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We made it back home right on time Friday morning. Our transfer in Newark definitely cut it close (due mostly to a completely nonsensical security process), but... we made it - and even more remarkably, so did our luggage.

The only item that didn't make it back properly was my laptop powercord which was taken by security at Ben Gurion (Tel Aviv) who needed to do "more testing". I have no idea why that was necessary but at least it was going to be "on the next plane". So... here I am three days later and still no sign of it -- They (Continental) were supposed to receive it here on two separate occasions since then but it still hasn't come through. My next chance is today at 330PM so I guess we'll hope it comes in then. In the meantime, I haven't been able to use my laptop - which means I can't work. That may not sound like a bad thing... but, in this case, it really is - I'm getting way behind and it's quite annoying. Today I'll have to meet up with Rob to use his power cord...

The trip was great - a wonderful experience and great to meet the people I've been working with remotely up to now. This picture is from the office by the way... not a bad work environment!

One other thing my Mom pointed out to me regarding the size of Israel. I knew it was small but it's funny to see it compared to Lake Michigan like this:

6/5 and 6/6 - Herziliya

After work yesterday we were treated to dinner by Koby (our CTO) and his girlfriend Chen. Really great to meet her and get the real facts on Koby!

I didn't get any pictures in the area around my hotel when I got here as I didn't have the camera yet, so I took care of that a bit this morning (set here -- all our pictures here). These are either from my hotel room or from the neighborhood within a few blocks of it...

I can't decide if this is "Flying Bicycle Angel Woman" or "Landing Bicycle Devil Man", but I am definitely sticking to my guns that it's a bicycle:There's no shortage of seashells:The beach itself:

And some stores near a turnabout (there are no shortage of turnabouts):

6/3 Workin on a Sunday

Back to work today as Sunday is a workday here in Israel (or at least much of it). Not a whole lot to report other than another great supper by the Sea - this time at the fanciest of the three offerings on the beach near our hotel.

Since I don't have much new to report... and since the sites/sights of the weekend are definitely still on my mind... just something I've been thinking about:

A few days ago I was going to talk about being in Israel and just generally near so many holy/historical sites... The closest thing I can compare it to (and this doesn't even come close) is being at Yankee Stadium and thinking about: Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig may have walked on this spot... or even: someone else watched history from this spot.

Now multiply that by a thousand - who has walked through Jerusalem? Who has walked within 30 feet of where I walked this weekend? ... incredible.

Is this the precise site of the crucifixion or the ascension or so many other events? and then coming to the realization that it happened within a few miles of where you are - being on the exact spot would be very special... but being very close - or even at the "best guess" or "traditional" spot is incredible.

6/1 Massada & The Dead Sea

pictures for today here. all of them here.

We woke up early today to catch our bus out of Herzliya for a tour of (today) the Dead Sea and Messada and (tomorrow) Jerusalem. We'll be staying overnight in Jerusalem as well - it'll be nice to see that city a bit more.

There ended up being a bit of miscommunication as we were told to be ready at 715 and they were actually expecting us at 7. Obviously it could have been much worse as the 15 minutes just meant we were really rushed and a bit late instead of completely missing things - still, not a great start though. After picking up a few others we were off to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is a gorgeous city, built in the mountains (big hills anyway). The mountain is not very high but high enough that all of the available precipitation falls on it -- there's a ridge in town where you can look down at one side of town and see green and green in the area beyond, but if you look the other way you see the Arabian Desert.

On our way out of town (we weren't there long - just to pick people up) we saw some goat herders / nomads on the way out of town. These people, live life in as traditional a way as possible. They try to avoid almost everything modern but apparently have become much less nomadic lately as they now have water pipes coming to their settlements. They are in the dessert so I'm sure that at some point you might just have to accept something modern to improve your life by that much.

Shortly before we reached the Dead Sea we saw a city a bit in the distance: Jericho. We weren't headed in that direction (it's Palestinian at the moment) but it's incredible to see cities that you've heard so much about and have so much history. We also passed by the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found - another place that we weren't stopping at but again...wow.



The Dead Sea is a picturesque Desert Oasis. Although, maybe "oasis" isn't the right word when the water is incredibly undrinkable. Amazingly, the Dead Sea is 33% salt which makes floating in it incredibly easy (more on that later).

Our first stop wasn't actually at the Dead Sea - it was Massada. Read this for a bit of a refresher: click here (it's quite the story, you really should check it out).


Some original flooring:


Looking down the giant ramp the Romans built (if you don't know what I'm talking about - read that last link):


After Messada we were off to make a proper stop at the Dead Sea. The stop was something that I'm really glad we did - here are the three things to tell you about the trip:
1. I put the Dead Sea "black mud" on my skin which is just sitting on the bottom there... it was... something I needed to do. I can't say that I kept it on any longer than a minute though - I just wanted to have done it.

2. I floated in the Dead Sea - another "must do". It basically feels like you have a life preserver on - only it's covering your whole body. Almost like you're sitting in a recliner in the water - you go in a "seated" position and your chest stick out of the water along with your knees and feet. Pretty crazy!

3. It's easy to scrape yourself up at the Dead Sea + scraping yourself and adding salt water is not fun. While basically "crawling around" on top of the mud (if you try to walk you sink) I got some scrapes, but I guess that's the price of admission.

