Wine and Hummus

At the end of last week, I went to some more wineries in the region between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. We visited two boutique wineries and although the tours and discussions were enjoyable and more personal given the smaller group size, I didn't really like any of the wines. I was disappointed that we were unable to go to Castel, but it was still a great experience chatting with friends while driving around the hills.

After the strenuous winery visits, we went to Abu Ghosh, an Arab Israeli village not too far from Jerusalem. After driving around a bit, we found Abu Shukri and got what is apparently the best hummus in Israel. It was pretty tasty, though I have to admit that the best hummus I've ever had was made by the wife of a former Palestinian co-worker of mine. There are three Abu Shukri establishments all within feet of each other. This seems to be pretty common here. A place gets famous, and people open up a knockoff that has the same name and serves the same type of food to cash in on the original brand. I guess its not so unusual to try to capitalize upon someone else's brand name, but it takes chutzpah to do it right next door to the original.

Anyways, great day overall - pics are here.

Speaking of wine, I had drinks and dinner with a GSB alum several nights ago. He is originally from France, but graduated a few years ago and works just outside of Tel Aviv. We chatted for a while on a variety of topics ranging from learning languages to the future of medical technology to career goals to travel. Fueled by too much wine, I came home loopy and full of energy, and got into a wrestling match with the puppy. I think she was confused by my hyperactivity at 1am. The next day, I spent a lot of time rehydrating and picking the dog hair off of my jacket.

Yafo on a Rainy Day

It has been stormy in Tel Aviv off and on for the past week. The day after returning from the crazy jaunt all over the country, I took a leisurely walk around Yafo. It was pretty deserted given the "cold" weather, but good for grabbing a hot sandwich from Abu Lafia and taking some pictures of the main square.

I was walking along the beach several days ago and saw some surfers in the water. Although you can barely make them out in the pics, I took a few anyways - KV would appreciate them.

The Galilee & Golan Heights

The day after leaving the southernmost point of Israel that borders the Red Sea, Jordan, and Egypt, I visited the northernmost point that borders Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea. Rosh Haniqra wasn't all that exciting to me, perhaps because it seemed like small fries compared to other water-molded "grottoes" in the world. The film about Rosh Haniqra was yet another cheesy production, replete with overly dramatic storytelling and ineffective sensory experiences (we got sprinkled with water during the film to demonstrate that the caves were carved by the ocean... great, thanks). Given the Israeli-Lebanon strife that went on several months ago and the riots that went on in Beirut a few weeks ago, I didn't go into Lebanon. Its unfortunate - Lebanon is supposedly beautiful and Beirut used to be called the "Paris of the Middle East".



The rest of the day was spent driving around the Galilee, which is a lovely region. Its quite opposite to the Negev, fertile and green. We visited an old synagogue at Bar'am and walked around Tsfat, which is located on a mountain and is the center for Kabbalah. Madonna has apparently spent a good amount of time there. Many artists set up shop in the windy streets of this old city to sell religious art and judaica. Virtually all of the non-tourists in the city were Haredim (the ultra-orthodox Jews with the black hats and long curls on each side of the head). We then got dinner at a French inn in swanky Rosh Pinna.

We had planned to stay in a Qibbuz that evening, but it was closed for no apparent reason. Damn those socialist communes and their lackadaisical schedules. So we ended up at a hotel, and then spent the next day exploring the Golan Heights, which is the region bordering Syria. Israel captured Golan from Syria during the six-day war, and Syria wants it back with good reason. It is a beautiful region, filled with waterfalls, springs, and lush in vegetation fed by the rainfall and melting snow from Mt. Hermon. We started the day early by taking a morning walk through Tel Dan nature reserve and then checking out Banias waterfall, and many Roman ruins.



Took a pit stop in the middle to buy a tasty Druze pita and tea flavored with fresh lemon verbena leaves. Here's the guy that made the pita for us. He kicks ass not only for making an awesome snack, but because he's got a killer mustache.



We then carried on to see Nimrod's Fortress. Again, opposite of the desert - it was cold up there during the height of the afternoon with the sun shining.

