Some tidbits about Israel and my life here so far

The intersections in Israel are named. This means that when you are given driving directions, you are not told take this exit and turn right – but rather – at this intersection, turn right. It’s a different perspective for sure.
Uzy was denied his work visa for the U.K. a couple of weeks ago.
I have moved into my new apartment which is nice and simple. It has come completely stocked, that is dishes, blankets, towels, internet, etc. the kitchen stuff is subpar and I get angry every time I cut with the knife. Anger management my friends, anger management.
Chocolate milk, shoko, comes in little bags at the store. Milk does as well. Now you may ask what do you do with the milk once you have opened it since? No worries, great minds have solved this problem.

My social life has not been what I had expected or hoped. It’s more starting from scratch with bits of pieces of seeing old friends every now and then. It has been disappointing and difficult at times.
Uzy spoke to the British counsel and expressed his displeasure (probably loudly and strongly) with the entire visa thing (I imagine the counsel was quite scared). Actually, its quite ridiculous, he travels a lot hence couldn’t send his passport to them but rather a copy. Further, he is required to take an English exam even though he has over 70 publications (some solo) in English. Finally, any question he has costs him money to ask (i.e. a 1-900 number). He appealed his visa denial.
While the rest of the world seems to be enjoying extremely cold weather, it has been amazingly spring-like here. My favorite childhood flowers (kalaniot כלניות) are out in bloom from the little rain they did receive.

I begin my mornings with an orange I pick from the orchards near the physics building. I have recently discovered a new path from my apartment to the building which passes under a bunch of pecan trees (very tall pecan trees). This has created an interesting competition between me, old Russian ladies that come by and collect and random eclectic birds (any other way to describe birds that pick unshelled pecans of the concrete?).
Last week Uzy received an answer to his visa appeal.
I joined a dating site, to see what its like and to have fun after Rami told me of the girl he is seeing and how he met her (this site…). I had some lady friends browse around and look at guys’ profile on the site so that they could help me shape my own profile well. I was then surprised when the site kept on suggesting different guys for me to look at…
It snowed in Cardiff.
My mom took me to buy shoes, nice shoes. I got two pairs. I get complements about the pair I wear. I think my mom took me because of the sandals blog…
My roommate is Austrian and kind of weird. He is spending his second year here as a visiting researcher. (this is the apartment building, my room is top left)

It turns out I have a relative in the office diagonally from me (she hasn’t been there so far). She is my mom’s second cousin (is that right? My mom’s aunt’s daughter’s daughter). I also have another relative of sorts essentially in the office below mine – he is my aunt’s (mom’s sister) husband’s brother’s son. The connection to this relation was, of course, made by my grandmother. Granma power!! Yoav is amazingly nice and had me over to his house for dinner and more importantly, to meet his wife and two beautiful daughters. Their story is amazing – they were pen-pals when they were 12 and then again when they were 16 and have been together since 16 ½!!! (pen-pals??? Talk about extinct social behaviors!)
The entire family (mom, dad, sister from States) was here for a while. It was magical and so nice. Now its, again, just my brother and I. With the rest of the fam of course…

shiduchim - שידוכים

mathchmake matchmaker, make me a match. find me a find, catch me a catch...

i haven't been learning the fiddle, nor standing on the roof, and definitely not doing both of them at the same time (though i do walk around playing my harmonica, gathering many a strange looks from passerbys yet garnering much impressed respect from the drunk), but the matchmakers of the country have come out in full force. they come from both sides of the family, they come young and young at heart, they come with numbers, they come with titles, they come with offers. not quite fiddler on the roof style, but maybe fitting for the (now) second decade of the 21st.

after a week in israel i have a number with promises of more coming (and they came, and are still coming). my brother is entitled to a number as well and he sets up his blind date before me. i on the other hand have a bit of hard time catching mine. my aunt who supplied the numbers asks if i called, and i say i have but that i haven't been able to catch the lady. a couple of days later, i get a phone call, from the lady. the chain of events went as follows - my aunt told her aunt (whom i have never met, or at least don't remember meeting - but i am related to, pssssssheeeeeeew) that i tried and couldn't get a hold of the girl, then this aunt told her best friend who is the mom of the lady. the point of this is null. or maybe... that i didn't know the person making the connection and that my aunt never saw, nor even talked to the girl.

the phone conversations flow, flow well even. the girl, shelly (means mine), is a social worker and likes asking questions. this was good. the first question i asked? where do you live? and yes, she made fun of me for it... naturally there had to be a small goofed up moment. so after the conversation, which went through a variety of topics, ended 40 minutes or so later, i hadn't made a plan with her, but was left with - call me when you are ready to make a plan.