4. (wait, did I say there'd be only 3?) -- It's friggin hot in the Arabian Dessert. We were actually there on a "cold" day and it was easily 100F. Apparently it gets up as high as 130F... you may want to bring some sunscreen.


We were pleasantly surprised when we got to Jerusalem to find that we actually had a nice hotel - we weren't expecting much for the place "included with the 2 day tour". It was located in a pretty cool neighborhood to the West of the Old City. Not sure of the neighborhood name but Hillel Street was the area where we found dinner and a coffee shop. The action seems to pick up later here in general with people getting dinner in the 7-8 time slot on average so we were a bit early for the real action. I was ok with an earlier night though as we had had quite a bit of sun and walking and were in for more of the same tomorrow.

Hazey Day

There's a strange haze over the city today due to the humidity - it looks close to fog but not quite. It seems thinner than most fog (or at least what I think of as "fog") would be.

I got to talk to Monnie today which was really great - we used Skype so that we wouldn't have to pay for the call... really an invaluable tool for avoiding long distance charges. There's an 8 hour difference so your options are either 11PM CDT and 7AM IST or 3PM IST and 7AM CDT.

After work Rob and I got dinner on the beach before walking to the marina that I'd mentioned the other day. It's a pretty good hike but not too bad - you can't complain about walking by the sea when you're from Wisconsin!

5/26 - Day 2

The title says "Day 2" but at this point I don't really know what day it is. I know I slept somewhere between 2 and 5 hours last night (no idea which it is) and that it was definitely in 4 installments... but hey, we made it! That was a seriously long flight. Luckily I had some good row mates.

So far things seem a lot like Miami - warm, palm trees, cab drivers that speak rough (but decent) English; the hotel clerk actually spoke better English than I'd have expected to find at a Miami hotel though :)

The comparison to the US really holds true looking out my window here - I feel like I'm in Hermosa Beach (LA) or something of the sort. Palm trees - a big ocean (sea, actually) and just a great view.

I just turned on the TV in my room to be greeted by "Can't Live, If Livin' Is Without You" (in English).

So far so good! Now - for the long awaited shower and tooth brushing!!!

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The hotel feels like some of the older American hotels I've stayed in and the location is great - if I lean out my window I can see the beach maybe 5-6 blocks down. Notice I said "lean out my window" - they actually trust me with the ability to open my window here - something I haven't found in a big city hotel in quite a while.

That reminds me (speaking of things I haven't seen in a while) - (a) we had meals on the flight. We had dinner last night (at 7AM Israeli time) and breakfast this morning (at 5PM Israeli time) - I guess they're not trying to help get us on our new schedule! Anyway, though (b) they gave us metal silverware. I was pretty surprised by that.

Also, thinking back to the airport earlier - one of the primary things I had read online was that you get stopped all the time in the airport and asked basic questions by security (to try to trip you up if you're up to no good). We didn't see ANY of that - at all. Actually, I didn't see anyone at this airport with a gun (at the Madison airport you pass at least 6 or 7) -- maybe that's just because we were on the way in though... we'll see if things are tougher on the way out.

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Just got back from dinner with the Rob and Koby (the CTO of Seeking Alpha). Crazy to think that we've been working so closely together but this is the first time that I've actually even seen his face, much less met him in person! I'm looking forward to a couple such moments in the next two weeks involving other members of the team!

We went to eat at an area called 'The Marina'. Very cool place on the water (obviously) with lots of restaurants and places to see. It reminded me a lot of the similar area in Baltimore (is that also called "The Marnia"?... I think it might be). Anyway, this was similar to that but a bit bigger - a few more people - and I actually felt safer at Tel Aviv's version. I remember the walk back to the car in Baltimore being much more shady, despite the fact that we were only parked about two blocks away from the action.


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Tomorrow we'll be working off some jetlag in the morning and I hope to take a walk down to the sea. Rob and I actually walked down there quick tonight but I'd like to see it during the day. We'll be headed over to meet the team and get a little work done about noon before having a barbecue (hosted by Koby) tomorrow for us all to properly get some social time in.

5/25 - Day 1

For those who haven't heard, I've just started an exciting trip to Israel to visit the other employees at the company I work for (Seeking Alpha). I'm really looking forward to it and know it's going to be a wonderful life experience, as well as allowing me to actually see the people I work with on a daily basis in the flesh.

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Our trip started today with Monnie (and Howie) escorting Rob and I to the airport in Madison. Our flight out of Madison was delayed about 45 minutes but we had a cushion built in at Newark (better safe than sorry - we really didn't want to miss this connection!).

Shortly after arriving at Newark we heard an announcement for all passengers on flight 90 ("hey, that's us") to head to the gate right away for extra security screening. We were mid-discussion about how it was already 9PM and we hadn't eaten yet at the time... we probably should have thought "hey, we should get food quick and then go", but instead we erred on the safe-side at reported immediately. -- It turned out to just be an extra 1 minute of carry on searching, metal detecting, and rub downs (that must be why it costs $1300 to fly to Tel Aviv).

So, here we sit - the last time that I plan on taking the laptop out before Tel Aviv as it seems like it would just be way more hassle to take it out and use it than it's worth... oh, that reminds me - we found out when we got to Madison that we both had middle seats on this flight. I guess that extra email I sent to Continental to make sure that we were either together or both windows really paid off! The guy had told me that it was taken care of but apparently he meant "for the return flight".... oh well.

That's it for now. See you in Israel.