Israelandme

Toronto and England

2007-04-22T00:57:00.000+03:00

Okay the diet is sorta continuing.

Well, I am eating less then I would if I was not trying to diet, but I am not completely on the diet.

Lets see, at the airport in Toronto I pigged out before I got on the flight. I needed the three shots of scotch, and the cookies (I swear). I also had a swarma in pita, but I skipped on the Chumos, and did not get a Laffa which is an improvement on Friday. I also stuffed it with veggies and no fried ones.

Today I ate a big shabbat lunch, but I did not each as much chicken and had a lot more salad. I was at a friends house in Golder Green and D--mn she can cook. it was really really good food. I have some friends around the world that I love spending shabbat with as I can eat really well, but I really need to lose this weight.

I am not trusting of other scales, and the thing about losing weight is that you need to be able to trust your scale, and since I split time between 3-4 of them, it ain't easy.

On the whole I am eating less, and more healthy. I am pigging out on this trip to London, on English Asparagus, and not chocolate, (only 3 squares since I landed). I also have not finished my bag of bears, me addicted to bears, of the soft chewy type.

What am I trying to say. I am doing better, but I got a long way to go. I think that I need to start to count points for this to work. I wonder if someone makes a point counter for a BlackBerry. Got to look into that.

I am going to drop these 20 pounds and my reward I have decided is I will fly to Hong Kong and get a new wardrobe. (Expensive reward). Lets see if I make this work.

It is nice to be getting things done.

Cheers,

Benjamin

the diet continues

2007-04-15T09:40:00.000+03:00

Okay, the diet is continuing.

After a horrible Shabbat where there was way to much food around and I could not stop eating, I have still lost weight I am down to 240. I think Sunday is the best day to weigh in, but like next week I will be on the road so I will not be able to do so.

The key I think to losing weight is to stock only good foods in the house and to get rid of the wasted calories. I can happily eat 3-4 puff pastries for breakfast, but I can also have a bowl of cereal and Yogurt, and the second option is good for me.

I am still in the big stomach stage of the diet and that means that I am hungry for lots of food, and I hate this stage, it is the hardest, assuming I can get through it, my stomach will shrink and the diet will get easier.

This week it also going to get harder. I am traveling the Canada, and I am not sure what I am going to be able to eat their that will work. I have to stock the kitchen with decent food that I can eat and still maintain if not lose weight.

I am not yet doing a formal point count, I am really starting with focusing on healthy food.

So back to my cherry tomato's and work.

Cheers

Benjamin

Diet

2007-04-11T10:03:00.000+03:00

Okay it is time and I am starting a new diet.

The thing is Weight Watchers is what has worked for me in the past, but I do not think I can make meetings, so what I am doing is weighing in each week, and then I will post my weight to the internet, right here. So my weight today is 244.4 pounds, which by the way is the most I have weighed in 2-3 years. I want to get back to 220.

The plan is simple, first off eat better, that means taking food with me when I travel, stocking the kitchens where I live better and I want to start to work out more.

Now things have gotten easier for Iris and me in Israel where I spend a lot of time, Fiber is now reported on products, and there are a lot more friendly products in Israel now.

Now off to my yogurts that taste like sawdust (I am sure that is an ingredient, and my soy milk that actually tastes nice and away I go).

Good luck to me.

Life

2005-06-26T16:13:00.000+03:00

I have not posted here for a while. Partly it was because I am coming terms with Israel, partly because I have been so busy with work.

I needed this blog when I came to Israel as this place was so strangle and hard to live in, but now I am feeling like it is sorta home. I am heading back to Portland at the end of the week for a couple, maybe three months and I am scared that these are going to be the hardest 2-3 months of my life.

I know that I have lots of time to get work done and there are things I need to do in Portland, but I am scared about leaving Iris who frankly is the stabilizer of my life. I am also scared about the next stages of work that I have to do. I frankly am not the best at making bets that are quite large, as I tend to want to hedge.

The fact is I am growing to love Israel, I am not sure I am ready to leave Portland for ever, but I am growing to understand what I can love and hate about this place.

The fact is life is hard here, but for some people they love it. I find it easier to hide here then I do in Portland, and the guilt that I get from not fully engaging bites, but it some time rolls off like a rusty sword.

The fact is I live for guilt, and guilt is what drives me. I want to get things done, but guilt can carry me for weeks.

I want to bury myself in my work, but some days the guilt is so strong that I can not do it.

It is hard some days, but other days living here is wonderful.

Benjamin

News from Abroad

2005-04-10T12:02:00.000+03:00

Watching CNN and BBC is just scarey. I look at how they report Israel and frankly it is just amazing. They give riots in China that are anti Japan the same press as a planned protest at the western wall. I just question these news sources, and from within Israel I do not have nearly the same sense of problems.

News is so questionable.

Benjamin

China and Israel

2005-04-09T16:47:00.000+03:00

Okay,

I am in Bejing for business and I must say one thing about israel. Israel has made China much easier to live in. Dealing with the goverment in Israel and problems we have faced has made China feel like an easy place to live.

I actually like China now, I understand it so much better and I understand what the people are thinking and how they are acting. This is a complete shock to me as I really did not like China before.

The other interesting thing is to see just how hot the economy is here, and how much prices have gone up. The goverment here is doing things right, as it just no longer feels like a bubble.

Benjamin

Sabbath away

2005-04-02T22:11:00.000+03:00

I was away this Shabbat. It was an interesting experience. We stayed with a family that lives in a Tamni Moshov and they are the only white guys for miles. It is an interesting place, but probably not for us. What was amazing was that they were renting a nice large house for significantly less then we were renting our apartment for.

I deafened with the family for Shabbat morning at a chabad that they promised was non messianic, but the Gabbi wearing a Kippa with Yichi on it just did not give me warm and comfortable feelings. The other choice where we went for Friday night was a Tamni Shul where everyone chanted at the same time at the top of their lungs in a small caravan with a rhythm that was slightly off. On the whole I like the Shuls in Ra'anana and I like being in Little America (Much like China town or little Italy in an America).

It was nice in some ways to be out there and in other ways I think I would have rather been home for Shabbat. I am going to be in China this week leaving in 4 days and spending shabbat at home before doing that would be nice.

Have a good week, the next post will probably be from Beijing.

Benjamin

The kitty cat who ate the Banana

2005-03-28T20:40:00.000+02:00

My son has a recurring nightmare. It is about his banana that he dropped on a walk one shabbos that we would not let him pick up. We told him he could leave it for the Kitty cats who would eat it, and now he is waking up at night crying that the kitty cat should not be eating his banana.

My son is neurotic, but we love him anyways.

At some point I think this is a way for him to cope with his life and the trials and tribulations of being three. He has issues and he cares about them, he has his world and he is trying to control it, but by controlling it he is trying to figure out how to bridge the gap between Israel and America, between a father that is at home and a mommy that is at work. Between Gan and the computer that he loves.

He has issues, but he is loved, and he is smart.

Benjamin

6 NIS Burger

2005-03-27T17:09:00.000+02:00

Okay, I took the kids to Mc Donalds and they were not impressed, but I finally got them a burger that impressed them.

Today I had a lot of work to do, but instead I went to visit my aunt with the four kids. It was an important thing to do and I had not done it for at least 2-3 months. She is developmentally disabled, and a really nice person, but she does not get out of her home that often. It is a nice place probably around 20-30 acres and really as places to spend your life it could be a lot worse, except that there is no escape.

So we went and picked her up and took here to Haifa to eat. When ever we eat out it is for meat. She loves red meat and the last couple of times I have taken her out for steak or swarma. This time I made the decision to take her into Haifa. I had no clue what we were going to eat, but I wanted to find something kosher.

Haifa is like Hong Kong as it is a hill city, it s impossible to get around it without getting lost, but luckily you have the bay on one side and on the other the hill, so lost is a relative term.

We ended up 1/2 way up the hill looking for food when we saw a Kosher sign, and it was advertising a 5.99 NIS burger. This is fishy to say the least as that would make it a Kosher burger for under $2, and I assumed it must be horrible. The only saving grace of the place was that it had a few people in it.

We went in, we ordered our burgers, grabbed some cokes, and were shocked by how good the burgers were. They were real hamburgers with decent meat, excellent patties and good condiments. The most shocking part was that 6 of us eat burgers and cokes for 56 NIS, or $13. For Kosher meat this is a new low and I must say the burgers beat Mc Dees.

It was a good day, but not very productive in a money making sense, but important non the less.
My niece and nephew are off being wined and dined by their fathers side of the family right now. They picked Flambe as there place of choice, and I hope their great aunt is happy spending the 50-60 NIS per kid to feed them there.

I am going to miss the rug rats, but it will be nice to have a quiet house again.

Benjamin

Purim

2005-03-27T08:01:00.000+02:00

If I see any more junk food within 100 feet of me I am going to have stomach ache, wait I already have one.

This has been a holiday weekend that started on Thursday night, and now my gut is paying for the food. I sorta kinda wish that I did not have quite such an appetite for junk, but since I accept full responsibility for my gluttony, I had better sit and smile.

The most striking thing all weekend was going to this picnic, where my son Sam was out stealing food from other peoples tables, and for the first time in my life I was not that worried about it not being Kosher.

It is amazing going to the park and seeing all the Jewish people eating food together to celebrate Purim. It is a kind of a nation building experience.

Now I just need to get over, over-eating and stop being sick and I can get on with my life.

The joys and pains of Purim.

Benjamin

A slice of Israel

2005-03-22T20:15:00.000+02:00

I have been really busy with work recently. It has been interesting, but a bit stressful, I would love to talk about it, but it is not the core of my thoughts for the day. Today was the day of everything Israel.

My afternoon started with a call from my nephew, Avi was bored and wanted to come home, and he told me I had to go to Gan to get them. Well there is a couple of sub stories here. Every major holiday the Gan has a party and guys are not invited. Now I think these parties are important, but my wife has a job that does not really bode well for taking afternoons off, especially with a couple of deadlines hanging over her head. So I had a choice I could go to the party and then leave 1/2 way through or I could send the cozes to hang with Avi and Sam. I took door number two. Needless to say I got a call 1/2 an hour later to come down and get them.

Now the interesting part is when I got there the ganneits made a point about how they wanted my kids there, but I was not allowed, and the kids should stay, and I should stay in the hall for the next hour. So that is what happened, I must say I am starting to think about a new gan for Avi at least after that.

The funny part was that once they started they did not kick out the maintaince people who were not Jewish, but were certainly guys. It is funny, but it was as if col isha only matters for Jews.

The second step on a traditional Israeli day, was Mc'dees. Yes I spend 123 NIS to take all for kids out for 1000+ calorie meals. What is amazing is that it has not changed in the three years since I last ate there. Gobbie thought the food was not very good, but at least she had a chance to say she tried it.

The final stop was to listen to a street performer from Odessa. He is a good friend of mine, in that I always give him a few NIS, and we talk. He is very smart, but he also is very good with his music. The problem is there are probably 5000 Violinists in Israel from Russia and we might have full time jobs for 10. He tells me he has a plan to teach Avi music, but we should discuss it next time we meet.

What is amazing is that in less then 2 hours, I went from an Charadi Gan where I was ready to pull my kids, to Mc Dees where I ate food that was inedible, to listen to a violinist performing on the street. This range of cultures completely intermixed yet separate is what makes Israel great.

Jews have always been Jews, we have never looked or talked the same, but we have always been Jews. It has taken Israel to make a melting pot and produce something new.

We will see where the road takes us.

Good night

Benjamin

I made a district decision not to go back to ulpan for a while. I think it had to do with the fact that I did not feel like I needed more stress in my life and sad to say learning Hebrew was not going to change my life in a material way has paved the way.

Pushing paper

2005-03-21T11:16:00.000+02:00

Some days it is very hard to continue to push paper in this country. This is one of those days.

