Cheated

Went to draw money 2 days ago from the ATM. As you see, when you draw $$ overseas from the ATM, there is a standard service charge of S$5 everytime money is drawn. So the most logical thing is to draw the most amount of money possible and then hope you do not get robbed. So out of the various banks’ ATMs that I tried, I can withdraw the most money from Bank Leumi, 4000 shekels at a time.

So I happily went to draw money 2 days ago, never count also, hurry put in my pocket and go to school coz scared ganna robbed, especially by the eerie ethopian begger sitting near the ATM every morning. Reached the school, hide in the toilet then realise that I got a 50 shekel note among all the 100 shekels one.. Initially thought so good luck maybe got 50 shekels extra.. Count count count then realise I only have 3950 in total. Thought maybe got 1 note drop into the toilet bowl. But dun have lei.. My friend drove me to the bank to talk about it, dunno wad they talk about also. My friend maybe is flirting with the banker coz she quite chio. The chio banker also damn funny one, can pick up 2 phones simultaneously and put one on each ear and talk. No wonder pple always say jewish pple very the smart, coz can talk on 2 phones and flirt wif customer at the same time.. End up juz ask me to leave my name and Master Card number.. They say will tally the money when they put money into the ATM.. If got missing money then can refund into my account. Think the 50 is gone for good liao.. no wonder pple nvr trust banks la..

then again, bank leumi has ATMs for the disabled in wheelchairs.. cant remember ever seeing such a thing back in Singapore though..

Unhappy? Go on a strike! Sorry, not for Singapore

In Israel people can be unhappy about anything even though they appreciate the tremendous advances this country has made in the past. Early this year, just before I came, there is the lecturers’ strike. The lecturers are unhappy about their working conditions and benefits and refused to teach. The semester was delayed and the matter was resolved only after some time.

This time, the graduate students are unhappy. They will be going on strike, refusing to mark the undergraduate exam papers and do teaching until their benefits have improved. Actually, the benefits they get here is quite good, I think is on par with a graduate student in Singapore but there is no medical benefit, no social security etc. They want more. So go on strike lor. Interesting culture. Will update when I have more information.

Visit to Rosh Hanikra

Went to visit a place called Rosh Hanikra 2 weeks ago. It was very nice of Sivan and Dafna to bring me for a visit. I guess they are scared of me dying from boredom here. It made a big hoohaa too. Back at work the next day, the whole lab was asking me how the trip was? Not just the whole lab, guys in the neighbouring lab and some undergraduates ask me about it too. Seems like a big event man.. The nerdy boring Asian who comes back to lab almost every Saturday suddenly goes on a trip. Unbelievable for them i guess!

Back to the trip, there is a website about the place. The site is quite power ok, for such a small place, they somehow made it sounds like you can spend half a day there. 1 hour is more than enough actually. Unless you want to take in the scenary and just stare at the Mediterranean Sea.

Haifa is somewhere at the horizon of the picture.

You have to take the steepest cable car ride in the world to reach the grottoes. Sounds good, but its a very short ride and its nowhere as thrilling as a roller coaster.

Into the grottoes we go. So what’s a grotto? check wikipedia yourself la, lazy. Some sort of caves made by the power of nature, from the waves of the Mediterannean sea.

After that was lunch at the beach. The whole city is at the beach, since no shopping center is open. Israelis love the beach a lot, they are crazy about it, they go there every weekend it seems. Much more than Singaporeans.. I prefer hiding in MacDonalds. Or maybe its just me. Anyway, they keep telling me to go to the beach as often as possible now, before the jellyfish season wadever this means. Seems like Mr. Jellyfish and family will come visiting soon and then you cant go into the water anymore for a while. No photos of the beach, kinda forgotten after a filling lunch.

But more photos coming up, from my Jerusalem trip last week. Till next time (which probably may be tomorrow)

Sandeep is leaving, room to share

Sandeep is going back to Singapore tomorrow. One more night and I will be going back into an empty apartment alone every day. Lost my phone confirmed, cannot get it back, don’t know where the driver has hidden. Sorry friends, I lost all your contact numbers. Won’t be getting a new Singapore SIM soon. But Offra is giving me her old phone, so that I can get a local SIM. Thats great!

Now that Sandeep is leaving, I need a new best friend at home. Xun Lei is now my official best friend, he will keep me entertained when bored. Oh, and my laptop too. Lucky only my phone went missing, if my laptop goes missing, I will go berserk. The laptop costs 3x as much as in Singapore.. Must cable-lock my laptop at all times!

