Live from Rothschild Boulevard

I am writing this blog live from a bench on Rothschild. I tried to find a bench that wasn't sunny but the homeless guys have priority over me and always seem to grab the best benches. I kind of wish someone took a picture of me right now. A nice Jewish kid on a Mac writing a blog sitting right next to a Heroin addict passed out on a bench. What a contrast shot.

The office calls to notify me that the meeting will be postponed by an hour. I convince myself that I need more American Apparel T-shirts and decide to burn some time by trying on some overpriced not so impressive t-shirts. American Apparel doesn’t design t-shirts for non-emaciated men. I leave the store unsatisfied. A UNICEF S500 Benz blocks me in on a street adjacent to Dizingoff . I pull down my window and ask a guy to let me know how much room I have in back of me. He kind of laughs at me and says “This is Tel Aviv Achi, everyone hits everyone”. I feel as if I’m in a sort of jungle for a moment. I pull an illegal U-turn and head for a coffee shop on Rothschild where the meeting will be held. If you didn’t know, all business in Israel is done over a cappuccino, its just how it works out here. I must have gone up the same streets for 45 minutes until I succumbed to the “20 Shekel first hour, 5 shekels every 15 minutes there after” bastards. I mean first year analysts on Wall Street probably make more than middle aged educated men in Israel. Time out just published an article that the mean price of a Tel Aviv meal was above the mean of a Manhhatan meal. So who is making money in this country?

Faces from around the world

I love faces. I love traveling. The following are portraits of people from around the world that I shared incredible experiences with.

Location: Hutongs, Beijing

Description: Brother Ben and mother went to make a suit and I was sent to the Hutongs to take some pictures. This schoolboy noticed my camera and was intrigued by it. We couldn't communicate but the moment was unique. He felt so special for a moment. I've never really had a kid pose with such seriousness. He was like a little man.

Location: Rishiskesh, India

Description: The city is home to the Vishnu god and is a huge location for touritsts to see in Norther India. The Beatles visited the Ashrams here and was home to many musicians in the sixties. The city is located on the holy Ganges river and in the Himalayan region of Norther India.

This man is a sadhu(Hindu ascetic). He finances his needs only through others charity and dedicates his life to Hinduism. As brother Ben had the runs, I made it my duty to sit next to the guy and snap a shot. We were chatting in English and I got to know of his lifestyle a bit. When I left, i popped him a couple of rupees as gratitude for the time he spent chatting with me(even though he wasn't really rushing to any meeting). The city itself is wild - cows walking around the streets and monkeys are everywhere.

Location: Border crossing into Nicaragua

Description: As we entered Nicaragua, children would collect our change from our previous country. I sat with this boy for a second and took a quick shot of him. We enjoyed a quick moment together.

Location: Tiger Leaping Gorge, Yunnan Province, China

Description:The first picture is of an elderly man that I met on our 2 day hike. The second lady was a seriously disabled lady who was just lying on the ground. It was a frightening experience.

Location: Shangri La, Yunnan province, China

Description: Similar to my experience in the Hutongs in Beijing, this kid returning from school knocked into me while I was wandering with my bike and camera for the day. Shangri La for a typical backpacker in the Yunnan province is where one begis to feel the Tibetan Culture. Approaching the Tibetan border, you begin to see less of the Han Chinese culture and much more of Chinese minorities. This schoolboy felt like he was in hollywood for one moment. I have never photographed someone who enjoyed the experience so much.

Location: Baisha village(next to Lijiang), Yunnan province,

China

Description: This man was probably the most

welcoming and hospitable person I have ever met in my life while traveling. While trying to find my hostel in Lijiang, I bumped into a backpacker from France

who was always on the way to the hostel. We ended up traveling together for 2 days and biked to the village of Baisha, where we got a better local taste and met with the famous Taoist medicine doctor, Dr. Ho. While wandering around the village, this lovely man invited us into his house and even gave us his address to send the pictures to that we took with him. He introduced us to his entire family and even insisted on us staying for dinner.

Bored on a Sunday night?

Just last week I grabbed some mojtos with friends at a great cuban restaurant in TLV that I used to go to a lot after playing volleyball on Gordon beach. They have happy hours every night(other than sunday night) from 7-9 P.M. I recommend checking it out on Sundays - 1+1 mojitos the entire night. If you've got no plans and are in the mood for some overly sweet, very tasty cuban cocktails, for sure check the place out.

Atmosphere - not overly loud Cuban music, inside smoking area with high chair tables and outside non smoking normal tables. Music isn't too loud. Really nice waiters. Great place to kick it with a couple of friends.

Drinks are about 45 nis each - Sundays 2 mojitos for 45 nis!

Havana

106 Dizingof & Frishman St Tel Aviv

03-5271005

Dont be fooled by the Shekel

I have stopped believing in those zionist pitches that tell you "You might receive less income in Israel, but expenses are significantly less compared to a city like New York City".

