Week in Review

It's Sunday evening my time, so I figured I would give you all a quick week-ending review since I haven't posted in a while. Last week saw the shock of being a student, and all the reading that was contained within, but now I'm a little more relaxed mostly because I think the reading is manageable, even if onerous, and I'm also starting to feel more comfortable with the core material after practically reviewing an entire intro econometrics course online to refresh my memory. I also completed my first problem set of many, which I felt good about, so I'm starting to get the hang of it. For problem sets we work in partners, that are assigned randomly to us. My parter is this girl named Sharon, who works for Amdocs.

Just a side note about Amdocs... its one of the larger Israeli firms that has made it big on the worldwide market, with something like 40 satelite offices scattered around the globe. According to their site: "Our broad portfolio of integrated products spans the entire customer lifecycle, seamlessly linking key customer-facing business processes". The reason I mention Amdocs is because it is like the Tel Aviv version of the Gap in SF. Meaning it is a massive local firm that employs probably 20 percent of the population aged 22 to 35. It seems like every other person you meet works at Amdocs directly or indirectly in one way or another.

The other interesting thing that happened last week was that I had a job interview to be a GMAT instructor for the Israeli version of The Princeton Review. The company is called Kidum, and they are by far the largest test prep center in Israel. I have a secondary interview with them this coming Wed.

Finally, one last great thing happened today. They finally transfered my Economist subscription to Israel (I requested the address change over a month ago). You can see below in the photo!!!(Note for Jacob and Jeffy about the Economist in Israel. I'm guessing that not a lot of people actually have a subscription, cause the mailer that came with the magazine (the photo) had this little note in the bottom right that said "if you have any problems please contact Joel Gordin" who is in charge of overseas publications in Israel. Then it gave his emial address and phone number and home address.... Must be a small community of readers..."

Classes

So a number of people have been emailing me asking "So, what exactly does the application of linear algebra to advanced econometrics in Hebrew actually look like?" Well, it looks something like this:
Actually, nobody has asked me that. I just wanted to share (or gloat, or cry, or beg for mercy, or complain, or ask for pity, you choose).

(Note to Jacob: I'd like to see some of your classmates do that with your MBA mumbo jumbo...)

First day of School!

So yesterday was the first day of school, I started out with a 3 hour Macroeconomics lecture, followed by a study session for Econometrics. This quarter is going to be very tough, especially the econometrics... There is no doubt in my mind that BA schooling outside the US is much more intensive and advanced that what they teach in the States. This first month is going to be a lot of catch up work.
The fun thing about the first week is that the entire campus is packed with students, and there are all sorts of organizations and things going on. Below is a photo of the main quad, you can see all the students, the little shops on the left. I also went up to the top corner of the Gilman Humanities building (in the top right corner of the photo above) to get this birds eye view of the center quad, below. The big brown building behind the two tents is the main library (Sourasky). The tall building in the far background is the Sackler Medical school. The tents are various organizations, the Student's Union, various banks, cell phone companies, blah blah blah. It's exactly the same as the first week of school at any university in the US (or anywhere else I imagine). The photo was taken in Prof. Asher Susser's corner office. He is Director of the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv U. (that's his official title). I was up on the top floor looking for an open window and his office was the only one open, so I knocked on the door and asked him if I could take a photo of the quad for my parents, he agreed!
Then, to top off all the crazyness of the first day, Jacob's parents were in town and took me lunch at Giraffe Noodle Bar in Tel Aviv. They are in town for a wedding so we met up. We had a great time and the food was good. Then we walked around and I showed them the neighborhood. This was my favorite part of the conversation:
Me: Jacob isn't dating that girl anymore
Jacob's Father: Jacob was dating someone?? He never tells us anything
Jacob's Mother: Forget who he's dating, I don't even know if he has health insurance.

(Jacob: If you get a bunch of telephones from your parents asking about who you are dating and why you aren't married yet, then I apologize. I didn't tell them anything, I promise).

My schedule

School officially starts on Sunday, how exciting! Here is my schedule for the first semester. I'm going to add on a Mini-Course in December as well, but there is time before I have to choose which class specifically. So for the next 2 months I only have 3 classes. I'll make sure to bring my camera to school on Sunday and take photos.

Jewish Holidays

I wanted to post this up two nights ago but I forgot.... Two nights ago was the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. I wont get in to the details of it, but suffice it to say that you celebrate the Torah. There was a huge celebration in the main square by my apartment, with music and firecrackers and people dancing in the street. On top of that, there was this crazy march toward the square right before it, with this truck blasting music and people dancing and singing behind it, as you can see from the photo below. The thing is, Tel Aviv is not a religious city by any means, not like Jerusalem, so to see all these orthodox Jews dancing with Torah scrolls in the middle of this secular city was interesting. I actually really like the photo below. I think the fuzzyness adds to the quality. The other thing I wanted to add about Jewish holidays is that a large bulk of them fall between september and october, as there are four major holidays in a row. Rosh hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchat Torah. It's basically the holiday season in Israel and the country is in semi-shut down (that's why I start school so late). It's like Thanksgiving to Christmas in the states. The Jewish holiday's also revolve around the lunar calandar, so this year they are happening really late, but next year I think they are earlier.
(note to Gappers reading this: If you recall Easter fluctuates based on the year. This is becasue the Last Supper is actually the last night of Passover, which also fluctuates on the lunar calendar, now you can explain that to your P&D class if you ever decide to teach).

Fun times

The last couple of days have been fun, as the country is on holiday, and school doesn't start till the 22nd. First, my friend Osi from high school in Palo Alto moved back to Israel yesterday. Turns out that her sister, Orit, lives literally 5 houses away across the street! Her sister's boyfriend, Tomer, is also a good friend. It was really nice to find out that we are all neighbors. Tonight was also fun, very good friends of my parents, Annetta and Sasha, are visiting in Israel and took me out to a coffee.

Today was the most fun, though. There was a Ultimate Frisbee beach tournament in Herzeliya that I participated in. The last time I played in a beach tournament was at Wildwood over 2 years ago. The Wildwood games are played on very dense and damp sand, so you can actually run on it. The sand in Herzeliya is the exact opposite, arid, super fine, and thick. This makes running extremely hard, and extremely tiring.

They also had a layout contest for the tournament, which was a lot of fun. You can see me below sacrificing my body for the sake of mindless sport entertainment. I technically won the tourament, but we decided to give the prize to these two 18 year old younger kids who really put in a huge effort. The prize was a two hour private kite-surfing lesson, so I was happy to give it to them. Benny, this photo is for you, check ou the full extension, you know you love it...
(yes, that is me)

JesusLand

I was invited up north for the last 2 days by my friend Steve, who I met here. Steve is currently studying medicine at Sakler, a joint program with Tel Aviv U. and Albert Einstein med school in NY. Steve and his Sakler pals were planning to go hiking/camping for 5 days in the north, and I joined them for 2 nights and a full day. I arrived late Sunday night and saw my friend Shai, who lives in Tveria (Tiberias for you Anglos). Early the next morning Shai dropped off with the group and we started our hike. Our hike was to the Meshushim Pool (shown above) which is north of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee for you Anglos). The hike started on the shore of the sea (lake in reality) and we walked up the Meshushim river for about 2 hours until you get to the pool, where you can swim in. I took the photo on a little bridge crossing the river. From the bridge you walk down to the pool, you can see one of the girls in our group, Erica, in the top right corner. You can also see how packed it was with kids and families. The reason for this is because there are two ways to get to the pool. The long way, which we did, or the short way, where you drive your car (with your screaming kids) to the lip of the canyon, and then hike down 10 minutes instead of two and a half hours.
We spent that night at a campsite on the shore, on a place called Amnon Beach (yes, Amnon, for those who know). You can see in the photo that the sun was setting, this is looking across the lake toward the South West. You can see that the Kinneret (Lake Jesus for Coco) is not that big. Professional Bikers loop the entire thing in a full day, so I've heard. Then, this morning I came back to Tel Aviv with two of the group. The remaining people stayed up for another 2 days to hike/kayak/relax.
You can see in the map above where I was. The greenish/grey X is where we hiked, the pink X is where we camped on the beach (click on the map to expand it). Besides the scenery/nature of the North, this area is also a huge Christian tourist destination durring the summer breaks, as Jesus lived the majority of his life in this region, and performed most of his mericles here. The entire area is littered with archeological sites from all three monotheistic religions.
This is where I think Coco will get Jerusalem Syndrome if he comes to visit me.

