Stairway to Haifa

I found what has to be the longest ladder, I mean stairway in Haifa.  I went for a run last night and still had some energy to burn at the end.  So I sprinted up a nice hill and was rewarded with the longest stairway I’ve seen yet.  I’ve seen and crossed all kinds of weird stairs / steps the last few years.  Machu Pichu, Ciudad Perdida, the Hill of Death (Paz de Rio) and all kinds of funky, windy stairways in Haifa, but this one took the cake.

Stairs on Hill of Death, Paz de Rio

I counted the steps from the bottom.  There’s about 225 steps and it took about two minutes to go all the way up.  Let’s say one step is 5.5 inches tall.  That would mean a vertical climb of 100+ feet.  That doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but in two minutes, that comes out to 50+ ft/sec going up.  Now that’s a lot.

And it’s a functional stairway.  After about 10-12 steps, you get a flat area with a path that leads to some houses.  So people actually use this thing.  It’s fun exploring the new places and stairways in Haifa, since you never know what you’ll find and where it will lead to.

Also on my run yesterday, I had my first real encounter with a dog.  Remember how this normally turns out in Colombia — not good.  This time, it was just a smaller dog barking its head off.  So I started whistling at it and just stood my ground.  Eventually it comes up to me and we start playing.  It’s a friendly dog!  I haven’t come across any mean ones here, which is nice.  There are stray cats all over the streets, but they are too shy to cause any trouble.

 

End of stairway

Entrance, to the left of green trash bins

Space Jam

I played basketball today and it was a lot of fun.  It’s been a lot cooler, so it doesn’t sap your energy as much and it’s more enjoyable.  We started around 1:45 and finished around 3:30pm.  I took the bus back and was home about 4:15pm or so.

There’s this one guy whose nickname is Space Jam for some reason.  I think it’s because he takes some crazy shots and whenever he does that people call him Space Jam.  There’s another guy who they call Ground Beef Kabob…don’t ask me on that one.  I guess that’s just what you get when Persian guys play basketball with each other for too long.

Space Jam

Ground beef kabob — what a nickname

I jammed my middle and ring fingers on my right hand today trying to stop a pass.  Man that hurt.  It was probably the first time I’ve jammed my fingers playing basketball in about four years, so it was something I had more or less forgotten about.  Thankfully I haven’t rolled an ankle in a while.  That would normally put me out of commission for a 2-3 weeks.

I am slowly reaching the end of my training period, I think.  In another couple weeks I’ll hopefully get to start setting up my real development environment and working on actual tasks.  That’s kind of exciting that I’ll be able to be productive and do some “real work” finally.

This 5 1/2 day work week takes some getting used to.  You only have one full day to relax / re-charge before you start all over again.  Now I really know the time is going to go by fast.  That’s good though, it’s better to be busy than not busy enough.

I’ve been coordinating the incentive purchases for the first round of the incentive program the last week.  I have a local helper who I’m working with to purchase and deliver the incentives in Duitama.  I also have been in touch with the owner of our hamburger prize option who was kind enough to help support our program.  If you are ever in Duitama or Tunja, definitely check them out — the restaurant is called Cowfish: Website — Tripadvisor — Past Entries.  The hamburgers and pizza there are delicious.

It’s been a little less never-wracking this time, now that I feel I have the right people in place and I trust that they know how important it is to deliver on our promises and on time.  I think everyone is properly motivated to deliver on their piece and understands where they fit in the process.  We had five teachers submit six contracts in the first round:

4th/5th grade – The Jobs, Verb To Be
6th grade – Muestra de talentos (Talent show)
8th grade – Canción / Coreografía (English songs)
8th grade – Presentaciones variadas
10th grade – Best Commercial
11th grade – English Run

The total prizes so far are 115 gift certificates for hamburger + fries + drink and 25 gift certificates for movie ticket and snack combo.  The second round hopefully will have more participation.  We’ll see.  It’s important to hold the teachers to the deadlines because it sets a good example for their students too.

That’s the whole idea behind these contracts — so the students can have trust in the process and know that if they put in the work and qualify for the incentives, that they will get what they are promised.

I hate cockroaches

Just when you think you can relax you get a nice surprise.  Another cockroach in my living room just chilling on its back waiting for me to spray it and dispose of it.  Who knows how long it was hanging out there, I just noticed it tonight.  But I haven’t looked over in that direction for at least a day or so.  Fun.

Then there are random tiny ants just crawling around my kitchen wherever they please.  There is no open food or crumbs anywhere, yet these ants seem to come from who knows where they come from.

And now bugs in my bedroom.  I kill one, and oh look, there’s his brother.  Brother gone, hey there’s a sister.  I almost reached my breaking point last week when I came home at night and found a big cockroach hanging out in my bathroom ready to put up a fight.

I’m realizing more and more that it is causing me stress.  I almost never get stressed about anything, but I definitely feel stressed because of these things.  I suppose it affects everything else as well, like sleep, mood, etc.  It’s not fun.  I guess it’s a learning experience, but one I’d rather not have.  Building character, appreciating what you have blah blah blah.  Just go away cockroaches.

Why can’t they be fun like this guy?

I Made It

Summer is finally over.  It was horrible.  It’s been a lot cooler in the mornings.  It also gets cooler at nights and the sun goes down a lot sooner.  A couple days ago, I didn’t see it directly…but there was evidence of rain.  There were dried rain spots on the cars in the morning.  It was somewhat exciting.

I remember when I got to Chile two years ago in April it seemed so nice.  But then I realized I had gotten there just for the winter to start and it was soon quite misssssssserable.  At one point, there was a stretch of five consecutive days when it rained non-stop, I kid you not.  Five days!  I learned I can’t stand that type of weather.

Now fast-forward to 2019, where I land in Israel in the dead of summer.  It was terrible in its own right — just super-hot.  I  guess the whole AC situation exacerbated things a bit.  I prefer the heat over the cold, though, so it wasn’t as bad for me as that Chilean winter.  But still, it was challenging.  I now definitely appreciate San Diego’s weather.  It really is perfect.

I also made it to two months.  I got here on July 17 and now it’s September 17.  Wow it really went by fast.  So many new experiences and new people and all that.  Also returning to some of the “old” things like having a desk job and a “normal” routine again.  All in all it’s been a good experience, albeit with several challenges.

Two weekends ago we visited a Druze village, which was interesting.  The Druze people are a separate religion / group of people that live in Israel.  They dress in a distinct black and white getup.  An old Druze lady tried to sell me a shawl-type thing, telling me it cost 100 shequels, but said she’d sell it to me for 50.  Then she went up to 60 for some reason.  I told her I’d buy it for 40 and stuck to my guns.  She finally agreed.  So I gave her a 100 shequel bill (~$28 USD) and she asked if I had change.  Meanwhile, her husband (he looked to be 80 years old), at least that’s who I assume it was, kept trying to sell me a magnifying glass for some reason along with whatever other trinkets were within his reach.  I politely declined and he gave me a sucker instead.  Interesting fellow.

Druze people — pronounced “Drooze”

Anyways, I told the lady all I had was 34 1/2 shequels, which she said was fine.  Apparently I have those Persian negotiation skill genes, but they just come out in strange ways.

This weekend I visited Akka with a friend, which I was really looking forward to.  There is a street in Haifa where all the sheruts stop.  A sherut is just a van that takes people from one place to another and stops along the way.  Kind of like a mini-bus or a collectivo.  It cost 26 shequels ($7.50) round-trip.  Not bad.

Sherut

Akka is something else.  At least the old city anyways.  It reminded me of Cartagena right away, since it has a fortress-like wall surrounding it and it is right next to the water.  It also is super-hot and muggy like Cartagena.  It really had a magical feel and is also a holy place for Baha’is, so at some point I want to visit some of the holy sites.

 

Arabs jumping off a “cliff” – it was a good 25 feet high

It definitely felt like I was in the middle east.  Lost of Arabs with their Arabic music and hookah.  Also we passed through a bazaar with people selling their goodies.  Man, there were so many pomegranates there.  They were everywhere.  My dad would be in heaven.  There were a lot of fresh juice stands so I got two of the pomegranate juices.  They weren’t super-cheap (15 shequels, $4.25 USD), but they were fresh and delicious.

There is this thing called the Land Gate, which I guess is how you were supposed to enter the city in the old days.  And apparently there is a Crusader’s Fortress there underground somewhere.  I want to go back another day and just explore.  The bad thing is we only have one full day off here, shabbat (Saturday) and everything is closed that day, including most of the buses.  Makes it kind of difficult to do anything!  That’s one thing about Israel that makes no sense to me.  I guess at some point I’ll figure things out and it will start to make sense.

Land Gate

I also have figured out the trash system here.  They have these green trash bins, similar to the U.S. dumpster bins.  And they are “randomly” (at least to me) located around the city.  So I just take my trash out, find the closest one and put it in.  What’s really neat is that it’s hands-free if you can believe it.  There’s a metal lever thing on the bottom, which you push with your foot and that opens it up.  Now that’s pretty amazing.  It’s the little things that fascinate the gringos.  I did laugh at myself when I was taking a picture of this dumpster in the middle of the day.  I wonder what the Israelis thought of me.

Push the white lever with your foot and voila!

A date which will live in infamy

September 10, 2019 – I got my AC yesterday.  It is lovely and sleek and brand new.  It is blowing cold air in as we speak.  It is also a month and a half overdue and I don’t really need it anymore, but whatever.  At least I’m covered when the next summer rolls around in nine months. 

 

I was finally able to close my bedroom windows (I have two windows!) and sleep without earplugs.  No more hearing my neighbors and the wild boars!  I still didn’t sleep well, as I had guessed I wouldn’t.  I feel a little sick actually, so maybe I’m coming down with something.  But it’s nice to have one less thing to think about.

I’ve never really had AC before.  When I was a kid we never used it in my parent’s house.  We never really needed to, we had windows.  When I had my own house, I never even thought about it.  Until my heater broke and the HVAC guy offered me a “deal” if I got a new heater and AC.  Where’s Chris Hansen when you need him?

At that point I realized it was actually nice to have an AC, since in Mira Mesa sometimes it would get uncomfortably stuffy in the summer.  I probably used it 2-3 times a year.  But…now that I’m renting my house out, having AC is great for marketing!  And I have solar too, so that’s a double threat.  I like my house, it’s pretty nice and I’m glad I bought it back when I did…I was only 27!  Now that I think about it, that was pretty young.

The deadline for the first round of the academic incentive program is coming up in a few days.  I’m a little nervous and excited to see how it all turns out, since I’m coordinating it from afar.  I think I have the right people in place, but we’ll see soon enough how it goes.

I weighed myself yesterday and I’m about 169 lbs. which is crazy.  My stomach is getting really fat, though, so I think I am just losing muscle and turning into a blob.  Hopefully I can do something about that. 

 

Not sure what’s going on here

Late night beach run with the crew.

Socrates, Plato and…Spinoza?

My first day of work, I decided to walk instead of take the bus.  This was for two reasons: 1) I like to walk since it gives me a little exercise and fresh air and I get to know my surroundings better and 2) I don’t have to rely on a bus system I don’t know yet and I know for sure that I will get to wherever I’m going on time.  Solid logic right?  Wrong.

It was 1000 degrees and the humidity was also 1000% (not typos), so I was sweating bad after five minutes.  I also got lost, naturally!  Google Maps doesn’t work well on my phone, so I always check the route on my computer first and either write it down or make a mental note.  This time I had made a mental note.  Not real smart when you’ve only been in the country and city for a couple days and you need to get somewhere on time.

Anyways…I did my usual ask people how to get to where I’m going as I walk.  I think this is something I must have learned from my Dad and really mastered in Colombia.  Most of the people I talked to spoke some English and could help point me in the right direction.  At one point, one person said “Oh that’s really far”, where it was only a 15-20 minute walk.  That reminded me of Colombianos (who 95% of the time would tell me, “oohh está muy lejos…te toca ir en taxi” regardless of how far anything was) and I laughed inside.

After thinking for a little bit, eventually the guy said I could just take Spinoza.  Awesome.  What the heck is Spinoza?  I remember actually liking that word since it sounded English and not too Hebrewey.  So my immediate target was Spinoza, whatever it was.  Finally I found it, and it was just one of Haifa’s 5000 hidden stairway shortcuts.  It reminded me of the board game Chutes and Ladders where you can cut across multiple levels, in this case streets, via ladders.

Chutes and Ladders (I always loved #28)

Yesterday I went for a run and came across that cool stairway again with a picture of a guy on it.  I made note of the Stairway name (the main stairs all have names) so I could tell others later on.  It was Spinoza!  Who is this Spinoza??

So this morning I showed a picture of the stairway to one of the guys in my department and told him to look for Spinoza stairs.  He said Spinoza was the name of a famous philosopher, along the likes of Aristotle and Socrates.  I said, huh?  How famous could he be if I’d never heard of him.  Then again I’m an American and not as cultured as the rest of the world, so what do I know?

When we got to work he called me over and said the picture was actually of the guy himself, Spinoza, who was apparently a famous Jewish philosopher in the 1600s!  Pretty cool.  There are a bunch of other streets here named after people too.  I wonder what their stories are.

Mr. Spinoza

Time flies

I’ve been here almost seven weeks now.  Time really has flown by and I think it will continue to do so over these 18 months.  Here’s my typical routine:

6:15am Wake up and goof around
7:00am Shower, get ready and eat
7:40am Head out and catch the bus
8:00am Arrive at work
12pm Lunch
5:30pm Leave work
6:00pm Get back home
10:15pm Sleep

A few times a week I try to go running after work.  On Fridays I try to play bball after work too, which is a half day.  I am feeling more and more comfortable here now.  There are lots of opportunities to be social and meet people.  Everyone here is nice too, which makes it easier.

This weekend I went to a place called Sachne which is like a park with a man-made lake and area to barbecue.  The weekend before I went to the beach and the one before that I went to dinner with some friends.  I have learned that apparently it doesn’t matter who I’m around, if there are more than 8-10 people in a smaller get-together (i.e. at someone’s apartment), I start feeling uncomfortable.  I suppose it’s a bit of claustrophobia mixed in with the social anxiety.

Anyways, back to Sachne.  It’s actually pronounced Saa-KH-ney it seems.  These Hebrew names are quite interesting.  We were a group of about 30 so we rented a bus and got there about 9am to stake out some tables.  The place is just a big park with some man-made lakes and everyone is barbecuing, lounging around and just relaxing.

For some reason, people think I am a barbecue guy, so I was asked to start and run the barbecue.  This is the second time that’s happened…I don’t know why.  I guess it’s because I’m the old guy now.  So I was on barbecue duty for a good part of the day.  It wouldn’t have been bad except it was 90+ degrees and being next to an even hotter grill didn’t help.

It was an interesting atmosphere.  You’re in the middle of the desert.  There are Arabs all around barbecuing, listening to Arabic music, smooking hookah (I think that’s what it was) and going in the water.  And then there’s this group of 30 “gringos” for lack of a better term.  But we’re really from all over the world, so it’s an international mix.

And the water in the lakes was like nothing I’ve been in before.  There were fish swimming around with everyone.  Mostly smaller fish, but some big ones too.  You feel the smaller ones nibbling on your ankles.  It’s really really weird.  Pretty gross too if you think about.  Where does all the fish poop go?  And what about dead fish?  Nasty.  But everyone was having a good time.

I managed to swallow a little bit of the water when I jumped in, so that was gross.  Some water went up my nose too, which got me thinking about those brain-eating amoebas that infect people when they are in dirty water.  Those amoebas usually enter through your nose!  If you don’t see any posts for a while, you may want to check on me.

 

BBQ Master at work…BYOBB