Tuesday 23 September 2008

Jerusalem

Last week I took Thursday off work and went to the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi with Kyriaki.

The weekend was spent in the amazing wonderful city Jerusalem.
Not only there is the most amazing mixture of different cultures and the old city seems to be a market itself, it looks like every piece of stone there has a thousand year history to tell.
We're not talking about nice medieval things here, we're talking about the so called center of the universe for at least three different religions.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures with my own camera, but here's the link to Adrian's blog. He takes really good pictures :)
http://niekoniecznie.blogspot.com/

Hopefully, I'll be able to gather some photos later and post them here to show a little of this astonishing city that everyone must visit.

Wednesday 17 September 2008

Trip to the North

Still in time for a little description of last weekend's trip: we went hiking.
Ok, done!

After having a hard time with the car rental company, all the three cars left Haifa heading the north of Israel.
For Friday, we went on a hike in the national park around the Montfort Castle. The castle itself is just a ruined ancient castle, but the hike is great.
About half the hike is at the side of a very small river that we can jump over. There's a huge natural wall where the very old layers of sediment can be clearly seen, like steps.
But, apart from the amazing panoramic view from the castle, the star of the trip is the tiny and long cave that leads into the start of the river.
For those who went inside, like I did, this cave makes it worth the effort: clear fresh water with little fish swimming around your legs. I actually tasted the water and it's perfect. Of course there are no pictures of the cave... But you can see the waxing gibbous moon next to the castle and some people smoking a "nargilla" there.

After the hike, some went to a small town where there is a bar/restaurant called Chocolata. They only have chocolate: chocolate with coffee, with ice cream, chocolate lasagna, chocolate soup, chocolate more-than-you-can-imagine.
The rest of the people, like me, went directly to Yehudia, to the camping to have showers and settle for the night. It was a nice night, with the essential vodka and "nargilla".

Few hours after going to sleep, a new hiking trip is waiting. Actually, almost everyone of the 15 people went for sight-seeing and only the remaining 5 went for the hike.
Absolutely amazing hike! Astonishing! Basically we went down the river in the Yehudia National Park. There was a place where we really swam with our backpacks because there was no other possible way!

The hike first attraction is the waterfall. We sat there to eat and rest a little.
After the waterfall, the path is through the river for a long time. At least in the summer, it's a very small river, that we can easily cross jumping. However, here and there are natural pools where people can stop to swim and rest on the sun.

The biggest of the pools has to be crossed... swimming. There's no way around. Everyone must swim or go back. And that's not all, to reach it, you must go down some scary vertical metal stairs. Incredibly nice!
Of course, once again I don't have pictures of the best part because the camera had to be inside the back-pack in a special plastic bag so it doesn't get wet. (Luis, you didn't read this, ok? The camera didn't suffer, not a single drop of whater, perfect.) Yes, we knew we'd have to swim, so we where prepared: some empty bottles of whater, water resistant plastic bags and you have a little water resistant boat.
After the pool, we sat once again to eat and rest and take some sun and bathe and dry clothes.

This was a real hike. You can't just walk straight, many of the times, you have to use your hands to hold on better, climb, jump... All on rocks, no dust to interfere and make it dangerous.

Main attractions done!
Now all we have is some more walking on the rocks side by side with a residual river, some more natural swimming pools and the return.
The return is something like climbing a few hundreds of meters to the top again at the 1pm sun. Hard climb, half an hour. Great great view. This was the last attraction of the place: the view. All of us, even burning in the sun, promised to get back. For me, I promised to get back if I come to Israel again. May happen.

Monday 15 September 2008

postal

Amores,

estais porventura interessados em receber em vossas casas, de forma completamente gratuita, um postalinho da terra santa?
Entao tendes nada mais nada menos do que dois fabulosos dias para enviar-me um emailzinho com a vossa moradazinha. Enviai-ma e recebereis os vosso estimado postalinho nas vossas residencias ou em geral onde bem vos apetecer ;)

Beijos malta

Sunday 14 September 2008

and the big star is: The Rocket Lab!

Who hasn't done at least one little joke about building a rocket in Israel?...
I've met some of the people who actually work on it at the Technion. And I've seen them at work!I can tell you that even I would become a pyromaniac if I worked there. It's absolutely amazing and thrilling.

Here's a small record of a static experiment with a solid propellant (a kind of wax). This propellant is very strong but the problem is that a part of it melts instead of burning. They are now trying to figure out ways of reducing the amount of melting propellant and they have to try it over and over again.


