Yom Shishi (Friday)

I went downtown this morning and bought normal challah (see last week's confession), and while I was there I asked in a candy store if they had marzipan, which they did (more Mozart kugel than straight marzipan, but I'll take what I can get).  It's really cute (10 cm long), and decorated like a braided challah bread.

 

And I bought a bouquet for my table from a nice young woman on the street.  Shabbat shalom.

BGU Open House

Today (27 Feb 2014) was Ben Gurion University's open house for the Fall 2014 freshman.  Here is the billboard near my apartment:

(It says "Open Day 27 February").  The sciences and engineering information tables were held in a lobby of a new building, that opens into a submerged plaza:

The orange flag is the BGU flag.  I guess I'll have to get an orange t-shirt.  Not my color.  But it's their color.

The structural engineering orientation was held in a lecture room with a capacity of ~100:

By the time it started, I think there were 150 students (with only a few parents or spouses) in the room.   It was totally SRO.  People sitting on stairs.  People standing.  Wow.  Dr. Vilnay, the department chair did the entire orientation and Q/A.

He teased me (privately) about finally studying structural engineering because I was sitting in the audience.  We laughed. 

So let me take you on my spiritual journey during the orientation:  I was thinking about how small Israel is, and that the Technion graduates about this many civil (not strictly structural like BGU) each year.  That's a big influx to the profession.  Why will Israel need 150 more structural engineers in four years?  Hmm.  Then I thought back to an earlier post about construction around Beer Sheva (1/22/14), and the news reports about the horrendous anti-Semitism in the Ukraine and France.  The right-wing radio hosts are just crying out to those communities to make aliyah ("Do you need more of a reason to move to Israel than what's going on right now??").  Well, G-d willing, many of those people will immigrate to Israel, and they will need a place to live. And shop.  And have transportation systems that work well.  Who designs apartment buildings?  Well, architects start, but the structural and construction engineers finish the designs.  I thought again about Isaiah 11:12, and became immediately grateful that I may be able to help this department just a little bit in producing the engineers that will be needed to build everything in this country.

Lab opening

Today, one of my colleagues had a formal, ribbon-cutting, lab opening on the main campus.  Speeches were made, champagne was distributed, and food was eaten.  It's a new civil engineering materials lab, that I think is more teaching than research.  I think the keystone issue was the space the lab is in, because most of the structural engineering faculty and labs are located where my office is in the old campus.  It was nice.

And I'm off dog-walking duty!  My friend was discharged from the hospital today and is in charge of her own animals now.

Senior design presentations

The Structural Engineering shares our philosophy of CE senior design:  students need to do real work for real clients.  But their approach is very different from ours, and so Dr. Shochat and I are planning a journal article on our approaches to the same goal.  They have ~100 senior in Structural or Construction Eng, and each student is on a different project.  Today, all the student presented their projects, with completion of their designs in June.  Four concurrent tracks, 15 min each from 0900-1500.  Whew.  Here's one of the construction students, with a drawing of his site on the screen.

On a more personal side, I've been quite the dog-walker.  She's a miniature Doberman, and is very glad that I've been showing up to walk her, while Donna's in the hospital.  And the report on Soroka Hospital is that it has a lovely shaded entry way from the street, very strict security, and its signs inside are in Hebrew and Arabic - no English that I saw.  The lesson here is to be a visitor in the hospital, not a patient, although many of the doctors and staff speak English.

Days 42-43

Last night, on a bus ride home, an unusual thing happened.  There were about 12 of us on the bus, headed into the central bus station from the west side of town.  But just before the bus station, the bus took a hard right into the bus depot (where the buses are parked overnight).  Well, we really didn't want to sleep in the bus, so grumbling (righteous grumbling!) ensued.  The driver realized what he had done, as did the manager on the ground when he saw passengers on the bus.  He, of course, pulled an elegant three-point turn and took us to the bus station.  I then caught my bus home (no harm, no foul).