Once we finished with the nature and culture portion of the program, we raced south to get to the Golan Heights Winery for our appointment (winery tours and tastings here are by appointment only). There were only a total of 5 of us when we got there, and the tourguide mentioned that the remaining group was running late. We would start without them, so I was looking forward to a personalized experience. Unfortunately, the remaining group showed up a few minutes into the tour, and it turned out to be tourbus full of people. *sigh*

The tour started out with yet another cheesy film about the history of the winery. What cracked me up most was the portrayal of the American in the film. There was a genie flying around the world (don't ask), and he gets to the States and encounters a white guy from New York that dressed and talked like Ali G (seriously, he had a fat gold chain around his neck and his sole line in this masterpiece of a film was "Yo yo - respect!"). The tour pretty much sucked - we only saw the automated barrel mover/washer/whateverer and the steel fermentation tanks from a distance, and the automated equipment used to bottle the wine.

I was also extremely disappointed with the selection of wines that we tasted - three lackluster wines. Depressing. But then my two travel mates and I started talking and thought hmm... maybe we can ask to try more of the wines once the behemoth group of tourists have finished buying the mass-produced swill and leave. So that's what we did, and it certainly paid off. We were able to taste everything that we asked for - 8 to 10 samples that were mostly reds and dessert wines. And I was delighted to come away with the knowledge that the wines produced in Israel are world-class. I practiced severe restraint given the luggage space restrictions and bought 3 bottles, one of which was a Cabernet Sauvignon. To get me to buy a Cab is a feat, so the wine has gotta be good. By the end of the tasting, I had to cut myself off as the designated driver. The other two took on the difficult task of finishing the samples, and below is the photographic evidence. More pics of the north here.

Say Cheese!

The day after Jerusalem, we planned to head south to the desert. But before the long drive, a big brunch was in order at a dairy farm/restaurant. This place is very charming and serene, with a tiny fish pond and a patio just steps away from where the sheep hang out, so you can pet the sheep that provide the milk for your cheese. It was just the environment to have a long and lazy meal. The selection of cheeses is extensive - soft to firm, mild to sharp, and really interesting ones flavored with various ingredients like peppers, mushrooms, and bay leaves. We tasted 7 or 8 different cheeses and decided which ones we wanted, and then took a seat on the patio. After starting on our cappuccinos, we were quite pleased when presented with our meal.


I do like cheese, but usually don't eat it in large quantities - a taste or sprinkle is usually adequate. Israel has really tasty cheeses - dairy here is high quality. So I've been eating more than usual. The stuff that we got for brunch was the real McCoy - all fresh and delicious. I ate more cheese that morning than I have in the past month. Ecstatic for the tastebuds, brutal for the waistline. But it was certainly enough to tide me over for the long drive into the desert, which I'll post on next.

Mul-Yam

Dinner on Tuesday night was at Mul-Yam, which is the Mul-YUM. From the garlic aioli spread offered alongside the butter for our bread, to the sommelier who did well in recommending a light Chardonnay from a winery in the Golan, to the cuisine that was delicious and artistically presented, the meal was a pleasure. The restaurant is known for excellent seafood, which is just what we ordered in a variety of forms.

Starting out with 2 dozen oysters, and moving onto dishes that incorporated crab, langustin, lobster, shrimp, scallops, and fish.





And then there was dessert...

Anee Lo Medaberet Eevreet...

is the phrase I have used most since coming to Israel (okay, maybe 2nd to Shalom). Which is kind of silly since I'm saying "I don't speak Hebrew" in Hebrew. I got sick last week and then the internet was on the fritz, so this post will have to sum up several days worth. All in all, Sloop and Faisal have been putting everyone to shame with the regularity of their posting. I suppose I could step up and post more regularly, but I know better than to make empty promises, so I'll just settle for posting today.

I had dinner at a great resto last week with a fellow GSBer. He told me that on his way over, he saw someone in a cafe that looked exactly like me, but with shorter hair. I've already met one Doppelgänger in the States, so imagine my surprise to find that I have another one here in Israel. The Ashkenazi look is more coveted here than the Mizrahi because its less common. Individuals with (naturally) blond hair and fair complexions are not as common as the ones with darker hair and olive skin, which just goes to show that everyone can be exotic in some region of the planet. During her visit to a resort area, the tall, blond Czech exchange student in our program was offered a proposal of marriage along with 1600 camels. No joke.

In general, I've eaten really well over the past several weeks. Dinner at Pastis with a GSB alum working just outside of Tel Aviv, and another dinner at Beni Hadayag in the Herzliya marina with a new Israeli friend N., who will be coming to the States next year for b-school. Beni Hadayag translates to "Beni the Fisherman". Nice! I like! The dinner was, for lack of a better term, ridiculous. For two of us, we were served 15 different salads along with our meal. As I may have mentioned before, the definition of a salad here is broader. It can mean mixed greens with chopped tomato, cheese with herbs, roasted eggplant, or fish in a spicy sauce as long as it is served during the meal and in a small dish. I think the closest analogy is that of Korean side dishes - many different ingredients, flavors, and textures, but all in small portions.

N. was gracious enough to pick me up and show me around the Herzliya marina, which has a swish new mall (with a mariner's theme a la Vegas). Apparently, even though Tel Aviv is where much of the action is, all of the really affluent Israelis live in Herzliya. And park their yachts in Herzliya marina - duh. We saw some beautiful boats there, one can only imagine how they looked during the daytime. We also had some interesting discussion over dinner. According to N., who travels to Europe often for work, many Europeans and particularly the French are rather weary of Israelis. This is pretty amazing to me because I figured that given the riots last year in the suburbs of Paris, the French would be more weary of Arabs (even though I believe that the rioters, though Muslim, were mostly of African descent). Not to mention the fact that everywhere I go in Tel Aviv, I hear people speaking French and there are several French exchange students in my classes. I'm rather curious to find out whether this falls under anti-Israeli sentiment or general xenophobic tendencies. The last time I was in France (about five years ago), I didn't really encounter much xenophobia, but then again I was able to speak reasonably coherent French (although I'm sure that this is subject to interpretation) and this was prior to the Freedom Fries debacle. Perhaps I'm missing some existing political tension - any of my Israeli or French readers (I know I have at least one of each) feel free to correct me.

In other news, last Sunday marked the 2nd time this month that there was a strike at Tel Aviv University. Apparently, every time the University tries to increase the fees, students go on strike. This is surprising because the students here pay peanuts to attend the top universities in the country. Apparently, loans to pay for school here are uncommon - while education is an investment, few choose to get into debt to pay for it. Perhaps the job prospects after graduation are not as rosy unless you go into a high-tech or biotech role? Or maybe the mandatory military service makes the student population older and more risk-averse?

Several of you have asked to see more pictures. Honestly, its been a quiet week here - I had class assignments to work on and my roommate is off in Ethiopia for a vacation. The dog is currently spending time in the country at a doggie resort. But I took a picture of her before she went off to the Doggie Hamptons. Her name is Toobab, and she is the princess of the apartment.



I thought I'd share an anecdote about how social transactions (and perhaps business transactions as well) are carried out here. The exchange student coordinator, a lovely woman named Sharon, suggested a get-together for us to have dessert at Max Brenner last week.

Sharon sends out an email saying something to the effect of "Max Brenner is a great place. Interested? Let me know if you want to come so that I can make reservations - how about meeting at 20:00?" I respond with "I'm interested, and that time works for me." So time passes and I hear nothing back. On the day of, I call Sharon and finally reach her at 19:00 -

Le V: "Sharon, are we meeting at Max Brenner tonight?"

Sharon: "Of course! Didn't you get my email?"

Le V: "Well, yeah. But you never confirmed that it was on. Or the time."

Sharon: "I did, I said in the email that we are meeting at Max Brenner at 8 in the evening! Are you coming?"

Le V: "Erm, ok. Yeah. I'll be a bit late though..."