I have just finished my day of school and I popped into Arcaffe in Raanana before my haircut. The NIS sitting at $1USD/3.76 NIS might be good for Israeli consumers and buying power, but for foreigners translating NIS into USD, life at least for now seems to be expensive. Looking at sandwich prices at Arcaffe made me realize that one should think about how much the price tag really is. With wages considerably lower than other western economies and expenses being high, how is one to build wealth here?

Another typical Friday in Israel

As we walk out of class on Friday at 12 o’clock, my friends and I decide how we should spend our Friday afternoon. The die-hard hummus fan that I am, I convince my friends to come with me to Abu Hassen in Jaffa. On Eilat street we hit heavy traffic and head for the local route. Joseph and I end up getting lost and ask these two Rastafarian looking guys how to get there. Joseph pulls down his window and says, “Guys, how do we get to Abu Hassen”?. They tell us that they are going to Abu Hassen as well and we tell em’ to hop in. They end up being really active in the Israeli reggae and nightlife scene. I dropped Joseph and them off to stand on the line and I went to look for parking. Abu Hassen on Friday is a typical TLV thing to do and the lines get crazy. All of us are waiting on line for a bout 30 minutes and just schmooze.

Abu Hassen is owned by Arab-Israelis and is probably the best Hummus in Israel (one can argue Abu Gosh). The hummus is like heaven in your mouth. Its not too heavy like other places such in Raanana and has a great flavor. Everyone takes the Masbacha, which has warm chickpeas under the hummus. The place was so busy, people were about to kick people out of their chairs as they stopped eating and were just chatting. The “waiters” are on auto pilot and do whatever they want. We must have asked several times for drinks, but he didn’t even care. If Abu Hassen started reporting with the SEC, I wouldn’t be surprised for them to be a FORTUNE 500 company. Companies should go there and study their efficiency.

The guy then yells “Five!”. We quickly sit down with the 2 Rastafarians before others behind us trample us. We end up having a lovely meal with them speaking about past travels in Central America, the music scene in Israel, rent prices in Manhattan and comparing Hummus restaurants around the country.

My ordinary Friday once again turned into an exciting day in Israel. No one-day is identical to another in this crazy country. Life is exciting and never gets bored. The warmth and casualness of Israelis is of its own kind. At first glance, it might be a bit much but when you settle into the culture here, you begin to love it.

You have been deported from Beijing

As I get off the airplane in Beijing, the familiarity of the airport returns to me. I approach the passport control where my Chinese Visa must be approved. I am given the hand signal to approach the woman. As a total shock to me, she says " You know your Visa expired a month ago?". I am then accompanied by a police officer who will be with me throughout my entire experience until deportation and brought into a room. The El-Al Beijing representative tells me that there is a slim to none chance of me being let into the country unless my father is a CEO of a company like Intel. I start making calls to my father to try to negotiate something but nothing seems to work. My father believes that everything is negotiable in China, but this time there was no chance. The very kind El Al Chinese representative first told me that I might have to hop on a flight black to Tel Aviv that night but then helps me brainstorm for solutions. We reach a conclusion that flying to Hong Kong and receiving a Visa there will be the best solution. I wait in the airport for 5 hours until my flight to HK departs. Throughout this entire experience, what is keeping me calm is my new Mark Rich book that I started to enjoy so much on the flight to Beijing. The police offer than brings me over to my gate and to my surprise I was forced to board before even before business class. I wasnt sure if this was a priviledge or a punishment. I wasn't sure if I felt like a criminal or not. I wasnt sure with whom I would spend the holiday with.

Upon arriving to HK airport at 10 PM, I convert some RMB to HK Dollars. My first task was to figure out my visa situation as fast as possible in order to get myself back to Beijing. The Chabad Rabbi in Beijing has a contact in HK who helps me the next morning to get the Visa within one day. My plan was to catch a Flight back to Beijing on Saturday night or Sunday morning. It is 12 ocklock now and my plan is to sleep in the airport for the night so that I can figure out my Visa first thing in the morning. I take my stuff and head for the wifi area with my hazelnut starbucks coffee that I picked up on the way. As I am skyping with pops in Beijing, I begin to relax knowing that my plans for the morning have settled and begin to truly enjoy the airport. Being in an International airport for more than 24 hours is really cool. You get to meet people from all around the world and to improve your geography. I felt like I was on The Terminal.

I approach an attractive girl next to me who I thought might have a blackberry charger. After a minute of conversing with her, I realize that her and her friend are two Israeli girls who missed their connection from HK back to Israel. The girls were working with agalot in Australia and were selling a small sponge that basically makes your nails look really shiny. They start shining my nails and we exchange stories of why we are in an airport together and not at home. The three of us fall asleep on the floor of the HK airport and hope for a better next day. The next morning I send my passport off with a local Chinese man in order to get the Visa I needed by the end of the day. I asked the girls if they wanted to split a room at the airport hotel as I needed a place to stay for Shabbat. They said they were interested. I then said goodbye, booked into the hotel and headed off for a day to HK Island.

