Weekly Summary: In-Between

I haven't updated the weekly blog/mail for a long time, and what better time is it than doing it just before we fly back to the US? The last 10 days were busy times indeed. We met so many people, and I would like to thank each and every one who found the time to meet us, no matter how or when or for how long. It was great to see you all and I'm already looking forward to seeing you again.

We were frequently asked how did we find it here in Israel, or how did we find Cincinnati so far. I have to say that, for me, the jury are still deliberating. There are many things that we don't like in Cincinnati, and we have mentioned a few of them in passing to some people we met here. There are also things that become apparent when you come back to Israel after a while abroad. For example, I am still shocked at how bad people drive in Israel, how dangerously reckless they are and how frequent they use the horn. In three months in Ohio I heard only two honks (not including the fact that the horn honks whenever we lock the car), and one of them was my own doing when I tried to avoid a danger. Here it seems as if people drive with one hand on the cellular and the other on the horn.
I think that the main problem for us now is that we feel a bit "homeless". We haven't settled in Cincinnati yet, and I'm not sure we ever will feel "at home" there; however, we no longer feel at home here. I don't know if it's just because we don't have our "physical" home, or if it's something deeper than that, but it felt a bit like being tourists. Still, all the people I know, love, and want to meet live here in Israel, so probably I still consider this place to be my home. I think that apart from the "physical" home I miss in Cincinnati, I don't miss anything else there. Certainly I do not miss the university, teaching or students. If anything, this visit proved to me how weak my connections with Cincinnati are. I wonder if it would have been different if we had chosen another place, for example Boston, Seattle, or Calgary, which were all candidates at some point or another. No doubt that more people would have pledged to visit us if we had chosen one of these locations. We certainly need more friends there, not just classmates as D has.
D also mentioned how strange it feels to live with our parents. I said that it feels like being a 16 years old again, just without the (few) perks that come with that age. We were living with my dad for a week, and I found that he does his best to manage his new life after my mother's passing. It seems somewhat fragile, and I'm still worried about him. I think that it was a good idea to move out of there while we're still in Israel and we saw him yesterday, but it's hard. My next visit, I'm afraid, will be only in the summer, and even that is not guaranteed, and it's hard to keep an eye from afar. I have to rely on my sister's testimonies, and I think that her words were always more bleak than the true situation was.

In a totally unrelated note, but something I wanted to do a long time ago, I'll try to summarize why I think the Americans are over the hill:

1. They are lazy. They don't like to work, they don't want to work, and they don't work. You can attribute the current financial crisis in America directly to the fact that they, as an entire nation, have ceased to manufacture things for quite a while now. Everything is manufactured in China, or India, or some other 3rd world country.
   
2. They are ignoramuses and insulated who think it's a bliss to be such people. They have no idea or wish to know what happens in the rest of the world. They don't want to learn about obscure places which use the metric system. They don't want to know that there is such a thing as the metric system or why it's better to use it. They think their undrinkable wash-water is a great beer, or that their undrinkable mud-water is a great coffee, or that 30 MPG on the freeway (miles per gallon if you have to know, it's about 12.5 Km/liter) is a good fuel consumption.
3. They live a life of superficial, surface-deep, facade, without any attempt to take anything deeper (except, perhaps, inhaling the smoke of their cigarette). You can see it everywhere before Christmas with all the richly and ridiculously ornamented houses. You can understand it fully when you realize that in order to prepare for a job interview all you need to do is wear your best suit and look sharp. It is almost a profanity to ask them to think, God forbid to understand.
   
4. There is no such thing as American society. As we mentioned in this visit, there are huge gaps between rich and poor, and between the races in America. There are only three things that are extremely expensive in America: nutritious food, good education and good health-care. Poor Americans cannot afford to eat vegetables, they eat junk-food, they can't afford good schools or universities, and they can't afford going to the doctor. You can see this research on how the difference between poor and rich in America has grown in the past two decades regarding life expectancy. American society is a mix of several classes which meet only at the mall: the rich buy, the proletariat sell and the poor people (namely, Afro-Americans) clean the mess after them.
   

I have only one reason why Israel is over the hill as well: we follow everything the Americans do with such zeal that we will shortly overpass them on the way to our demise. If there is one thing Americans are good at and Israelis are unable to do it is to postpone our gratification and to be patient. We need everything now, at this very instant. That's why people cut each other on the road just to be one car ahead at the infinite traffic jam on Ayalon.