Oh, and I am now advertising my apartment, the utilities and municipal fees are a bit too costly for me. Even the cleaning lady who washes the common corridors and staircases (which always look dirty) charges me S$20+ a month. The landlords are very nice to me though, always ensuring that I feel comfortable and nothing is spoilt in the apartment, their hospitality is more than what I can ask for even though I have difficulty communicating with them. Best if the prospect roomie can cook, clean, give massages, goes jogging and tell jokes, I will give a serious discount.

My chronic back pain is disappearing, thats a great news. Not sure why, might be due to not playing soccer anymore, the dead sea treatment, the diet, the bed, the weather, or the jacuzzi and sauna in the Technion (Yes, the University has steam and dry saunas, a jacuzzi and 3 pools in the swimming pool). Wish to go back to the Dead Sea again, that is the nicest place in Israel.

Where I work in

I am quite free these 2 days. The building I work in is undergoing some electrical maintenance. No work for Wed & Thur. Fri & Sat are rest days. And on Sunday I will have a spanking new lab to work in. Its time for some house cleaning and blog updating.

Some pictures of the Technion. (note: must always put a the in front of Technion)

A road sign just outside the campus, I live near the Ziv neighbourhood. Its about the only English you can find on the streets

A bus stop inside the campus, a lot of notices about student activities I think.

A lot of buses inside the campus, but I have no idea where they are going (ok I lied, there is English on the reverse side, not that it helps much though) Bus 19 goes to my place. A bus ride costs S$2.20. I usually take the 40 minutes walk though.

A roundabout within the Technion. Israeli roads have a lot of roundabouts, this one has a lot of ‘things’ sticking out, not sure whether they can be lighted or not.

The school has a lot of greenery. Israelis are generally environmentally friendly, will take some pics as proof nxt time.

The school of computer science, where my landlady works as a secretary. She’s a very nice lady and many people say I had great luck to find such a good apartment. Thanks Ester and Tayer for the apartment and all the help, my landlords.

The Technion is on top of a mountain, Carmel mountain. Hence, there is great views all around.

Funny statues all around

The nanoelectronics centre, I like the glassy architecture.

The school of biomedical engineering where I am attached to.

Some famous guy who helped advanced science and technology such that he can have the building named after him. details at http://silverdialogues.fas.nyu.edu/object/silverlegacy

My office until end of the week. It has more privacy, 4 PhD students in a office, nice.. can msn without too many people knowing. Israeli people are serious when working, they don’t surf the net or msn around much. But they chat a lot with each other.

My temporary work space. A trusty laptop, albeit a bit slow, which I cant live without.

Moving into a new apartment!

After a few days at the blood-sucking hotel, I finally found a apartment to stay in with the help of Dror. Went to see 2 actually, both about the same price. The first one was terrible, smaller than the hotel room and no washing machine. So I ask the landlord how to wash clothes, she says you can bring into the Technion and wash. My goodness. The second one was good. It has practically everything and the rent is only a quarter of the hotel’s even when you include the utilities bill. The landlord’s son has moved abroad and so the apartment is vacant for rent. It has everything, and I really mean EVERYTHING. Now just have to wait for the cable man to come fix the Internet and cable and the apartment will be perfect!

The view of my apartment from outside. Looks quite run-down. Its like a 5-floor HDB building with shared flats

The front door of the apartment. I have to climb to the 5^th storey every day.

The living room. Looks good from the picture rite?

This is the kitchen. It has a super big fridge, stove, oven, toaster, microwave and washing machine. What more can I ask for? A juicer perhaps.

The apartment has a dining table too

We bought a huge amount of groceries, to prepare for the Jewish holiday in which most of the city will be inactive for a week. The festival is called the Passover, to commemorate the historical event where the Jews were fleeing from Egypt and had no time to make their bread rise with yeast (no time to bake the bread) Hence, no bread will be sold during this coming week. They will only have bread which has not risen, its called unleavened bread I think. (Many jews don’t like this dish though, I just think it is similar to pizza although I have yet to try it). A tough time to carry all the groceries back. Bought too much and we had to walk half an hour back. Had to take about 5 pit stops in between to rest our arms.

This is the toilet, rather small but the bathtub is quite cute. It has a sitting area to… dunno wad its for lei.. maybe to wash your feet sitting down.

