Well, I am back in Tel Aviv after almost three weeks in the states where I got to go to Nashville (ew), Chicago (thanks Sally!), Minneapolis, New Jersey, and NYC. It was a great trip, had a great time with friends and family, showed Oren a real American Thanksgiving, and even got to navigate while Oren drove from New Jersey to New York City and back a few times for his friend Charles' wedding.
Now, back in Tel Aviv, I have started Ulpan which is the school that teaches me Hebrew. I go to class 5 days a week from 8:15am-12:50pm. They are long classes, but after just attending 3 of them, I am confident that it will be extremely worthwhile. Plus, the class has a real international flair, having students ranging from 16 years old to 65 years old, and coming from the USA, France, Russia, Italy, Singapore, Peru, and Taiwan.
The title for this blog entry comes from what occurred after I left Ulpan today. I walked past a fruit stand (these are quite common here in Tel Aviv) and saw a great looking mango. When I went to purchase it, the man told me that it would cost me 31 shekels. This sounded very high to me, but as I always like to give people the benefit-of-the-doubt, I rationalized that maybe they are currently out of season (as I haven't seen them at any other stores lately) and that is why it was so expensive. So, I paid for my fruit and started walking home. On my walk home, I was talking to Oren and decided to ask him if the price sounded appropriate. He angrily confirmed that the price I paid was, indeed, outrageous and that I had been taken advantage of. After his initial anger at his Israeli people for being so mean to his girlfriend, he suggested that I go into a nearby store and see what their cost for a mango would be. So, I approach a cash register, explain that I bought the mango elsewhere and that I expected I had been cheated, and asked them if they could tell me how much it weighs and therefore, how much it would cost in their store. So, it weighed .85 kilos and would have cost me 10 shekels at their store. With this new information, Oren got increasingly angry and suggested I take the mango back. At first, being the non-confrontational American that I am, I considered just letting it be and learning my lesson to be more careful next time. However, that notion passed quickly and I agreed with Oren that if I wasn't going to stand up for myself, than who would? So, I marched back 7 block to the fruit stand, getting more aggravated with every step thinking "Who does this fruit vendor think he is trying to mess with a nice Jewish girl from Minnesota who moved to HIS country and is learning HIS language, and working with HIS members of government and non-profit organizations to make HIS country a better place to LIVE????" By the time I got back to the fruit stand, I was no longer the nice, non-confrontational girl from Minnesota, but rather an angry member of Israeli society with a whole lot of Chutzpah!
I stormed up to the man who sold me the mango and the conversation went as follows:
Schmuck: There is a problem with the mango?
Me: No, there is not a problem with the mango. However, I realized that I can buy this same mango down the street for 10 shekels instead of 31 shekels and I refuse to pay for something that I was so over-charged for.
Schmuck: What do you mean? This is a good mango!
Me: I'm sure it is, but it is not worth 31 shekels and I think it is awful that you charged me that much.
Schmuck: But it is over 1 kilo!
Me: Actually sir, it is .85 kilos.
Schmuck: So you don't want the mango?
Me: I do want the mango, but I am not going to pay 31 shekels for it, so I would like to return it and get my money back.
Schmuck: (Begins to argue) But...
Me: Sir, you should really be ashamed of yourself for trying to take advantage of a person living in your country just because I am not from here and don't speak Hebrew yet. It is really unfortunate for me, as someone who is a contributing member of society, to have to experience something like this, and I think that next time you are in this situation, you should choose to act differently.
So, the Schmuck apologized and gave me my money back, and I walked away victorious and very proud of myself.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
In the words of Neil Diamond: We're comin to America
Well, it's been a crazy week. It has been crunch time with Yoel's upcoming fund-raising trip to the states, I had a donor in town, there was a private film screening of a movie about Ariel Sharon for his staff... I don't think we have been home one night this week!
Furthermore, this past week we decided it was a good idea for me to be at the United Jewish Community's General Assembly which is in Nashville this coming weekend. Unfortunately, this means I have to go back to Opryland again which I had vowed I would never do. Yuck. Furthermore, this completely altered my schedule as I was planning to be in MN for Thanksgiving, and me and Oren were heading home on November 16. Well, the GA starts the 11th and ends on the 13th, so it would be silly for me to come back to Israel for 2 days to turn around and fly back to the states. So, when I was originally only going to be in the states for 10 days, I am now going to be there almost three weeks. This isn't a bad thing, but of course, it was this week that various potential clients that I have been trying to get meetings with all decided that next week would be a good time to meet... and now I have to tell them I will not be available for 3 weeks... Not the ideal situation, but I am confident that my time at the GA will be well spent in regards to doing some major networking with donors and Israeli organizations which is exactly what I need to be doing right now. In honor of the GA, me and Oren constructed a lovely business card for me to hand out and we just got them back from the printer today. They are very pretty. Now I feel like a real business (Don't worry Jodi, I have 9 saved for you)!
