Shabbat Shalom!

A quiet Saturday is a great day for a stroll through the fields:

deep cleaning!

My fist free Friday I spent cleaning the apartment. I don't even want to get started on telling you how many buckets of black water I carried out. Fortunately my balcony has a hole in the corner through which I could sweep out the remaining dirt water... The bathroom was particularly dirty!

Below you see some pictures of my huge temporary flat: 

my room

my balcony

bedroom again

living room

our kitchen

bathroom (after cleaning)

well deserved food :)

After the huge cleaning session, I rewarded myself with a plate of left-over pasta (yes, that is pasta!) with corn and tuna...

flat viewings

Throughout the week we viewed some flats (my current flat is only temporary). None of them was anything we would just jump on. For Thursday we had arranged another viewing. As Nisim went back to Tiberias (תיבריה) earlier this week, I ended up viewing the flat on my own. The landlord did not speak any English/German/French/Spanish etc. so our only means of communication were "זה"  "יפה" ""כן" . While I was visiting the flat, the current resident was brushing his teeth and lay down on the couch to watch TV. Another family also came to visit but wasn't so impressed (its quite small). All in all it was a bit of an awkward situation, but the flat is gorgeous. If everything goes well, We'll sign papers as soon as Nisim gets back (I wouldn't want to sign a contract in Hebrew...). I hope I didn't jinx it now...

Update: Nisim has signed the contract last week and we now officially have a flat from the 20th of December :)

Hebrew - יברית

Yesterday I took my very first Hebrew class! From now on I will be visiting the Hebrew Ulpan twice a week for 2,5 hours (a shit long time!). We are about 25 students from a very mixed background on different (low) levels. Some know the Aleph-Beth very well, others are better in numbers and some read well.  In between it should be a good environment to learn a not so easy language together - !בסדר - I have missed a few weeks already, so the class is not so easy on me. However, I am able to read & write block letters well (not much help if the teacher scribbles in unclear script!), can count somewhat and know a few chit-chat words. I'm sure I will catch up soon :)

the Aleph-Bet is to be read from the right, just like all pieces of written Hebrew. (At least they're not writing from bottom to top...).

Rehovot - רהובות

Okay, we arrived in Rehovot (רהובות) on Monday. After picking up the keys for my part-time accommodation, I went to meet my supervisor Ido Amit in the Weizmann Institute of Science. All I can say is that I am really really happy to be in the Amit group - everybody is so sweet and helpful! I used my first week to get organized and set up my Mac which comes with a Hebrew keyboard (!). The only thing that gives me a bit of a headache is the confusing organization of the Weizmann campus. The Institute is (literally) a huge park with tons of green (name orange, kumquat and passion fruit trees!) and a million of buildings randomly scattered throughout. Most of the buildings were built in the Memorial for somebody and all of them have long name. In fact the campus is a beautiful place to get lost! I am just loosing a little faith in my personal navigation skills. Its seems impossible to go anywhere in straight lines... I do own two maps: one of them is in Hebrew (think LONG names!), the other one doesn't have any building names at all (not very helpful). For some reason there are no maps whatsoever located anywhere on campus - maybe its to confuse people who don't belong here (think terrorists)??

the Weizmann campus is absolutely HUGE! I am getting lost on it on a daily basis

main gate of the Weizmann Institute of Science

Kumquat-trees on campus (תפוסיני)

The Wolfson Building where I work in the Department of Immunology

the particle accelerator (I heard nowadays they throw huge parties in that building)

I am officially on a diet!

Falafel (chickpea balls) sandwich - yummy!

Hi guys, I am officially on a diet! Since I got to Rehovot, I am not able to knock on all the aunties doors - knowing they would willingly feed me with the best dishes in town. Instead I came to realize that food is barely affordable if you are still waiting for your first paycheck... Maybe a little diet is not the worst idea after last weeks force feeding anyways ;)

The Simpsons in Israel

Interesting fact: Nisim's dad has a German girlfriend. Does that run in the family??

Shabbat Shalom - שבת שלום

Friday night was of course associated with a large dinner. We went to see Haia and Zion, the parents of Nisim's best friend Ofir and as usual we had a 300-course meal. I was stuffed after the first two courses but there was no time to cry ("אני מלאה") as new dishes were arriving at the table every five minutes. Hard to keep up - I dare you!!

shopping at the market

Today, shopping was much more pleasant. I tried  few different types of fresh olives (זיתים) before I decided on which ones would go good with my labane!

expensive shopping

So besides the fact that we still didn't manage to organize a flat in Rehovot, we decided to shop for some toiletries in Tiberias. One of the things I wanted to buy was a simple eye-makeup remover. Easy peasy right? Wrong! I had the feeling that the lady in Superfarm did not want to speak English with me on purpose, but luckily I had Nisim as a translator with me. She drags us through the shop to the 'only' eye-makeup remover she has in stock. "It is definitely the best product currently on the market especially for my sensitive skin." And how lucky we are, they had an offer with two bottles for the price of 'only' 80 Shekel (about 16 Euro!). We managed to convince her to show us the Nivea products - again she picked the most expensive one, claiming it was the only one she had. I might not speak Hebrew but I am not stupid enough not to notice the much cheaper bottle next to the one she picked. At that point she was getting really annoyed with us, huffing and puffing something in Hebrew, before she stormed off. Just when we thought this could not get any more ridiculous, we found ourselves next to a table full of different makeup removers on sale. Unbelievable....

So lets see what I ended up buying in the end:

- big bottle of Shampoo (20 ILS = 4 Euro)

- body wash (10 ILS = 2 Euro)

- body lotion (20 ILS = 4 Euro)

- 150 ml Garnier Pure face wash (30 ILS = 6 Euro; reduced from 60 ILS = 12 Euro!!!!)

- eye-makeup remover (30 ILS = 6 Euro; reduced from 80 ILS = 16 Euro - seriously?!)

- nailpolish remover (13 ILS = 2,60 Euro; reduced from 23 ILS = 4,60 Euro)

- 2 toothbrushes (20 ILS = 4 Euro)

I should probably mention that I was greedy and bought the cheapest available products. In total I spend about 28 Euros on a few bottles of smellies. In Germany these things listed above would have cost me about 10 Euros in a standard pharmacy. Guess I'll have to get used to the prices if I don't find a way around it. The next morning I woke up in a sweat, huffing and puffing to myself how I could have wasted all this money... haha

(Boker tov, good morning) בקר טוב

We (Nisim and me) arrived in Israel Monday evening. I literally slept all the way from the airport to Tiberias, where Nisim's family lives. The first proper glimpse of Israel I got on Tuesday morning. And what a wonderful picture unfolded in front of my eyes!! Nisim's dad lives in a house with a large balcony overseeing the whole town. What a lovely place to start the day with a yummy Israeli breakfast (bread with lots of cheeses). Oh beautiful Tiberias on the shore of the Sea of Gallilei...

Israel?!

So how did I end up in Israel this time? I was all set for a perfect PhD position in Germany, my parents were happy that I was going to live closer to home after spending all these years abroad. Then I find an email in my Manchester University inbox: Somebody is opening up a new lab in the Weizmann Institute in Israel and is looking for people to join the lab. Without thinking much about it, I sent my CV and got a PhD position. Awesome? Awesome!

I should maybe add to this that I am in a long-term relationship with an Israeli and therefore have visited the country before. Still, I would not have imagined ever living in Israel. I am not so much worried about security issues (my family is worrying enough about that), but cultural differences are great. I guess that's what made this location seem interesting for me in the first place! Still four years feel like an eternity away... Will I manage? - follow me and find out!