I return from my day and the nice guy that I am, I went back to our camp out to say hi to the girls. They ended up being there after figuring out how to get back home to Israel and asked me if they can put their luggage in my room. They put their big bags in my room and begin to excite themselves over how nice the room was(compared to the HK airport floor, the room seemed to them like a palace). They somehow felt too comfortable in my room and something just didn't feel right.

A small remark about Israelis:

Israelis are extremely warm people and when comfortable with someone, know how to give so much. Unfortunately in return, they also expect to be given a lot and know how to take quite a bit. A similar story happened to Sam, Tomer and I in Central America where Israelis just seemed to take too much from us. We met a Karaite Jew and his cracked friend who wanted to take showers in our room and schnore off of us hard.

The girls then went to the pool and I went to work out. They just seemed to comfortable in a hotel room that wasn't even theirs. The annoying thing is that I asked them if they wanted to share a room in the morning and it wasn't cool for them to just shnore off of me. My dad told me that he got the room for me for Shabbat and that I needed to kick em out. If my dad didn't tell me that, I would have probably let them stay being the friar I am. The room had sufficient space and I felt so bad making them sleep in the Airport but it wasn't right on their part.

I spent a quite Shabbat by myself and read myself through it. I ended up getting to Beijing and enjoyed an amazing two weeks in Beijing with my family.

Tips

1. Park far away

Always park far away from where you need to go. It's better to walk an extra five minutes to know that your car hasn't been backed into

2. Israelis & Elevators

Never let an Israeli walk into the elevator before you exit it. People out here love walking in before you even have the chance to get out. We have to start teaching manners person by person

3. Consolidate your sports

Instead of spending your time on being average at 5 sports, spend your time getting better at fewer sports that you actually think you can get better at. No one wants to be the average player in the game. Practice one sport and be the best one at it.

4. Half of dating a girl is dating her family

50% of your research should consist of looking at the family. People underestimate how important it is getting along well with your girlfriend/wife's family.

Funny encounters I experience

1. After several hours of studying, Oly and I decide to take a dinner break and head to the local Hummusia. I take my usual Hummus Egpplant and sit down with Oly at one of the tables inside the resteraunt. All of a sudden, Oly starts screaming and points at a huge cockroach on the wall next to our table. As expected, Oly approaches these guys behind the counter and tells them that there is a cockroach next to our food. The employees thought that Oly and I were these little posh ashkenazi kids from North America. They started calling us Kusiot and were so bothered as to why we made such a fuss. Here comes the best part. Besides the fact that these guys had no idea about service and caring for customers needs, an Ethipoain employee antagonistically said to Oly, "If you are scared, then go to Church". He then asked us if we were Jewish. Oly played the part well and got mad at him as if he was really wasn't jewish. Oly said, "So what if Im not jewish, what's the problem with that?". The conversation got really weird and we eventually left the restaurant both laughing and confused.

2. When I work out ay my gym here in Raanana during early hours, I always have strange experiences. Just last week, I had a nice conversation with an older Anglo man about health food. He then says, "Jake, you know why we guys work out so hard?". I reply that I do it because it makes me feel better both physically and mentally. He quickly responds and says that we just do it so we can have better sex. I just thought this was kind of funny coming from a man in his 60's who I met for the first time in my life.

3. I was doing my normal Triceps workout with a pulley machine. Next to me was an older man in his 70's walking on the treadmill. This dude was hilarious. He is always the guy who is staring a the "younger"(40-50's) women. Between him staring at Rihana on MTV and the women in the gym, he insists that the weight I am doing is way too heavy. He says that my face turns read and I try to convince him that I am naturally red and that there is no need to worry. Later on he calls me a poosie for not doing curls with the 30 Kilos and points to Rihana on his TV screen across from him. He told me that I only work out for the women. What's with these old guys thinking that I only work out because I want to look good for the women?

4. Supermarket food isn't meant for people who actually care about their health. All of the things I want, I can't actually buy. So if you care about your health, what are you supposed to actually buy at supermarkets?

We are all just little robots

With the rise of globalization and open markets, our minds and originality have become crushed. Mass media and other modern innovations are the cause of these results. We evolve much faster in smaller groups. Being one large world could hurt us in the future( it obviously has its benefits as well). Just returning from Paris, I saw some "in your face" type adverts where George Clooney advertises Nespresso advertisments that I see daily in Tel Aviv. These types of advertisments are possible to see in all large cities around the world. Nothing is original anymore. Have mega companies ruined our individual originality and ingenuity? Were we once clean slates functioning as independant human beings?

I believe that mass advertising, the innovation of online pornography and reality shows have truly distorted our view of "normal". We think like robots and our perception of accepted morals are skewed.


Are we fortunate to live in an age where we have the choice to filter all of this available information and have the power to decide how to act or has our human behavior been manipualted by sales promotions, mass advertising and reality shows?

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