Note to self: When in Israel, unless you speak up and say you have a problem or that the "suggestion" doesn't work, there is no confirmation. ITS ON, SO BE THERE AND MAKE IT HAPPEN.

Over the weekend, I explored much of the city by foot and found some new neighborhoods with bars, cafes, and shopping. Sunday night was drinks with the exchange student program crowd - vodka shots and martinis. To be honest, the vodka shots were way better. I have not been impressed with the ability of bartenders here in Tel Aviv to mix drinks, so stick with the beer and shots unless you know who's mixing.





Drinks with the exchange students is like drinks at the UN - reps from Israel, France, Italy, Finland, Norway, Czech, Germany, Latvia, and the US. Hmm. Okay maybe more like drinks at the EU with Israel and the States crashing the party. ;)

This week, I am wrapping up my classes and taking final exams. But this won't stop me from hitting the best restaurant in Israel tonight. WoOt.

Aubergine Dream

After living in the San Francisco Bay Area for 20+ years, I could never go anywhere without running into someone that I knew. I'm not just talking San Francisco here, literally the entire region between San Francisco and San Jose, both on the peninsula and the East Bay. Its a pretty extensive plot of land, but somehow I managed to see someone or the other during nearly every jaunt to a restaurant here or a bar there.

After living almost 1 month in Tel Aviv, its already happened here. Granted, central Tel Aviv is not expansive, but this will definitely not occur regularly given that I know very few peeps here. It felt weird and kinda nice. Despite my thirst for the unknown, it felt comforting to see familiar faces, even those of fellow students that I barely know.

I went loafing about last night. It was a rainy weekend in Tel Aviv, with blustery winds not at all conducive to venturing outdoors. I decided to take a little walk and head over to a falafel stand that is known for a particular dish called sabich. The thing is, there are no actual falafel in it. After getting it wrapped up for take away (to go), I ran into a fellow student, an Israeli gal that praised my willingness to try it but then chastised me for not having the true experience by eating it standing up in the cramped establishment. I have to admit that she's right - that really is the way to enjoy fast food here. Standing up, with an all-you-can-stuff-into-your-pita-before-it-explodes selection of pickled vegetables, eggplant, and sauces at your fingertips. Eggplant is so underrated in the States. Not only is it ubiquitous here, they sometimes call it by the much cooler moniker of aubergine. Granted, I've never been to Italy so I can't compare, but the aubergine lasagna and coffee I had for lunch on campus today were damn tasty. Woot on the Israeli versions.

I met up with the Round 1 Israeli Chicago GSB admits last week. We all gathered at the house of one of the admits, located in the suburb of Ramat Yishay. Luckily, some of them were kind enough to give me a lift out there - public transit wasn't really an option. It was great to meet the admits and their families, and its fantastic that they have already started to get to know each other. Later this week, I'm planning to meet a GSB alum working out here.

My project group presented in our Organizational Behaviour class last week about Online Reputation, and it was well-received by the professor and other students. With plenty of real-life examples like eBay, bloggers, and MySpace, who wouldn't be into it? The classes so far have definitely been less rigorous than those at Chicago, but I'm not complaining. I anticipated that the majority of my education from this experience would not come from the classroom.

That being said, I was initially surprised by the forthright nature of the professors and students in my classes. One professor in particular is very abrupt in telling students to wait until he is done with his thoughts before he will answer their questions. And the students themselves will often speak out whenever they wish. I've certainly been privy to heated debate in a classroom, but people here seem to be consistently more vocal and at times bordering on aggressive. However, the level of aggression in discourse is certainly relative and I've been told that the Hebrew language tends toward being direct. Its actually fun, because I tend to get engaged in this atmosphere. But it took a few interactions for me to adjust my frame of reference from "aggressive" to "direct". :)

I also find that the students are less deferential in the classroom. Along with speaking out often, many will be checking email on their laptops, getting text messages on their mobiles, have a side conversation while the professor is lecturing, or simply walk in late or out early. The professors here take this in stride and I suppose that each of these happens every once in a while during my classes in the States, but the consistency and number of occurrences is what surprised me. But by now, I've learned to tune out the distractions and focus on the important things in class, like the animation on the prof's powerpoint slides.

Tel Aviv and University aside, its time for me to get out of dodge and explore the rest of the country. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out how to get around and then take off soon enough. Smile y'all. Monday is done with, so the week can only get better.

p.s. Okay Miz Megha and Sloop Doggy Dogg. I've posted. Tag, you're it.

Its Official

I have some exciting news. While I received this news many months ago, I wasn't sure if I would be moving forward with my plans given the ups and downs of the recruitment season. Though I haven't yet decided what to do post-MBA, I did a mental regroup last night and this morning.

Actually, last night I was just mental more than anything else. The little hamster in my head was racing way too fast on the wheel - worrying about job prospects and figuring out what to do with the rest of my life. So I decided to go out and have a nice dinner and drinks to relax. In fact, dinner was quite tasty and I ended up stunning the hamster and the rest of me senseless with too much to drink. Enter drunken lunatic phase, during which I decided that I wasn't going to move forward with my original plans and continue to evaluate job opps.

Fast forward to this morning. Frightening as it may sound, I was thinking more clearly this morning in my sober and slightly hungover state than I have in a while. And I realized several things:
1) I am an employable individual. I have been blessed with a good education, am passionate about what I want out of life and the impact I want to make on the world, and am able to work with others well. [Insert Stuart Smalley quote here]
2) The opportunities to find a dream job will still be here, they aren't running away just yet.
3) The opportunity cost of not living one's life to the fullest is too high, as I won't be able to take advantage of the same things should I get reincarnated as a snail.

So the news? I'm studying abroad next quarter. In Tel Aviv, Israel. The flight is booked. Downsides - not having Chicago GSB resources at my disposal to look for a job, and having to delay the search by several months. Upsides - not having to deal with the freezing cold and hanging out in gorgeous weather, getting the experience to spend a good chunk of time in a foreign country and learning about a fascinating region of the world, gaining a degree of experiential learning that I could never get from a book or article, and the list goes on...

WoOt!

Are we there yet?

My experience over the last several weeks has reminded me once again that despite the inherent advantages of going to a great school that opens up one's career possibilities, recruiting still blows. The path to enlightenment may be filled with many bumps, but the path to one's dream job (or the one that will pave the way to the future dream job) is filled with potholes, road rage, and jackasses all around you. And that's all I'd like to say on recruiting for today.

Last night, I had dinner and drinks with Poweryogi in Manhattan. It was a long day and drinks were in order. The buzz kicked in after the classic combination of a bloody mary-esque cocktail and too many tootsie rolls at PS450. We then hopped into a cab and went to Chinatown, and consumed way too much food. NY + PY + vodka buzz = good times. Chicago math nerd in action.

I discovered my new favorite brunch place today. It passed my poached egg test (soft but not runny) with flying colors, and the rest of the food on my plate was top notch for quality, flavor, and creativity. Ambience wasn't bad either. I'm looking forward to returning with more friends.

Desolée

Had a long chat with someone last night that I don't talk to often enough. Business school can be extremely isolating at times - I sometimes yearn for the world that I lived in before the GSB, but realize that I no longer belong there. 'World' is loaded - it refers to not just the location, but also the time, many of the relationships and experiences, and my state of mind. So I can't go back because it would feel like I was taking a step backward in my progression through life, but I'm sometimes terrified of moving forward. It means I have to enter the real world, decide whether the choices I made during school were the right ones, and figure out the rest of my life. Heavy shit.

So I decided to spend some time yesterday and today avoiding the usual topics of discussion, and living a pseudo-normal life for a few hours. Last night I went to get some tasty Korean food with fellow students, and ended up having a real conversation with someone at dinner that I'd never really spoken to before. We'd had student-group related discussions in passing, but nothing terribly substantial. Given that I'm constantly surrounded by amazing people, its a shame that I don't have time to have a real chat with more of them.

Today I had brunch with some (non-GSB...!) people at this adorable place in Lakeview. Discovering a new resto and new people was such a refreshing way to start the week. Today, Autrefois is the song of choice.