, no, I'll go." So at three in the morning, he woke us up and said, "I'm going to the hospital." We said, "Don't go alone, we'll come" but he left. Obviously he was not there for the trip in the morning. Usually, people from different departments come with us on trips. This time, a lot of people from marketing, some from financial advising, and some from HR came, including Revital, who is just awesome. I would like to start a Revital personality cult.

Anyway, so we all piled into the van that would take us for our adventures (there were maybe 15 people in our group) and Mark, the security guy, told us that Jon's mom had already called him three times. Danny joked, "What, she isn't on the plane yet?" If I ever go to the hospital, please don't freak out.

We left, and I was sitting next to Irit, who works as a financial adviser in Tel Aviv. It was really awkward because I am really bad at holding conversations with people I don't know, especially if I feel like I should be talking to them in Hebrew and they are trying to talk to me in English. The whole way was really awkward for me. Anyway, so I found out her parents immigrated from Romania in the 1960s and she still speaks Romanian, even though she was born in Israel. She lives in Rishon L'Zion and has two children, whose pictures she showed me on her cell phone. They are boys, and she told me about how the smaller one eats dirt and she can't stop him. I told her to teach her sons to be clean, because boys are really messy. And then I told her about how my boyfriend is the messiest person I know. ;) She said she would try, but it was hard when the little one ate dirt from the garden all the time.

Theoretically, the drive from Tel Aviv to Masada is 2 hours, but it felt like a lot more. In order to get to Masada, you have to go through Jerusalem. There are several roads to get to Jerusalem: one that goes through the west bank, and one that doesn't.

We passed Ramalla. Obviously, as you can see by this map, we were in the West Bank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:We-map.png

It was fine, though, because where we were, the sepratation barrier was in place. It was maybe a 7' tall wall. Obviously I couldn't find any pictures of it because when I did a google search for sepration barrier all that came up were pro-Palestinian sites. So we passed through Arab towns and military check points, and then we were around Jerusalem. None of this is a big deal, I should tell you, and everything you have ever read on the news blows it out of proportion. The blatant anti-Israel propoganda and biased reporting makes me wonder how much more of the world I am misperceiving.

So when we got around Jerusalem, we started driving south...into the Desert! I had never been in the desert, so it was a lot of fun for me. If you've never been in the middle eastern desert, I suggest you go. It is very mystical and romantic and also VERY HOT. VERY VERY VERY HOT. Maybe it was 38 Celcius. Yeah. On the sides of the road, we started passing more sand, and Bedouin houses. I seriously don't know how they live. They have tents that look like they could blow away in the wind, and a rickety fence around the tents. The men and the women live in separate tents, and there are a few camels and donkeys around the tents. And they've continued to live like this, despite Arab wars, despite everything, despite the State of Israel, they just live like they did for hundreds of years. It seriously amazes me.

Then, we stopped at a gas station for cold drinks and to stretch. There were sand dunes and rocky outcrops and very small amounts of brush. It is fun to be in the desert. Except it was scorching hot. There was also a camel tied up at the gas station and I wanted to pet him, except the Arab that owned the camel said it cost 10 shekels, and that made me sad
Pictures cost more, so I didn't take any, but actually, this is probaby the exact gas station and the exact camel: http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a231/andyko/Israel/Camel.jpg
Although, why are there Asians there? And I think I don't fit in!

Sooo, we all got back in and continued going south. The first place we came to was Ein Gedi, which is WAYYYY in the desert. This place is mentioned in the Bible, and is known for a lot of the water present here, which allowed for farming and agriculture. There is also a synagogue that dates back reeeeeeallllly far and we saw the excavation of it-it was really neat. But it was really hot, so I have no clue how anyone lived there. There was also a kibbutz founded in 1956 that was here. It really makes you appreciate what people went through to found this country-fending off hostile Arab tribes, the heat, the lack of falafel in the 1950s, etc. Yay Zionists!

We left after 15 minutes (we had a tour guide with us who explained everything and she explained about how they found the synagogue, how they excavated it, and how in this synagogue, the women and the men sat together. I am under the impression that people were a lot more lax about everything back in the day. Kashrut? Dude, I'm lucky I FOUND some wild pigs to eat today. Feast time!

After we left Ein Gedi, we drove up to Masada. I've heard the stories and seen movies about it so many times before that all that was left for me to do was to check it off and actually visit it. There was a really nice museum and we went up by cable car instead of climbing either the Roman installation or the snake path (saving time and heat stroke.) We went up with a group of British tourists who made me want to kill them with their obnoxiousness, but other than that, it was good.

I was just in disbelief the whole time that someone (well, a crazy someone-Herod, and later, craaazy zealots) had managed to make a life here. They didn't have a cable car. Our tour guide told us about how Herod had caves dug out to collect rain, which fell three times a year, and that he made a swimming pool from the water, to show the other surrounding kings that he could have a swimming pool in the desert, an enormous symbol of power. He also had enough food (from Ein Gedi) for his people and also had a Roman system of heating/cooling the floors built (I got really excited because I am a Roman achitecture nerd and I remembered learning about the cauldarium and the frigidarium and the terpidarium!!!!!) Lucky for me, there is a lot of Roman architecture in Israel, seeing as to how the Romans basically subjugated the Jews and chilled in Jerusaelm for a while. Not that I'm bitter.

So, we went around the whole site and Shimoni, our tour guide, told the story about how they all drew straws to kill each other, and how symbolic it was. Told us that Herod killed his wife and his two sons. How nice. To clarify, there were two groups of people that lived on Masada. King Herod came here first from Jerusalem:

According to Flavius Josephus, a 1st-century Jewish historian, Herod the Great fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE as a refuge for himself in the event of a revolt. In 66 CE, at the beginning of the First Jewish-Roman War (also called the Great Jewish Revolt) against the Roman Empire, a group of Jewish rebels called the Zealots (kana'im, "zealous ones") who objected to Roman rule of Judea (as the Roman province of Iudaea, its Latin name).

And then the zealots followed. You could compare these zealots to the Taliban, except they were Jews. Also, they did not wear the turbans. Also, there was not a satirical movie made by Trey Parker and Matt Stone about them.

So, after we learned about Masada, we left. It was fun. The one thing I am truly surprised by is that Adi, a marketing department member, came with us on the trip. SHE IS 6 MONTHS PREGNANT. And she went on Masada. Is this ok? Again, emphasizing the fact that every Israeli woman is pregnant. This is not bad at all. Where is this Jewish population erosion myth? I really don't see how the Arabs can top that, except that if each Arab woman has three in one go. And that means they are on some wicked hormones.

So, after Mesada, we drove to the Dead Sea. We stopped at this Hotel for lunch:

http://images.travelnow.com/hotelimages/s/039000/039858A.jpg

and the eating was good. Let me tell you about it, because I always do. First, it was a buffet. That should tell you everything you need to know. But just in case you don't, here's what I ate: olives(I used to hate olives, now I eat them every day-you should be proud, mom), humus, Israeli salad, chopped vegetables (tomatoes and bean sprouts), rice with vegetables, fish fillet, black bread (that actually tasted like black bread), more Israeli salad, a brownie and a piece of halva. The eating was good.

After that, Talia, Batami and I went to change for our adventure in the Dead Sea. We went up to the Dead Sea. It is reallllly weird. Realllly weird.Because there are no waves and there is SALT on the shore. Literally salt and the shore for a couple inches is filmy white because of the salt. We went in. It wasn't that bad. I didn't have too many cuts and scrapes, so I felt like I was ok. The water literally tastes like table salt. And you float! It's a lot of fun. But kind of eerie too. After maybe 20 minutes, we were thoroughly salty and we got out. After you're in the Dead Sea and you rub your fingers together, they feel slimy because of the salt. It's interesting.

We washed off and went to the pool. But we were sad that there was no black mud-it's only in Ein Gedi. The hotel has a full range of Dead Sea services, including salt pools, sulfur baths, and mud massages. It must be really nice to come for a weekend to just relax, and that's what a lot of people in the bank actually do. Get away for a weekend in the winter.

After the pool, We towled off and left to go back. I slept the whole way back, except for when we stopped at a cafe and i got ice cream. Because it is HOT.

Now, about work. Work is good. I really do feel that I am being productive. Today, I finished a project proposal about Poalim's check-cashing project that could win a prize (if my writing is good enough-no pressure!) I also summarized a lot of marketing magazine articles into Powerpoint to present to Dafna. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that Microsoft Office is international, and that it is extremely important to learn it. Later on, I will probably be working on a Google-related project. I really don't want to say to much, because I don't know how many Leumi (competing bank) spies are reading my blog :)

And about the current situation: I am glad that the international community finally supports Israel (or it does, from my understanding), because what Israel is doing is totally correct. I mean, I was beginning to verge to the left a little bit-maybe Israel is not always right, maybe there is a reason terrorism exists, etc. But, we gave them the Gaza Strip, right? We started to give them autonomy, right? And what do they do? Kassams and kidnappings. Thanks, guys. Oh, and a big thank you to Hezbolla. You guys are going to pay for it. However, I can't really judge the Israeli reaction because my Hebrew is veeeery bad. I actually think it's regressed since I've gotten here. So I will just give you the straight-up Vicki scoop on stuff. I just realized after talking to Jeff yesterday online that there is a lot of stuff that I talk about that is very Israeli/Jewish, and the terminology may be foreign to some people, so if you don't understand something, please comment!

This weekend in the life of Vicki

2006-07-09T09:46:00.000-04:00

Times are indeed better even though the Gaza invasion keeps getting worse and Hamas has decided to use a few more Kasam rockets.

On Friday, I took the train to Jerusalem. It is honestly the most beautiful train ride I have been on, even outpacing the one we took in Switzerland. This is a picture of it, although not taken by me:
http://iap0.rocketrange.no/~armin/homepage_priv/pics/Israel03/Jerusalem/p20030816_027.jpg

It is a great time to sit and think about things, and to prepare yourself for Jerusalem. You know I am not a religious person. But there is something very spiritual and special about the city, maybe because I don't visit it often, that puts you in a different frame of mind. The other thing is that, as I said before, to go to Jerusalem, you go up, so it also puts you on another plane. When you see it from a distance, it's a nice view. I think we may have even gone into the West Bank! How exciting! Well, probably not, actually. Don't worry. I suspect this because the train stopped at Beitar Illit, which, as you can see on the map, http://www.mideastweb.org/thefence_05.htm , is kind of in the West Bank. It's not really, but it is.

So I got to Jerusalem and went to the Wall. This is always a very important experience for me and even more so now that I got there all by myself. I don't know what it is, maybe I just set myself up for it, but every time I go there, it is like an overwhelming feeling of something greater than myself, of a sense of peace, of almost completeness. After I wrote my note and went up to the wall to put it in, I just stood there, leaning against it, and I probably looked really ridiculous, but it was just such a different feeling from things that I usually feel. Afterwards, I felt calm and relaxed and I left. I will not tell you what I wrote, because it's between me and the Wall. However, I did not ask for a BMW, and I'm beginning to think that I should have.

After I left the wall, I scrambled back to the train station. The last train left at 2 (Shabbat regulations are so annoying) and I had to make it. In the taxi to the train station, when I got in, the cab driver was playing a Eyal Golan CD (one of my favorite Israeli singers) and all was good. I got the train station in plenty of time and sat on a bench and was I pulled out about to Master i Margarita for the 30-minute wait.

There were also two soldiers sitting, waiting for a train (which is free for them, as well as busses) and a girl laying on one soldier's lap, in civilian clothing. All three were obviously tired, waiting to go home for Shabbat (soldiers get leave for the weekend) and it was very touching. Not that I was looking at the soliders.

The trainride back was uneventful, except it was PACKED because everyone was going to wherever they needed to be for the weekend. And by PACKED I mean religious families. You know, the kind where the father has an ENORMOUS kippah and the mother wears a long skirt, long sleeves and covers her hair. And they have like 6 kids. The family sitting across from me had 4, and probably more were on the way. Both of the parents looked at most 30 years old. INSANE. I feel so bad for the kids of religious parents, because they have no choice. They dont' know what's going on, but before you know it, they are circumcised, stuck in kippot and long skirts for the girls, and sent off to yeshiva to be brainwashed, and will spend the rest of their life praying 6 million times a day. They are so restricted in everything, and they don't even have a say in it.