A burning rocket produces a deafening noise and a flame of approximately 3000K (equivalent to 2730°C). Remember that at the surface of the Sun the temperature is around 5780K, equivalent to 5510°C.
The burning takes only about 10 seconds, but watching it gives you an adrenaline burst. Please watch the movie, it's worth it.


Movie by Sebastian, all rights reserved ;)
(If you can't see the movie, please leave me a comment and I'll send it to you.)

Tuesday 9 September 2008

The Turbo & Jet Engine Lab

Despite what you may think, we work here. I don't work as much as in Portugal - far from it, thank whoever - but I get up at 8 every morning to go to work. Actually, some of the other students are really working hard. For them there's no going to the beach after work and no posting in blogs during it.

Until now, I've only worked at the computer, but there are engines and airplanes (big toy airplanes...).


You can find some of the airplanes in these pictures.




The orange engine is the 10m one. Maybe you can't notice it here, but it's huge.




This engine doesn't work. It's just a model to show students how it is inside.




Here's a control platform for tests. Each big engine has one of these platforms. I've seen two. I never saw any of them working, but I can imagine that everything else must stop when these little boys are running.
And yes, they are old and expensive. Prof Yeshayahou [Eshaiao] told me that they are planning to renew them.

Of course my job has nothing to do with these toys. What I do is only computer simulation: I have to program some precise equations for the thermodynamic cycle of an engine. Kyriaki, the girl who works here too, is handling the general design of the engine with a comercial software.

Apart from our simulation jobs, we may also take part in small practical experiments.
The example of this morning was not the case: today we only watched.
One of the guys who works here is a PhD student called Yladi. At the moment, he and his partner are watching an action movie in the computer.
But during the morning he did an experiment with the engine he's working on. The aim was to measure the combustion gases under various conditions trying to find out what are the best conditions for that specific engine.

Believe me, being in there with the combustion gases at a temperature of 1200 degrees and all the noise is an exciting experience.

There's more to say about the surrounding labs and other experiments, but I guess I already bored you enough for today.
Hope now you believe that I also work.

Monday 8 September 2008

weekend in Haifa

The first weekend in Israel was spent mainly here in Haifa.

Friday morning was the only morning I slept since I left Portugal. (Yes, I went to bed late on Thursday...)
In the afternoon we went hiking in the Carmel National Park.


It was very good, very good, got lot's of scratches in my legs.

That is not really a cave, but is something similar. Martin took us there.


Friday night is disco time.
Didn't take pictures inside the club because I didn't have pockets and I preferred dancing. I must say it was huge but the building looked somehow like a tent, something temporary, despite being famous a Club for several years.


After a 2 hour sleep, let's go and visit one of the main touristic attractions in Haifa: the Bahai Gardens.

This garden was recently included in the list of World Heritage Sites by the UNESCO. I think the best word to describe it is unbelievable perfection! Everything is taken care, to the smallest details.
For the Bahai religion everyone is equal - there is no difference between races and the world should be united as one only country - and they only search for peace between people (hum... what about civil wars?). There's no such thing as homosexuality and women can't show shoulders or knees because that's disrespectful.

You wouldn't believe how tired I was. After going down the 653 stairs (oh yeah, six hundred and fifty three stairs) of the Bahai Garden I couldn't stand still because my legs would start shaking. It was a good idea leaving the rest of the group and going to sleep. They went downtown, to the German Colony and to the Muslim Area.
After sleeping four hours, I went to the Technion's pool for the first time. Next time I'll take some pictures. The pools are really great.

So it's Saturday. Tomorrow we all work... Let's make a barbecue!
There were the usual salads and meet: hamburgers and chicken. Did you know that somewhere in the bible is written that pigs used to be men in previous incarnations? ;)
The picture shows a drinking competition: you put 2 tampons in your mouth and then drink a beer as fast as you can. You only win if you can say: "I win!". It was worth seeing.


So, let's think again: Tomorrow we all work. Hum... let's maybe go to another club tonight.

This club was near the city. It was amazing. Huge as the other one, but much better. The dj's were also very good.
But well, we came home early.

This is Olga, and she's a great dancer.

Thursday 4 September 2008

weekend

And for who hasn't noticed yet, I'm just going on weekend now.
weekends here are Friday and Saturday. Sunday is a working day.

On Sunday I'll post some news about the weekend.

4th September - Beach

Well, after having spent three days here, having done almost zero work, having slept few hours per day, we went to the beach for the first time during daylight.