UERO 2008

I am typing this post while watching Israel play Russia in one of the many qualifying matches to get in to the Euro 2008 competition. It's currently half-time, and Israel is down 0-1. Israel is in group E, along with European powerhouses England, Russia, and Croatia. In order to advance to the quarter-finals you have to end up being one of the top two in your group. Israel has already beaten two teams in the group, Andorra and Estonia, but odds are very very very small they will beat two out of the three of England/Russia/Croatia.

I make this point because Israel has never reached the point of playing in a major international tourney, the World Cup, the Euro Cup, etc. So every single game becomes this huge national ordeal that the entire country watches.

The photo on the left I ripped from the UEFA website, the player is Roberto Colautti, who is an Argentinian Jew who apparently only finished the paperwork necessary to become a resident in Israel (and therefore to play) 4 days before the qualifying rounds began. He scored the winning goal against Estonia two weeks ago.

In any case, Israel is playing like crap right now. No offensive pressure at all, and the defense is doing a horrible job of covering the holes. The funny part about it is that the game is being played in Moscow, and the Russian crowd is already in thick leather jackets. Meanwhile I was at the beach 2 hours ago!

Say what you will about the state of the Israeli national soccer team, at least we aren't wearing scarves in October.

(Steph, I'll make sure to get you and Jess soccer jersey's when I come back to SF!!!)

Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv

Today is Yom Kippur, the holiest of Jewish Holidays. The entire city of Tel Aviv is completely shut down, nothing is open, nobody drives. The streets are filled with kids on bikes or rollerblades, families walking around, and absolutely no car traffic. It is the weirdest sensation. The photo below I took about 2 hours ago at the major intersection of Ibn Gvirol and Ben Gurion. Ibn Gvirol is the main through-way of Northern Tel Aviv. A multi-lane street that splits north Tel Aviv into two (you can see it on the little map link I have to the right). The best analogy to it is Van Ness in San Francisco, that also splits North SF directly in half. You can see the kids on the bikes. The little sign says "Drive Slow"This photo I took a little later on a street called Dizengoff, which is a another major commercial street. I saw a lot of great photo ops, but I'm not that skilled of a photographer, so these will have to do. I'm hoping maybe to become as skilled as Rion (who is in Paris and has a stunning photo-blog of her experience. I highly recommend it, check it out here).

Also, I have added Prosnit's blog to the list on the right, as well as Joy and Jason's blog.

Random photo

I was just forwarded this photo from last weekend. They had a hat tournament in Tel Aviv at Yarkon Park, and they took a photo of me as their new "Great White Hope" for ultimate frisbee in Israel. My team won the hat tournament out of six teams, but I played like absolute crap. Benny, you will notice the wife beater. It is actually the same wife beater as the one in the photo you have from the tourney in Boston nearly 3 years ago. They are having a beach tourney in Herzeliya next weekend as well which should be a great time (I will definitely take a lot of photos of that one). Also, I'm seriously debating going to a beach tourney in Dahab (Sinai) in January that is being thrown by some European Ultimate Frisbee organization (link here). Any of you who have a lot of cash and time to take off from work should consider joining (Benny, again I'm looking at you and Big Dave specifically)