After I got back from Jerusalem, I took the train to Herzliyyah, and Danny picked me up at the station. That was where my weekend of fun began. He drove me to Ra'annana, the town he lives in, which is right next to Herzliyyah, but very very very pretty. I like it 10 million times more than I like Tel Aviv. And if I had lived in Ra'annana the whole time, my bitterness would have been much less, and my thoughts much different. As it is, I literally felt my Zionism recharging this weekend. His town is green and pretty and clean and quiet, with colored street signs and numbered street lights (people got tired of telling their friends which light to turn on for directions, so now they're numbered) and a lot of pretty pretty houses and apartments. It's one of the only towns in Israel with a budget surplus and one of the greenest towns in Israel as well. Obviously, there are few Russians there. A lot of the immigrants in Ra'annana are from America, the UK, South Africa, and Australia, so it's a very Anglo town. Danny's house is nice and quiet, on the end of a street, and he lives across from people from England. It's very English-friendly, and for a minute, I felt like I was back in America-his house has American channels as well as Israeli, they get American newspapers, and they have American cereal in the cupboard.

Danny has two dogs. And they are awesome. I will send pictures. They are both Golden Retrievers, and they are mother and son. The mom's name is Pooch, and the son's name is Gever (which means man or male, so it's funny), and they are bilingual. It's very cute. They are very excited to see you and they jump up on you, but they don't bark like Babe (my dog) does. They just lick you a lot and like their tummies scratched. It's very obvious that Danny misses them a LOT when he is at Penn.

So we all came to his house: me, Schneid, Batami, Talia, Jon, and Ben Bloch (who made it safely from Hevron, despite the fact that rival factions were fighting each other). Elan and Ben Berg were in the Jerusalem vicinity. We sat around and watched TV, and then it was time for Shabbat. He rounded up everyone for the synagogue, and we went late. Talia and I had to sit in the women's section (above the men, separated by a thin gauze curtain,) and it was the worst synagogue experience of our lives. First of all, we couldn't find the books from which to follow the service and no one would tell us. Then, the girls all turned around to look at us. EVIL, HIDEOUS looks. Like, WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY SYNAGOGUE. WHO THE HELL ARE YOU. And then THE MEN STARTED TURNING AROUND AND GIVING US POINTED STARES. It was so stupid and horrible, so after 10 minutes, we just left and went back to Danny's house. After that, we had dinner, and then, for dessert, Danny's two friends came over. I forget their names, but one was white Israeli and the other one was Persian. She was really really pretty and we all had a conversation in Hebrew. I understood the gist of it, and was really proud of myself.

Then, we all went to bed and got up late the next morning, ate a little, had lunch, took a nap. We then went to walk the dogs at the park. The park at Ra'annana is awesome. Danny actually had to show his Ra'annana residency ID because the park has started charging money, because the beach at Herzliyyah, the neighboring town, started charging money. This process also weeds out a lot of shady characters who could go to the park. Here are some pictures (I forgot my camera), but they don't really do it justice:

http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/1,7340,L-2950226,00.html

There is everything in the park that you could ever want: an enormous children's playground, an ampitheater, a manmade lake shaped in the symbol of Ra'annana around which a gondola and boats go. The lake also has 10 white swans purchased from Denmark for 30,000 shekels (approximately $4 dollars-just kidding) that have a special hutch. There is a cafe across from the lake, a special children's playground, a mangal area, a train that goes around the park, a garden, basketball courts, a fountain that goes into the lake, and probably a lot more that I am forgetting. It is an awesome way to spend the afternoon, and there are actually A LOT of Israeli Arabs there, as well as the local Ra'annana residents, whose taxes pay for it. Danny was little bitter because he said, "A lot of my friends are in Gaza right now, and look what's going on here." He couldn't be more right. It's a world of difference, although I don't know whether it's bad or good.

We went back home and showered quickly and drove to Herzliya to see a "ballet"-really it was a modern performance with a lot of weird music, like the Blue Man Group, but less so. I don't know what I thought of it, but hey, as long as we got to see it for free, all is good. We got back home extremely exhausted and went to bed. Overall, it was very relaxing and a nice refreshment from the city, which is very not good for a long time.

On Tuesday we are going to the Dead Sea and Masada. Exciting.

PS-Tel Aviv made it to the Economist's guide for financial cities page. Yayy!

http://economist.com/cities/citiesmain.cfm?city_id=TLV

In Israel, it's not really the 4th

2006-07-04T09:34:00.000-04:00

For all my constant complaining, I really really really like being here. Maybe it's because today is going very well for me, or something else, I don't know, but I love it.

Yesterday was the annual HR Department Person of the Year Dinner, which we were invited to just to see what it was like. Each department has these dinners. I don't know when mine (E-Banking and Business Development and Retail Banking) is, but I don't think I could go again-it was just so overwhelming. The banquet was at 7. Before that, at lunchtime, I called all the interns up to have lunch. Yay for me taking initiative. Talia decided to go to "Benny HaShamen," which means "Benny the Fat." Good thing she knows what's up-the place was great. It was actually behind a building in a nicely shaded yard, away from traffic, and the meal was really good. First of all, there are the appetizers. Israeli appetizers, which I believe I've described to you several times now, consist of at least humus and something to scoop it up with. At Benny's, there was humus, warm, fluffy lavash pickles, salad sprinkled with lemon, little fried noodles, and leaves stuffed with rice. This is just the appetizer, people. It was crazy. Also, we were in the shade of the tree. Anyway, I love having lunch with Israelis because they can read the menu to me. Danny and Talia summarized it, and going back, I understood what everything was. Yay. In Israel for lunch, there is this thing called the "Iskit," the business lunch, which includes a bunch of dishes and is cheaper than just ordering individually. Oh, iskit, I will miss you in America. I ordered the chicken breast, with salad and rice. The chicken breast actually tasted like shaslik, but was very very good. Some people even ordered lamb.

Overall, it was a very good lunch, even though it lasted an hour and a half, instead of the hour we are "alotted to" for lunch. Actually, I don't know how long I have for lunch. I'm assuming it's an hour. I try to keep it under that time. Usually, I'll just buy something from the store near work and read the JPost, which I get every day. It's beautiful.

After Batami and I walked home from work, Talia was at our apartment. Our apartment has become like the crash pad for everyone in the group because it is very centrally located. I love it. Talia lives in Kfar Saba, 20 minutes by car, 45 minutes by rush hour traffic bus, so she didn't want to go back to change for the dinner, and just changed at our apartment. We were all worried about what to wear since it was a fancy HR appreciation dinner, and in the end, we obviously overdressed. When we got there (the Tel Aviv port) we were herded into a reception area with appetizers and wine and mingling. The appetizers were REALLY good (I am sure you are very tired of me telling you how good the food in Israel is. So just come here and eat it yourself ;)-there was sushi! (something I have been craving lately) Aside from that, also bite-sized bread with poppy seeds and olive oil spread on it, as well as tomatoes, so like a pizza, only not.