Today, I headed early to the shuk, with list (in Hebrew) in hand.  I got cinnamon and nutmeg from the spice guys, and headed over to the salad lady.  Last week, she gave me a bonus bundle of some light greens with my vegetables.  Well, today, we exchanged greetings, and I picked out what I needed:  broccoli, scallions, and romaine.  She asked if I wanted radishes (no), and gave me a bonus of watercress.  That was great, then she cleaned up two small heads of red cabbage and added that, too.  My, my.  I need a plan for cabbage now.  Very sweet.

Elsewhere in the shuk, the peppers are coming in.  I'm indifferent to peppers, but they sure were beautiful.

And as I wondered how I would spend the afternoon, I got a call from a woman on behalf of an older friend of mine, who is in the hospital and needs her dog walked.  So, HaShem provides hands and feet.  I will go armed with a roll of paper towels, because she went in the hospital last night.  And I'll get to see the great Soroka Hospital on the inside to pick up the key.

End of week update

1. Finally went running down at the Beer Sheva River Park.  I ran the whole way (no walking).  You absolutely need to run in sunglasses.  I need to determine the distance from a map, so that I can evaluate my time splits.  But the bus/park thing went great.
2. I went for a longer walk today than I intended, but I found a park in construction, that I think is the old railroad station.

And then closer to my apartment, in another park, there are these flowers (which are planted in several parks).  They bloom dark purple, and then the flower opens more into a bright white.  Kinda like fireworks that go off, then they re-explode.

Funny Shabbat story - I purchased a rustic, whole wheat bread for Shabbat, but when I said kiddush, I was completely unable to tear off a little bit.  Really.  You should have seen it.  You would have laughed until you cried.  I had to get a knife and hack it open to finish the brucha!  Next week - normal challah.  Shavua tov.

Better park for running

My secretary told me to go to the southwest river park, which is on Bus#2.  That was today's exploration.  The bus stops right at the end of the promenade, so I won't have to walk through an industrial neighborhood in my running togs.  There's a walking bike trail along the north side of the Beer Sheva River (which does have water in it right now), and a trail on the south side along half of it.  I could see a few pool and riffle formations in the rivers, but you need me to take the good camera to photograph those.

It is a park, and it is a maintained space (including water fountains), but the flowers were great.  If you've been to Israel, you know that they use rosemary and lavender like we use boxwood and yews in the States as landscaping plants, but they still smell wonderful.  There was even a flock of goats, a few sheep and rams, and at least one horse (or donkey?) pasturing in the river bottom, but my new phone's photos didn't turn out (of that).  The circuit walk took about an hour, so it's a good long route to run.

Rosemary.

Lavender

Geraniums (scented)

Pipe bridge (pedestrian and bicycles only)

After the park, I walked up to the shuk, and actually bought seasonings:  bay leaves, dried mint, cumin and coriander.  Of course, I had them written out in Hebrew, so the man just took my note and worked from it.  So now I'm ready to cook the lentils that I bought last week.  And in searching for some green salad ingredients, I found some purple tomatoes (bigger than cherry tomatoes, but little).  Beautiful.  Salad for dinner tonight!

Planning leadership activities

I met this morning with Iris Shai, M.D., Ph.D. and her Ph.D. student Tal about my availability to do some leadership development with the science faculty.  Dr. Shai is very excited, and we discussed what would and would not be appropriate.  For example, a lot of the leadership work that I have done in the States was to prepare women faculty for administrative positions, such as department chairman, dean, etc.  But Israel has so few universities, that these opportunities are extremely unlikely, and unsought.  We talked about how almost all their faculty have had obligatory military experience which has given them intrinsic leadership training, in contrast to U.S. faculty.  But we found a lot of ground on which I can contribute.  They are very interested to know how Israeli faculty and post-docs are viewed in Europe and the States, and what behavioral things would be helpful for their international exchanges.  My big kablooey presentation will probably be in May, so that it can be put on everyone's (including the university president's) calendar.

