Falafel!

Well I had my first Israel Falafel today and it was AWESOME!  So much better than anything I have ever had in the states before.  It was a great experience.  The place is super close to my apartment!

In non-food related adventures, I met my new mentor at the Technion, Josue, and he's great.  He's a lot like my PhD adviser, Jonathan, in fact I really think they are related in some way.  They both like to talk a lot about all the lab and funding issues and well talking to Josue, kinda made me feel like I was still in Amherst.  However the weather is much better in Haifa in October than it is in Amherst.  The weather is warm and sunny, boarding on just plan hot around 1 or 2.  I am loving it!  I also got to meet two of the grad students, they were both really nice and extremely helpful in answering all my questions about life in Israel.  I also opened a bank account today!  With help from Josue, of course.  One the entrances to the Technion, the west gate, is only about a 7 minute walk from my house which is nice.  It took me about 20 minutes today to get from the gate to my building, but I'm sure once I know my way around and I have gotten over this jet lag, I'll be moving up and down the hills a little more quickly.  The campus is very very very hilly!

I have to say I'm adjusting to life here well so far.  I haven't ridden a bus yet, but I'm getting there!  I have however become accustomed to the fact that you frequently must have your bag searched as you either walk through a metal detector or have a metal detecting wand passed over you.  I can't lie that I was really confused the first time I went to the mall and had to walk through a metal detector!  But security is quickly becoming a way of life for me.  I was prepared to have my bag searched and to be wanted as I entered the gates of the Technion.

So, I have a cell phone which is up and running.  The process of getting the cell phone yesterday took about 1.5 hours and involved the gentleman selling me the phone hitting on me and asking me a variety of stupid question including "Are you from California?" I said "No" and he replied "But you have blonde hair".  He also was very concerned about the fact that I did not have a boy friend and was not married.  This lead to a lot of being hit on.  Oh well...such is life!  I now have a phone!  I don't have Skype forwarding worked out yet, but I can get google voice text messages.  Now I just have to figure out how to get a number of my apps on my phone to return to English.  A lot of things are now in Hebrew, which might be useful in about a year, but right now is pointless for me!

That's all for now!  Hope everyone is doing well!