The bedroom I am sharing with Sandeep, there’s 2 beds ok! So that we won’t turn gay. There is a TV hanging from the wall too, so that we can watch lying down. But currently the shows are all in Hebrew, I only understand Tom and Jerry cartoon.

So you all can start mailing me stuff. My address is:

A. H. Silver Street 15/11

Neve Sha’anan (the area the apartment is in)

Haifa

Israel ??? (don’t remember the postal code)

Can mail me instant noodles (which they don’t sell in the supermarket), Israeli $$$ (since I cant change the Sing dollars to Israeli shekels in Haifa, can only change in Tel Aviv, looks like nobody from Singapore ever comes to Haifa for a long term stay), return air tickets (so that I can go back play soccer for the weekends, but Israelis start work on Sunday, so I have to take leave), chocolates, clothes, socks, basically anything la. But no guarantees can reach lei, because I don’t know if the postman knows English or not, and the mailbox is sort of shared by everyone in the same building. So I have to write my name in English and Hebrew for the postman to recognize ba.

Got settled down properly. Now is time to start my work. Well, it will only start in another week. My group is in the midst of cleaning their stuff and moving them into a new lab. So I have to start by being a mover, moving all the stuff into the new lab one storey below. But I cant move much also la, most of the girls here are bigger size than me and look stronger than me lor. I am juz the Asian weakling. I am going to find out the secret of why they all so big size one.

Stay tuned. Next entry probably showing the university.

ArriVeD

A lot has happened in the past week. Its exactly a week since I am in the Airport saying goodbye. A lot has happened. Going to blog about it slowly since I have more internet access now. Now I am watching Arsenal vs Reading online streaming. Gonna get cable TV soo. WOOT!

The flight itself was only ok from Singapore to BKK. At BKK, you have to undergo strict security screening and your bags are fully hand searched. I had a passport stamp to Msia a few weeks ago and got a 10 min questioning for that. If you are going to Israel, make sure you get a suitcase with a combination code. Sandeep’s check-in luggage which was locked by lock and key had the lock snapped. Luckily for me its by combination, so I just have to tell them the code and they will search. Don’t expect them to put things back nicely though. Its in a big mess! A shocker when I first opened it in the hotel. Some maggi noddles i brought all crushed and lying around in the luggage! 😦

The 11 hour flight from BKK to Tel Aviv was terrible. First time I sit for such a long flight. And the 2 Israelis beside me are really big, their legs all have to intrude into my space since they find me small I guess. I already have v little leg space, they must feel even worse. But at least the food I got on the plane was nice.

Finally arrived. Airport nothing really special. So only one photo.

The shared taxi that takes about 6-10 pax you take to bring you to the exact location. About S$22 per person. The uncle gave us a little discount since we are the last to alight. Charges shown below so no cheating.

A 2 hour ride to Haifa from Tel Aviv. And we reach our destination. Hotel Marom. It was a extremely hot day. Hotel Marom is a family run 3-star hotel (Its said that many Israeli hotels give their own ratings, I believe this is one too).

Cultural SHOCKER 1: The hotel will charge 300 shekels a day. That is equivalent to almost S$120 a day. And if I don’t find an apartment by 19th, they will charge 450 shekels a day for 8 days due to festive period. Crazy asses! There is NO swimming pool. gym, or sauna. Only a room with cable tv, breakfast and a lousy desktop for shared use if you want internet. Welcome to Israel I guess. I have to get used to this, especially since my Israeli lab mate says its cheap to buy things in the States.

View from the hotel is good though

I went to the university to report, but my supervisor is away so a lot of things cant be done while he is away. Have to wait for him to come back to Israel from Switzerland before I can appear in the lab. So I went back to the hotel by bus, lost my way and since no one knows where my hotel is as it is in some small road 15 mins away from the main road, I ventured to a shopping mall. A hungry me decided to go have a fast food dinner. One burger + medium fries and drink costs S$15. Ermm.. with the horrendous hotel rent, looks like I can only have 1 meal a day LOL. Neverthless it gives me enough energy to find my way back to the hotel. Found enough English-speaking Jews to help me and direct me back. They are rare, especially if they are above 35 yrs of age.

So the strategy for the next few days will be to eat as much as you can from the hotel buffet breakfast (which I forgotten to take photos of). It tastes quite good so just eat until no day no night. Eat some biscuits for lunch and cook maggi mee at night.

Still happy even though it might look pathetic. The bah kwa was yummy and the weather was cooling. Got to watch some poker and Israeli soccer on cable too