Tal is going to teach me about the restaurant scene in Beer Sheva.  Learn by doing!

A dreary day of rain in Beer Sheva

I didn't go for a Shabbat walk because it was very cool and overcast.  Rain was forecast for sometime in the afternoon, and, indeed, it did get dark and finally rained.  It didn't rain hard, but there was a steady rain for a few hours.  The photographs don't capture it as well as I'd like, but you can see the clouds and overcast sky, and shiny pavement.  I could hear the sound of tires on wet pavement from the few cars on the road, and dripping sounds.

These photos were taken from the entry way of my building.  The flowers should just explode now.

A stork delivered my new phone

Oh, happy day.  The new smartphone is paid for and in my possession, and operating.  I'm getting used to the layout of the LG, and have loaded the apps I wanted for negotiating trains and buses.

My trip from Beer Sheva to Givat Ze'ev was fairly unremarkable.  The trip north was quite green, and R. Friedman said the white or pink flowering trees are probably almond trees.  I even saw a few (and I do mean a few) of the red anenomes that bloom this time of year (http://www.timesofisrael.com/top-five-wildflower-haunts/), which is good, because most of the sites that have lots of flowers require a car (no bus access).  The bus windows were kinda dirty, so I didn't think any photos would be very good.

Finding my way from the big Central Bus Station (CBS) in Jerusalem to the local buses was a bit mysterious.  In Beer Sheva, the in-town buses are all together and very well marked.  But Beer Sheva has had time to plan those big facilities, whereas in Jerusalem they just stuck them where they could.  The city buses are just lined up on a street across the light rail from the CBS.  I walked all the way (not that far, really) to Yitzak Rabin St, and happened to find a #132 bus at a different stop.  When I returned to Jerusalem in the afternoon, I saw where I should have gone, but it's not obvious.  On the other hand, all of this is right by the Calatrava light rail bridge (which is cool).  The YouTube shows a lot of the bridge (the green buses at the beginning are the local Jerusalem buses): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3eLVJRbEN8

A nice post office

The departmental secretary told me that there is a small post office on the main campus, so I went there today.  Went to the wrong building first, and you kinda need to know where it to find it, but she coached me over the phone.  And it was small, one clerk, mailed my mail, and was out.  A lot more like the post offices at home.  So that is where I will go, although my one remaining package will still arrive at the big (scary) post office.  But, I know what queue to get in, so it'll be ok.  However, I'm not waiting for an hour to buy a few stamps.  People-watching is not that good.

Yesterday, the IT guy in the department set up my work computer with Outlook, so work email will be easy to deal with.  And I set up the Remote Desktop from my work computer to my UMKC computer, so I can grab files that I forgot to put on my flash drive.

Tomorrow, I go to Jerusalem (actually Givat Ze'ev) to get my new smartphone.  Yeah!!

Beer Sheva River Park

Today was the day to determine how to get to River Park, which is on the south side of Beer Sheva.  I took bus #17, which only runs twice an hour, and had a plan to get off closest to the park.  But the stops didn't make enough sense, and when the bus turned the corner to go from east to south, I took the next stop, which was pretty far from the stop I should have taken.  I don't know if people live in south Beer Sheva - it is very industrial.  I walked back the way the bus went, until I got to a desired cross street.  The 60 degree mast in the park is easy to see, so I was able to find the park.  It is a very linear park, and there's a nice sidewalk along the entry road, so I have plenty of kms to run on there, and it's pretty flat.  And one of the good things about running in a park, is that there are water fountains.  So I walked along part of the promenade, and then needed to figure out how to get back to the bus stop.  Actually did that pretty elegantly, and found the bus stop I should taken (ironically, it was the one before the stop around the corner, so I was close).  At the very least it was a good walk and vitamin D day.  I'm glad I did a dry run with a map and everything.  Now I'm confident that I can get there easily.  Here's a bunch of photos (I took the good camera):

You can see the dark seats of the amphitheatre in the background.