We need to get status for the kids and us so we can get health insurance. We have been going through the paper work circles and now we are being held up for a stamp from the Jewish Agency and by some other thing that is missing, but no one will tell us what that is.

I would say that this is frustrating, but that would be the understatement of the decade. Somethings in this country just do not work out as planned and you end up wanting to cry about them, but what is amazing is I am past the stage of crying.

I want to get us insured, we are paying for the co payments for insurance, and we should be able to get our TZ's, but paper work paper work. This just is getting to the point where we are wanting to start to scream, but that is not going to help the situation.

Benjamin

Israel, the Jewish state

2005-03-20T10:04:00.000+02:00

Okay,

I have been having long conversations with my brother about Israel. He sees it as a flawed state, the last socialist state, he does not like the disengagement and he does not like current rule of law.

The question is not if Israel is a perfect state, but if it is better then no state. I am a citizen of the world, and I plan on living in many different countries in my life, but I still do not see any place being safe for me to live without Israel to back me up. It is an interesting issue, but the global economic prosperity enjoyed by Jews everywhere is based on Israel. When the shit hits the fan in France, they come to Israel, when Ethiopia is no long safe they come to Israel.

There are problems, heck the place drives me crazy most weeks, but it is a better state then no state.

That is the key idea. We can be faced with a chance of there being no state, and without Israel in some form I would not feel safe even in America.

Benjamin

life is good

2005-03-13T18:03:00.000+02:00

Okay,

I have now been in Israel for almost 1/2 a year and I am starting to get comfertable with the place. I am starting to learn how to push paper here, and I am starting to learn even when the post office is open.

Israel has been a roller coaster ride, up and down, up and down, and I must say I am not sure if it all makes sense. Some days have been just great like for example when my niece and neiphew are here, other days are scary.

I am starting to be productive with work again, and now I just have to see how much I can get done and if I want to go back to Ulpan. The thing is I do not see my self working in Israel so I am not sure how much hebrew I really need.

I must say the down days are really scary, but the whole ride has been worth it so far.

Benjamin

The sun is shining

2005-03-07T07:39:00.000+02:00

I am back in Israel and it is really pleasant. The sun is shining and the weather is warm and things are going good.

My Nephew broke my new stroller yesterday. He was joy ridding it inside the building and broke the front wheel mount. It was really frustrating as we have owned for only a matter of days.

Iris started her new job and she really really likes it so far. We will have to see how it goes, but that is true of any job.

I had 7 kids with me yesterday evening and I must say that is a handful. I like all the kids and it was a lot of fun, but 7 kids when they are not all your own is really really hard to manage. When it was time for 3 of them to go home, the other 4, my two kids and my sisters kids were already falling asleep in random locations.

On the whole it is nice to be back home, but in some ways it was really hard to leave home..... Two places, two models of life and two worlds, and both have their advantages. It is so great to be able to float between them, but I must say travel with small kids is hard.

Have a good week.

Benjamin

America,

2005-02-25T00:55:00.000+02:00

Okay,

I have been back in America for almost three weeks and I am starting to use that to help form a rational idea about Israel.

First off, I picked an amazing 3 weeks to be in Oregon, it has not rained once since I got back. That has to be a new record for February, it also has been really nice to be back at my house. I love the way I live here and frankly it is just a life that is super amazing.

We only use 1/2 of our house, and it still is 1.5 times bigger then our apartment in Israel, the food is cheaper here for most the stuff we buy, but mind you we shop like americans in both places.

What struck me as a scary comparison was eggs. I was at WinCo which is the american equivalent of Yad Izzac, and I paid $2.30 cents for 3 dozen eggs. This is 3.37 NIS per dozen or 1/3 the price of Israel. Same with milk I paid $1.99 per gallon for milk and it works out to be 2.26 NIS per liter, again just over 1/2 the price. Food is just really really really cheap here. Even the ground chicken is comparable in price, at 24 NIS per Kilo. Whole chickens and jewish food of course is the exception, but I am putting on dinner for 36 for friday night and it is down right cheap to buy the food.

The down side of course is produce. That is where Israel rocks, it is just dirt cheap. I paid $1.68 per pound for tomato's or 17 NIS per KG. That is just way higher, but on the whole I think food is cheaper here.

I miss not worrying if stuff is kosher that I get in Israel, but I really like the way that people say hi to you here and the lack of horns in the store parking lot is way neat.

It is hard, in Israel Iris can easily find work, and the kids are doing great, but for me it is a bit of the middle of nowhere. It is not an easy thing to just say that I will always be there because the one thing that Israel does so great which is community I do not value that highly. I still have not made that many close friends, and I still do not have many connections there. We are loners in Israel, and we are also Loners in America.

The one thing I can say is Day school tuition is cheaper in Israel then in America and if you have 3-4 kids in day school it just makes all the food shopping and apartment and car costs irrelevant.

Gan is the deal of a life time for example.

But I do not see it as dollar and cents, it really is two different ways of life, and in the long run I am not sure I would be happy with either.

All the best,

Benjamin Cox

The bookstore is working.

2005-02-15T00:19:00.000+02:00

Okay, we are 2 weeks in starting to really go strong with the bookstore. It is only going to get better, as we buy better inventory as we are doing right now. I am in America, and in probably 6 weeks we are going to have some amazing inventory that will really help the store. It is really fun starting companies when things are going well, when they are not going well I question myself daily.

It is very easy to question oneself, and frankly I think we are all our own harshest critics. Some times I think we hide behind the ability to see all of our own flaws and none of what makes us great.

What is interesting is that we are all great in our own way. We each have one skill to use, one thing that we do best, and frankly if the world spent more time looking for what people were good at rather then trapping them into things that they do badly. Frankly I think fear traps us from truly capturing upside and we end up doing more to make sure that we do not get hurt then making sure that we are going to succeed.

There is a period in every startup when you know that you have failed and you start to count out your losses. It is that first few weeks when things are just not going perfectly. We have all gone through those periods, and those periods are one of the reasons why I do things like prepay rent for 1 year when I start a company. The ability not to worry about some of the nut coming out of cash flow gives you much more time to figure out what works and what does not.

The fact is most businesses do not come thought this period because they spend everything on the first business model, and when they finally figure out what works they are out of cash.

I am reading through my blog and it is funny, but it so goes in waves, up and down depending on my mood.

Now that we have this thing working hopefully my mood with stabilize some.

Thanks for reading

Benjamin

America

2005-02-13T15:32:00.000+02:00

Okay,

Me and Iris ducked out of Israel and came back to America for 3 weeks. There were cheap tickets, Iris was burned out, and I have to buy books.

We got very luck coming back. There is a manual that is in the furnace in my house in Portland, it was placed there by the manufacturer. The plastic bag that holds the manual broke last week and the furnace blower started to shredded the manual, clog the whole system. It is never cool to have a couple of hundred pages of torn paper, 10 inches from a live natural gas line. I caught it, but had I not been traveling back here, odds are I would have at a minimum had a new furnace to pay for and probably a new house. G-d watches out for the dumbest of us.

In some ways it is really great to be back, in other ways I can see more clearly what interests me about Israel. The fact is there is more opportunity in Israel then there is in Portland. Portland is a developed town, jobs pay well, but there is nothing new really being created. It is just a really nice safe place to live.

There is the new Biotech research building going up and that is cool, and there are things happening, but in Israel things are new and challenging at least for me. I live for making my life difficult I suppose.

Such different worlds, but I think for the long term I will be living in both at the same time.

Benjamin

Life

2005-02-05T18:59:00.000+02:00

At the tender age of almost 27, I still have no clue what I want to do with my life. Okay, that is a bit of an overstatement, but some times I question what I am trying to do with my life. I love being a parent, I love launching companies, but I lack personal skills that I need to do my job well.

My wife career is starting to take off, and that puts me in an interesting position. Assuming I take a job it is probably within 1-2 years worth more for her to work then for me to work, and frankly I like being around the kids rather a lot. They are lots of fun, when they are not being pains, but that is only some of the time. Heck I am writing this with Avi on my lap as we speak.

Assuming Iris likes what she does, and she does like it so far, I do not have salable skills in the same way. If people ask what I do, I tell them that I start companies, but I am not some weeks sure what that means either. Iris is a patent attorney.

I lack the people and organizational skills to be a really good Entrepreneur, I also am not that good at betting with other peoples money, I am scared of failure and sometimes I do not make sense of stuff that I should. In essence, I have flaws, but then again who does not. What is interesting is I point them out more then most people. As I think about it most other people also have flaws, but they hide them better, and when confronted about them they can not admit that they are wrong. Both sides of the coin has problems the trick I think is finding a middle ground.

I need to get more confident, and I need to start to see people for who they are rather then who they present themselves to be. I need to learn how to get organized and I need to work on my personal skills. All of this is just stuff that I need to do, and I need to get to a point where I am taking less risks.

The issue is I tend to play to the edge and when I fall off I crash for months of end. This does not help me, but it really is a case of playing close to the edge for my whole life. What is so scary about my wife working is that I can see a scenario where I do not need to play close to the edge again, and I wonder if I will get better or worse at what I do?

Benjamin

And then the sun shines

2005-02-02T13:30:00.000+02:00

The sun in shinning, and I am waiting for my car mechanic. We have this car that just loves electrical problems. Every week it has another one, Some days I just wonder and remeber why in america we moved up one grade of cars from the really old junkers. I think this car is going to have to be sold as it just is more work then it is worth, and I can not keep up with it. I will have to find another car, but at this point I am flexible.

What is funny now that we have moved in reality I really do not need 2 cars. I do local shopping most weeks and the second car is alot of expense and not much use. Funny how that works.

Benjamin

Rain Rain go away

2005-02-01T15:06:00.000+02:00

Okay, I am kidding, but being used to Oregon, the rain here seems to depress me more. Part of the problem I think is that it is not user friendly, when it rains here, it really rains, and it is almost depressing in nature because it captures you into the space you are in creating a prison, why in Oregon when it rains you are not as scared of it, maybe because in Oregon the rains are gentle and here they are harsh and much harder in comparison.

Coming to Israel is an emotional roller coaster, up and down and up and down, and right now I feel like I am in a downward slope. 2 days ago it felt like winter was gone, and now it is back.

We are in the process of making decisions that are going to lock us down in ways that I am not sure that I want, but none of this is easy.

What is so amazing is when you go down emotionally it is completely chemical and 2 hours later you can be just fine, right now I am not feeling like it is going to be a 2 hour thing, but one never knows.

I got into a fight today with the Rebbizin that runs the gan over post dated checks. She asked for them and I refused. Then she pushed, and that was a really stupid idea, she thought she could play the nice grandmother stupid oleh line on me, and I just said no.

The fact is I am stubborn, more stubborn then I want to admit some days and when you get me backed up against a way I will fight rather then back down, and it is not a rational fight, but try telling my mind that. Some times I look back at these fights and just wonder what was going on, some times I know that Orville my grandfather is alive and well in my head, and other times when I get stuborn, it is a good thing, it is my subconcous saying do not get pushed around, and it keeps me out of trouble.

Benjamin

Now and Then

2005-01-30T18:14:00.000+02:00

When we moved to Israel, we moved into an apartment, we got a car, we bought toys, and clothes and we fit right in fairly quickly. I just finished Iris's uncle's book about his parents life and when they talk about coming to Israel the diffrence is staggering. They spend weeks and weeks getting from Kabul to Teheran, and then they spent 6 hours on a closed cargo plane flying to Israel.

When they got her, they faced tent cities, and pasta that was shaped like rice, and frankly a life that is harder then anything I can imagine. What is so amazing is that when you look at Iris's extended family they really are just amazing people. They walk and talk and really are the real thing.

Life is a circle, and the things we are doing with books in Israel are the same thing that Iris's grandfather would have done with Cloth in Kabul. The apartment we live in Iris says feels like her grandparents house, but I must say I am not sure that I have quite the same love for oil and fat. You read about some of the things that they ate and you think wow, that is like 8,000 calories an once.