So, finally, where is home for us? Home is where our high-speed internet is. :-)

On the move

We are currently at the Dayton "International" airport. We got up at 5am, the temperature was -5 Celsius, and it will not go over freezing point today. From here to Washington, from there to JFK, and from there to TLV, where the weather is somewhat warmer. We will stay in Tel Aviv for the next two weeks, and return on December 30th to celebrate the New Year in the States.
It is my first "home vacation" after such a long term abroad. To some extent I feel that I'm not entirely home in either places; in Israel we don't have a home anymore, and we will be staying with our families, with all the consequences of that. On the other hand, I still don't feel that Cincinnati is my home, although I did start to feel at home in our flat. Perhaps if it was another city in the USA, e.g. Boston or Seattle, it would feel differently. I don't know.

We spent the few days before our flight celebrating the sudden change from a very busy quarter (for both of us) to total freedom. I think that D even found that there is too much free time on her hands. We spent it well, though, with going to pubs, watching a movie (the new James Bond - what a horrible film), more pubs, and more shopping. It was a much deserved time off and I think we enjoyed it greatly.

We'll see you back in Israel soon.

Weekly Summary 11: Thanksgiving

Americans celebrate this strange holiday called Thanksgiving, which is related to some heroic story on the first settlers that came with the Mayflower more than 4 centuries ago. Nowadays all that is left from this holiday are the long weekend, the shopping after Thanksgiving day, and the large feasts during which flocks of turkeys are being consumed. We did them all during the last few days, so we have truly lived the spirit of this holiday.
The weekend was long, starting on Wednesday afternoon and finishing tomorrow morning, and we got to rest a bit, although, as always, there was a huge list of tasks to complete. I'm glad to say that I'm almost there, the term is almost over, and I can see the end coming. Tomorrow starts the last week of studies, with one class taking their last midterm (no final) on Wednesday and the other taking one midterm the same day and the final on next Monday. So, until the end of the term I still have to check two midterms, one final exam, one final project, and one last assignment. That's about 5 days of work. Still four lectures to go, two already prepared for tomorrow and other two on Friday and that's it! I'll be the veteran of one term. D has her final exams week after that and then, on December 12, we will be over, at last, thank God! See, I bet they celebrate Thanksgiving for that.

The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday for some reason. Officially it's the start of the holidays shopping season and as you know the economy is not doing that well this season. As we had been doing in the last few months, we again tried to boost the failing economy by going to another shopping spree, that started on Thursday's shopping at Jungle Jim's, the local store for food from all over the world (mainly for us: Jacobs coffee imported by Elite Ramat Gan). On Friday we bought me a new pair of trousers (that's pants in proper English) and three buttoned shirts at the Gap, and on Saturday we went to Target for another "fill in the house blanks" shopping. All in all I think we are about $500 poorer now. I think that since we came here we have boosted the American economy by a sum of $15,000-$20,000 including the car we bought. No wonder, then, that NYSE gained on Friday after hearing how well Black Friday sales were. And by the way, the stores have already started playing awful Christmas tunes and songs. It takes a few visits and then you become immuned to the sounds, and can barely hear them, like a white noise in the background.

And we ate. On Friday one of D's classmates invited the entire class (some 40 people) and faculty to enjoy after-Thanksgiving traditional dinner with his family at his Mother's house. It was amazing. Not the food, that was great, but more the friendliness and all the time and effort they put to make us feel at home. I also got to meet the rest of D's classmates, who are mainly Indians (not Native Americans, real Indians). All of them were in shock after the terrorist attacks on Mumbai this week. It seems that Indians hold a belief that we, Israelis, can deal with terror and conquer it, and especially the Mossad, which they claim to be the best intelligence organization in the world. We had a few chats on this issue, and mainly on other issues which relate to the place of India in the future world, as super-power. They say that some in India have been talking about this for a few decades now, but India is still too divided between the rich and the poor that it will take a long time until India can become a super-power. They were also impressed by the fact that I was in Bangalor last year. So, Dvora, this is for you. They also said that we should consider ourselves settled for a long trip in India after D graduates, as she will have "a friend in each city" in India.