oy.

tov, i called two days later and we met friday night. and it went all right, nothing exciting, and nothing particularly negative stood out. these things are awkward, that's all i know. and i also know that its really hard to know afterwards. at least for me. we met at a cafe/pub and ordered, well, yes, beer. after my second, and her finishing her first, about an hour and a half later, she left pretty quickly. there was no 'summary' of the evening, or a window for the future. i think more than anything, this is what discouraged me at the end. she kind of had to go - to sleep or something, or maybe to avoid the strange moment of how do we say goodbye at the end. the ending was amazingly quick. and well, i didn't feel a particular click, but maybe i would have tried another meeting? i don't know.

spoke to my brother about his date. of course i spoke, he was questioned through and through by everyone, including my grandma's plants. he said that it was all right - except that she kept on reminding him of his roommate. looked just like his roommate the intention was. now if his roommate was bar refaely or zooey deschanel then you'd say sababa. but his roommate, while very good looking, is his male roommate... is there a point? i am not sure. maybe that there is very little filtering with this blind date stuff.

i essentially decided that i wasn't interested in doing blind any longer. first reason is i am looking but not that actively. i am interested in laying the framework myself in a way. second, well, if someone knew me, knew the girl and said - hey, good matchup, that's a different story. but just random numbers? i know enough peeps in the math/physics world that can generate me many a random number...

my cousin's wife's mom though is a very good matchmaker i hear. and she spoke to my mom a week or so ago and came back to her with a number and some theory about how these things work and completely convinced my mom, who then spoke to me, and then yesterday i saw my cousin's wife who urged me that her mom is good and has a place guaranteed in heaven (three matches which come into fruit, i.e. vows) and well, at this point i am just trying to continue this run on sentence as long as i can as i don't really have anything to add... but this girl just came back from a phd program in the u.s. so in a sense there are some commonalities there and while she probably left for the u.s. for her grad program, maybe her b.a., and i left a bit earlier, you know, the time preceding the deepening of my voice, and some other changes that happen during junior high taht are not appropriate for this kind of blog... maybe we'll have some things to talk about returning to this holycrazy place. so maybe this will make sense.

was there ever a point???

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?

Coventry

Blogger’s note: this blog will be more of a diary entry describing a short trip to Coventry/University of Warwick via a hodgepodge of anecdotes, rather than the recent ups and downs of our narrator.

Dear blog-gery, there is much to say, much that has been happening lately, but I want to avoid all of that and concentrate on the little short trip that included a very nice conference. You know how it is, sometimes telling a story is dealing directly with reality, sometimes it’s a plotted escape. This is not exactly the latter, but its definitely in that ballpark.

From last Wednesday till this Sunday I was at the university of warwick, at a 60th birthday conference. It seemed that this conference was organized rather quickly which had the effect that only people who could afford coming from afar attended, along with a small group of ‘locals’. At the end of the day this meant that there were few people at the conference, all of them quite important and distinguished (read: ‘veterans’ of the profession…) and of course, me.
So I got to rub shoulders with some of the great minds of statistical mechanics, share note pads with innovators of selective random walks, drink beer with mathematicians that could describe many governing communist bodies – and in fact, chair a session and mispronounce some exotic names.
Ok, and now a bit of nerdiness - the math department at the university of warwick (as middle of nowhere as it gets in England (yes, it is England, not Wales…)) is incredible! The building is huge and modern, with lots of open space, high ceilings and light. The common room is two floors connected by stairs and an open balcony, spacious, inviting, and – excitingly, with huge blackboards! And overall, I was somehow inspired to do work while being there. In fact, I had never come back from a conference before with so much motivation to work! I am always so exhausted from attempting to concentrate so hard for 8 hours, trying to understand so many different details, so varied talks… but no, this time I came back motivated and energetic. And so far – its lasted three days! Amazing, I know. Maybe the university of warwick is in my future? Ok, we are not talking about that now…
The city of Coventry, where the university of warwick is located was heavily bombed during world war II, during the blitz. The reasoning being a jet factory. Circa 10,000 people died. The city was quite levelled. In response the brits bombed Dresden. There was a famous cathedral here from gosh, maybe the 13th century, of great importance that got a brunt of the bombing. It was located in the center of town. The walls of it still stand. The roof is gone, the inside is gone for the most part except for a few things that remained, such as some stairs. One of the towers was left completely standing. It’s a very strange place to visit, very powerful. Has that ghostly feeling of war and destruction and things that remained behind afterwards.