When I want the streets of Israel, I am coming to respect the short term history of this state. It has its problems, but frankly it is better then no state and it is getting better with time. Some days I am proud to say I live here.

Benjamin

We are launching

2005-01-26T22:44:00.000+02:00

Okay,

Six months ago almost to a day we had an idea for a new type of store in Israel. A book store, but not only any type of book store, but an English book store with prices that are similar to what to expect in America. In a country where a new novel costs 50-60 NIS, we aimed to launch a store where we would get the average price to 13 NIS, or including 18% of tax. $2.88.

Now the moment of truth comes out to play, do we stand a chance or not, we are launching the first store tomorrow night.

It is so great to be working on projects where we get to revenue in under 1/2 a year. It is even better that we have a team that might be able to pull it off. It still amazes me that we can walk into the store with it 90% stocked and priced and see what an amazing thing has happened.

I love seeing an idea come from my mind and get onto paper, it is even more amazing to see it come to live. I so hope this works, but win or lose I frankly am learning a lot.

Benjamin

I love to write

2005-01-22T20:37:00.000+02:00

Wow, for me that is a powerful statement. I am not someone who is known for his love of writing, but the fact remains I love to write. I am also very good at it in some narrow ways. I can not for example write dialog, but I can take my ideas and put then to paper.

That is why this blog is important for me. I love Israel and I am enjoying writing about it, frankly it is cheaper then therapy which I would need if I was not writing.

Now the trick is going to see if anyone is reading my writing, but that is a whole other issue.

Benjamin

Retail in Israel

2005-01-20T21:55:00.000+02:00

I spent a summer when I was 16 with a guy named Forest, now Forest is not a rocket scientist, but he sure knows retail. One can learn a lot about how to walk stores, look at spacing, look at image and look at style to figure out how to do retail right from a guy like Forest. Frankly I learned more from Forest then I learned in a bunch of marketing classes.

Forest, built competitive matrix in his head, he did it naturally for retail. All business school did was teach me how to take those matrixes and put them into excel and be able to share them. Now without the formal education I doubt I could do as well as I can, but with it I can do very well.

The fact is no matter what you are selling there is a right way and a wrong way. In Israel they do it the wrong way.

First rule of thumb:
You care about Revenue per square meter not Inventory. If you have stock that is worth $500 per square meter, and it moves 10 times per year, that is a much better business then getting $2500 in stock and moving it 2 times per year all other things being equal. In reality you can not get 6 times the stock into the store, but in Israel they really try to get in 2x what the store should hold and I frankly think that reduces sales.

If you design right you can get the maximum stock into the store but that takes design and keeping with some rules. For example the ADA made some rules in America on how wide store isles had to be, these rules have been a god send for good retail business because 3 foot wide isles makes for happier customers and better business.

If you have a product that is 8 inches deep and your store shelf is 16 inches deep, on a 3 foot long shelf you are left with two choices, the first is to double stack, this works well with Cherrios, and coke, but it does not work well with wine and other things where each product is more unique and when you stack people have to move to get at the stuff in back. So many stores, consumer electronic stores come to mind quickly make this mistake and frankly end up with a stuffed turkey look, where not only is the store feeling like it is going to fall down on your head when you open the door, but it takes a store clerk to help you find the AA batteries.

Your other option is to go for the stark look, but lets say that you have 20-30 cabinets and they each have 5 shelves and each other is 8 inches to deep, and you pay $2 per square foot per month, you are going to pay for this extra look $1000 per year in rent on unusable store space, you either eat that or you do the over full look, and giving the choice I would go stark, but given the choice make the shelves fit the product and throw out the old shelves when you have new products.

Second Rule of Thumb:
Profit per square meter is driven by three things, COGS, and overhead vs revenue. My favorite eatery is in a space that can not be more then 800 sq feet including the back room. It sells a product that is roughly flour and water, and it sells a lot of it, for about $4.5 per meal. The fact is the margins are huge, the overhead is low, and the guy who runs it probably makes more money then any other in Ra'anana. It is hard to compete with someone who makes a food for 40 cents (This is high) in ingredients and gets $4 for it. He does 100-200 NIS per hour in revenue when it is slow and when he is busy he does 400-600 NIS per hour. He is grossing easily 100,000 NIS per month and he is netting probably over 1/2 of that. He is the only food company in Israel that I have noticed who does it right, and what is so funny is that his model is really limited to one store. He could never build a chain, but for him his model is probably ideal.

Third rule of thumb:
Ignore your competitors if they are flawed. Please build a competitive matrix, if there are five shoe stores, and none of then cater to kids and teens they you have a niche, do not let people tell you that there are too many shoe stores. When I did a look at the top 10-15 companies over the last 20 years, names such as Dell, Home Depot and Citi Bank came up. All three of these has 100's of competitors, but frankly it does not matter, they just have sat down and serviced their market better then the competitors. They have managed their 5 forces better and they are kicking ----- because of it.

Fourth rule of Thumb:
Know your knitting, do not go into a business unless you know it, I do not mean that you have studied your competitors business plans, but that you truly know the business. You also should love what you sell. Frankly that is key in a country where you have Israelis who speak bad English selling English books, and white guys trying to make Chumus. Somethings are genetic and unless you can tell good business from bad business do not get involved.

Israel is like every other third world country, and frankly because of that it is ripe to get rich in. A few people own most of the means to wealth on a retail scale and frankly they are not doing as good of a job of keeping competitors out. I must say that they are learning on many grounds, but the number of stores, where they have not stuck to good retails rules and are paying the price is huge. They have played every game in the book to compete without inovating on their store models.

In 5 years this country will have completely changed on a retail level and a lot of these old line stores will be out of business, but for the next five years building retail in Israel is ripe with opportunity, but please do not open another women's shoe or clothing store, and also we have enough bad places to eat.

Have a good Shabbat.

Benjamin

First Hebrew and Now English

2005-01-16T18:31:00.000+02:00

The three year old mind is very limber, when we came to Israel we were concerned with how hard it would be to get the kids to speak Hebrew, we put them in Hebrew only Gan, we bought them movies in Hebrew and we worried that they would not speak Hebrew.

Now five months later, we are starting to understand that we had better start to invest in English as the kids are fluent in Hebrew but not in English as much. They only want to watch movies in Hebrew and when I talk to them in English they respond in Hebrew.

What a funny problem to have, and one we can work on, now we just have to get American TV and videos and other stuff where they get English as well.

The fact that we are starting an English book store should help, and the fact that I am horrible in Hebrew should also help.

When unpacking books, I found 4 destroyer Books, all you in the know, know how cool that is, the rest of you just do not matter.

Benjamin

Kosher and Super Kosher

2005-01-15T22:18:00.000+02:00

Israel is the land of outreach. Their is a Rabbi on every street corner to save your soul and you can do one of two things when you come to the land. You can go up to a higher level or you can settle down to a easy level.

At most super markets EVERY thing is kosher, but not LaMahedrin. In Ra'anana every store on the main street is under the vad of Ra'anana. Heck these Rabbi's are more educated and religious then me who does the kashurit for the vad. It is kosher. But some people can not take the concept that keeping kosher is easy and push for the next level.

For me if being Jewish is easy, enjoy, it is hard enough around the world to keep kosher you might as well enjoy the one place where keeping kosher is easy.

Israel is a hard place to live, but to make it harder is just insane. You have limited budget and limited time and space and just everything is limited so why limit even more.

Benjamin

Gan

2005-01-06T11:04:00.000+02:00

I love gan, okay I do not go to gan, but it is the best thing that has ever happened to my kids. Avi speaks Hebrew, Sam is learning how to work with other kids and frankly they are both getting socially adept in ways that are really neat. Yes we have our problems, like sharing and attitude, but that just requires us to still spend time with them even though they are getting lots of time spent at Gan.

Both kids get two square meals a day, both kids get attention that they need and both kids are learning Hebrew. The fact is that I am also learning Hebrew from them, Ode anyone.

It is important to write about the good stuff the days that you want to go crazy due to the not so good stuff, like the carburetor on the Volvo being clogged, or the mountain of laundry to be sorted and folding from this week, or the........

Israel is not an easy place, and we have to make sense out of it before we can say if it will work for us.

Benjamin

Absorption

2005-01-03T13:21:00.000+02:00

What a complex word, absorption. I am probably the least absorbed person in this country, but that is part of the problem. Thinking about living in Israel still brings tears to my eyes and I live here, it is not as easy as it is in America, in fact it is much harder, yet I am still not absorbed.

There is a certain amount of willing suspense of disbelief needed to live here, I am not sure I have it, but I am trying to build it. First off Israel makes no Finaincial sense, in the last 4 months I have learned that. But I have also learned that what I expected to be spending to live each month is shrinking as I am here and learning on what to spend and what not to spend.

The fact is we do not drive as much as we did in America, it does not make sense most weeks to drive to the supermarket as the local store on things like bread, veggies and milk has the same prices and you do not have to pay for the car use.

The other thing is I am making sense of what it takes to live on. The fact is a family of 4 living in Ra'anana assuming no outside debt (we have 150k in student loans) should be able to live on 10,000 NIS per month including rent, food, car, clothes, gan and excluding travel. Assuming the normal tax rate that means that they should be able to live on 2 average salaries, or one good salary.

Cheers,

Benjamin

The sun is shining and wishing you an eilat xmass :-)

2004-12-27T08:46:00.000+02:00

Okay, we took the holiday weekend off and went to Eilat. It was a lot of fun and we had a blast. First off the hotel was Kosher, the hotel provided candles and we had all the food made for us, which was a rocking good deal. I liked Eilat, and I think that I could see spending some more time down there, the issue is it is a long drive and I did not enjoy the 775km in the car round trip.

I must say the diffrence between being in a beach town with tropical fish and coral, and boats and fun, vs being around the "Holiday Spirit" that you get in a big town in America is a big deal.

We only saw one Xmass tree and that was in a trendy mall. It was just a non event in Israel.

In someways losing the comercial crazyness of Xmass is just a great thing. I do not like it when Hallmark and Wallmart own a holiday.

Total money spent on gifts this year for this season 100 NIS, and that was for my kids. Total value in no crazy shopping and unlimited xmass music on at the stores priceless.

Got to love Israel.

Benjamin

Chocolate bread and Diet bread, Martha would be proud

2004-12-23T12:52:00.000+02:00

Okay,

I was going to talk about the shipping container that just got unloaded, but that is old news and no matter what happens I have no lack of books to read:-).

There are things in this life that must be experienced and Chocolate bread is one of them. There is this bakery that a friend (the one who sold me the Volvo) told me about and they make breads that you would go to heaven for. Now I am gaining weight in Israel, Partially because it so hard to eat right in a country where Pizza can be had in 20 minutes and did I mention Chocolate bread.

Now to describe this chocolate bread, all I can say is imagine a loaf of bread, with coco baked in and bits of chocolate chips mixed in. Dusted with a coat of powdered sugar. It is not really bread but a desert that is to die for.

Now I also bought diet bread as this chocolate bread is going to add even more weight to my overweight frame, and I walked a couple of miles to day as well. But I must say, some of the food here is just wonderful. Even the diet bread is not bad.

Benjamin

The color green

2004-12-19T14:23:00.000+02:00

Or is it blue, or yellow. We have this container that we are getting through customs and I must say it is starting to drive us crazy. The customs clerks are playing games with us on getting it done and frankly they are showing how unbusiness friendly this country is.

There is a form that we are supposed to have, but in the import regulations there is no mention of it, and it is called a certificate of origin. This Certificate has to be signed and stamped by a local Chamber of commerce, and did I mention that it has to be green. (I wish I was kidding). We went out and found this form on the Internet and downloaded it, I got a friend to go in and get it signed and we got it mailed here. It just is not green, so 2 weeks after they get it they tell us No go.