We also spent a very nice evening with Kelly and his family today. His wife and he invited us over and it was nice to see how they live and meet their family. I am very grateful for that, and it was nice to be out tonight, although now we have to pay with less hours to sleep to make up for the lost time.

So, the weekend ends, and a new week begins shortly with still a lot of work to do. Have a good one.

Short summary for those who asked for:

• Thanksgiving food
• Thanksgiving / Black Friday shopping
• Not enough rest in 5 days weekend
• Still more food

Weekly update #10: work, work, work

The current weekly update has been delayed until now because of the excessive work I had during the last week. I think I put in around 80 or so hours last week, and at the current salary I'm paid, if I continue this way, I will be paid around $10 an hour. I can't understand how this happens; I teach only 6 hours a week, and prepare my lessons for them, after I decided that I want better presentations/lessons to use in class. Let's assume that I'm spending 5 hours in excess of each hour I teach, so that's 36 hours a week. The problem is that I still prepare the answers for the homework I give, check the homework, check the exams, and so on. This almost doubles the time I'm spending.
Next week is Thanksgiving, which means we have a long weekend. I guess I'll use that time to rest a little. However, I have so many tasks ahead of me that I don't think I'll get too much rest. We also have plans as we are invited to dinner at someone from D's class and at Kelly's (us! plans! to see other people! confused? so are we!). It's crazy. This 10 weeks quarter term, instead of the 14 weeks semester we had in the Technion, is so condensed. In each class I teach this quarter they have 3 midterms, and 6-7 home assignments and I have to grade them all because I don't have a Teaching Assistant (TA). I've become the corrupt academic type that complains when his research is effected by the lack of TAs and the necessity to lecture in classes. How sad...

Anyway, not much to tell after the views of the snow I posted earlier this week. The weather has improved and became warmer - it's now around zero. I told my dad that yesterday and he laughed and said that I sounded differently than before I had left. There are 22 days left until we fly to Israel, 23 days until we land. I started counting the days now. I don't know if or when we will be able to fly home again after that visit. Firstly, we don't have enough money. Secondly, we don't have time, because spring break is only a week or so. Thirdly, D is supposed to start her internship in the summer, so summer will be busy as well. She has started interviewing for the internship, and as expected, she is doing very well. She is way over the level of the other students looking for internship both in experience and academic background, that the only thing that might prevent her from landing the internship she wants is her being OVER-qualified. She also had an interesting interview with the Forces-of-Darkness from the NW (that's Microsoft, and I'm only joking). The funny thing is that they interviewed her over the phone; if she does well (which she has) and proceed to the next step (no doubt), she will be interviewed there for an entire day. They will probably fly her over for that. Too bad they don't fly the domestic partner :-). I would love to see the Microsoft campus, especially after reading Microserfs a few weeks ago. And Seattle is probably warmer than here at this time of the year.

The maze thing is coming very well. I have improved the communications between the agents to include only necessary communications, which means that the problem now scales to ANY size of the maze and each the only limit is the number of agents in the group. That's vast improvement.
I presented it to another researcher here and he was impressed, I think. He asked me to show this work in a meeting we have next week - so more work. Yay!

Well, see you in three and a half weeks!

Signs of winter

This week started off with the signs of winter. We had the first snow, which lasted for a few hours on the ground from late afternoon on Monday till the early morning hours of Tuesday. In Tuesday morning we woke up to see a deer, probably the same young fawn we had seen a few weeks ago. We tried to take pictures of it while it was grazing across from our porch, but it disguised itself. Later on Tuesday he was grazing just across from our house on the street. The photos here are of the fawn and the first signs of snow.

Weekly update #9: progress and recession

This week was focused on the progress we have been making since we came here, and on the uneasy feeling of my friends back home about the financial situation. There is still a lot to do on both sides of the ocean, and hopefully things will improve soon.

In chats with some of my friends from the previous work place. It seems that the management has decided to make some cutbacks, which are defined as a "more humane" way to deal with the financial crisis rather than fire people. I hope that hi-tech companies in Israel don't generate a fake crisis just to be able to "push down" on the salaries and benefits that workers had been given before. Anyway, in order to cheer you up, my friends, perhaps this will help.

