Tuesday – Day 14

August 3, 2012

Today had a real adventure. One worth writing about and worth reading.

The day started slowly with a late wake-up. At ten to eleven I woke up, breaking the shower head in an attempt to wash off the sweat. Oops. Five to eleven I was out of the house, meeting a girl, Shachar, from ISSI 2012 who I had met at the dinner a few nights previously.

Following that was a decent falafel with Naomi Elstein, an older friend from my gap year in Israel. She took me to an artisan chocolatier on Ibn Gvirol and I sampled a few of the many delicious truffles.

However, the real adventure began later that afternoon when I noticed a ‘Garage Geeks’ event on Facebook, which was slated to start in Holon at eight thirty that evening.  I had heard of Garage Geeks from my uncle previously as a community run group that runs start-up, tech and entrepreneurial events. This one was a talk given by Kara Swisher (founder of All Things Digital blog) and Megan Smith (VP of Google BizDev) who were married to each other. Searching up for bus routes on Facebook I came up blank, and looking up the address on a map revealed only a large industrial zone with few roads and many warehouses.

 

Thus, I posted on the event page, asking for directions. About one minute later a guy by the name of Haggai posted a reply with his phone number, letting me know that though public transport to the area was almost nonexistent, he might be able to help given he was travelling through Tel Aviv on the way down. I gave him a call and a few hours later I was in his car on my way to the event! Haggai was a lovely guy with experience in networking and entrepreneurship, having recently secured a good deal of support for a venture in data security.

After being briefed by Haggai on how the night was going to function and having picked up a few networking tips, I entered the venue which was packed with hundreds of eager entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts and even a tech writer or two. The talk and subsequent Q&A was most interesting however the highlight of the evening came in the form of networking opportunities.  I engaged momentarily with Megan from Google, who proved a most pleasant person and she referred me to a guy named Eyal, who provided some helpful support in my ongoing quest to find an internship placement. Following that I met a few young individuals involved in the scene from all around the world, from Singapore to NYC.

Haggai, the other youths and I stayed around to help pack up and by the time we were ready to get back on the road it was already eleven thirty. Haggai was most thirsty so we stopped off at a petrol station someway along the road where we both grabbed a drink (by his courtesy) and he dropped me off right at Adi’s place. A most successful evening.

Tel Aviv – Israel – Day 9

July 30, 2012

Today the conference had its moments of complete and utter boredom and a few really shining lights.

The first lecture I can hardly remember now, but was an analytical look at prophecy in the bible and whether there is virtue in suicide for the sake of others. The second was quite an interesting look at the principles of jurisprudence as derived from halacha (Jewish Law). However, the third one I practically fell asleep during. It covered some purportedly exegetical analysis however seemed to be more of a personal interpretation of things with little regard to historicity.

The penultimate talk was genius. An analysis of psalm 19 using biblical criticism in order to draw conclusions that would in fact be supported by a traditional reading, and using it to show how the traditional reading would be in fact more reasonable than that which broke it up into multiple parts and authors. Any one interested is well encouraged to ask me more!

The final talk was also of note, regarding the story of the Oven of Achnai was a reading of it as a tale of different kinds of power, and the utilization of violence as a core motivator in ancient political systems.

I left the conference somewhat more satisfied than when I came in, left with a few new insights and a happy tummy. Yum.

From there I left to Tel Aviv, this time to stay. Unfortunately when packing my backpack this time, I rather severely under-packed. Two t-shirts, one shirt, one shorts, one pants, one pair of sandals. Not enough for a whole week.

Arriving in a friend’s tiny apartment in Tel-Aviv, I showered in small quarters before meeting up with more friends from the Weizmann Institute, Gali and Ariel, and went for Pizza with them, Sarah Silverberg in tow! After a walk to ice-cream, (delicious,) it was home time again. Sleep came quickly.

Switzerland to Israel – Day 6

July 27, 2012

Today I unfortunately had to say goodbye to Switzerland and the Empting family, to whom I give my greatest thanks.

I truly had a wonderful time. I arrived at the airport far two early, and so with two hours to kill, bought an unnamed magazine, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Once I boarded the plane and found my seat, 29G I realized what I good choice I had made at check in. I had the emergency seat with no passenger next to me and so could stretch out my legs the full way! As everyone else boarded, the flight attendant stood next to me in the extra space and we had a most enjoyable conversation. He was a french national working for swiss airlines and could speak a whopping seven languages fluently. Thus, each time he passed to offer food or drink we attempted to play out our interactions in a different language. On another note the plane food was actually delicious, though no photos this time.

Landing in Israel I immediately felt at home. Walking through the terminals and even going through passport control felt entirely natural. I soon caught a sherut (large public taxi) to Jerusalem from the airport, on which I helped an American ex-birthright girl find her way around.

Once I dropped my belongings off at my cousins, I took off to Beit Yehuda, where my brother and, close friend Sarah Silverberg, were staying. Unfortunately though I had not informed him when I would be arriving, my brother Adi was hardly surprised to see me. With an exam the following day on medical words in hebrew, I left them relatively early only to have to wait for forty minutes for the bus back home to arrive. A late night, soon to be followed by a reasonably early morning.

Switzerland

Favorite Food: Raclette & Chocolate Gipfle
Favorite Language: French
Best Attraction: Luzerne
Best New Friend: Lena & Joi
Best Feature: Natural Beauty

Ranking: ☆☆☆☆☆