Holy Land - North of Israel & Jerusalem

My weekend in Israel was full of history and culture. We had a great guide who didn't focus as much on the religious part of the stories, but also on the political issues. She had a joke for each story - religious or not. The land bears the signs of the passing of time. History has been very generous with this territory and there is really a lot to learn. The green lands that I saw now used to be nothing by desert. With a great water system built by the Americans, Israel has water all over the country from only one source - the Jordan. Where there wasn't desert, there were swamps and this is where you find many eucalyptus trees, especially brought from Australia. The country has a great infrastructure. Probably the best roads I've seen so far.

A strange observation I made is that they have mostly white cars. White or dark blue and grey. You rarely see a red car, but no yellow, green, baby blue...etc.

First day - North of Israel
I can't even remember everything we visited...there were so many churches and holy places...just too much for me. The only thing that struck me was the origin of the word Armageddon which comes from Maggidon - some hills in the North of Israel that have been a continuos battle field for many years since ancient time.

The country is also divided between Jewish towns and Arab towns. They each live in their own world and interact only little on common holidays. You can certainly see and feel the differences...Palestine is still there.

Second day - Jerusalem

This city was tiering. It's a mix of Orthodox Jews and Arabs. Busy, full of tourists and very noisy. You do have a feeling of warmth while visiting the Mountain of Olives or the Western Wall, but it doesn't last long because the next group of tourists is pushing you out :) 

These are the places we will all see when the Savior will come. This is the gate through which we will pass for our judgment :D Some already have front row seats, the hills around the gate and the golden dome are full of graves. It's like a large open cemetery in the middle of a city.

The Meeting
The meeting was great! We had a good time together...I had my own presentations which went out well and a successful client event.

I ate so much...Israel has great food and my love for spicy food has been satisfied.

Hopefully more to come...next year should be Cape Town...sounds good I'd say.

Holy Land - Tel Aviv & Jaffa

Who would have thought about Israel...another year, another IESF Regional Meeting and another pin on my personal world map.

The trip is fine so far. We flew with I think, the oldest plane Tarom had, with a large group of Christians (Orthodox). They were with their priest and their nun traveling to the holly places before Easter. I was so lucky to sit just behind the priest. Adelina and I were convinced that no matter how old that plane would have been with a priest in front nothing could have happened or at last we would end up in Heaven for sure. 

It's not as easy to get into Israel, especially if you are a young girl with light hair. As you don't need a visa we didn't bother our heads with invitations and other official stuff, but it turned out that such a paper would have served us well. First a girl stopped and interrogated us just as we got off the plane" "Where are you going?" "Why?" "With who?"...etc etc...very in depth questions, by the way. As if that wasn't enough we got even more questions at passport control...so it took a while until we were actually in Tel Aviv.

The Taxi driver ripped us off of course, but when you come from a country where this is normal...it doesn't bother you, you expect it.

Tel Aviv is different. Sunny weather, beautiful beach...but a city which makes you feel as if you are nowhere and everywhere at the same time. It's a complex mix of American/ European/ Arabic infrastructure and architecture. On one road you feel like in Miami, then you feel like in Milan and a few streets away like in Greece. The city is actually being rebuild. They are "restoring"...which means that they practically take down the whole building but a wall, and then build something new :)

Though the state is strongly militarized you don't feel that on the street, or you somehow expect it. They check you every time you enter the hotel, there are planes and helicopters going back and forth, but I only saw armed police men once. You don't feel any threat...By the way, the military is mandatory here. After highschool girls go for 2 years and boys for 3. After that, boys have to go in every year for one month. They don't serve the government, they serve the nation (that's what they say). So basically everyone here knows how to shoot a gun.

The people are also a weird mix. I can't tell a certain common physical trait they have. They look Jewish indeed, but I can't say why. Some of them have a very light - gingerish figure and others are a bit darker. There are no blondes here for sure, but otherwise...Still, I do identify them with the people in this region. They don't look European or American...

I missed staying in this nice hotels and I was so looking forward to sleeping in these super mega soft beds...We have a great view also :D

On our first day, just before the IESF dinner, we got to travel around bit. First we went to Dror's office where we learned about this strange tradition. People here are strongly connected by their religion and their religion becomes their law. For example it a state law that restaurants are not allowed to serve meat and diary at the same time. So if you have diary in your restaurant, there will be no meat for sure (except fish). ***though, there's no state law on Kosher in restaurants regarding dairy and meat - even McDonald's serve cheeseburgers. Many restaurants, however, do have Kosher certificates issued by the rabbinic authorities, after the owners had voluntarily applied for them.

Another thing is that they have at the entrance of each door a wooden thing which inside has a scripture from the Bible which protects the room you enter.

I can't say that we visited Tel Aviv from Dror's car, because we didn't really have time to see everything. The only thing we actually visited in Tel Aviv is the old train station and Jaffa...a placed filled with catttsss (all females were neutered by the way :) beautiful place...

EPSO Exam

"Courage is the power to let go of the familiar."

~ Raymond Lindquist

I think this is going to be a year of experimenting. I decree thus 2012 as a "trying the water with the tip of my toe" year :)

Today I took my first EPSO exam for the position of Communication Officer for the European Institutions Not because I'm looking for a job, but because I love challenging myself.

I think everybody should try it. Not necessarily because it offers the opportunity to work abroad for a EU body, but because the test is really fun. Before taking it I read a lot of things about it and was a bit scared. They were saying that there are special courses and books training you for this. But shhh you don't need that if you still got your 6th grade math skills with you and a bit of common sense. But, if I pass I am officially a genius :)

The test has 6 levels - verbal, numerical, abstract reasoning and professional capabilities (accuracy and precision, prioritizing and organizing and situational judgment). The difficulty stands mostly in the fact that each of them has to be solved in a certain period of time. For example in the verbal reasoning you have 20 questions (texts that need to be read) in 35 minutes. I did feel the pressure and in the numerical section I failed to answer a question because I was out of time.

There is nothing difficult in the questions per se. As I was saying the numerical are 6th grade - calculating percentage mostly. In the abstract reasoning you have to continue a raw of figures with the missing one. This is my favorite game, though I mostly fail :) but it was fun to remember the Mickey Mouse magazines I used to collect which had this type of exercises.

I'll get my results in about a month, hope I don't forget by then.