I arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel, last Friday for a one week work summit. Upon returning to San Diego after leaving Singapore I joined a group that is partnering with another R&D site just south of Tel Aviv. So today concluded my first business trip to Israel but I still have tomorrow for sight seeing in Jerusalem before a late night flight back to San Diego. 
The view from my hotel in Tel Aviv just after checking in last Friday
The work week is Sunday to Thursday here so we also had last Saturday for sight seeing so some of us hired a guide to tour around the North near Galilee. We mostly visited the main sights of Jesus’ life, his home while living with Mary and Joseph in Nazareth, the sea of Galilee near where he gave the sermon on the mount, the rock he and peter cooked fish and peter built the first church beside the sea of Galilee, Peter's Family house and the river Jordan where Jesus was baptized.
For lunch I had one of the fish the guide told us was still left over from after the sermon on the mount. Fish and chips, Israeli style.
We also had a work team building in Jerusalem Tuesday night at the Tower of David- a light show covering the history of the city over 3000 years. Before coming to Israel I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I'd heard stories of everyone carrying guns around the city but I couldn't really believe it. People always exaggerate what they don't know and it turns out it's not true, but couldn't help but notice our guide did have a pistol tucked into his back pant waistline and two other people not with our company that had joined our group- who I later found our were part of the security for our group. I can say that this is the first time I've had armed bodyguards looking after me (well, for our whole group actually).
The Tower of David at night
oh, yeah, one other interesting thing was the government started passing out gas masks to all the citizens while we where there- one of the distribution sites was at our office. Actually, only adults get gas masks, the children and babies get small gas tents to protect them in the case of chemical attack. I may have seemed strage to me but to the coworkers this was not that big of a deal...
Actually, I like it here a lot and it seems much safer than I'd imagined. Even walking around at night, the streets are still full of people and it feels surprisingly safe. Especially after spending the last three years in Singapore it's amazing to be around so much history intertwined with normal life. Just a few minutes walking south of the hotel is the port of Jaffa- one of the oldest in the work at about 4000 years and the place Jonah headed out to sea before being swallowed by a whale. The old neighborhoods are so cool to walk around night, full of character, life, bars and restaurants. The food is really fresh and healthy- literally I've never seen so many different types of salads in my life- and the people are friendly. I had never even considered coming to Israel before this but now that I’ve been here I am really excited about coming back and seeing more of the country. It will be nice to get home to san diego on saturday though.
The view from my hotel in Tel Aviv just after checking in last FridayThe work week is Sunday to Thursday here so we also had last Saturday for sight seeing so some of us hired a guide to tour around the North near Galilee. We mostly visited the main sights of Jesus’ life, his home while living with Mary and Joseph in Nazareth, the sea of Galilee near where he gave the sermon on the mount, the rock he and peter cooked fish and peter built the first church beside the sea of Galilee, Peter's Family house and the river Jordan where Jesus was baptized.
For lunch I had one of the fish the guide told us was still left over from after the sermon on the mount. Fish and chips, Israeli style.We also had a work team building in Jerusalem Tuesday night at the Tower of David- a light show covering the history of the city over 3000 years. Before coming to Israel I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I'd heard stories of everyone carrying guns around the city but I couldn't really believe it. People always exaggerate what they don't know and it turns out it's not true, but couldn't help but notice our guide did have a pistol tucked into his back pant waistline and two other people not with our company that had joined our group- who I later found our were part of the security for our group. I can say that this is the first time I've had armed bodyguards looking after me (well, for our whole group actually).
The Tower of David at nightoh, yeah, one other interesting thing was the government started passing out gas masks to all the citizens while we where there- one of the distribution sites was at our office. Actually, only adults get gas masks, the children and babies get small gas tents to protect them in the case of chemical attack. I may have seemed strage to me but to the coworkers this was not that big of a deal...
Actually, I like it here a lot and it seems much safer than I'd imagined. Even walking around at night, the streets are still full of people and it feels surprisingly safe. Especially after spending the last three years in Singapore it's amazing to be around so much history intertwined with normal life. Just a few minutes walking south of the hotel is the port of Jaffa- one of the oldest in the work at about 4000 years and the place Jonah headed out to sea before being swallowed by a whale. The old neighborhoods are so cool to walk around night, full of character, life, bars and restaurants. The food is really fresh and healthy- literally I've never seen so many different types of salads in my life- and the people are friendly. I had never even considered coming to Israel before this but now that I’ve been here I am really excited about coming back and seeing more of the country. It will be nice to get home to san diego on saturday though.
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