Frankly at this point I am looking at this and just starting to laugh. There is so much work in importing that the local prices when you take into account the complete pain in the ass bring stuff in is, are actually quite fair.

What is interesting is that we are going to beat this system, but I can imagine the number of startups that completely fail when presented with these b-lls-ht costs and barriers to doing business. Luckily Shosh is seeing red and will probably go and read line and verse to the bloody customs agents and get it through, but I can not imagine doing business here without a local partner.

Benjamin

25 for dinner

2004-12-18T19:05:00.000+02:00

In America, when we had 25 for dinner we had 3-6 kids and rarely kids the same age as Avi and Sam. Here we just had 25 for dinner and we had under the age of 4, 10 kids, and I must say that was a lot of noise. If you count all the kids we had 13 kids and 12 adults.

I am in a bit of hot water as Iris felt that I invited to many people at once, but I did do the cooking so I do get some ability to invite, but I also do agree that 20 is our maximum for our living room. It is nice having an flat where we can sit 20 for dinner and I intend to do it at least 2 times a month. Any more then that and I think I will go a bit crazy.

It was a lot of fun, next time we have the Jensens and that is two weeks away. Next week we are probably going south to spend Shabbos in Elat, as it is getting a bit cold here, I think it is going to hit 50 degrees f 10 C tonight and we are going to freeze.

Have a good week.

Benjamin

Israel, it is all about perspective

2004-12-14T08:37:00.000+02:00

I must say that as I spend more and more time here, I am starting to understand what is to love and what is to hate, I am also starting to understand that coming from America I am spoiled. I had a conversation with someone from South America, and their response was there are problems in Israel, the country that they were from was way worse. They bless every day that they got here. I guess it depends on Perspective.

Cheers,

Benjamin

I hate (Love) cell phones

2004-12-13T18:50:00.000+02:00

Okay,

I got a cell phone, what a scary idea, and I am starting to carry it around. Frankly for the most part it is a dead weight, but tonight when I got the car back from the shop and it died 2 blocks away it was a saving grace.

Let me start from the beginning. I bought a Volvo, in the spirit of Avi I bought a 1987 (I know it is way new) 240 Wagon, and I have been using it for a couple of weeks. It has been having a few problems, one of which is that it was backfiring on shut down, the other is stalling and running rough at slow speeds.

I assumed that the fuel filter was clogged so I took it to the shop and had that replaces and they cleaned out the carburetor as well. On the net I assumed the problem was solved, and I walked to go get the car, and I took it for a drive and it died within 2 blocks. I managed to limp it back to the garage, and that is when the cell phone saved the day.

The Mechanic had left, and I called him and he came back. He took the car around the block, said it was getting to much gas and then parked it. He is a fairly smart and started to take apart the air filter system. He looked at the air filter and then finding that okay, went into the air filter system. This was all in the dark with a flashlight and a leatherman. Now he finds this part pulls it out, and says problem fixed. It turned out that there is a switch in the car system that is designed in cold cold weather to pull air from the tailpipe area so the car can breath. Now this was broken, and the solution was to disable this system. This would be a big problem if the Volvo was going to go outside of Israel, and like 4000 miles due north. As it is the car now runs.

Now the Cool thing was that if I was not pushed to get the bloody cell phone I could not have called the mechanic and I would still be dealing with this dead car, instead I am home and the car is home and all is well.

Okay not one of my best posts.

Benjamin

Chocolate, we love chocolate

2004-12-11T23:33:00.000+02:00

Okay,

I am not going to write about Chocolate, in fact I am not sure what I am going to write about. But I am going to write and we will see what is going to come out of my brain. I guess I started on Chocolate as I have the lingering taste of 70% fine European chocolate in my mouth, and frankly I want more, the trick however is to eat a bar in a couple of three days or else your ability to love it goes down.

We bought our first DVD today, Shrek 2 in Hebrew. I must say that this is a good thing to do as watching animated movies you can do without understanding the words and it is a way to learn Hebrew. Avi is addicted to movies, and by pushing him to Hebrew movies he is forced to learn and work on his ear of the language. What is so funny is in a couple of years we are going to be using English movies for the same reason if we are still here.

Which gets me to my next point, Chocolate, no I am just kidding but I must say it is hard to get chocolate off of my mind when I am remembering the good stuff.

I think I invited 25 to dinner for next week. It will be reminiscent of Vermont Street dinners, but we will be doing it at our house. The big difference is that only 10 of these people are adults and over 15 of them are kids, and over 10 of the kids are under the age of 4. Some times I think I am a glutton for punishment, but then again I love to cook, and it will be fun hosting this many people. I am thinking about doing dinner here every 2 weeks and just doing big dinners as that is just way more fun then having small ones. Iris thinks I am crazy, but that is probably a good thing.

Benjamin

The computer does not love me

2004-12-09T15:11:00.000+02:00

I must say every time I write a blog that I really should not post as I am ranting to much my computer crashes and I lose it. If this did not happen repeatedly I would think it was funny, but on the whole I am happy about it.

I spent the last two days learning about Israeli customs, and I am so glad I have Shosh, at this point if I did not have a partner for this project who was Israeli I would be dead in the water. Customs here is some of the most complex stuff I have ever seen and the list of fees and taxes that they get on you for unloading a container very quickly helps explain the high prices in this country. I mean who can afford to pay almost as much to move a container 100 feet as we paid to move it 8000 miles.

On to other topics, it is amazing how much dirtier a house gets when you have cleaning help. We went 3 months without cleaning help and we lived with a level of grime, we just now went a week and the level of grime went up 4x. It seems that you xan forget to clean, but I must say I am starting to clean as I have a tollernce for this stuff.

We moved flats almost a month ago and I must say that when we moved it was the low point of moving to Israel. We were just fried, and frankly there was a point where I am amazed we stayed. Stress is a bad thing, and when the only color you are seeing is red, stress is just a really bad thing. Since I have dropped back to part time Ulpan, started to focus on other stuff like life, and work and frankly I am more balanced now.

Israel is a place where you can just get stressed and frankly that is not how I do my best work. So I have spent the last week just chilling and I must say it feels great. My next door neighboors are lighting a public Menorah at the front of the building and I must say it is worth being there for that, and other things are just working out.

All is well.

Benjamin

Holidays great and small

2004-12-08T11:56:00.000+02:00

Israel is a place that celebrates the smallest things with new meaning. I am rather enjoying Chanukah in a completely new light. First off the whole country come dusk is doing the same thing. Secular or religious they are all lighting candles and that is amazing unity. The second thing is when you hear a Sabra tell about Chanukah they are telling it, like they personally were saved from the Greeks.

When we celebrate Passover, the point is stressed over and over again that each and every one of us was there for the miracles of going out of Egypt. It is very hard to image that, but to be in Israel on a day that celebrates one of Israelis victories you can image.

I love Israel, I love being here, and on days like Chanukah I can identify with the country.

Benjamin

Dinner lunch and the park

2004-12-05T12:37:00.000+02:00

When you choose where to live in a place like Ra'anana keep in mind how social you are and how much you have the energy to seek out people to talk to. For us we first moved to an apartment on Bar Ilan street and it was social vacuum. No one we were interested in getting to know lived within 2-3 block of us. The apartment building was fairly new and nice, but there were no kids no stroller, it was a mature building. In some ways we were lucky that the landlord sold it as it let us go to a place where we could be around people are own age. This is key to living in Israel.

What we did was move across the street from the big social park in Ra'anana. No matter what is happening we can always go out on Shabbos afternoon and spend time with people with young kids. This is just socially key to living here. It seems like a little silly thing, but that makes the apartment we got socially very good, it lets us get out of it and quickly find people to talk to.

Cheers,

Benjamin

Coming Home

2004-12-02T09:35:00.000+02:00

I am going home, Home is a weird concept, but for the first time I am looking at Israel as home. When I got on the plane this week to get home for Shabbat, home was Israel, home was Ra’anana and home was where my wife and kids are. I am coming home, I am coming to Israel, and I must say I missed it.

It takes on a whole new light the nice things about Israel when you spend some time in Europe. When you see the milkies have gone from 2 NIS to 59 Pence you feel like the price has normalized, but they have actually more then doubled. When you spend 6 pounds 40 pence on an all day travel card you start to understand how much stuff costs, for 52 NIS both me and my wife can eat dinner. The chicken at 1.49 per KG, works out to be 2.5x the cost in Israel. Most everything in London costs 2.5 times the cost of Israel.

The other thing that got me was I went to Tesco, and I could no longer eat everything. I had to pick and choose what I would eat and I had to pick and choose what I would buy. Food became an identifying mark for me again. I always thought I would have ballooned up in Israel with all the food options. Rarely do we eat at the same place 2 times, as there are just so many to choose from, but I got on a scale in London after my suit no longer fit me again (I was too skinny for it), and I found out that I was at 99 KG, or just over 221 pounds. This for me is amazing considering I am living in the land where land where low fat involves deep fryers and no one has the concept of high fiber.

I am getting back on the plane, I am sitting in Germany on my way home and I am understanding how much I miss my home land my country. The train station between the terminals has an open area that you could coceavably climb out and over onto the other side which I guess is the other side of the customs control. In most counties this would be guarded with a piece of decorative metal something that blocked but was aesthetically pleasing. In this airport it is a triple stack of rolled barbed wire. This did the job, it made climbing over impossible, but it also added to the caged feeling on the space. It just did not make me like the space, it make me feel like I was a criminal. I am sure that there are logical reasons for this triple stack of barbed wire, but I just did not like it.

I had a good week, I am starting to understand what I am giving up to live in the land of sunshine. I am not sure that I would be happy working from 7-7 every day to do some job that did not necessarily impact the world in any great way. I am not sure that I want a real job, but again, I am not sure that a real job would take me. What I am good at is doing research working out issues making sense of stuff, I am not sure I could fit slot a into plug b for the rest of my life.

I am going to shut down this computer and read the papers, but I should be home soon, and I cannot wait.

To buy a house in Israel or not

2004-11-29T17:07:00.000+02:00

Real money is made on long term options.

In places like Israel the currency has no value, some right now would say the same thing about America, but I am not so sure I agree. The issue is what do you buy if the money has no value. You have to store wealth somehow, and in Israel people do it in real estate. I must say in real dollar terms I can not think of a worse short or long term investment. The average wage in country is about $1500 per month, and a apartment costs at least $150k for something average. So if you look at the mix, it costs 8.3x the value of the the average salary to buy a decent apartment. In America they will not lend you money if you exceed 4x in a ratio. So to put it in real dollar terms it costs 2x in Israel what it costs in America, and these are pretax figures, when you take the taxes into account it gets even uglier.

When I was younger I could not image owning anything for more then 5 minutes, maybe 3 months, but as I am growing up I am learning how to bet, and the key thing that I think people forget is your time horizon. Every bet you make with money has three parts to it, reward, time to maturity, and risk. To take bond terms and use them here, it is very important to make sure that you lock your maturity in. You want to have the time for a deal to go upside down and back again without worrying, and that is what long term debt and other such stuff is for.

A great example of a deal that can not go sour if you can hold the duration is a 30 year mortgage in the US. Looking over the last 90 years the average rate of inflation was 3.49 percent. If you can lock a mortgage at 6% for 30 years you are effectivity paying assuming a 34% tax rate, less then 1% for your money. Pretax interest payments are worth roughly 2/3rs of their face value. The underlying asset in buying a home is normally sound, people need places to live and for the most part over the long term they at least go up with the value of money. If a period of high inflation hits and you have a fixed rate mortgage, the math can turn so the bank in paying you money effectively to borrow money from you in real dollar terms.

In Israel the best mortgages, are 60% LTV, US dollar priced variable rate mortgages. So if you want a $150k flat, you have to come up with $60,000 in cash, and take a mortgage for $90k. Now your earnings are not dollar based, but your mortgage payment and your loan are, so lets take the last 10 years for example. You started with an exchange rate of 2x, and now you have an exchange rate of 4.5x, so your payments went up in NIS terms significantly. If you had a $1000 per month mortgage you went from paying 2000 to 4500 NIS per month. The underlying value of the property probably did not go up much unless you bought in some pockets of the country like Bet Shemesh.

The issue is over the long term, what else can you buy in Israel that makes sense. There really is a dearth of quality assets to buy in the country so people still buy the overpriced real estate. This drives the rental yield to 2-2.5%. The fact is if you can hold the apartment or house for 30 years odds are you will make some money and you will probably do okay, if you could choose however to over the 30 years pay rent, and actually bank the difference in a savings account out side of Israel that was invested in the S&P500 you might do better.

The fact is people are still buying bricks and mortar even when it makes no financial sense like in Israel and that is probably because of social pressure and because it is a fairly safe investment for someone to make who has limited real options on what to do with their money. I think in the long term however if they can change the banking system or give a deduction for interest on home loans it will make more sense to buy, but for now I am going to not buy in Israel as it just does not make sense for me as I have other real options on what to do with money.

Benjamin

Thanksgiving Madness

2004-11-29T11:38:00.000+02:00

This Thanksgiving was the start of a wild and wonderful weekend. You see we have moved to Israel, but the concept of thanksgiving for us was stronger this year then ever before. Thanksgiving is a holiday of giving thanks for surviving the season, and for the people who initially celebrated it it was thanks for surviving the move.

In America people make a 4,5,6 day weekend out of this holiday. Frankly it is the one time a year where we are almost European in our lavish time off. In Israel it is a work day, Thursday is the start of the weekend which helps, but it is a work day.

Now we just moved into a new apartment and I had to be in Europe the week after Thanksgiving so we have to get some used appliances I bought moved. We hired movers for 3:30, but they got to my house at 5:30. Now this normally would not have been a problem. They needed to move 3-4 things, a washer dryer stacker unit, a dishwasher, and a china cabinet for us. I assumes it would take 1 hour, but I was way wrong.

This washer dryer was in a Safety room, you saw that movie about the panic room, well every Israeli house has one, they are usually quite small and built like a concrete and steel bunker. Well when I bought the washer and dryer I never thought to ask how to get it out of the room. I should have included that in the price, my mistake.

To make a long story short, imagine on Thanksgiving a communist Texan from where the president grew up, helping me a conservative business person (play along please), and an Israeli grunt who worked hard, but had 5 words of English moving a stacker washer dryer out of a room where the door was a bit tight :-).

Now to help with this image, we had to take the dryer off, but the electrical harness was still attached, and we had to do this appliance dance out the door with the equipment, with two appliances attached going through a door where they had to be fit though with a shoe horn and a bit of scrapping.

Needless to say I was late to my own dinner.

1-1.5 hours later I get home and we still have to unload the truck, we have 15 guests and my wife is really upset. The turkey is not done, the guests are here, the appliances have to be unloaded taken up 2 flights of stairs, and my wife does not think this is funny.

Somehow it just all worked out, in the future I almost want to setup moves for formal dinner parties, it really helps with the conversation. After we got over the whole concept that a bunch of non Americans, were sitting down to celebrate an American holiday with a Texan in the back around moving large appliances, I would say it was a wonderful dinner.

It just make the whole dinner seem like a very Israeli thanksgiving, nothing goes right in Israel, but frankly no one frets over it so it just does not matter. On the whole it just worked.

I must say the turkey came out okay, the food was yummy and the entertainment worked. Having said that we will talk about the Thanksgiving move from hell for the next 20 years.

Benjamin

New apartment is clean

2004-11-23T11:04:00.000+02:00

Okay,

I admit it I am a slob, and I need someone to clean for me. It is not that I am a snob, I can tell you that I am happy with a 20 year old car. Actually I love my Volvo I was planning on using it as a work horse for this book business, but I really just want to keep it for myself. It just says me in so many ways. But back to being a slob.

We lived for almost 10 weeks without someone who could clean and I can tell you that we muddled through but it was not easy. We just got a new cleaning person and the apartment is clean, and it just makes me so happy. I am learning about my mess tollance and it just is not as low as it used to be.

I am going to london for a bit of consulting work, it probably will be a short term project, but it will be fun, and I should be able to stay busy.

It is I think key to do work around the world if you are going to live here, as a good salary here is 5-7,000 NIS per month, and a high tech salary is 2-3x that, but still it is hard to live on that with the tax rate. I figure most people who live here either live on love for the land, or live on money from abroad.

My office is not heated, which should not be much of a problem except that it gets cold at night. I am thinking about getting a heavy curten for the window which is glassless to stay warm. I bought two very inefficent lamps which are providing about the right level of heat if I can close off the window.

Have a good week.

Benjamin

Mommy's Car (new Volvo Slogan by Avi)

2004-11-17T21:20:00.000+02:00

We got a mommy's car tonight. We picked up our 1987 244 Volvo station wagon from the people who sold it to us. I must say it is so nice to be back behind the wheel of a real car again. The Dawoo while cheap to operate just feels like a tin can. They did not want to let it go, but it means so much to us to have a real car, I can not think of a better use of

Avi is ecstatic. It was a great evening going with him and sitting around at the buyers house drinking tea and then taking him for a drive to ACE. It just ended the day right. Some days you have the worse day of your life, but if you get in some really good time with your kids at the end of the day, it comes out square.

I must say I think Avi senior (Mr Volvo) would be so proud that Avi Jr (My son) loves Volvos so much. It just makes me so happy to make my kid happy with a car that we can share, especially a $2500 car.

It is the little things in life that matter. Good night.

Peace to the world,

Benjamin

Some times things happen for the good as well as the bad.

2004-11-17T12:34:00.000+02:00

I wrote a big long blog ranting about today, the move, the AC going in the wrong spot, the problems with our old land lord. It was a pretty depressing 2 pages of ranting, and then my internet connection went down and it got deleted, which was a good thing. I needed to write it all out, but you did not need to read it. Frankly I wish I not toned it down as it was trying to make it publish able.

The sun is shining, and 20 minutes ago it was raining like no tomorrow. I guess that is going to be the moral of staying in Israel, some of the time like today it is just nasty and things are not going right, but when the sun come out after a rain storm you get the rare glimpse of what makes life worth living. You get to move on from what is completely depressing you.

I do not know what went wrong with my internet connection, but I am glad that my last posting was written and I am glad it never got published.

All the best,

Benjamin

Sleep is good

2004-11-13T19:13:00.000+02:00

Okay,

That is the overstatement of a lifetime, but it is really nice to have shabbos. I might not be the best Jew on many fronts, but I love the ability to have a long sleepy days. I have started to go to Shul at 7:00 in the morning getting out by 9:00 and I am back in bed by noon for a 4 hour sleep. The net result of this is that I catch up on my sleep when I need it.

I am probably going to be cutting back on Ulpan to start to work again. I need to make some money and I need to stop sitting around. The fact is the Ulpan has really been good for me, but long term I am going to have a nervous break down if I continue to push that part of my life. I am not good at it and it is just so stressful, I compare it to a root canal on a weekly basis. I need to cut back to 4-5 hours a week and probably get a tutor for another 4-5 hours.

The book store also does not need to support me on a monthly basis if it is going to work.

Benjamin

Its Thursday night and I want to party

2004-11-11T19:32:00.000+02:00

Okay, we have two small kids so it is Thursday night and I am not partying. I did vacuum the rugs and I did some dishes, and I helped put the kids to bed. Iris managed to get glass in her foot, which was my fault as I did not clean up a bowl Sam broke with enough care.

Now it is time for reflection on where we are going. I am working on the book store idea and we will launch the first store in January, but it is not going to be a full time job for me. It is going to be a venture that will use a day maybe 2 days a week.

Iris is working at her firm and it is going okay, it is taking time for her to make sense of the speed of the process and frankly it is taking time for her to get used to Israel. Some days we really miss home, other days it is perfect here.

I should continue with Ulpan, but I think I have ventured way out of my comfort zone with languages. I broke down crying today in class and frankly it is hard to deal with the pressure of the class. I really want to get back to work.

I helped a friend yesterday work through the issues of buying a helicopter for a business she works with and frankly doing stuff like that where I have a problem and I need to find a solution is what I live for. I need to get a job, and I need to do it soon for sanity.

I could go back to what I was doing, but it very hard to work on a project without an end game a way to see where you are going. I like starting companies, but I need to be able to have mile stones and when I do not meet them I need to figure out how to either change the goal or admit that I am over my head.

On my last project for three years I pushed at all the angles that I could push at without spending big money. What needs to happen now is to have a real campaign to go after technical issues in a statistically relevant manor. The scary thing about statistics is when the underlying data is uniform, it does not take many samples to prove or disprove a thesis, but when the underlining data is a mess it takes a lot of work and proof to prove something.

The issue with the project is that we do not now need to find customers, or solve shipping issues, we need to run a clean technical program to either solve or not solve the technical process issues. The thing is I know about as much geology as I know Organic Biology so I am not the right person to run this program. We really need a partner and if we do not get one our highest value is probably to leave the project on the shelf.

I like days where I have to work on something that is clean, give me a problem and frankly I will do the research and come up with a solution and I can do that on a range of issues. The issue is when the problem is significantly technical and in an area that I am not an expert, I become a fish out of water unless I am willing to spend the 6 months to 1 year to understand the issues and the solutions.

There is time when I think I should be able to change the world, do great things and never hit a road block. This last 8 weeks has shown how small I really am. I am back to looking at a small apartment, we are driving older cars, and we are doing our own laundry and dishes (I am going to try to hire a maid next week). In many ways we are going through a rebirth and that means that I have to be able to understand that I might not make as much money, but we have done such a good job of slashing expenses that we can afford to make less.

Life here is easier in some ways then America, Gan for our kids is excellent, everything in the grocery store is Kosher, there is a minyan every 5 minutes, and did I mention the excellent parks. It is an easy life here, and the cost of living by world standards is cheap. We would pay for our apartment in London in an equivalent neighborhood (Hendon) 300 pounds per week, or just about what we are living on here. The apartment would be 4x more expensive. I can live on 20-25,000 pounds a year here and live a good middle class life style. That is an amazing thing.

Shabbat Shalom and may we have a peaceful weekend.

Benjamin

Nefesh B Nefesh

2004-11-11T12:31:00.000+02:00

Okay,

Looking at the stuff that makes going to Israel work, one common theme has been Nefesh B Nefesh. They have helped families move to israel that frankly would not have made the move otherwise. We made a decision not to take their money or apply to go through them because we felt that there were other people who had greater needs then us.

Some days you wonder if writting a blog matters, do people even read it or care about it. Yesterday I was angry at NBN. They ran some ads offering to help people with the Ayliah beurcracy in Israel. They explained to me that they would not help us because we were to complex.

Today they called back and offered to help. Frankly I am really glad to have the help.

Some days things go right, and after a really hard day at Ulpan I needed it.

Benjamin

GRRR........ some days

2004-11-10T15:05:00.000+02:00

Most people do not take risks, frankly the whole concept of risk is very scary for them. They do not want to do anything that does not make sense to them.

Our Aliyah process has been a story of problem after problem after problem. What is great about Israel is that the bureaucracy people just pass the burden and rather then helping us, just say ......

Nefesh b Nefesh was offering an Arm Chair Olim paper work processing deal. You get them the file and they will walk it around and get you your documents and get you through the line and finished. This is for people in the country who might be interested in making Aliyah

It sounded like a great deal and frankly it would have helped us, as between the Shaliach in San Francisco who never finished our file to the people in Israel who want us to refile, to the fact that we just have fallen through the cracks.

I just got off the phone with them, and their basic statement was that they will help people who do not have complex problems make Aliyah. What is so funny is that they did this advertising campaign, pushed this concept and they are going to turn away the vast majority of people who need the most help.

This is a project that is going to really mess with their good name, and put into jeopardy the whole concept of their business model. Frankly they have done great stuff with the Ayliya flights, but going into a new line of helping people and then turning back the people who most need the help is just going to kill their business model.

I would not be surprised to see some very nasty things said about them from the key people who they need to support them. I have the urge to send a message to the Ra'anana list and a few other places to talk about them. They do great stuff, but if they are going to offer to help with a problem and then pass I lose some of my respect.

If they turn down more people then they help with the program, which I think they will, they are going to end up with an undeserved bad reputation because they do a lot of good for a lot of people.

I wish them luck.

Benjamin

Swimming against the Tide

2004-11-09T16:54:00.000+02:00

I am spending time watching the local scene for real estate and cars and stuff like that, and I want to make the comment that Israelis love something new, they want something that is shiny and nice, and clean and new, and once it is old it is gone from favor.

For example, some of the new Olim's in the Ulpans were discussing the cars that they are buying, which were Mazda MPV's, not cheap in my book and not cheap in an Israelis book. I think that even with the new Olim discount that they are getting they are still spending $38k on them. To put this in NIS terms these low end Minivans are running 216,000 NIS. Another way to look at this is that for 700,000 NIS it is possible to buy a livable apartment in this country. So for the price of 3-4 cars you can buy a livable house.

We took the opposite tack. We bought 2 cars for 21,000 NIS combined. We just see cars as things that go down in value and even if we only get 1-2 years of life out of them we can afford to replace them. The carry cost of a 200 NIS van is 12-15,000 NIS per year in interest cost that alone will pay for a cheap car. Not to mention we have two cars which is seen as quite a luxury in this country.

Looking at apartments or houses, we went for the lowest end space on the nicest block for our needs. This saved some money, but we figured location is more important then size or features. Living in a large Ivory Tower in a country full of parks, kids, synagogues and cafe's gives you a lower standard of living then living in a smaller place that lets you get out and enjoy the town. Not to mention that the savings is enough to pay for at least 10-12 dates a month, baby sitter included.

It is so easy to try to keep up with the Jones in this country, and frankly the Jones have it very good. They are driving cars that cost $60k in the US, and here have to cost 600,000 NIS. A sum that is 7 years salary for the average Israeli, who by the way drives nicer cars then me.

If you want to come and stay, figure out how to live on a budget and that involves maybe going for something old and blue over something new and shiny.

Benjamin

We are moving

2004-11-08T14:24:00.000+02:00

Okay it is official, we are moving.

It is not very far in distance, but it is to a completely different scene. We picked an apartment that is very small 90 sq meters or 950 sq feet, with two bed rooms, one bath room and 2 covered balconies. On the whole this apartment is the smallest space I have lived in in over 10 years. By Israeli standards it is expensive but by Ra'anana standards it is very cheap, at $650 per month. To put that in pounds terms for the brits, 83 pounds a week.

We took it for a variety of reasons, first off we are never home as a family. Iris works during the day, and is home awake maybe 5-7 hours a day. Sam and Avi our two kids are around and awake only around 4-5 hours a day. These means we need an apartment for the evenings and for me to work from during the day.

This apartment we are looking at will work for that. It has the two half rooms, one of which will become my office and the other will become a guest room, slash living room space. Frankly it is a small apartment any way we cut it, but the price is right.

I am thinking about the things I want to do to it, and I am going to work on getting a shelf built over the fridge area and I want to get a counter top built at a higher level over another part of the area for a work area. Ikea might offer a butcher block table that will fit there, the issue is we want to be able to slot the dishwasher in when we are not using it.

The thing is a 2 bedroom here costs around 1200-1600 NIS less then a three bedroom. You can find a cheap three bedroom, but even those can be hard to find. So when I look at space saving ideas I can quickly in 2-3 months of savings outfit the 2 bed room so it can be used equivelently to a three bedroom. The trick is getting furniture that fits and then not over stuff the place.

All the best,

Benjamin

No time, No time

2004-11-07T21:58:00.000+02:00

It is 9:40 at night and I am wiped. Okay, at some point in every ones life something has to give.

Currently I am working on helping set up a book store, taking care of the kids in the afternoon, cleaning, cooking shopping, and did I mention spending 22 hours a week in Ulpan with another 14 hours a week of home work. Today, I woke up at 6:30, was at Ulpan at 7:50 after making breakfast (Oatmeal) and dropping the kids at Gan. Ulpan lasted from 8-1:15, and at 1:25 I was at the new store helping lay things out. Then I spent 3-4 hours working on issues with this store. At 6:30 we went out to dinner, and at 7:30 we were at our new apartment to sign the lease. We only got back home at 9:00, put the kids to bed, I had a drink and now it is 9:43 and I have a mountain of homework facing me and I frankly want to go to sleep and forget about Ulpan.

In the next two weeks I have to get a roof rack for the Volvo, new tires, shocks and brakes. I have to get light fixtures for the new apartment. I have to pick a carpenter for the book cases, and I have to live life on top of that I promised myself that I would stay in Ulpan, but I must warn you Ulpan is a full time job. Of the 28 original students who are in the class only 9 remain, and frankly at this point I am at the bottom of the barrel. I was in the middle of the pack, but the pack dropped out.

I guess I am ranting and raving about life here, but on the other hand every time my son opens his mouth and says Toda, or something like that with a smile. Every thing I notice it is November and I am still wearing shorts, I remember life is good. I am just used to having Sunday off, and taking part of Friday off as well. Now I work a full day on Thursday, and by Sunday the week has started.

Doing 12-16 hour days 6 days a week is just not good for a person, and frankly I am going to need to slow down. Ulpan might be the first thing to go, which is sad as I am learning in it. I do not think I will finish my homework tonight, as I need sleep more.

Benjamin

Bombs and walls

2004-11-03T17:16:00.000+02:00

I vowed when I came here that I was not going to be scared by terrorism, but I probably was lying to myself about it. Terrorists do not kill that many people, frankly the roads and cancer probably kill more per year in Israel. The scary thing about terrorists, is that they are selling fear, and that fear results in far more people upset then if 5 random people died.

Last week 3 people were murdered in Tel Aviv, last week 10,000 people were close to the scene, everyone from my friend Mary who husband was supposed to be in the area, to Shosh who was planning on buying cheese at that stand. Everyone sees a bomb and mentally thinks this could be me, and once they have that thought process they then go and tell everyone to cope with the stress resulting in even more people being stressed.

Personally I am not scared of bombs, since I have landed here 2 months ago under 30 people have died, that is less then 1/2 per day, and less then 1 out of 40,000 over a year. I have better odds of dying from cancer. In America Cancer kills one out of 600. If the terrorists were killing Jews at that rate there would be 10,000 dead each year.

The problem is Cancer can not be avoided, people get it and some people die. With terror each innocent life taken on both sides hardens the hearts of all involved. At this point Israel is going to declare a peace with a wall, with boarders and with economic destruction of the West Bank and Gaza.

Bombers are killing the life blood of both sides. We have shut our boarders to cheap local labor. Philippines are learning Hebrew, as they take jobs that pay $700 per month doing domestic and other work. But I must say that I want the wall, I want the segregation, I want to be safe. I also want peace, but I am not willing to have peace that costs lives of people who are shopping at markets.

Peace is going to have to come with education on both sides, but as long as people bomb innocent people, walls both physical and spiritual are going to continue to go up, and we all know that once walls go up they do not come down.

Benjamin

Nothing much interesting

2004-11-03T15:26:00.000+02:00

I am not sure what to write about today.

I could talk about ulpan, but frankly I am starting to get that sinking feeling in my stomach as I am being forced to hear how certain words are shaped together, but are separated by one or two key vowels. It is very hard to train my ear to ignore the end of the word and focus on the middle to get the information out of it. When every word has at least 5 that I know of ways to write it, and that is ignoring the future and the past tenses, you start to panic.

I do not have much time today. I have to go and get my kids in 5-10 minutes. I am waiting for next week when we can start to move into this apartment. I need to hire movers, and I need to figure out what I still need to buy to live there.

I also need to arrange to pickup our Volvo from the people we bought it from. You have to love driving a 1987 240 Volvo wagon in a country with gas prices at around $5 per gallon. It is not I think going to be a daily driver, but when I need to take the kids places and go shopping and stuff like that it is going to be really nice to have. It is also a double purpose rig as it will be the transport for our bookstore for the first couple of months until we can afford to get our hands on a replacement rig. The issue is we need a freighter that has at least 4 seats as we will need to carry kids as well as cargo lots of the time. This is not a cheap rig to find, and we also wanted it to be safe, and lets face it, if you hit us in a 2 tonne Volvo in a country of ford Fiestas, I am not worried about the Volvo.

Lots of little stuff to talk about, but the most amazing part of it all is how quickly the weeks are flying by. I figured I would be climbing the walls going crazy by this point but I am actually really enjoying life. I get to go north tomorrow to visit my Aunt Nina for her birth day. I am going to frame one of Iris's prints and take it with me to give her.

Benjamin

Morning elections

2004-11-03T07:15:00.000+02:00

It changes the tenor of the day when you get to listen to the elections in the morning. I woke up and the polls started to close. It is an amazing feeling to be so close to America and so far from America at the same time. I am going to be late for Ulpan, but I do not care.

Democracy is great.

Benjamin

Some days you just want to sell them

2004-11-02T17:09:00.000+02:00

Okay I wanted to write about my kids, but when you start to write about your kids when you are stressed out at them you start to understand how little of a person you are in comparison to them in some ways. But I must say a 1 hour temper over using the key on a door is enough to take the varnish off of a US Army Ranger's boots.

I am cleaning today, now you are probably laughing your heads off at that statement, but I am getting so sick of the state of our space that I am actually taking time to mop, and do dishes, and horrors of horrors there is a load of laundry in the machine. It is amazing but at some points even I have a mess tolerance and it is amazing how quickly I meet it and pass it. It is a 2 hour a day job to cook and clean for a family. It really can not be done in less time. I am quite quick on the cooking, but the cleaning I am really slow. Frankly I can not stand cleaning, but I am putting a sign up at the absorption center to try to hire a cleaner.

Some days I wish I had the freedom to come and go when I please, to not be at gan at 3:50 to pick up the kids to not have the responsibility to lots of people. Frankly as you grow older the more people who are beholden to you, and when you can not deliver you get really stressed out. Mind you sometimes when your kids smile in a way that says I love you and they give you a hug it is much easier to get through the day.

Off to Yad Izaac to shop.

Benjamin

Okay I am starting to miss winter

2004-11-02T12:52:00.000+02:00

Winter has still not come, fall is here, leaves are starting to fall, but I have had it explained to me that winter does not come until December and then it might last for 2-2.5 months. I must say wearing shorts for most of the year gets borning, but when it is almost 90 degrees pants, are just hot. I must say having a problem like this is exactly oposite London or Portland where the weather is cold and wet. I think it rained last week, and they made a national holiday out of it, I wish I was kidding.

I am getting the full pleasure of dealing with wire transfers between America and here. I need to get one done and it just is not fun, but that is life. I have to pay for the store we are leasing and pay for my new apartment. It combinded is not a lot of money, but I still have to push the paper. Some times I wish Ra'anana and Portland were like 3 hours drive from each other rather then almost the other side of the world.

Cheers,

Benjamin

The great stroller heist

2004-11-02T02:30:00.000+02:00

Okay, well that is a little over melodramatic, but I am starting to understand what it feels like to be a long way from your supply lines. I America they make stroller, what I mean by this is that they make rigs that are designed for one kid, but can hold a couple, they make rigs that can carry the family groceries and they make rigs that have proper sized tires. In Israel they make some really great fashion accessories, but nothing that is going to get two kids to gan in a rush for under $250.

Yesterday our stroller went missing, yes it was gone from the stroller corral at the local Gan (kindergarten), this was a big upsetting because I had been using this stroller as a car replacement, and I could not replace it without getting another one from America which is quite expensive.

The one thought I had was if I feel this upset about loosing something while in Israel I wonder what it feels like to be in the Arctic or on the Moon and misplace or break something key. I can buy for some amount of money a replacement part, but what happens when the freight just costs way to much.

Now I want to say that I was rational and I slept on the missing stroller and it showed up the next morning. Someone's grandmother borrowed it by mistake, but I am going to go by a bike lock for it now, as I can not really replace it.

Cheers,

Benjamin

Transgender Words (You know words that cross dress)

2004-10-31T15:26:00.000+02:00

I just finished another day of Ulpan, and I must say some things want to make me cry. Actually I cried in class over this issue. I was laughing at the same time. Everything is Israel is gender matched. You do not only need to remember the name of an item, but what gender it is. Gender is important as it effects how you write verbs and adjectives and all the other stuff in the sentence. So it turns out that one out of every so many plural words have a gender issue where they are written as if they are male or female but they are not. This probably does not sound like much of a problem to you, but to me with my dyslexic brain already maxed out this is just living hell. There is nothing I can do about it, but still it was enough to make me cry. The teacher did not understand what upset me, but that is just part of life.

I must say I am learning but it is slow and steady that might win the day maybe.

Benjamin

Week four of Ulpan

2004-10-31T07:08:00.000+02:00

We are in the fourth week of Ulpan and I am still in the middle of the class. This is the week however that the instructor's decide if we get sent back 4 weeks to restart or not. Decisions Decisions Decisions, I do not want to be sent back, I actually want to go forward if possible, but we will see.

I had a really good shabbat. We had a guest, Emily who slept a lot, but really was a hit with the kids, They just loved her. She reminded them of Jackie her sister. It is so important to share shabbat with someone. I also made my decision of my first gift, I am going to be giving one of the Synagogues I go to 50 Artscroll Siddurs. They really need them, I can find them for $13 each in the US (Wall-Mart.com), and I will put them on the next lift to here. Frankly I like to give especially if I can give in a targeted focused way.

I hope we get this apartment, Shosh is calling today, we bought a bunch of Antiques for it from a family that was moving. We even got a Tiffany style lamp that hangs in the dining room area. It is just really nice and will give a sense of color and style to the space. We also got a couple of small tables, and a nice china cabinet. We also bought their dishwasher, and washer and dryer. Now we just have to buy a fridge and I am going to do that today. We do not get the stuff until December 1st. (We can take the lamp sooner.)

It is going to be nice to have an apartment that is ours.

I hope everyone had a good shabbat and a blessed week.

Benjamin

Full circles

2004-10-28T12:54:00.000+02:00

When we moved into our house in Portland we moved into my grandparents house. It is not exactly the same, but the vintage, the style the build all evoke the life my grandparents on my father side lived in. It is a house that Granny Annie would have loved, would have felt at home in and would have be so happy to see her dining room table in.

Trying to find a home in Israel has been tough for us. First off we have been looking for something that would fit in America. We want an American sized place, and we want it to be large and we want it to make sense for us, but I will say that if we want it all we can not afford it. I can not stomach spending $1500-1700 on rent, taxes and maintenance for something that I do not own. Call me crazy, but I broke out into cold sweat when I looked at the numbers. It was not that it was that much money, but if we are going to long term be in Israel we need to be in an Israeli mind set and people raise a family, car and all for $1700 per month. The average wage here is about that pretax.

So when we walked into this apartment that we are hopefully taking, for Iris it was like walking into her grandmothers house again. What was scary was the stark difference between my grandmothers way of life and her grandmothers way of life. This apartment done up nice will be nice, it will work for us for maybe a couple of years, but most American double wide manufactured homes are nicer. It is amazing that in our life we are going to be going back both to my fathers childhood home and spend time in something that is similar to Iris's.

I must say that we can live in this apartment, but it will be interesting to see where we end up in 2-3 years.

I am not going to focus on spelling and grammar on this blog. This is not that I do not care, but I am trying to capture living here, and if I spend lots of time editing I will not do the writing, and what is scary is I need to write, I need to talk about what I am living through or else I am not going to make sense of my life.

Have a good Shabbat you all, and I hope you are getting something out of this, because I am really enjoying writing it.

Benjamin

The luck of the Irish (but I am not Irish)

2004-10-28T03:43:00.000+02:00

Some days you have all the luck.

I must say that on my walk everyday from the Gan (where I drop the kids for the day) to the Ulpan (where I get tortured in Hebrew) there is this one really nice block. It has a park that is in between two streets and it has trees, and a play ground that by Portland standards is huge, but by Israeli standards is large. There are 4 floor apartment buildings on both sides and some are really nice and new and others are old and not so nice.

But the street is really nice, it is very central, but it is a one way one lane street so no one in their right mind goes down it unless they live on it, or unless the arts center at the end of the street is having an event, but on the whole it is a really nice street with nice stuff.

2-3 weeks ago I noticed a very little sign on a small apartment that was facing this park, and I was very excited and I had Shosh call on it. It was already taken, but I could still see living on the street. Today I was walking down and I saw a sign that just made me happy it was for an apartment that directly faced the playground area. Now if you are a kid living 50 feet from some kick --- play ground equipment is like living in heaven.

So I had to call on this one. I have gotten smart about this, so I took down the number and had Shosh call as she is much smoother them I am. The apartment was available, but it only had 2 bedrooms, and it was priced fairly at $650 per month.

She talked the guy into letting us see it and I liked it. Now I have to take Iris there tonight to see it. Frankly it is a come down from anything we have lived in since Harvard street in College. It really is a dive, but it is a charming dive, with 2 covered balconies, a large kitchen, a living room that is probably 30 feet by 13 feet, and a really nice new bath room. There are things that must be done to it to make it nice, but it could really be nice in a old Israeli sort of way. By London standards is a quite a nice apartment, but by Portland standards it would rent for $600 per month.

We can live really nicely here for under $1500 per month in rent, but if we are going to be on vacation that is fine, if we plan on staying we have to live in an apartment that matches our budget to what we make, and that means cutting back.

Ailyah is a process of rebirth, it is a process of going into a flame and either coming out stronger, or learning your limitations. One of the things I have been trying to do with this process is figure out what in life at this point is important to us, and what is superficial. Our cars have gotten older, our furniture is not as nice, we have no silver here for shabbos, and we are currently living in an apartment that is very nice for Ra'anana but it just is not home.

This other apartment is 1/2 the size of this one, but it seems to be an apartment that can have joy in it. I can see a set Friday night table, and I can see my kids going to bed in it. I can see shabbat coming in, and I can see sitting in the park using my laptop on Wifi talking on my phone all the while my kids are playing on the play ground.

We need silver for Shabbat, we need to cook and to feed people, we need some art, and we need our health, but we do not need quite everything we had in America. Now these are cheap words considering we still have our house in America and our stuff there. We can go back any day we want to.

To live in Israel is to go to the bone on what you things you can cut and then cut some more. If you are going to make it here you are going to need to be cheap, because after the taxes and the cost of stuff you are very broke. But we can live here on just about what it costs to have 2 kids in child care in America.

Benjamin

Renting an apartment

2004-10-27T06:48:00.001+02:00

In America it is easy to get a place to live. You know the problems, you go down to Shadow Hills or some other place and you get your pad. It is just simple. Renting an apartment here is as complex as buying a house in America.

First you have to find a place, and frankly the fall is the worse time to find a place as most people move in the summers. Then you get the pleasure of paying one months rent to an agent plus VAT, 1/2 months rent to the other sides attorney, some sort of security deposit either a letter form or a bank guarantee for $3k, then you have to pay three months in advance. The total cash cost of moving in is around 7-8 months rent with only 3 months actually rent.

I must say that in America we have a credit reporting agency, I wish we had that in Israel, it is fairly easy in America to figure out how much someone can pay and to get them to pay. Here it is just messed up.

If you find a decent place at a decent price take a longer term lease as it is hard to move, and if you have to you can probably find replacement tenets.

Have a good day.

Benjamin

Time and money

2004-10-26T22:17:00.000+02:00

It amazes me how little the big things costs in this country. Ice cream can be had for under 2 NIS per scope at the local McDonald's (Yes it is Kosher), so for me and Avi and Sam we get a treat that we share three ways for 3.8 NIS, or 85 cents. It is soft serve ice cream but it still is food. Last week we went out to dinner, me and Iris at a nice French restaurant, we spent I think including tip 60 NIS or $13 dollars, the baby sitting cost more then the food.

In most places time is money. I can make oatmeal for breakfast and it costs pennies per day. I can also have Cheerios or eat out and it costs more, but takes less time. The real question is what is your time worth. In a country where eating out is as cheap as eating at home, it gets harder to cook. But in a country where eating at home is much more healthy then the fried Israel diet other things have to be taken into account.

Not that any of this makes any sense, but that is what is cool about a blog, you can talk at a wall and even if no one is listening it still can be said.

Cheers,

Benjamin

What an apartment costs

2004-10-26T16:48:00.000+02:00

In America it is easy to get a place to live. You know the problems, you go down to Shadow Hills or some other place and you get your pad. It is just simple.

Renting an apartment here is as complex as buying a house in America. First you have to find a place, and frankly the fall is the worse time to find a place as most people move in the summers.

Then you get the pleasure of paying one months rent to an agent plus VAT, 1/2 months rent to the other sides attorney, some sort of security deposit either a letter form or a bank guarantee for $3k, then you have to pay three months in advance. The total cash cost of moving in is around 7-8 months rent with only 3 months actually rent.

I must say that in America we have a credit reporting agency, I wish we had that in Israel, it is fairly easy in America to figure out how much someone can pay and to get them to pay. Here it is just messed up.

If you find a decent place at a decent price take a longer term lease as it is hard to move, and if you have to you can probably find replacement tenets. Have a good day.

Eye glasses

2004-10-26T01:56:00.000+02:00

My glasses finally broke, and I had to go get new ones. The interesting thing about Israel is that the stores are open and closed at very weird times. It took me two days to wait for the eye glass store to be open that I wanted to shop at. Once I got in, I got out quickly and only 550 NIS poorer. The only issue I had was the eye exam was the most jury rigged exam I have ever had. They did not change my prescription much but it still was rather short and sweet. I hope the new glasses work out and do not give me a head ache.

I had some deep and profound thoughts about Israel and life and apartments but frankly the thoughts are escaping from my head quicker then they can go in due to the mind chilling fighting of two kids who are just really tired and are fighting over a spoon. It amazing to me how they can have these fights and forget about them 2 minutes later.

Benjamin

Up and down like a roller coaster

2004-10-23T18:10:00.000+02:00

Israel is one big roller coaster,

Some days are up, others are down, and some days you have both ups and downs at the same time. The last couple of days have been like that. We have figured out that I am just wiped out from Ulpan, working and taking care of the kids. I have a level of tiredness in my bones that I have not done in the past and that frankly is just not cool.

So taking stock I have got to find an apartment, I have to stop treating it like I am buying and just take a place. We know roughly the neighborhoods we are interested in, and we know what we are willing to pay. The big issue on a house we saw was that it was a one year deal and frankly we have no interest in moving again quickly. We are either going to be here for a while and want to keep a place for at least 2 years. It just sucks to move and I do not want to do it lots.

We went to Ikea to look at stuff for an apartment, and we found that for 2-5,000 NIS we can get most of what we want. Ikea has some amazing dining room tables that fold in 1/2 and sit against the wall, what we are learning is that in a world where there is just less space we have to make do and make things work that in America would not be an issue. We are used to having lots of space and lots of time. The combination of working and going to ulpan on Sunday with Iris working and me trying to get things done in Portland means we just are wiping ourselves out on a regular basis. I am getting up at 6:00 and going to bed at 11:00 with rarely more then 1-2 hours of down time.

One has to question why we are in one of the nicest places in the world, and it seems we just set ourselves up to be really really really busy and it just is not healthy. I need to figure out what our priorities are and deal with them and let the rest of the stuff just go.

I am treading water and frankly I love it here, but some days I just feel like I do not have any space or time left and in the long run I have to find that again or else I am not going to live here long.

Lets see if I can live through 2 months of ulpan and then take some time down.

Benjamin

Some days are perfect :-)

2004-10-19T16:57:00.000+02:00

When no day is perfect here, but that is to be expected. Any place where paying a bill takes 5 stops, has its problems, but frankly if all the bureaucracy was removed they would have to beat people away from this place. I mean it is late in October, and I am still wearing shorts, the weather has not gotten cold, my kids are both in all day Gan (Preschool) that has good religious content, 2 square meals, and lots of love for $600 per month for both of them. Apartments are cheap, and did I mention the weather.

It is funny 15 years ago this place (Ra’anana) was by world standards one of the most expensive cities in the world. Apartments here went for more then Apartments in London or Paris. The apartment we are living in was bought for $250,000 15 years ago, and now it is worth maybe 280. Over the last 15 years the only other place that in Dollar terms did this was maybe Japan, and Philadelphia. From the peak (2000) the value of this apartment went down $80k which considering the value is huge money.

I was asked why I love this place, and I do love it, I love it with such ruach that it scares me some days. The answer is that I cannot explain the place. It has a Vortex of energy that makes it a place of great love and hate. You can go to places like Ako, and you can feel the tears of the thousands of years that people have fought over that pretty little port city. It is a seriously sad place. You can go to Caesarea, and walk along the beach in the roman ruins and look at the sea. You can go and have the best Chumus in the world at the end of my block. If you doubt that this Chumus is this good, you do not understand I have had a lot of Chumus around the world and this is the best Chumus in the world. It is amazing how 1 hour before dinner I start to think about all the things I want to eat. Back to the topic, I was asked by a secular jew why I love this place, and I did not say for religious reasons.

I was a better Jew in Portland, maybe not in fact, but in spirit. Here it is so easy to keep kosher, you can buy everything in most every store and its kosher. You can go to 98 different shuls, and did I mention that there are like 50 different places to eat within 4 miles of my flat that are Kosher. If I get to shul at the start or the middle of Davening no one cares, and to get guests for Shabbat takes 4 weeks of reservations. In Portland I just had to set some pots a cooking and I had a full table.

I do not love this place for the traffic, the religious issues, or the weather, or the horribly ugly buildings, I love this place because it is home. It is my home, I am so proud to be here, I am so proud to stand up and be counted. Just being here feels like the most important thing I have ever done in my life, and I have done some other neat things.

That leads to the crux of the problem with the place, ½ of my Ulpan class are Doctors (I wish I was kidding), there are more Harvard MBA’s wandering around then I can shake a stick at, and my Brandeis degree is downright embarrassing low key. The real estate has not gone up in value because people want to own part of Israel. Rent however is cheap.

I want to say that I want to go home to America, I want to say that I will leave in a fit of Anger, but I can tell you the time that we leave on the air plane to go back to America if we do, part of me will be crying.

Watching my kids learn Hebrew, being able to read a paragraph in Hebrew, watching Iris’s family sit down for a dinner, these all make all the pain and trouble of this place worth while. If I leave I might look back at these words as the words of someone who does not understand, and laugh, but I think that in so many key ways I have found a place that I can grow old, and if I get into a rut I will be so happy.

No matter where my body is, Israel is my home. Now If I can just fix some of the problems like those 5 stops to pay my ulpan bill. (Famous last words)

Benjamin

Uplan is your friend

2004-10-17T13:43:00.000+02:00

I thought I would be the worse person in my class at Ulpan, I based this on the fact that I was the worse person in my class for the last 5-10 times that I have tried to learn either Hebrew or Spanish. What is scary is that there are people who make me look good, not that many of them, but enough that I might not even be in the bottom quarter of my class. From my perspective this rocks, I have never been middle of the pack before.

It is getting harder, but in some ways it is getting easier, I need to go buy flashcards and I need to study more, but I am getting it.

Cheers,

Benjamin

Long borders make for difficult times

2004-10-17T03:43:00.000+02:00

In Israel the borders that are guarded are very long, very convoluted and do not make much sense. First off it is very expensive and hard to guard different parts of Gaza that are owned by Israelis. I use the word owned as this land that we are guarding was bought and paid for in the 1920's before the state of Israel was even formed.
Now people are talking about pulling out of Aza, and I can see the point from all three sides. The Palestinians want continuous territory, the Israeli government wants less borders to patrol, and the Jews on the land have clear legal title to the land that predates the state of Israel. It is their home, they are invested in it, and the money that they will get for it does not reflect its value.

The issue here is one thing. No one in the middle east really cares about the settlements in Gaza, for the PA it is a step to getting us to cede Ashdod, or some other part of our southern coast line, for the government it is a very expensive political statement, and for the people who's home it has been for 80 years very few people are listening.

I want peace, heck everyone I know here wants peace, but I do not see the point of pulling back from Aza. Backing down like we did in Lebanon will just result in more attacks on Israel proper. What is so amazing is that this war has completely devastated the economies of both sides, but as the situation has escalated neither side can afford to pull back.

Frankly, I can see only one solution. Free WIFI piped into AZA, Free old computers with WIFI to any house with children in it, and a Radio Free America piped into the region in English and Arabic. Information is the key to solving the regions problems. Both sides need to see that the other sides claims have basis and needs to move ahead on that basis.

I can say that what is completely depressing, but yet reality, is I can not see peace in my life time. For us to get peace every Jew would have to leave Israel, and frankly I and 6 million others do not feel that we are willing to give this place up. This is my home, however long I stay here, I think for the rest of my life I will think about Israel as my home. I am happier here then I have ever been before in my life. I love the land of Israel. Heck I am even learning how to speak Hebrew, and for me that is saying something.

The fight is not for Gush, but for Tel Aviv and Ra'anana, the fight is not for the green line, but for the whole of our country.

Peace,

Benjamin

Jackhammers are not your friends

2004-10-15T00:45:00.000+02:00

Okay, this is a pet peeve, but the people upstairs are redoing their apartment. Now they could be jack hammering in the morning when no one is here, but instead the have been starting around 2:00. Now I must say there is nothing like being directly below a jack hammer. It just gives a certain brain tingling vibration that just can not be missed. It is even better if it happens after a day of brain tingling Uplan that comes together for some really special splitting head aches.

I am not yenting, but if you want to see me get excited about moving, my landlord could not have picked a bettor way to get us out of the apartment. Now we just have to find another one, which strangely is quite hard in October, there just is not that much available here.

Time to get my kids from Gan, go to the park and then come back here to clean, I get to have a date tonight as we have hired a baby sitter :-).

Benjamin

Hebrew

2004-10-13T14:16:00.000+02:00

I can read Hebrew, well not that well, but I can read it better then I have ever in the past. For the first time in my life I can sit down and follow along in some text I have never heard of before and read it. Heck I read a book to Avi last night, he left after the first page as I was going at a snails pace, but I could still read it.

For me with my learning problems this is significant, now I am wondering what I will learn in the next 3 months of this Ulpan. It is amazing to be able to do something I have not been able to do in the past.

If I had known it would be this easy I would have done it ages ago, but maybe it is the fact that I now HAVE to do it to survive that is making me learn.

Benjamin

2004-10-12T15:21:00.000+02:00

I started Ulpan, to put Ulpan in terms that other people can understand, for me it is a bunch of people talking to me in Hebrew and I do not understand it at all. The point is to learn via immersion. So I am doing Ulpan, and it is scary and hard, but I am learning and I really like it. I can not read Hebrew, I can figure out what the dots mean and how to put the little stuff together. I can not do it well, but I am learning and for me that is so amazing I just almost want to cry. It is hard to take risks and right now going back into the class room to learn Hebrew is the biggest risk I have taken in years. If I fail it will really hurt, but something tells me I will not lean completely, but I also will not fail.

Our phone service got cut off as the bill had not been paid. It would have been nice had the land lady given a copy of the bill, or switched the service over to us. We paid the bill online on the phone and the problem is solved, but it still is enough to drive me crazy.

We are looking for a new apartment and I might have found one, it will make the kids very happy, but for me it is a huge come down from where we were in the past. This apartment does not have a view, but it faces park blocks and it has a play ground just across the street. Sometimes we do stuff for our kids, as the view apartments are not kid friendly, you are trapped in them away from everyone.

I would like to live next to a huge play ground, I would like to look at the park when I work frankly It would be better then what I have now. I am going to call on it and we will see.We either are looking for low end or high end, but we first need to figure out who we are at this point in our lives and what we need space wise.

Benjamin

Tonight I took the kids for Ice cream

2004-10-11T06:19:00.000+02:00

In some towns, going for ice cream means getting in the car. Where we live now going for ice cream is a completely different production. It starts with sandals, yes I know it is October, but the weather is still warm and we all have our sandals. It is hard some times to find all of them. Avi kicks them off where ever he can, and Sam takes extra time in taking them off, ideally in two different spots at opposite ends of the apartment. But if we are lucky we find them and quickly.

You see Avi knows all about ice cream and he is not opposed to the idea of opening the door to let Sam out into the hall just to make sure that I do not check email one more time or sit on the computer. For Avi a cone of Ice Cream is a sacred vow, and one that once made has to be acted on before the resolution to go has melted in the October sun.

Okay, maybe this is a bit corny, but to Avi Ice Cream always has capital letters and is key. Sam on the other hand will eat anything and for him Ice Cream is just more food, maybe if he had more then 5 words he could express his love of the stuff, but for now it is just another form of food.

When we final get the sandal's on, and get Avi and Sam on the single seat American oversized stroller, we are on our way for Ice Cream. Now tonight I had an alternative reason for going for Ice Cream, I wanted to talk to realtors. In reality I am a closet real estate junky and I managed to somehow talk ourselves out of an apartment by being nice, and now we had to find another one.

Ice cream is at the other end of Achuza street and there are lots of real estate offices in between. In China I learn how to deal with real estate signs, I learned what symbol meant what, and I was able to read them. In Israel I can check only a couple of things, number of rooms price, and amount of features. If an apartment has not so many word describing it, I know it does not have a balcony or a garden, or an AC or a stove, if the ad in the window runs 4-5 lines then I know it is for me.I love old real estate, I like the older buildings better then the new ones, but I also like the ability to go outside and I want a view. Frankly in a country where the difference in rent between the best and the worse 4 bed room apartment in town is $200, we can be picky, or so I hope.

Back to the quest for the Ice Cream, I was a little depressed about talking myself out of an apartment and now I needed to get out and see the world.The easiest place to be alone is in a city. People are always around you but you can easily hide in a city. It is so easy not to get to know people not to make friends, not to get out. In a less of a city people force themselves on you, people talk. What is scary is some of the best human contact I get here is with street musicians. There is one from Odessa that will always spend 5 minutes talking to you. Sometimes like tonight I will make it a point to cross the street to talk to him. Other times I wonder at the desire for the human contact.All of this happens on the way to Ice Cream.

Frankly for the kids Ice Cream is the end of the road, for me it is a way to keep the kids happy as I push them up and down the street looking watching, but not really joining in. For right now I feel like I am in Alice's Wonderland not quite here and also not there. There is opportunity here, people are blending in, but in some ways I still feel like I stick out.The ability to go for ice cream and hear music on the way, competing with the busses and the horns of the cars, the ability to have my eldest son be able to count both now in Hebrew and English, that makes it all worth it, but some days I wonder if at some point the looking glass will crumble and I will drop over to the other side.

Till next time,

Benjamin