In the mean time we, unfortunately without help from the rest of America, tried to get the American economy on the move again. On Friday we returned to IKEA for another shopping spree that ended up with a sofa, two stools, a desk, a drawer cabinet to support the desk, two small cabinets, and an office chair. The total is almost $800, plus 4 hours at IKEA and a day and a half assembling everything. This came after a very successful week, some of which you can see here, which included the official approval of us being domestic partners so that D won't have to pay tuition, and of me solving the multi-agent maze problem within 4 days, which made Kelly very impressed. I don't see this maze things as being too hard or a challenge, but it seems that others do, and everyone suggests that I write a paper for a conference and a journal. If I end up doing so, it will probably be the paper which took people the shortest period of time to work on. I will certainly have to add literature survey, and a few improvements, but the main core is already there.

Another thing that has changed recently is my approach to the students. I feel that I have developed a hard skin so that their grades on a test do not bother me anymore. Today I graded the tests of one of my classes, and the average was 60, compared to the 69 in the previous test they had, and this time I feel less bad about it than in the previous test. This time I know that all the mistakes they were making are their own, because I know for sure that I taught them and told them to be cautious not to make those mistakes. If the students are not listening, that's their problem, and it ceases to be my problem. On the other hand, there are (a few) students that do try, and when they don't succeed, or not as well as I think they should, it is still a disappointment.

Today was my (almost) first time I saw snow falling. It was cold enough for something on the verge between snow and rain, but the temperature was still above zero, and the precipitation too weak for a real snow. D keeps laughing at me for not having seen snow falling, but that's what happens when you live in the desert (Jerusalem doesn't count). She also reminds me all the time that we will have enough chances to have snow, that soon enough we will wish it wasn't snowing. Perhaps she's right, but until then, a good snow fall is in order!

This also summarizes our two months of being here. A lot have changed since we came here: the economy collapsed, a new president was elected, we found a house, a car, registered ourselves to all the medical/dental/life insurance benefits, got domestic partnership approved, etc. Still, this place doesn't feel like my home. We're meeting the plan of this project, and D has even started to think about success criteria. I still don't have friends here, certainly not like the ones I have in Israel, I still miss my family, being in Tel Aviv, my flat there, and the rest of my life there. I don't know if this will change soon. There is so much that needs to develop here before I will consider this place as my home, and maybe it will never be. In the mean time I still feel a bit like a tourist here, and I know that I will feel like a tourist in my coming visit to Tel Aviv. I find myself looking forwards to this feeling. I have never been a tourist in Tel Aviv, and always considered it my home, even when I grew up in Holon, or lived a few years in Haifa. It will be a change to wake up in the morning and go for a stroll in Tel Aviv.

You may be happy to know that in the past month my view of Americans hasn't improved by one bit. They are still a lazy and stupid group of people, who will not budge an inch out of their way to help you. They are entangled in their own bureaucracy without being able to do anything different than the thing they were told to do. If you want something done, you have to do it exactly at the same way they know, and adjust to the pace they are used to doing things. I have a small hope that this is only in the university, because I talked with a secretary that joined the department a month ago, and she was amazed by the sluggishness of the university as much as I was. She said that it's probably because people at the university usually have tenure, and no one gets fired, so no one needs to work hard to justify his or her job. I think she's right, as I've seen similar things in other places, like IAI.

Perhaps Barack Obama will change things. In his acceptance speech he told the cheering crowd that they will need to work hard to change America. His speech sounded to me like the speech Churchill gave when he encouraged the British people to keep fighting the Nazis. Neither of them promised it will be easy, and in both cases the crowd was fearing the present but hoping for a better future. It worked one time, let's hope it will work again, for the sake of America, and for the sake of the entire world.

Good mood and good news

Today I'm in a very good mood. First of all, the human resources has approved the application and now D and I are officially Domestic Partners. This means that we can get tuition remission for her and enroll her to all the medical benefits, just as if we were married. This means that our financial condition has improved greatly.
Another thing is that I have solved the multi-agent maze problem. It took me only 4 days to solve it from the Saturday until now. It works brilliantly. Kelly is really impressed with that and he thinks I should write a paper for a conference and a journal.
With all these great things that happened to me today I also found a funny site with comic strips that deal with Ph.D. and grad students life. All images are from http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php and they depict so nicely the life of a grad student in the US. I really recommend that you take a look at it. Here are some appetizers from there: