It feels a looooot longer but actually only 9 months have passed since I moved to Israel. You guys probably think: “Well whats during the last 3 months?”.
The answer is “nothing” and “a lot” in the same time.
On the one hand our apartment slowly is getting a face, the guest room is furnished and received the first visitor (Chris). On top of that we now both have bicycles in Tel Aviv and we got a bench in the garden, therefore I can barely think about big things which are missing in our place. On the other side, the day to day live got into some kind of a good routine.
I know routines can also be boring, but I don’t feel like that as always something small comes up and our apartment always has something small to work on. And as you all know these small things are taking a lot of time .
Then of course there is also work. Work also has got is little routine, but on the other side we are still facing lots of new challenges. Especially as my work environment will receive an audit shortly before the end of September by Energy Operational Review and therefore everything I did during the last 9 moths comes to a quality test. In addition it is time to think how to structure the future and where this road is leading to.
Oh one smaller Israeli thing, summer is starting to be over and temperatures are getting back towards 30degrees in average. It has actually not been as bad as I had expected it to be.
Yes, we slept a lot of nights with air condition, but working and day to day live was quite ok with it.
I almost forgot to write some lines about our last (work) visit to Munich. After we have been there the last time in May, shortly before my birthday, four months passed. It has been really four long months. There were times, when I really missed my family and Munich. I realized that once I booked the flight and the departure came close, how happy felt about flying to Germany.
Then when we arrived there the feeling of hugging my brother almost overwhelmed me. (of course I didn’t show this ) and I had a big smile on my face. We spent 10 absolutely good days and managed also to spend one afternoon at the octoberfest.
One difference I really missed back in Israel is the different kind of weather. Once we arrived in Munich, you recognized how “monotone” the weather is in Israel throughout the whole summer. But soon we will start into my first Rosh Hashana
Sonntag, 9. Oktober 2011
Sonntag, 29. Mai 2011
6 months after – believe it or not 1/2 year passed already
For some reasons I got into the habit to tell people that I'm only for 4 months in Israel.
Reality is that its already 6 months know and time keeps flying by. My apartment still misses some crucial elements like a couch, couchtable, guestbed (yes I know this is the most interesting for you readers ) and TV connection.
On the other hand a lot of things already came together and I'm happy to be in Israel.
Work sometime can be tough, but hey that live and Germans like to complain and tell everyone what could be better…and for sure I have a bunch of these points in my head.
But for goods sake, on the contrary life is really treating me good. I can pay my rent, I like to go to work most of the time and I can come home with a big smile to my girlfriend.
Therefore keep going and enjoy the life
Sebo
Reality is that its already 6 months know and time keeps flying by. My apartment still misses some crucial elements like a couch, couchtable, guestbed (yes I know this is the most interesting for you readers ) and TV connection.
On the other hand a lot of things already came together and I'm happy to be in Israel.
Work sometime can be tough, but hey that live and Germans like to complain and tell everyone what could be better…and for sure I have a bunch of these points in my head.
But for goods sake, on the contrary life is really treating me good. I can pay my rent, I like to go to work most of the time and I can come home with a big smile to my girlfriend.
Therefore keep going and enjoy the life
Sebo
Vienna in April - What a great time
Even though I lived in Munich for quite a while for some reasons, I never made it to the capital of Austria. Well now it was time for this and I went there for 6 days during Pessach.
Btw. Pessach almost fits our Christian eastern holidays, even though the occasion of the holidays are not comparable at all.
On the 14.04 is was finally time to go to the airport and board an Austrian airlines flight. About 3,5h later without any difficulties, Vienna was in sight and also the weather seemed quite appealing.
From the airport via the S-Bahn System we went to the hotel Renassaince Reitschule next to the center of Vienna at "Rennweg". A really nice baroque hotel with kind of a good location,
Meaning you have train, u-bahn right around the corner and even walking to the first district (viennas city center) takes only about 20min. (via Belvedere)
The following few days where full of amazing sightseeing, shopping, coffezipping, wandering around mostly in a pleasant weather. In addition Tommy and Uli (friends from MUC) also came down and we spent a lot of nice ours together. Well you know I could now play tourist guide and right down what we did but honestly. A) I'm too lazy for this and b) the web page xxxxx gives you a far better overview than I ever can write it down here.
Bottom line is that Vienna is a great city with lots of amazing buildings, good coffee houses and mostly nice people (even though waiters tend to be a bit stiff/ rude). I personally can recommend the butterfly house, the walking tours offered by the tourist office. Check out their special brochure for this and the beach bars/clubs along the canal (next to Schwedenplatz). Ohhh for the ones who like ICECREAM, there is a new bio/organic ice cream store in the Rotenturmstr., which u can usually easily allocate by the long queue out onto the street. (small blue/white store, Opposite of Marco Polo, shortly after intissima)
Hence after 6 relaxing, funny, interesting days it was time to do the sweet shopping and with a lot of "MANNER" and "MOZARTKUGELN", the luggage was rolling back to the airport. Back in Israel and due to some more federal holidays we had a bunch of more days free and finally on the 26th I went back to work…..
The only thing I can say: "What a great time!"
Btw. Pessach almost fits our Christian eastern holidays, even though the occasion of the holidays are not comparable at all.
On the 14.04 is was finally time to go to the airport and board an Austrian airlines flight. About 3,5h later without any difficulties, Vienna was in sight and also the weather seemed quite appealing.
From the airport via the S-Bahn System we went to the hotel Renassaince Reitschule next to the center of Vienna at "Rennweg". A really nice baroque hotel with kind of a good location,
Meaning you have train, u-bahn right around the corner and even walking to the first district (viennas city center) takes only about 20min. (via Belvedere)
The following few days where full of amazing sightseeing, shopping, coffezipping, wandering around mostly in a pleasant weather. In addition Tommy and Uli (friends from MUC) also came down and we spent a lot of nice ours together. Well you know I could now play tourist guide and right down what we did but honestly. A) I'm too lazy for this and b) the web page xxxxx gives you a far better overview than I ever can write it down here.
Bottom line is that Vienna is a great city with lots of amazing buildings, good coffee houses and mostly nice people (even though waiters tend to be a bit stiff/ rude). I personally can recommend the butterfly house, the walking tours offered by the tourist office. Check out their special brochure for this and the beach bars/clubs along the canal (next to Schwedenplatz). Ohhh for the ones who like ICECREAM, there is a new bio/organic ice cream store in the Rotenturmstr., which u can usually easily allocate by the long queue out onto the street. (small blue/white store, Opposite of Marco Polo, shortly after intissima)
Hence after 6 relaxing, funny, interesting days it was time to do the sweet shopping and with a lot of "MANNER" and "MOZARTKUGELN", the luggage was rolling back to the airport. Back in Israel and due to some more federal holidays we had a bunch of more days free and finally on the 26th I went back to work…..
The only thing I can say: "What a great time!"
Montag, 11. April 2011
4 months after - apartment furnishing in Israel
2 more months ---> and they passed like nothing.
I set out to write the next post a couple of times, but somehow something always came into my way.
The last two month passed kind of fast, which is closely related to the fact that I have been 2weeks of it in Germany for skiing, working a lot and finally moved into in an apartment in Tel Aviv. (For people who know the town, its next to basel square and dizengoff street).
What one should know about this apartment, is that it was unfurnished.Therefore only the kitchen, the bathrom and some closets where here...besides that approx. 75 empty square meter.(pictures will follow soon). Accordingly the last month was really packed with looking for apartment stuff. We bought a TV, tabel, chairs, a freezer, a washing machine and there is still some stuff like couch, guestbed etc. to come.
Some of you might now wonder: "Is it fun or is it not?" Well there is no clear answer to this question. Sometime its fun, sometimes its hell and sometimes its kind of ok. What I can for sure now is that lots of stuff, which you need to buy is significantly more expensive (10 - 20%) only chairs and couches look like they are cheaper here. Anyhow the apartment is great and has a nice kitchen. Parking is a nightmare but as we have something like a community parking (Gemeinschaftsparkplatz) across the building we usually find some space for our cars.
Besides that the time moves fast and I really cannot belive to be here already for 4 months. Work is kind of ok, lots to do and its never getting boring...rather the other way round that I start running crazy after deadlines. All in all, with my prior knowledge in Risk Management I can handle this task and things are running ok.
What else I can tell u about the last two months. Ok, its getting slowly summer here and we already got some beach days with about 25-30 degrees. On the other side it still sometimes raines nicely and the whole country is green right now. Just like in Germany at the beginning of summer. lots of green, lots of blooming flowers...simply beautiful. April and May are defenetely the best travelling or vacation months in Israel :).
oh...but of course. Its soon Pessach (one of the holiest federal vacations in judism) here. Therefore everyone is for about 10days on vacation and people tell everyone since about one week "Happy Holiday".We are jumping for 6 days to Vienna and besides that we will try to finish the furnishing of the house :):).
Thats it for this one....take care and enjoy
Sebo
P.S.: Some of you might have heard or seen about the escalation of terror/bombing attacks. The only thing I can say that it isnt interrupting our day to day life, but yes it is worring and we all here hope that combined with the political changes in all sourrounding countries, Israel is using its chance to build up a new position towards peace.
Thats it so far. Take
I set out to write the next post a couple of times, but somehow something always came into my way.
The last two month passed kind of fast, which is closely related to the fact that I have been 2weeks of it in Germany for skiing, working a lot and finally moved into in an apartment in Tel Aviv. (For people who know the town, its next to basel square and dizengoff street).
What one should know about this apartment, is that it was unfurnished.Therefore only the kitchen, the bathrom and some closets where here...besides that approx. 75 empty square meter.(pictures will follow soon). Accordingly the last month was really packed with looking for apartment stuff. We bought a TV, tabel, chairs, a freezer, a washing machine and there is still some stuff like couch, guestbed etc. to come.
Some of you might now wonder: "Is it fun or is it not?" Well there is no clear answer to this question. Sometime its fun, sometimes its hell and sometimes its kind of ok. What I can for sure now is that lots of stuff, which you need to buy is significantly more expensive (10 - 20%) only chairs and couches look like they are cheaper here. Anyhow the apartment is great and has a nice kitchen. Parking is a nightmare but as we have something like a community parking (Gemeinschaftsparkplatz) across the building we usually find some space for our cars.
Besides that the time moves fast and I really cannot belive to be here already for 4 months. Work is kind of ok, lots to do and its never getting boring...rather the other way round that I start running crazy after deadlines. All in all, with my prior knowledge in Risk Management I can handle this task and things are running ok.
What else I can tell u about the last two months. Ok, its getting slowly summer here and we already got some beach days with about 25-30 degrees. On the other side it still sometimes raines nicely and the whole country is green right now. Just like in Germany at the beginning of summer. lots of green, lots of blooming flowers...simply beautiful. April and May are defenetely the best travelling or vacation months in Israel :).
oh...but of course. Its soon Pessach (one of the holiest federal vacations in judism) here. Therefore everyone is for about 10days on vacation and people tell everyone since about one week "Happy Holiday".We are jumping for 6 days to Vienna and besides that we will try to finish the furnishing of the house :):).
Thats it for this one....take care and enjoy
Sebo
P.S.: Some of you might have heard or seen about the escalation of terror/bombing attacks. The only thing I can say that it isnt interrupting our day to day life, but yes it is worring and we all here hope that combined with the political changes in all sourrounding countries, Israel is using its chance to build up a new position towards peace.
Thats it so far. Take
Freitag, 11. Februar 2011
two months after
Well belive it or not, but the first two months are already over. They were characterize by ups and downs, by good and by bad weather. And for the suferfriends under us, by wavy days and not wavy days. Overall I can honestly say that I really enjoy beeing in Israel.
But of course the picture is not sooooo pink as and therefore lets give u a bit of an overview whats going on:
a) Well I for myself feel kind of good, Israel as a country is pleasant and specially the weather during winter is not too cold but also not too warm.Hence Im really enjoying even though I’m also looking forward to the spring with all its green and nice temperatures.