After the appetizers, we were herded inside to a HUGE hall which had a stage in the front, dinner tables all around it, and dinner on the sides. The walls were white, but there was a projector that projected the image of a rainforest on them, so in the dimly-lit room, it was really cool. We sat at a table near the back, all 9 of us, and went to go get food. Again, dinner was excellent. I had chicken, egg noodles with peanuts, steamed vegetables, apples carmelized in strawberry juice, mashed potatoes flavored with something, and black bread. Oh yes, and also white wine and water with mint and lemon in it. And, all of this was free. That is the best part of all.

So we sat and ate, and afterward, the ceremony started. The room suddenly got dark and a guy came out on stage blowing a shofar. Nearby, someone played the saxaphone and a singer sang an introductory song, actually written especally for Bank Hapoalim, about how we are the best bank and basically eveyrone else sucks. I can't even imagine how much money they put into this thing. Then the presenter came out and introduced a couple of people from HR to speak, including Shlomo Braun, who we met! And the CFO of the Bank, who talked to us about the Israeli economy, also spoke. It was exciting to see people that we had met being up front and important. After that, a group of three guys came out to sing a song and then did a sketch comedy act which I understood maybe 40% of, involving making fun of Palestinians, Gruziny, and Israelis who use cell phones too much. Danny was right next to me, but I didn't want to ask him to translate because I thought he might be annoyed. I caught some of it at least.

After them, the presenter came out again and presented awards to people in HR who had done the best job in whatever the category was. On the walls, the screens showed people like their family thanking them. One woman's childhood best friend congradulated her. One man was congradulated by Israel's most famous weatherman. One was congradulated by his masseuse and yoga instructor. It was funny. The amazing thing was that I managed to read the captions of who the people were and what they did in the time that it flashed across the screen in 5 seconds. It was awesome. After the ceremony, the group of three came out again and they impersonated Shlomo Artzi, a very famous Israeli singer. According to Talia, they did a really good job. Then, it was time for a band to play and people to dance. After a lot of dancing, we all piled into Danny's car (it is so convenient that he drives in Israel! but it's not his car, it's his dad's company car-his dad works for EDS in Israel) and all went back to our apartment to hang out.

We went to bed at maybe 3 in the morning, so none of us got a lot of sleep for work this morning (Talia slept over but everyone else went home) and we had to wake up for work at 9. Glehh. Today is shaping up to be an awesome day at work, though. When I just came in, I said good morning to the people in the office that I see first before I go to my cubicle, Oshrat and Vicki (another Vicki :) and Vicki told me that Shai wanted to see me, and I UNDERSTOOD HER.

Soo after that, I went to see Shai, who said that another department also had a technology they wanted me to submit for the European Web Awards and that he really liked what I had written for the first one, so we went to the 11th floor and I met with two people, a man and a woman, who tried to explain their check-cashing technology to me. They started in Hebrew, but when it was made apparent that it wasn't so good, they switched to English, and told me they had information about the technology in powerpoints and presentations so I could write up a summary of it. However, the powerpoints and letters were all in Hebrew. Shai said, "Oh, ok, well we can send it out to a translating service and have it back tomorrow. " However, me being stupid I said, "No, I'll translate it myself." And that's what I ended up doing. I translated it myself. It's one of my greatest accomplishments and it makes me really excited. Granted, it took me 2 hours to translate a powerpoint with 7 slides, but that's fine. Because I translated it. And that makes me happy.

Feeling even better about myself, I went to lunch. I UNDERSTOOD EVERYTHING THE GUY ASKED ME in terms of what I wanted to eat, what kind of salad I wanted, what I wanted on my salad, etc. I UNDERSTOOD THAT HE WANTED ME TO GET A DRINK. I ASKED FOR OLIVES IN MY SALAD ALL BY MYSELF. I UNDERSTOOD HOW MUCH I HAD TO PAY. It is the most amazing feeling ever to understand when people are talking to you. I am on top of the world.

So hamatzav (the situation) is tense here,if you have been reading, but no worries just yet. I am really hoping Gilad returns home because it will be a huge loss to the country if he doesn't and Israel will launch an all-out invasion of the Gaza Strip. Here is hoping.

Poalim and Politics

2006-07-03T04:49:00.000-04:00

Those who have been talking closely with me for the last several days know that I have been experiencing some disillusionment and a weakening of my Zionism due to looking at Israel up close. However, an encouraging letter from my Hebrew teacher yesterday really bo0sted my spirits, and I am ready to go again. Most of my frustrations stem from not being able to express myself in Hebrew (I could do it in English, but what would be the point of my Hebrew minor then?), as well as culture shock in adjusting to life in Israel, and reconciling the Israel of my ideals versus what goes on in real life.

Anyway, so work is good. I finished everything that they gave me and am now working on a summary/analysis of trends in multichannel media from publications we received at a conference in San Francisco. I am particularly focusing on Web channels, as well as telemarketing and cross-channel operations. Again, as I said, I love work. I love doing what I am doing and I feel like I might be of use to the company. I am also learning a tremendous amount about Israeli business practices and how it is to work a 9-5 day. It doesn't really bother me, because I like what I am doing, and I hope to structure my future job requirements around the fact that I would like to work with technology and economics and consulting all at once. We are also doing something with Google in Israel (which was just introduced a couple months ago) so soon I'll be doing a project in that realm as well. I am extremely satisfied, and I feel like everything I do at work pertains to current events, including the recent Israeli banking reforms, which HaPoalim is monitoring extremely closely because we introduced Poalim OnTime especially to help Israelis monitor their bank accounts from cell phones (did you know Israel has over a 100% penetration market rate for cell phones? That's awesome.)

Last week we took a trip to Jerusalem, but mostly to places I've been already, so not a big deal; but I did get to bond with the other interns, which is always a nice experience.

Two days ago was the match between Brazil and France (a BIG deal) and we went down to the beach to watch. It was PACKED. And people were wearing Brazil shirts and screaming and everything. It was really hardcore. It really made me feel like there is something that unites Israelis, even though Israel was disqualified a long time ago. I am really starting to like/learn about soccer. We ordered dinner (I ordered french fries, watermelon, and Maccabi beer-ideal dining situation) and it was me, Batami, Danielle (Batami's friend visiting from Texas,) and the Ben Bloch. Yesterday was a very special night because I got to order my food in the original Jewish language: Russian. Our waiter was Russian, so I finally had a leg up over everyone else. Also, Ben paid for our entire bill, which was 560 shekels ($126). I'm not complaining.

The real reason I am writing this entry is I'm sure many of you are curious how I perceive the current political situation in Israel. The perception is: there is no situation. At least, no one talks about it at work (not that I would understand, anyway ;) and my feelings (which may be wrong because of the language barrier) are that nothing is going on and if it is, it is very far away, even though the Gaza Strip is maybe an hour(?) south of where I work. That's like less than from my house to college. Also, there were three suicide bombers intercepted in the Gaza Strip yesterday, which is a big deal because sometimes you don't hear about the army doing that. But what really got on my nerves today was this article:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3270024,00.html

A statement published Sunday in the formal internet website of the Jewish community in Iran said that "the Jewish congregation in Iran censures the human rights violations of the Palestinians in the Gaza strip by the Zionists and is grieved by this occurrence."

In response to a question on the interaction between Jews and Muslims in Iran, he responded: "We pray in Hebrew, but speak to each other in Farsi.

It makes me so mad when Jews do this. What do you seriously know about Israel? Iranian Jews have been in Iran for thousands of years, and when things go bad, where is the place they go? Israel. You guys can speak Farsi all you want, but don't come to us when you are being slaughtered. The "Zionists" won't help you then. Ugh.

Ok, I'm done politicizing. Tonight we have an HR dinner reception, which should be really exciting. I will tell you all about it.

Two days ago in the life of Vicki

2006-06-28T09:27:00.000-04:00

Ok. So I've started writing e-mails to my mom and Dan to explain what's up with my life. Since I'm too lazy to type anything different, here is a reprint of the day before yesterday's edition:

Yesterday I told you how I was making powerpoint presentations about American online banking practices because Bank HaPoalim is getting ready to revamp its entire site. Today, in half an hour, I am presenting those slides to one of my bosses. Hopefully they look ok/are spelled correctly, mostly because I did half of them in Hebrew, and I really don't want to be laughed at. :). I am having a lot of thoughts and perspectives and theories at this point, and it's going to take me such a long time to explain everything that's going on. Yesterday was a really action-packed day for me. Right after I came into work (straight from the bank where they wouldn't cash my traveller's checks and I was late, but did anyone care? Nope.), Shai, one of my coworkers, approached me because the Bank HaPoalim website is applying to win awards in the European Financial Site awards, under the categories of "best use of it in retail banking" and 'outstanding achievement" for their Poalim Ontime program. Like I said before, it's really cool because you have alerts sent by sms to your cell phone or your internet account anytime something happens, like your balance is too low or you cash a check, etc. They are the first in the industry to do this, and the first to offer sign-ups at branches instead of online. American banks don't even come close to anything like this, and I am really jealous. So tomorrow, I have to present a proposal for the technolgoy awards. Today, I am just working on that, and hopefully I'll get it done.

At 1230 yesterday, we had a half-day workshop that was REALLY REALLY INTERESTING for all the interns. When we came up to the floor where the meeting was supposed to be, of course there was no one there to tell us where to go, so we stood around for 10 minutes while people walked by us. So Israeli. Then, all the interns (including Jon, our last roommate, who flew in yesterday morning and was going on 3 hours of sleep) went into a conference room. First, we had the CFO of the entire bank (really big deal) come in and talkt o us about changes in Israel's capital (investment) markets over the past twenty years-very very interesting, although I kind of fell asleep a little because his voice was very soothing and we dont' get much sleep. Next, we had lunch-FREE! A big deal for me since I am down to one meal a day and trying to save money. After that, we had a very itneresting woman, Nadine Trajtenberg, the head of the economics department in the bank (very very cool, because she does what I want to do-analyzes macroeconomic policy and future macroeconomic trends for the bank in the Israeli/world economy) and she was very classy. She made aliyah from French canadia, but she has a very slight accent and spoke English, French, and Hebrew, fluently. She was also the only woman in the room wearing a suit. How American of her. :) Anyway, so Nadine is a PHD in Economics from Harvard. eeeeeeee. It was very exciting for me, as you can imagine.

After that, we had coffee (brought in by the Russian "servers" in our building-all the cleaning staff in our building is Russian. I don't know whether to be offended or see if I can get a discount on tea every day.) And after that, was the most fun part of all-a consultant cam in to give us a presentation about How Americans and Israelis operate differently in work environments. The consultant himself was born in America, made aliyah when he was in 5th grade, so he speaks both perfect English and perfect Hebrew and knows both worlds. He first started out by asking us what surprised us at work. The consultant then presented the differences betwen Americans and Israelis at work and how to deal with them, the most important being that we communicate differently. For example, Americans will say, "Um, I liked your file, but if you have time, could you just please look over section c? It needs a little work." Whereas Israelis will say, "This is wrong." And etc, etc. He also said that Israeli bosses are almost equal to their coworkers, whereas American bosses are a little more above them. I think I'm starting to like the Israeli work system a lot more, and I'm not looking forward to an American internship next year.

After that, all of us, including the two new additions, Danny and our roommate, Jon, left to walk home. After that, I got a call from Bella, one of my mother's distant, distant friends, and she offered to take me to the shuk (market.) So she drove me to the Shuk HaKarmel (which is maybe 3 blocks from where I live? What's the point?) and I bought cherries and grapes! Love Israeli fruit. Love it, love it, love it. I eat Israeli fruit all the time. I ate watermelon all day yesterday. And I love mint. After that, I went home to meet up with Batami and David, and they went down to the beach, I said I would join them later because I had to buy a book that Nathan (my Hebrew teacher last semester) wanted.

That was fun. I stood there, figuring out how to ask them whether they could look it up for me because I can't read Hebrew well enough yet to look for books among stacks, and I actually got along pretty well, but the process of figuring out what you want to say 5 minutes before you say it is really exhausting.

After the book store, I walked down to the beach with Batami and David, because Jon actually went to Jerusalem that same night to see the girl he is dating-wow, that is devotion. Seriously. He could have waited. I went down to the beach and we watched the sunset. It was soooooooo pretty. Afterwards, we called up Ben (intern), and Talia (intern) and the other Ben (also intern) and went to the store, iced tea and and drank it and just talked. One of the Bens actually met a friend who he knew from yeshiva who was in the army, and the friend's friends came too. They are all soldiers right now, so it was funny to see them in unifrorm on the beach. There were three guys and a girl, and they are all in teh unit that trains dogs to sniff for bombs. They told us a lot about it, and it was really interesting. They have about 300 dogs in the unit, and each person is responsible for 10 of them. Their commander is "Big Russian Mikhail" and he apparently beats the dogs if they don't behave. They train german shepherds, labradors, and some other breed that was intranslatable into English. Every time I talk to soldiers, I feel really guilty, because I feel that I should be one as well, instead of slacking around Israel like an American.

Anyway, then they took off their army clothes and just sat around in t-shirts and shorts talking to us, drinking, and smoking hookah. It's so funny that they're our age, but they have so much more responsibility and so much more weight, but they act younger. They had to be on the base by 5 in the morning to walk the dogs (it gets too hot later), but for now, they were just enjoying being young. It sucks that not everyone serves in the army. But I'm sure I would have a different perspective if I actually lived here.

I am constantly having thoughts about Israel, aliyha, being Jewish, regular Israeli life, international affairs, China, and business education while I am here, and I want to make sure that I record them all so I don't forget

Pianos and Beach, Beach, Beach

2006-06-24T06:21:00.000-04:00

The last couple days have been much, much better in terms of acclimation to the country. On Thursday night, our whole internship group went on a tour of Neve Zedek, the first Jewish neighborhood to be established in Tel Aviv. It was then that I really started feeling that I'm in Israel. I'm in Israel! The neighborhood was so pretty, and our tour guide was very interesting, telling us stories of how it was developed (it served as Jersualem's port before Israel became a state. This is why there are so many lions all around the area, because the lion is the symbol of Jerusalem.) Also, the houses are all so pretty, with shaded balconies and flowers growing everywhere. It's just so amazing to sit at the beach (which I've been doing a lot of recently-don't worry-I'm using lots and lots of sunscreen) and think that Jews just came from the sand, upon the sand, and built an entire city out of dunes. It's incomprehensible, how they toiled in the heat, for a hope. But now I'm waxing Zionist.

Anyway, during the tour, we came across the Susan Dallal center, which used to be the first public school in Tel Aviv, and there were five couples getting married there! Not getting married, but taking wedding pictures in the premesis. We were assuming that the weddings would take place tonight. It was so beautiful, and all of us were just staring at the brides. The photographers invited us to look. There were five couples getting married: three secular, one religious, and one Muslim. It's things like this that make you hope for peace, or at least a really pretty wedding of your own :). In Israel, since everything is informal, one of the brides came up to talk to us and our tour guide (a very very Jewish 60-year old man) told her a joke: Why does the bride go to the Wailing Wall before her wedding? To learn how to talk to a wall. It was the best experience I have had in Israel, up until last night, which I will get to a bit later.

After the tour, we went to dinner at a shishlik (kebab) restaraunt in Neve Zedek, and the food was just soooooo good. I love Israeli food so much. For starters, we had carrots and humus and pita and couscous with lemon and Moroccan cigars (kind of like egg rolls, but smaller and filled with different things, and house wine. Then there was kebab (I had chicken) with stuffed zucchini, and afterwards, there was baklava and tea with mint. We were so full. The best thing was that dinner was free. :) Which is a good thing, since I have been trying to limit my spending recently. Afterwards, me, Batami, David, and two other interns, both named Ben, went back to our apartment to figure out what we would do for the night. We ended up going to a bar to watch Japan versus Brazil-it should have been obvious who won. Afterwards, we went home late, since we don't work on Fridays. It really throws off our schedules, because we don't work Fridays and Saturdays, due to Shabbat, but come in to work on Sundays. Today, I feel like I have the whole weekend ahead of me, which is obviously not the case.

On Friday, we slept in late since we've been having to get up early every other day of the week and went to breakfast. Even the croissants here are better, more like they are in France. But again, I may be biased towards Israeli cooking (did I say this already?) After, we went to the beach for the whole day. It's really fun to go to the beach with just Batami, because Israeli guys are really friendly, and they'll just start shamelessly flirting with you. Obviously, we know better than to flirt back, but it's just amusing to see how they'll do it, guaranteed. A pair came up to us and asked where we were from, etc, and then said, "You know, you two look like sisters." They are so bad at pickup lines. They did, however, tell us this up and coming area to go to for nightclubs in Tel Aviv (although I forget what it's called,) and later on, we ventured there, completely by accident.

We came to a piano bar where a woman was doing a Billie Holliday tribute, and it was just beautiful. Her voice was so amazing, and the instruments, and the mood was right, and we just sat there with glasses of wine, drinking it all in. It was at that point that I felt a great love for Israel, an overarching presence that just makes me feel at peace being here. She sang for about an hour, and then we left because the crowd was filtering out.

Today, we are just going to be at the beach and maybe go to the area again tonight, but we need to clean and get ready for the workweek, because our last roommate, Jon, is coming tomorrow. Also, work tomorrow! I am working on a powerpoint presentation of online banking practices in America, and then after I finish with that, of how online banks annoucne news to customers on their websites. It's really interesting to see that banks like Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Wachovia, and Bank of America are benchmarks for Bank HaPoalim, because we think of these banks as being important, but not that big of a global impact (unless I haven't studied them in depth yet.)

My Hebrew is ok, but I have bad days here and there, and I really can't understand when people talk to me. But, I hope it will be better by the end of the summer.

Love to everyone!

Futbol v'Falafel

2006-06-20T15:17:00.000-04:00

Everyone at work is reading my blog. שלום לכולם שקורים זה מהבנק :)
Aside from that, I don't have much excting things to report. I went to a workshop on how to build better business webpages in Herzliyya. It was really really exciting because it's exactly the kind of thing I do-pick apart websites and also research businesses to see if they could be doing better (kind of like consulting, which I am also extremely interested in.) Although it was all day, I really felt like I got to know the people in my department, even though I met them all on Sunday, it was such a blur that I didn't retain too much, whereas now I feel much better about everything, and less overwhelmed. I am also starting to pick up on more Hebrew, and I even feel more confident just talking in Hebrew, even though I still have to think the phrase over in my head before I say it, just to make sure it sounds right. It's really amazing that I can just walk up to people on the street and speak to them and if not understand all of what they say, at least part of it. It might sound vain, but I feel really accomplished.

Yesterday, my roommates and I wandered all around the city, because we never try to stay at home in case we miss something. We went down to the beach to watch a soccer game on big screens that they put up at the beach and around the city because everyone is huge soccer fans in Israel, not like in America. It's really exciting because I feel like there's a bond with the people just watching soccer and cheering. It's kind of cheesy I know, but watching soccer under the stars last night was really good.

Tonight both of my roommates are gone, to meet friends/relatives, so I am just chilling out in the Internet cafe, but tomorrow I think I'm going somewhere with Elan, whom I met on the beach just randomly because he thought I was on Birthright since Batami and I were speaking English to each other. He is really nice. Don't worry, nothing bad is going to happen to me, for anyone who might be concerned (parents? Dan? Mer? Penn State?) and you can always call my cell phone.

Love everyone. :)

Shalom ma'aretz!

2006-06-18T10:17:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I've made it here. Now that I'm here, I don't know how much time I will have to write, but basically everything is crazy. Batami, David and I (three out of the four people living in our apartment) are busy trying to get settled in and getting used to life in Tel Aviv. The first morning I got here, I was just in such a shock, and I don't think it's even hit me yet that I'm in Israel. When we landed, it was about 7:30 in the morning and since then, it has been a blur of meeting Batami, David, figuring out where I work, going to the beach, getting burned in the process, seeing how the Israeli work system is much much different from America, and just generally getting used to living in a country that, although I feel is my own, is very foreign in many ways.

There are many things that are different about America and Israel. Some things are amazing, and some really suck. The amazing thing about Israel is that complete strangers (named Elan) come up to you on the beach and strike up conversations and you can talk for hours about Israeli politics or Jews or Iran or the cost of living in Tel Aviv, and you are just flabbergasted by how straightforward they are compared to how closed Americans are. And then they give you their cell phone number, just because. In our case, it was Elan, a student at Bar Ilan University in (what else) Computer Science who was on the beach the week before his exams started. Batami and I were at the beach all day for Shabbat, because in Israel, everything closes for Shabbat (Friday/Saturday) and you are forced to go to the beach. The funny thing about the beaches in Tel Aviv (we went to Frishman) is that the lifeguards become very snippy and yell things at the people in the water because they don't want to leave their lifeguard booths and actually go. I was informed that they make more than doctors in Israel, but apparently, everyone makes more than doctors in Israel, which really sucks, because they have to go through the same amount of training as we do in America.

The other good thing is that all the food is fresh and they have falafel. As many of you know, I have a strange fetish for falafel that can only be satiated in Israel, and I have been doing a good job of it, eating falafel only once so far, but hoping to do so in the future as well. The eating is good here, and relatively cheap, depending on where you go. I want to go to an Ethiopian restaraunt, but David (my roommate from Cornell) seems to have talked me out of it by saying he had a horrible experience.

Today we went to work, for orientation, and now I know how it feels to be an immigrant, because my boss tried to communicate with me in Hebrew, but since I don't know enough, he had to talk to me in English, and try to translate the documents, but I battled on and tried Hebrew. I met everyone who works in my department (e-banking) and was overwhlemed by everything, but hopefully I'll start to "vrybatsya" (start getting stuff) after the first couple weeks. The other interns seem interesting, but I didn't really get to know them that well yet, aside from Batami and David. I'll have to inform you on my progress tomorrow.

Everything else is good. I'm still in disbelief that I'm in Israel. There are bad parts about this country, like how some neighborhoods are really dirty, Israelis are rude, and the sunburn. But I love it. I am living my dream.

If you are reading this, you are too close to Israel.

2006-06-14T01:02:00.000-04:00

I most likely will not post until I get to Israel (if I ever get there, according to my parents, who think that I can lose my way trying to get out of a paper bag. Rest assured, parents. Vse vrodi horosho. The operative word being vrode.) I am not nearly packed enough, not nearly ready to leave, not nearly in the right frame of mind for Israel. The Israel frame of mind is this special feeling that you get when you land in Israel. Israel is no different from any other country. It has the same soil, the same people, the same buereacracy and rudeness. Yet why does the Israeli frame of mind develop, one where everything, from the sun, to the sea, to the most mundane piece of land you walk on, becomes special? At least it does to me, probably because I do not live there. But the whole point is for me to get a taste of that. For me to be able to talk not from a zealous Zionist perspective, but from one of having lived in Israel and seen it all, to becoming cynical about everything and reclaiming the title, "there is nothing new under the sun."

I don't want that to happen though, and, as a result, might stay in the Israel frame of mind, which starts the minute you get off the plane, and stops as soon as you encounter customs. Just kidding. If my parents stop nagging anytime soon, I will be able to get in that state of mind and be able to call a taxi in Hebrew, arrive at my apartment, meet Batami (one of my three roommates,) and start getting ripped off in expensive department stores that cater to tourists. Hopefully I will also meet some Russians so I never ever have to speak Hebrew with my horrible accent, my horrible horrible vocabulary, and my horrible horrible classroom Hebrew education. :) And then I will go to work and find out what e-banking is all about.

As a wise anonymous man once said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." As Vicki says, "A journey of 11 hours begins with getting up at 4 am to go to the airport." There had better be coffee-like beverages on the plane. And falafel. After all, part of living the Israeli lifestyle is changing my food pyramid to falafel three times a day. It's a sacrifice, but one I'm totally willing to make.

להיתראות,ומחרותיים בארץ

Procrastinators of the World, Unite

2006-06-12T07:29:00.000-04:00

So, I must admit that I am not even close to packed. Well, ok. I have a suitcase open. There are some clothes thrown in it, surrounded by sundry items I've picked up around the house when I thought of them, and a bunch of clothes that I've been taking out of the suitcase and wearing. Oops. I actually started again today, but the more I put it off, the more I feel it will never be finished, and the more I feel that I'll forget something and have to buy it for three times the price in Israel (motto: We are Jews selling Jews expensive things.)

What made it worse was yesterday's visit to see Dan. I went on Saturday and left yesterday, and it was one of the hardest goodbyes I have ever had to make, despite the fact that I will be back soon enough. Saying goodbye is always tough, but what makes it better is knowing you'll be back with lots of presents and stories and pictures :).

Today, my quest entails finding out about travelers' checks, to pay for my apartment. Since I have never used them before, this will be a "real life" experience for me. Also, I am going to figure out whether I will get internet in the apartment or not. It seems like it would be a good idea, to publish pictures, but at the same time, I don't want to be online too long and miss out on what's going on around me. We are going to have Internet at work and email, etc, but I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post on my blog or send pictures, etc, especially since I'll be at work. Also, this is not ethical. At least in America ;).

On I go to work and continue packing. Maybe by 5 am Thursday morning, I'll be done.

Phone? Check. Tickets? Check. Sanity? Nope.