The promenade.

The Turkish Bridge (all I know is it's an icon of the city).

This is the reverse of the photo I took from the BIG shopping center (you can see "BIG" over on the right) - I took the photo last week near the brick-colored building in the center-left.

Pergola design

I took a shorter walk than the last few weeks, but on unfamiliar roads.  The flowers are just starting to come out, so next week may have some floral photos on the blog.  I stopped for a bit of water in a park, and sat under this pergola.  I've seen this spiral designs in several parks, so it's probably a parks department standard design.  Nice, 'though.

The Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast reaches me at a good time here:  8:00 pm, so I'm listening to "Rusalka" by Dvorak.

Broom implemented

Some of you know (or have heard) that I am a "reluctant" housekeeper.  So you should be proud of me using my new broom.  It's easy - I have tile floors.  Dust bunnies were forming, so I needed to dispatch them.

Not much else to report.  Shabbat shalom.

More progress on living normally in Israel

I went to the shuk earlier this morning (at 9:00) which was great, because it wasn't very crowded, and some of the vendors were still stocking.  I even corrected the fruit guy who was calculating my oranges at the wrong price.  In Hebrew, of course.  Locating lentils was slightly more difficult, but it helped that I had written it and was at a booth that was likely to have them.  He had brown, green and red lentils.

And I used my little washing machine. However, I broke its little handle that opens it after the wash.  I 'fessed up to my landlord, and we determined that it could be opened how with two screwdrivers.  The good news is that the laundry did indeed come out damp, so it should dry quickly.  And now, I'll be able to wash bigger things.

Laundry and id card

The acquisition of my id card yesterday greatly facilitates my entry through the university security gates.  It's just simple now.

And last evening, my landlord put a new washer on the inlet to the washing machine, so that I can use it.  Washing things out in the little bathroom sink was getting old.  And just how long would my Woolite have lasted?  Hmm.  And he said that I can set things to dry in the atrium, as long as they're not too obvious.  That's good, because, while the bathroom is good-sized, it gets really small with the drying rack set up.  So today I made a special trip to the store to buy laundry detergent, but I didn't write it down in Hebrew (lesson to be learned here).  So, I'm looking at these bottles, looking, looking.  And then I see on one of them "fabric softener."  Maybe I need fabric softener, but all I want today is detergent.  You can't wash clothes with softener.  So, where is the detergent?  Aha, I spy a bottle of Tide.  I know what that is.  So the selection of detergent was about 1/3 the portion of the shelf, compared to the softeners.  Too many choices.  So I picked one, and hoped for the best.  Lucked out, because...it's detergent.  It's a little washer, but it's way bigger than my sink.  And it should spin out a lot of the moisture.

I met with my colleague again, and he gave me homework - some documents in Hebrew that I need to read.  So that will be some of my plan tonight.  And tomorrow.  And tomorrow.  Creeps on this petty pace...  Wait. It's not that bad.

And I met Dean Kost.  Briefly.  And gave him a statuette of the Tin Man.  He gave me someone else with whom I should meet, so I've emailed her (from my BGU email account, thank you very much).

I'm really glad that I found that chair cushion.  Last night's four-hour web conference would have been miserable.  It's a draining activity under any circumstances, but I will be paid for it.

I'm official

I received my BGU id (as you can see) and my BGU email (and figured out the macro setting for my camera).  I'd say it's official.  And, surprisingly smooth.  I found the offices where I picked up those things, and they were ready for me.  I particularly need the ID for entering the campus through the security gates.  So, now I don't need to make simplistic explanations in Hebrew to the security guards.

I found the BGU bookstore, hoping to procure some engineering paper and basic office supplies, but it's just a bookstore.  I did find some notecards and a book.

