Sick abroad :(

Being sick is not nice, and being sick abroad might be an adventure. Luckily, Israel is known for its high medical standards. However, so short after our arrival in this foreign country, our immune systems still need to learn how to fight against the local viruses and bacteria...

Some weeks ago, my stomach suffered from some food I was not used to, but after one day, I was fit again.
While November is the typical time in Germany for a cold, it surprised me that both of us caught a cold here at 25°C. Even worse, my sore throat turned into an inflammation in the ear. After several days of pain, I looked unsuccessfully for precise information about doctors in Rehovot online, so I asked colleagues if they could recommend me someone. I called the number a colleague gave me, explained my ear ache in a mixture of Hebrew and English and got an appointment for the following day. When I arrived, the doctor's receptionist could not find me on the list. She asked me to come with her to a separate room. It seemed quite strange to me. Then she explained me I should go 2 streets further, enter building no. 4 and ask on the 3rd floor for a treatment of my ear. Okay, so I walked to the other street, entered a big building and found many people on the 3rd floor. In fact, it seemed to be a medical center as they are apparently typical in Israel.
The receptionist spoke less English than I Hebrew, so I tried to explain her my story how I was sent there from the other place in Hebrew (just 2 days before I had learned how to form the past tense of some verbs...). Luckily, I had prepared a list of words like "health insurance", "inflammation",... beforehand. Then she asked me if I wanted a
 רופא אף אזן גרון (nose throat ear doctor). Another patient had cancelled his appointment, so I did not need to wait, but she led me directly along the long corridor with many doors of many doctors' rooms to the specialist and explained him my situation with the German health insurance in Hebrew (I understood only very few words). The doctor asked me if I could speak English. I was very relieved that my extremely limited knowledge of Hebrew would not be needed in this situation. The doctor was very friendly, asked why I moved to Israel, how I like working at the Weizmann Institute (his wife also works there), if physics was a difficult subject and with so few women... Quickly, he found a diagnosis, prescribed some drops from the pharmacy and then wondered about the reimbursement procedure with my German health insurance (for 3 years abroad). Then he concluded that, because I am so nice and he is so nice and he does not like bureaucracy like signing a form for the insurance, he would not take any money!
Instead he wished me shabbat shalom and that I should enjoy my postdoc time in Israel!

Archaeology and hike in the desert: Mamshit

Two weeks ago, we were lucky to get the chance of visiting the desert again! Uri, the oldest son of Yossi (the professor who had picked us up from the airport), was planning a trip to the desert with his friends and he offered us two seats in his car :-) In total, we were eight people: six Israelis and us, so that we learned a lot about the country and had a long conversation about politics in the car.
We drove to the Mamshit National Park with an archaeological site (UNESCO world heritage) and a hiking trail trough a valley.  The ancient city had been founded 2000 years ago by the Nabateans, a people who lived in the desert and had an extensive trade network on the Arabian Peninsula and in the Levante. Their most famous city is Petra in Jordan.  At Mamshit, one can also find Roman pillars from the time when the Nabatean kingdom became a Roman province. In addition to living houses with mosaics on the floor and a tower, we also saw a street of the former Nabatean market and a Byzantine bathhouse - all very impressive!
Then we walked through the Wadi Mamshit, the valley of a dry river. Only due to the recent rainfalls, there were few ponds. We even saw a few animals in the desert: marmots, birds, lizards, insects, rock hyraxes (looking a bit similar to a marmot/marten), a fox and camels (from a nearby camel farm)!

 

IKEA, busses and sherut

The small adventure on Monday was to get to IKEA after work (yes, there is IKEA also in Israel!). We had to take two busses. Instead of the first bus, a sherut (taxi/minibus) with the required bus number arrived at the bus stop and we were not sure whether an ordinary bus would come afterwards. So we showed the driver the name of the stop (that we had written down ourselves in Hebrew!) where we wanted to get off. There were about 10 seats and the sherut left immediately so that it is better to sit down first (if there is a free seat) and to find the correct coins while sitting.
We found the stop of the 2nd bus which we had to buy a new ticket for, not only because we changed from sherut to a normal bus, but mainly because the tickets are valid per bus, not from your initial stop to your final destination. The more often you change busses, the more you have to pay... At least the single tickets are not expensive (ca. 1,60€).

At IKEA, there was a security check at the entrance. Inside it looked very similar to the European IKEA stores. We found everything we needed, just some more cutlery, glasses, mugs,... but the institute's apartment is luckily fully furnished.

Our way back went well although we had not checked the schedule. The bus driver checked for us how to get back and where to change busses. He also told us his story that he had nearly moved to Hamburg.

First day at the Weizmann Institute

What a nice first day at the Weizmann Institute of Science! We walked 5min from our apartment to the main gate and then 10min over the campus that looks like a botanical garden :-) We were welcomed very nicely by the physicists and secretaries of the physics department. In the offices of the Feinberg Graduate School (where PhD students and postdocs are registered), the housing service and the bank, we signed many forms (in the bank at least 30(!) times) and received a lot of useful advice. At the Feinberg office we were even asked how we and our relatives feel in the currently tough political situation.

After the bureaucracy, we had lunch with our new colleagues in one of the university restaurants. The food was really tasty and it is great that lunch together is also common in this group.

Some new offices were installed in the library and we could start working there.

Our new apartment

The Weizmann Housing service has several buildings with apartments for employees. For the 2-persons apartments, they prefer couples of which both persons work at the institute. So we had good chances and indeed they reserved a "studio apartment" for us where we can stay for up to one year. We were expecting 1 room for everything, but it turned out to be 1 living room with a kitchen, 1 bedroom with a desk, a bathroom and even a balcony.
A secretary of the physics department had put some food and drinks into our fridge! Lucky us who are welcomed in Israel so nicely.

The apartment is located in a high-rise building for postdocs at a busy street. From the 4th floor we a nice overview. Typical for the country, the apartment is equipped with air-conditioning. So far, we have not switched it on. On the other hand, there is no heating and the windows are only single-glazed, so let's see how cold it will be in winter. At least, there is also a heating mode of the air-conditioning.
We are very happy that we can stay in this apartment and do not need to spend the first days or weeks looking for accommodation! During the next year, we have time to see if other postdocs or PhD students move out somewhere. It might be nice to move from the small Rehovot to the lively city of Tel Aviv.

Arrival in Israel

Yesterday, on October 15th, we arrived in Israel! Matthias flew from Stuttgart via Berlin and I flew directly from Berlin to Tel Aviv, so we met at the security check at the airport in Berlin. Expecting a security interview before the departure, I arrived 2.5 hours in advance, but they just checked my passport. In addition to the normal scanning, every person and some pieces of hand luggage were inspected. Of course, my viola was travelling with me. Germanwings officially allows musical instruments smaller than a guitar, but only in a soft case, as hand luggage. However, nobody objected to my viola in a hard case as my only hand luggage. The main luggage consisted of a suitcase and a big backpack. This is what I will have for the beginning of these 3 years abroad...

The flight took 4 hours and 10 minutes - actually not much longer than e.g. to the south of Spain, but it feels further. Unfortunately, many clouds did not allow us to see the south-east of Europe, but we saw some islands between Greece and Turkey. In fact, we travelled the Balkan route of so many refugees in the reversed direction, though comfortably in the air... Finally we could see the Israeli coast and the skyscrapers of Tel Aviv before landing at Ben Gurion Airport.

We were queueing in the "foreign passports" line. The lady looked at our passports, did not even need the extra hand-written form by the embassy, asked "Weizmann?", we answered "Weizmann.", and that was it. No interview.

Once we entered the arrival hall, we found Yossi, a professor from the physics department of the Weizmann Institute, who had come to the airport to pick us up - what a nice welcome!! He drove us to the Weizmann Institute where we got our keys and a welcome package, and to our apartment in Rehovot.