Yes, on Sunday, the day of my arrival and of Kyriaki's, there was a great party on the beach. I didn't take the camera for it's own safety. On that party we met almost everyone we needed to meet, on the side of the students.
On Monday we went to the lab for the first time, but this is the subject of a next post.

So, even under the killing heat, only on wednesday do we go taste the waves of Haifa's sea.
The water is hotter than the one I use for shower! It is! It's amazing!!
And there are also waves, great and nice waves. I entered the water one minute after arriving at the beach and left who knows how long later.



Anyway, the "nargilla " follows us everywhere, so just after leaving the water, the good smell and taste are waiting. (Nargilla belongs to Slava, a Israeli guy who somehow manages to be with the IAESTE people.)
Don't be mistaken by those pictures: it was already sunset and it was as hot as at 2pm in Portugal. And this was the coldest day of the week.



Oh yes, the ship. The guys told us that probably there was a military exercise going on because there were some helicopters and then came the ship.

At night at Slava's place:


Yes, the naked one is Slava. No, I won't give any further details. (Just note the happiness in his face.)

First impressions

Summarizing:


So, one waits 10 hours in Barcelona airport before entering the flight to Tel Aviv - Ben Gurion. This is what i do in an airport... Take stupid pictures of myself sleeping.

Ben Gurion is a nice airport.
Getting a train to Haifa is the easiest thing on Earth. Everyone is very nice and speaks perfect English. After having been among Spanish people for an entire day, I really feel comfortable here. And they are also beautiful.

All Israeli people do military service: at least 2 years for girls and 3 years for boys. Also, they wear their uniforms all the time. I've been told it gives them free bus rides and other advantages. So, all around in the trains you see very young people in uniform, but relaxed as if they wear it since they were born.











Some of them also carry their guns.
(But they really don't look aggressive. Really.)

In the train I hadn't realized yet how hot this country is. It's HOT, the humidity is terrible. Here we are anxious for colder days. You know: 2 or 3 showers a day...

Train -> Bus Station -> Technion

The campus is amazing. It's huge, trees all over, it's beautiful. One can really live here: there are supermarkets, restaurants, bus, etc inside the campus.



As for the religions, there are the Orthodox, the Muslins, the Jewish and the ones that don't really take very seriously.

Attending to the fact that most of people are Jewish, I still feel like one of the girls who really hide their skin and I'm comfortable with it.


The MAKAK - our meeting place - is part of the Canada Dorms, where the students in IAESTE internships live.

The girl on the left is Kyriaki (Sunday in Greek) and we are like soulmates here: we arrived on the same day, work in the same lab and live in the same apartment. Briefly: we're together all the time.

Oh, people here only drink beer and vodka. If you want, you can put beer in your vodka, but never put juice in it, juice ruins every drink.

Haifa is an interesting place where many different people "live happily ever after", in the words of Prof. Yeshayahou Levy (should be read: Eechaiao Levy). The landscape is very irregular, which makes every bus ride very very long.

Here are two stores in the center of the city. First is a falafel and shawarma place. You pay for the meet and then fill and refill your pita with as much vegetables and sauces you want.


This is a candy store.
Oh sweet candy, it's great.

There's no chocolate neither the usual cakes and it's oh so sweet.


Yesterday the Ramadan started, so now the muslims only eat at night.

We went to the Muslim neighborhood at sunset and everyone was sitting in the balconies waiting for the sun to go, so they can start eating.



This is us sitting on the entrance of the neighborhood playing silly.

They are really nice guys.

Wednesday 3 September 2008

Ola amigos!

Caros amigos,

a partir de amanha este blog sera escrito principalmente em ingles por duas razoes:
1 - nao ha acentos nos teclados israelitas (por outro lado ha dois alfabetos diferentes ;) ) e
2 - planeio mostrar e talvez partilhar este blog com algumas das pessoas que vieram para ca como eu. Como seria de esperar, entre nos so usamos o ingles.

A principal finalidade desta coisa eh mostra-vos as fotos que vou tirando sobre as minhas aventuras israelitas e da forma como passo aqui os dias. Parecem-me minimamente dignas de serem contadas, mas so comeco amanha (hoje deixei o cabo usb no quarto :s).

Anyways, cheguei bem, gosto de aqui estar, as pessoas sao fixes, o lugar eh fixe, ha muita coisa fixe e algumas coisas menos fixes. Esta quase tudo nas fotos, a partir de amanha.

Beijos
Sofia