I took the bus directly to the old city, and was successful there, as well.  I think you could say that "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore," because I bought a broom and took home on the bus.  Yeah, I get the broom/Wizard of Oz thing, too.  And I was able to buy some graph paper and envelopes at the little shop where I got the broom and dustpan.

An office at Ben Gurion University

This morning, I met with my department chairman, Dr. Oren Vilnay, who is absolutely charming.  He had been the chairman of structural engineering at the Technion, but was recruited to come to Ben Gurion University to build a new program in structural engineering with a free hand (no traditions) to make the department in his vision.  So he, and the department, are quite entrepreneurial, a lot like our CME department at UMKC. They have a lot more students than we do at UMKC  - ~100 seniors in structural engineering.  Dr. Vilnay is also a fan of opera (and has season tickets to Covent Garden in London!) and had pursued studies in piano before engineering.

And I spent some time with my colleague who teaches structural senior design:  Dr. Igal Shohet.  He's all about helping me learn more about Israel (which is great).  I'll be having a second meeting with him later this week.

So, my office is #672 in the H3 Building of the Hias Campus.  Stop by for a coffee if you're in the area!  The office looks onto Szold St - at the very expensive hotel across the street (Leonardo Hotel).

Here's a photo of the Hias Campus courtyard and building H3:

P.S. I bought some halvah today. Halvah is a sesame-based sweetish item.  I had some in college and was pretty ambivalent about its value as a dessert/confection.  But I've seen it a lot, often as big bricks, where they cut off a piece and sell it like cheese.  Anyway, the halvah I bought was soft and tasty.  And it's a really good nutritional snack.  Maybe what I had in college was stale.  It'll make a great thing for my lunch bag.

An important addition to my desk

I have quite a hard wooden chair at the desk in my apartment, and with the three-hour conference call tomorrow, locating a decent chair cushion was on the top of my to-do list.  After yesterday's discovery of the BIG shopping center, I took bus #14 out there and walked about.  I found a store for which I received a circular in the Friday free paper, and had (luckily) written "chair cushion" in Hebrew on my shopping list, which was really handy because the young woman helping me knew almost no English, but she could easily read my very neat Hebrew script.  And she did know where the chair cushions were.  Yeah!  Also bought some little pans that will fit in my toaster oven.

And I experienced my first rain in Israel.  It has only been a steady sprinkle, but rain is forecast for tomorrow.  Today is very windy, so, like Kansas City, umbrellas probably don't do much good.  I do have a raincoat.  I will report if the rain comes.

I didn't bring my skates!

I heard an interview on TLV1 (English station out of Tel Aviv) about the recreational ice hockey community.  And it's co-ed!  But the rink is way up north on the Lebanese border, which is pretty far from Beer Sheva.  It is great to know that people are skating here.  Take a look:  http://bsimchas.leket.org/en/page/2014%20irha%20hockey%20tournament.aspx

Beer Sheva River Park (from afar)

My shabbat walk today landed me in a different place than I expected, but I wasn't lost.  I'm still looking for a good place to run, and headed east on Shazar.  Where I walked to was the BIG (the name, Big) shopping center, which, to my dismay, had lots of cars in its parking lot.  But I walked down one side of it to get a look at things, and saw this in the middle distance:

It looks a lot like a Calatrava bridge (he designed the light rail, sweeping bridge in Jerusalem), but when I tried to find a web reference for you, it looks like its the spine of a big shelter (maybe for a soccer stadium?): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arxrKkkiv6s  I think this YouTube is the master plan for the park.  And I could see this, too:

complete with people walking, biking and skating.  You can see the railroad tracks in the foreground, that go to Tel Aviv, Haifa and the airport.  So this is on the southeast corner of the city.  I didn't think it was walking distance.  It would be a great place to run if I can find a bus that goes there...

Then, on my walk back, I thought this was the perfect sign: