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.

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

Welcome back to Israel

Well...everybody...

You guys probably came along here because, you where invited to one of the farewell parties or received a good bye mail. Now beeing curious what you can find on my blog.

However, nice to see you here cause this means you didnt just delete the goodbye mail after reading it :).

After a bit more than a year I'm now going to return to Israel and to work for Energy Renewable Solar Thermal Energy. In short the guys who wanna produce energy by using big mirrors to focues it on a receiver tube, which is absorbing the heat and then taking it to a steam turbinen.

Most of you by now, know that I will stay here around 2-3 years and well wanna return back to Germany after that...we will see what the future will give to us.

Maybe for the one and the other a short, short retrospective. Its now the 3rd of december and about 7days until I will sit in the plain with a lot of luggage. Its always hard to leave the beloved home,with all the well build enviroment (Family/Friends/hobbies/work etc.) but trust me its opening a lot of creativity and flexibility for yourself.

The time of packing is always kind of nasty, as you have finally to realize that its really happening and thats is not only a wish. But on the other side its also a good chance to get rid of all the stuff you really don't need and maybe some parts of your family will be happy to take some of it. In my example my brother will take a lot furniture for his new apartment.

Anyhow, I can really recommend to everyone to give it a try to work/live abroad, who is thinking about it. Its simply a great expierence and enriching your life.

That should be enough for now...feel free to send me some feedback and come back in maybe a month to check out what went good and what went bad so far :):).
your Sebastian / Basti / Sebo