Interestingly, right next to it stands the new cathedral. Built in a very modern style, has no resemblance to the skeleton that it stands next to.



Inside, there is an inscription from the people of Dresden, speaking of peace and forgiveness. Coventry provided money to Dresden for its reconstruction and Dresden did the same for Coventry.

No where is it mentioned that the germans were responsible for what happened. The words forgiveness are seen throughout the cathedral.
I found this very interesting. I am not comparing this in any way to the holocaust or to Israel, but just observing that the words associated with the holocaust in Israel are do not forgive and do not forget. Again, this is not a judgement just an observation, something to think about…

Work

well, the overwhelming response(s) all said more about me. i was feeling like i was writing too much about me, me, me me me. and its hard cause i want to hear more about you in a sense, but blogging i guess is not really so much a two-way (or many-way) communication path...

ok, work. so, there has been a good amount of drama at work. and writing this down here will essentially guarantee that i won't open my blog up to the public. so let me begin with this, the major players in this story will be:
michael levitin: russian, late 40's - early 50's, russian, beard, two kids (one in cambridge, one finished uni), math professor at cardiff.
uzy smilansky: israeli, mid 60's, goatee, two kids, maybe three, at least two of which live in the UK, physics professor at weitzmann institute as well as a 1/4 position in cardiff.
marco marletta: italian, yet scottish accent, mid 40's, beard, no kids, math professor in cardiff.
hillel raz: israeli, yet american accent with faint traces of a crazyland, late-late 20's, thin beard, no kids, three year position at cardiff uni.

the setting: a three floor (two floor in the UK...) brick building on Senghennydd road (go for it, try to pronounce that... nope, try again). a cloudy day, rain plus sun, welsh and english accents heard in the street below. in the far distance, sheep are grazing in the meadows.

marco knocks on hillel's office door. hillel who is busy, tells marco he'll come in a sec. in his office marco tells hillel that uzy called and asked that hillel call him. hillel finds this strange. he has communicated with uzy plenty, via skype, via email. why is a third person involved? marco looks at hillel and says, you know why he wants to speak to you, no? close the door.

dramatic music onset.

so michael is 99% leaving the department. he has received an offer from reading university. this is due to personal reasons (and he hates cardiff). of course we would love for you to stay in the department.

huh? hillel's face expresses shock.

back in his office hillel considers the situation. will he have to leave cardiff to reading (just outside of london, not very exciting in any way shape or form - though oscar wilde was jailed there once!)? he is just beginning to maybe settle in cardiff, build some foundations. and yes, non of them are strong, still alone most of the time but getting better. move again? and into england? not excited.

hillel calls uzy. uzy talks about work. mentions nothing about michael.

days pass.

a weekend passes.

michael comes back from london (he spends essentially every weekend there, plus most of the weekdays). comes into hillel's office. does a couple minute talk of work. then asks hillel to close the door.

i will be leaving the department march 1st , michael informs hillel. personal reason. but nothing for you to worry about. the grant stays here. i'll be available by skype. we'll be able to meet every now and then. uzy will be coming to the department soon. nothing for you worry about. if you need, you can come and cry on my shoulder.
smile, leaves the office.

uzy speaks to hillel the next day. essentially repeating the same information. nothing for you to worry about. the grant stays, i'll be coming to cardiff.

hillel begins to think about this, realizing that michael esentially had applied for a job after hillel accepted the position, keeping this information hidden from uzy and himself.

a few good days later. uzy essentially tells hillel that there is no point in working with michael, that he is a bit of a dry well, has been for a while. the personal issues have affected his work and...

uzy advises hillel that he can come to israel for as long as he wants to.

hillel purchases a ticket to israel, planning on coming back to cardiff to spend two months with michael and see how things proceed. he goes back and forth on this decision, wondering maybe he should just stay in israel where he'll have family support, a friend network and people to talk to at work. on the other hand, hillel doesn't want to give up on the small foundation he has built in cardiff. these things take time, he reminds himself, so don't give up on what you have done and what may still be. on the other hand, create the best work situation possible for yourself and allow room for maneuvering.

and so, hillel will be on his way to israel november 30th. return flight set for january 25th, yet all of february has been cleared from any and all obligations and hillel may remain longer in israel.

hmmm, thinks hillel, more sunshine, less cold, more falafel, less fish and chips. this may still be a good idea...

work? that is a different equation that remains unsolved.

piano sonata number 14 by beethoven, comes on as the light fades. sounds of rain in the background. a red dragon is flashed for 1/10 a second as the music fades out.