the hottest place in tel aviv

going to a club with people you don't know is always fun. you meet new people, can have crazy adventures - you don't know the people, so you don't know what to expect in any way. the thing is, its good to be well prepared for it, and by that i mean swiss army knife survival pack packed with some good protein which is light to carry and matches that can't get wet. oh wait - i mean well dressed. and as everyone knows - i love dressing up! you know, nice button down shirt with the collar that sits just right and the perfect shade of colors (hmm, light purple?) along with a good pair of jeans. and of course, of course, the shoes. so important.
by the way - its still me writing this blog - there hasn't been a transformation nor a kidnapping of the main blogger (yet anyways...).
so i met keren (the camel-loving baker from davis) and in order to go out with her and a few of her friends, and as it turned out a few of her friends friends. we headed out to a place called gossip that her brother who is a barman, called one of the hottest places in tel aviv. we get there and everyone is extremely well dressed and there is a huge line. and of course israeli lines are more like clusters of cells rapidly increasing and in intense competition for every resource, constantly pushing and moving fluidly, yet the steady state equilibrium is somewhat maintained with the cluster blocking the entrance and moving in uniform. seriously, if red blood cells learned to do this - there would be very little bleeding.
anyway, keren's friend says - no problem, hadas is joining us and she knows one of the bouncers. then hadas arrives, very well dressed like everyone else all around us. and you know the moment when you meet someone who is your friend's friend's friend - and they wonder what kind of person you are? a clubber? a serious dancer? will they enjoy the night drinking with you or is it going to be an intellectual philosophical type of evening that will go into the next morning in discourse of hume kafka and maoism? and by all of that i mean, they check out how you are dressed. well that moment occurred (more than once on this night) and the eyes travelled up and down. then they, the eyes, whatever color they were, whatever makeup was decorating their ambience, saw my sandals. my shoresh (teva-like), outdoorsy, kibutz/moshav-like, definitely not tel aviv-clubbing, sandals. and the verdict was passed.
i was quite amused, quite a few times (this happened on more than one occasion) .
on my defense - i didn't know we were going to a club. i mean, i would have at least worn socks! (not with sandals.. com'on!)
this lady really did get us through the line in no time. she is a mini celeb i was told, participated in israel's equivalence of the amazing race. many people came up to her and chatted with her through the night. the girls had very positive things to say about her afterwards, which was nice as usually celebs, or min celebs, really get the run through... she is the one on the right (huh, this is my effort on competing with TMZ!)

can read about them here a bit also (you might have to use google translator...)

some impressions from the club - cool place, though extremely packed and difficult to move around in - hence dance... they put on the black eyed peas tonight's going to be a good night, and as you know, in the song at some point they say 'mazal tov'. in that part, the dj silenced the song and let the entire bar yell in unison - mazel tov! (in american pronounciation rather than israeli mazel vs. mazal). finally, israelis love to clap, and not in order to say thank you at the end (but that also) but rather in the middle of a song to show excitement. so every now and then you would see a bunch of hands go up in the air and clap, clap, clap in rhythm to the song.

clap clap. clap.

hamachon - המכון

so, did you know what the top academic institution to work at, worldwide, is according to the-scientist? so number 1 is in dresden germany (the sister city of coventry...), a place pretty well known - the max planck institute. number 3? university of bristol - the place that right now i feel is my most likely location for next year. cambridge is in the top ten as is the university of toronto! but the second best place in the world? the weitzmann instittuion!!! (hamachon - the institute - is what the cool kids call it...) and i totally see it. its just so nice, so peaceful, i guess the salary is good (well, i know nothing of professor's salaries, but students get paid around 1700 USD per month, tax free and expenses are much lower than say, davis...) there is no undergrads around (that's gotta push it to the top :) ) and hence if there is any teaching, its at the grad level, which typically (at least in physics) means teaching master students. i already wrote a little bit about how green it is and how there are so many fruit trees (all citrus) adorning the institute (i picked lemons the other day, man, they smelled soooo sweet! i love lemons. first tree i plant in my yard.). on top of that the buildings are modern but a bit warm, some are brick-laced, especially those that are more social sciences (archaeology...), lots of statues, lots of open grassy areas. three decent, quite decent cafeterias - one meat, two milk/fish - kosher reasons, one restaurant/coffee place which is very good... its a really nice place.


also the dynamics with people is very different. a really simple example. uzy' wife's mom passed away last tuesday. the funeral was the next day (in jewish tradition you are not supposed to wait with this) and was quite far away (ok, in israel terms. this means two hours north - near the sea of galilee). uzy's group includes four phd students, one masters student, a postdoc from switzerland and myself. we all went to the funeral. all of us.

we made it a bit more of a day, did very little sight seeing, a short hike to a spring and made tea there - hence the picture. but still, that's pretty unique situation. i mean in the states, i didn't even know for a while of deaths in my advisor's family. those intra-personal distances in israel, if they exist at all, are very short...

from left to right, rami, yehonatan, me, idan, amit, fabien, amit

weitzmann it is...

now i have reached the holy land. and i didn't have to walk the desert for 40 years to do it. just stay in a lot of welsh rain for a long time...

the weitzmann institute in israel (home of the most recent nobel laureate in chemistry!!!) is a very nice place. its green and hilly, with buildings hidden between brush and trees. there is a large orange grove and when the wind is right, you smell that wonderful citric flower fragrance. the particle accelerator is right near the grove and towers over it. from the train it looks like a dinosaur with the round head watching over. i tend to think it looks like snoopy also.

the institute (hamachon for those who know hebrew and want to sound cool) is a great escape for me from tel aviv. not that i dislike tel aviv, but its hard living at my grandparents which is where i am for the time being and tel aviv is a city. congestion, traffic, some smog, noise. so walking to the institute, straight from the train station - i fill my lungs with the cleaner air, the smell of the trees, the aromas of the oranges, the fragrances of the bio labs...

the physics building where i am is amazingly active. the colloquiums (have been to two so far) fill up the room completely (70+ seats) to the point that people sit on the stairs. people are friendly and nice, lots of internationals, and there are lots of cats that are running about, even inside the building. today a black cat crossed my path, and immediately i thought... wait wait wait, no superstitions, i immediately wondered if it was schrodinger's cat, and then poof, it was half gone...

i received a visitor's pass to get through the magneticized gates as well as a key to my office (and a key to rami's office, uzy's student, which is right across... hee hee, power to me!!! *evil laughter fill the room* hillel is seen planning on stealing some, ahhhh, 8x11 print paper, from rami's office, ha ha ha!!!). i am in an office with an italian guy, right next to uzy's office. i leave the door open as a check on myself that people can see if i am not working. boy what a system... self discipline to the max!!!

next - living situation, once again... decision this time? tel aviv, close to family, close to some friends (not many, but what i have here for now), close to good food, close to zilber (brother), close to action.
or rehovot - close to work, more serene city, greener, closer to nature, closer to work friends.

eh?