I can also say that I found myself or better my place somewhere in beteween the isareli and the german culture. (Working is rather german style, private life is rather the relaxed israeli way) Its not that easy, as isarelis try to push their way through and try to get everthing in their way, but if you fight this with a clear german planning/target, its usually not a problem. Logically following, in the cases I didn’t had this, they sometimes gave me a hard time, almost beeing pressed into something I didn’t really wanted.Overall so far not a problem, I struggled a bit at the start and by now I’m pretty much always prepared for this.
b) Getting the life organized in Israel. This is actually the biggest “Manko” right now. We still didn’t find a nice apartment, even though we searched hard during approx. the last 6 weeks,seeing around 40 apartments. This is a real hassle and living out of a your lugguage for more than 2 months now, kind of sucks. Moreover, after a long day at work, you wanna get home, into some kind of home feeling, which doesn’t really develop in a Hotel. This also means, buying own furniture, having your own bed, proper cooking in an own kitchen are things I really miss.“But” nothing we can do about this, we will just have to keep searching. If it doesn’t work in Tel Aviv, we might start looking around in the surrounding towns…who knows.(Btw. 3 Raume – Wohnzimmer, Schlafzimmer, Abstellkammer/Gasteraume mit ca. 60-80 qm kosten in einem aus deutscher Sicht vernuenftigen Zustand kalt ca. 1100 – 1400 Euro pro Monat)
c) Missing home and coming back home. I have to admit that I sometimes miss my family, my grannies and my buddys to hang out with. Sure I also have a bunch of good friends in Israel,
but well its not the same. In order to ease this pain I’m just now on the way to munich due to some business meetings and arrange to stay also some days with my homies. Besides that we are planning a 10 days trip sometime in March to go skiing, shopping and hopping around Munich…it will be great for sure.
And finally not to for get my beautiful partner Beeing with my beloved girlfriend is amazing and a lot of times I wonder how we managed to fly always in and out during the last 1,5 years. Of course we are sometimes also having difficult times, but both of us are showing a great ability to get things straight and together. No worries, we are not getting married but we are having a great time together.
That’s it pretty much for now, well we cannot offer any vacation planning yet, as we don’t have an apartment yet. But don’t worry about it, soon I will put up some hotel recommendations and other tips and as soon by start of summer we will for sure have our apartment ready all the ones who are not afraid of the dangerous Israel. Little sidestep here. Israel bombed some buildings in Gaza two days ago. Spectacular or crazy, some of you might think. Well most newspapers didn’t even get it onto page 1, which means that most of
The Israelis don’t even get aware of it. Sueddeutsche took it on, with the amazing article length of about ½ page. You see after some time everything gets kind of regular.
I guess that’s it for now. Hope all of you are looking forward to eastern.
Take care and enjoy…your Sebastian / Sebo / Basti
But of course the picture is not sooooo pink as and therefore lets give u a bit of an overview whats going on:
a) Well I for myself feel kind of good, Israel as a country is pleasant and specially the weather during winter is not too cold but also not too warm.Hence Im really enjoying even though I’m also looking forward to the spring with all its green and nice temperatures.
I can also say that I found myself or better my place somewhere in beteween the isareli and the german culture. (Working is rather german style, private life is rather the relaxed israeli way) Its not that easy, as isarelis try to push their way through and try to get everthing in their way, but if you fight this with a clear german planning/target, its usually not a problem. Logically following, in the cases I didn’t had this, they sometimes gave me a hard time, almost beeing pressed into something I didn’t really wanted.Overall so far not a problem, I struggled a bit at the start and by now I’m pretty much always prepared for this.
b) Getting the life organized in Israel. This is actually the biggest “Manko” right now. We still didn’t find a nice apartment, even though we searched hard during approx. the last 6 weeks,seeing around 40 apartments. This is a real hassle and living out of a your lugguage for more than 2 months now, kind of sucks. Moreover, after a long day at work, you wanna get home, into some kind of home feeling, which doesn’t really develop in a Hotel. This also means, buying own furniture, having your own bed, proper cooking in an own kitchen are things I really miss.“But” nothing we can do about this, we will just have to keep searching. If it doesn’t work in Tel Aviv, we might start looking around in the surrounding towns…who knows.(Btw. 3 Raume – Wohnzimmer, Schlafzimmer, Abstellkammer/Gasteraume mit ca. 60-80 qm kosten in einem aus deutscher Sicht vernuenftigen Zustand kalt ca. 1100 – 1400 Euro pro Monat)
c) Missing home and coming back home. I have to admit that I sometimes miss my family, my grannies and my buddys to hang out with. Sure I also have a bunch of good friends in Israel,
but well its not the same. In order to ease this pain I’m just now on the way to munich due to some business meetings and arrange to stay also some days with my homies. Besides that we are planning a 10 days trip sometime in March to go skiing, shopping and hopping around Munich…it will be great for sure.
And finally not to for get my beautiful partner Beeing with my beloved girlfriend is amazing and a lot of times I wonder how we managed to fly always in and out during the last 1,5 years. Of course we are sometimes also having difficult times, but both of us are showing a great ability to get things straight and together. No worries, we are not getting married but we are having a great time together.
That’s it pretty much for now, well we cannot offer any vacation planning yet, as we don’t have an apartment yet. But don’t worry about it, soon I will put up some hotel recommendations and other tips and as soon by start of summer we will for sure have our apartment ready all the ones who are not afraid of the dangerous Israel. Little sidestep here. Israel bombed some buildings in Gaza two days ago. Spectacular or crazy, some of you might think. Well most newspapers didn’t even get it onto page 1, which means that most of
The Israelis don’t even get aware of it. Sueddeutsche took it on, with the amazing article length of about ½ page. You see after some time everything gets kind of regular.
I guess that’s it for now. Hope all of you are looking forward to eastern.
Take care and enjoy…your Sebastian / Sebo / Basti
Montag, 27. Dezember 2010
Merry Christmas (perspective from the holy land)
Dear everybody, once again it was christmas a couple of days ago.
Since weeks or latest since the first "Advent" everywhere in Germany the chrismas feeling was nursed and cherished. the hot wine punch huts were standing with their happy lights on the market and also "Frau Holle" did her part, as it started snowign already in beginning of december. Everywhere you can find decorated trees and a big variation of coloured christmas balls accompanied us through the last weeks. All together a relaxed, happy and sofisticated christmas feeling as we like it.
The one or the other who has ever spent christmas abroad, knows its not everywhere like this. Even though some japanese Traders already realized the consume pontential of the christmas feeling(and use it), it didn't spread around everywhere and therefore doesn't belong to the regular course of the year.
One of this countries is Isaral.
no hot wine punch > of course its anyway warm (which is also the reason for the missing snow)
no chrismas trees > of course, they anyway only have a few trees
no chrismas ceremony > logical as is doesn't fit into the jewish belive
no lights and balls > unclear, could something nice
no christmas store decoration > unclear, as it might help business or increas consume
> further remarks about it can be found on this, well written, english blog
http://www.israelnewsagency.com/israelchristmasbethlehemtourism481224.html
Some lonely exceptions of course are also to be found in Israel, like the bunting street lights in Betlehem or the cozy atmosphere in some orthodox churches. :)
One or the other might think I'm a bit jealous and maybe he is a bit right. On the other side I heard so often "merry christmas" on the phone or read in mails that the atmosphere also arrived a bit over here and I don't have to fight with all the snow. To fit the picture I made kind of a classic christmas dish for my girlfriends family. (goose with cabbage and dumplings)
thats it for now, hope u all had a great christmas and already wish you all a happy new year. Have fun with counting and celebrate nicely.
Since weeks or latest since the first "Advent" everywhere in Germany the chrismas feeling was nursed and cherished. the hot wine punch huts were standing with their happy lights on the market and also "Frau Holle" did her part, as it started snowign already in beginning of december. Everywhere you can find decorated trees and a big variation of coloured christmas balls accompanied us through the last weeks. All together a relaxed, happy and sofisticated christmas feeling as we like it.
The one or the other who has ever spent christmas abroad, knows its not everywhere like this. Even though some japanese Traders already realized the consume pontential of the christmas feeling(and use it), it didn't spread around everywhere and therefore doesn't belong to the regular course of the year.
One of this countries is Isaral.
no hot wine punch > of course its anyway warm (which is also the reason for the missing snow)
no chrismas trees > of course, they anyway only have a few trees
no chrismas ceremony > logical as is doesn't fit into the jewish belive
no lights and balls > unclear, could something nice
no christmas store decoration > unclear, as it might help business or increas consume
> further remarks about it can be found on this, well written, english blog
http://www.israelnewsagency.com/israelchristmasbethlehemtourism481224.html
Some lonely exceptions of course are also to be found in Israel, like the bunting street lights in Betlehem or the cozy atmosphere in some orthodox churches. :)
One or the other might think I'm a bit jealous and maybe he is a bit right. On the other side I heard so often "merry christmas" on the phone or read in mails that the atmosphere also arrived a bit over here and I don't have to fight with all the snow. To fit the picture I made kind of a classic christmas dish for my girlfriends family. (goose with cabbage and dumplings)
thats it for now, hope u all had a great christmas and already wish you all a happy new year. Have fun with counting and celebrate nicely.
Samstag, 18. Dezember 2010
first weeks review
Time is passing fastly... here in the new home and there at the old home.
My flight arrived in Israel with a bit of delay and after we picked up my rental car a "Opel Corsa - blue" finaly at 6a.m. I could close my eyes. After getting up and having some breakfast at 1p.m. Later on we went to a suprising suprise welcome party in a restaurant called "Sebastian" really nice.
Since then the first week past almost with a glimps. Going to work takes me almost one hour by car...in the best case 40min. Its kind of boring and in the new week I will probably start with audio-books and news webcasts.
Work started of slowly. So far I don't have my new IT equipment yet, but I got an nice office with one roommate. During this week I already had my first hebrew lessons and organzied the one or other thing. I also started to get into the first work issues, but still used a lot time to do some support for my old department.
Focus for the coming week will be to open a bank account and to find an apartment.
Then I will start to work on buying a car which is kind of an expensive thing.
3 year old Fiat Punto in Germany 6000-8000 Euro <> Israel 10 000 - 12 000.
Anyhow, I feeling good here and the weekend passed nice...sleeping long, going out yesterday. Surfing today and beeing close to my darling is something really good.
Ah one more thing...everyone things the weather is only sunny in Israel. That is wrong. I came here and brought a 4 days storm with me. Rain almost all day, around 9 degrees and one day kind of a thunderstorm, which flooded the boulevards of Tel Aviv.
But well this were only this 4 days...right now its nice and relaxing around 20degrees.
Thats it for the first weeks review... take care and think at you guys in the snow
My flight arrived in Israel with a bit of delay and after we picked up my rental car a "Opel Corsa - blue" finaly at 6a.m. I could close my eyes. After getting up and having some breakfast at 1p.m. Later on we went to a suprising suprise welcome party in a restaurant called "Sebastian" really nice.
Since then the first week past almost with a glimps. Going to work takes me almost one hour by car...in the best case 40min. Its kind of boring and in the new week I will probably start with audio-books and news webcasts.
Work started of slowly. So far I don't have my new IT equipment yet, but I got an nice office with one roommate. During this week I already had my first hebrew lessons and organzied the one or other thing. I also started to get into the first work issues, but still used a lot time to do some support for my old department.
Focus for the coming week will be to open a bank account and to find an apartment.
Then I will start to work on buying a car which is kind of an expensive thing.
3 year old Fiat Punto in Germany 6000-8000 Euro <> Israel 10 000 - 12 000.
Anyhow, I feeling good here and the weekend passed nice...sleeping long, going out yesterday. Surfing today and beeing close to my darling is something really good.
Ah one more thing...everyone things the weather is only sunny in Israel. That is wrong. I came here and brought a 4 days storm with me. Rain almost all day, around 9 degrees and one day kind of a thunderstorm, which flooded the boulevards of Tel Aviv.
But well this were only this 4 days...right now its nice and relaxing around 20degrees.
Thats it for the first weeks review... take care and think at you guys in the snow
Abonnieren
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