2006-06-08T21:31:00.000-04:00

Ok. I must appologize for hyping this blog up, and then simply not writing in it. I think the inevitable truth is that as soon as I start making preparations for this trip, then I will actually acknowledge that I am leaving and then the truth that I am leaving many people who care about me behind, and who will worry that I might die. Obviously there is foundation to that, but not nearly as much as people think. In fact, you are safer in Tel Aviv than in America. If you don't believe that, you haven't been keeping up with our flawed national security system. But that's another story entirely.

I rented an apartment. Well, it's more accurate to say that Batami (one of my fellow interns, from Texas University) found the apartment and secured it for us. We will be living in Dizengoff Tower. Here is the exact address if you wish to write, although I'm not sure what the mail situation is yet:

1308 Dizengoff 50, Tel Aviv, 64332 (the complex is called Dizengoff Tower)

You'll have to format the address in Israeli fashion, which I'm not entirely sure what it is. Batami (female), myself, and two boys will be sharing a 1-bedroom 800 square foot apartment, with or without internet (not sure what this situation is yet, either.) Knowing what I know about my boyfriend (mainly that he is a slob-I mean that in the nicest way, honey,) I am a bit reluctant about living with boys, but again, I'm sure it will be an adventure and part of growing up, especially since they keep kosher, and those of you who know about me, know that I most definitely do not. We plan to eat out a lot to keep the disagreements at a minimum.

An adventure is how we are going to get from the apartment to work, since it's at least a 30 minute walk, at least by my calculations, and the internship hasn't provided very much of...anything in terms of information for us. Oh well, it should be an adventure.

I've also gotten my Israel cell phone today in the mail, so if you are interested, you are most certainly welcome to have it if you ask :).

Other than that, I have not even remotely started packing, in fear of evoking the inevitable, the fact that I will be having a great time in a place I really want to be, with my loved ones left behind. And so I sleep, read, scrape together money for the numerous falafels to follow, and count down the days to the greatest adventure of my life.

At last!

2006-06-07T10:39:00.000-04:00

Well! It looks like we have found an apartment for four people (all of them on our internship, two girls, two guys) in the middle of Tel Aviv. It is extremely expensive ($1600/month) but it had better be well worth it! Here is a picture of the building:http://www.pbase.com/susan_1016/image/49536893.

And now time to start packing and panicking!

Sorry to disappoint...

2006-05-24T15:19:00.000-04:00

But no exciting Israel stuff has been going on recently. I promise I will write here the minute I find an apartment, because I have been driving everyone crazy with my lack of housing.

The Journey Seems Like It's Already Begun

2006-05-18T08:44:00.000-04:00

In the past two days, looking frantically for apartments with my new roommate Julia (yay!) from Chicago has been crazy. I've had to do more Hebrew speaking than I have in my entire life, and it has been extremely nerve-wracking. I can only now appreciate how my parents felt when they came to America, not knowing English. And I've taken classes for two years in this language. It was very nervewracking the first time I had to call someone in Israel about an apartment, but today, when I talked to someone from Tel Aviv University about housing, I don't think she picked up on the fact that I was a foreigner and I understood her, which boosted my self-esteem a lot. The next call, to a person owning an apartment in Jaffo, was very bad, and he switched over to English. How am I going to survive Israel? I can't ask everyone to "ledaber b'Anglit" all the time! Nathan, if you are reading this, it's not your fault. I am just a subpar Hebrew speaker. :)

I'm Homeless!

2006-05-17T11:12:00.000-04:00

An apartment I was looking for fell through today, leaving me homeless, once again. Maybe I'll just live in a cardboard box in Tel Aviv and beg for scraps? I'm continuing to look, but becoming more desperate. I would say the biggest help in all of this has been my friends, who have stuck by my in my hours of insanity. An especially big thank you to Yifat, Annie, The Schwartzman (what I like to call my piano teacher), and too many other people to name for keeping me sane and helping me to look for housing in Tel Aviv.

Today, I also went to the temp agency to see if I could scrounge up any typing jobs to make some extra cash for when I go. It was a very humbling experience, and I got to see how people on minimum wage/people whose lack of higher education prevents them from getting any higher than clerical work live. It must be hard, so I am extra grateful for my college education now, despite all the times (especially when homework was due ;) that I cursed it.

Alea Iacta Est

2006-05-16T11:01:00.000-04:00

As Caesar would say, "The die is cast." I've ordered my tickets for Israel, to be departing June 15 and returning August 14, through Israir, El Al's (the Israeli national airline's) biggest competitor. I probably paid too much for them, but in retrospect, it was the cheapest airfare I found, through weeks and weeks of searching. Lesson: NEVER buy airfare to Israel during the summer. The prices really are scary, especially if you are paying for it yourself.

I'm leaving out of JFK, so if anyone is in the area, they should definitely come say goodbye to me ;). At least that's settled. Now, I'm still looking for a place to live. I think I have a lead, a really nice apartment about 10 minutes walk to work, but the price is (as usual) higher than I would have liked. In the meantime, I've gotten a part time job to (kind of) defray the cost of airfare and any type of housing I might have. I'm sure my parents will pitch in, but I don't want them to pay too much because they were getting very grouchy about it, as parents tend to do :).

Count Down to "I-Land"

2006-05-14T15:03:00.000-04:00

Hello,

And welcome to my blog about my future adventures in Israel. If you don't already know, I have been accepted to an internship with Bank HaPoalim in Israel. According to them, they are Israel's largest bank (I think it's almost a tie between them and Bank Leumi.) I will most likely be working in corporate finance (if I get my top choice, among five areas that I can pick from,) which should be interesting, considering I've been trying to stay away from finance ever since I took it last semester (just kidding, Professor Pierce!) My internship will be from June 18-August 11, so it should be enough time for me to garner some impressions of Israel outside of two trips that I've taken that have been very tourist-centric. It will also give me a chance to practice my Hebrew (Ani mekevah she haIsraelim yidabru iti b'ivrit, lo b'anglit kmo hem osu b'avar!) Needless to say, I am extremely excited.

However, as with all great adventures, not all is well. There are huge monetary issues that, as a future economist, I theoretically should have no trouble tackling. The internship does pay a stipend, but there are still airfaire fees and housing, which brings me to my next point. If you know of any place I can stay in Tel Aviv for that time span, please let me know! I will pay for a cardboard box next to the bank! I am rather desperate. So for the time being, I am just trying to save up money for the trip and to analyze how I can pack light. For women, this is no easy task. After all, I AM going to need at least 7 pairs of shoes, right?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my blog (which will probably be done weekly-I don't know what my computer situation in Israel is yet, but I'm sure I'll go to a cafe at least once a week.) and please leave me lots of comments!