So, Yoel has officially been in the states for about 12 hours now. It is extremely difficult for me that I am not there traveling with him from meeting to meeting. Never have I sent a client off to do meetings alone, let alone on their first official fund-raising trip. The original decision was made for him to go alone because a) We didn't want to spend the money on another ticket at this point- we need to raise the money first! b) I did not want to be gone for 3 weeks (guess that didn't end up working out anyway.) So, considering I cannot be there with him to make sure he is on schedule and such, I have been obsessively calling him all day. I know, it's obnoxious, but I can't help myself, and luckily, Yoel is very good and understanding about it (except for that I just called him twice to find out how his 4pm meeting went and he hasn't answered... it's making me nervous... so I texted him. Ridiculous, I know, but would it kill Israelis to start using Blackberries?? There is something about being able to email someone at any time that gives me a strange sense of comfort... This is what living in Washington, DC does to people.) I'm finding that, while these fund-raising trips can be stressful when in the states, it's even worse when I have to calculate the time difference so that I know when he should be done with a meeting or in a taxi to his next meeting, etc. so that I can call him. My brain is going into overdrive.
So, I have one more day of stressing out about Yoel's trip from a distance and then on Saturday I get on a plane and fly to Nashville via Newark and Cleveland. I will meet Yoel in Nashville for some good old Opryland fun, and then I am busting out of there Monday night, flying to Chicago, staying overnight (Thanks Sally!) and then home to Minneapolis on Tuesday morning where I will have quality time with the family, and then Oren will join us on Friday. I cannot wait for a vacation- this whole starting a business thing is exhausting!
Furthermore, this past week we decided it was a good idea for me to be at the United Jewish Community's General Assembly which is in Nashville this coming weekend. Unfortunately, this means I have to go back to Opryland again which I had vowed I would never do. Yuck. Furthermore, this completely altered my schedule as I was planning to be in MN for Thanksgiving, and me and Oren were heading home on November 16. Well, the GA starts the 11th and ends on the 13th, so it would be silly for me to come back to Israel for 2 days to turn around and fly back to the states. So, when I was originally only going to be in the states for 10 days, I am now going to be there almost three weeks. This isn't a bad thing, but of course, it was this week that various potential clients that I have been trying to get meetings with all decided that next week would be a good time to meet... and now I have to tell them I will not be available for 3 weeks... Not the ideal situation, but I am confident that my time at the GA will be well spent in regards to doing some major networking with donors and Israeli organizations which is exactly what I need to be doing right now. In honor of the GA, me and Oren constructed a lovely business card for me to hand out and we just got them back from the printer today. They are very pretty. Now I feel like a real business (Don't worry Jodi, I have 9 saved for you)!
So, Yoel has officially been in the states for about 12 hours now. It is extremely difficult for me that I am not there traveling with him from meeting to meeting. Never have I sent a client off to do meetings alone, let alone on their first official fund-raising trip. The original decision was made for him to go alone because a) We didn't want to spend the money on another ticket at this point- we need to raise the money first! b) I did not want to be gone for 3 weeks (guess that didn't end up working out anyway.) So, considering I cannot be there with him to make sure he is on schedule and such, I have been obsessively calling him all day. I know, it's obnoxious, but I can't help myself, and luckily, Yoel is very good and understanding about it (except for that I just called him twice to find out how his 4pm meeting went and he hasn't answered... it's making me nervous... so I texted him. Ridiculous, I know, but would it kill Israelis to start using Blackberries?? There is something about being able to email someone at any time that gives me a strange sense of comfort... This is what living in Washington, DC does to people.) I'm finding that, while these fund-raising trips can be stressful when in the states, it's even worse when I have to calculate the time difference so that I know when he should be done with a meeting or in a taxi to his next meeting, etc. so that I can call him. My brain is going into overdrive.
So, I have one more day of stressing out about Yoel's trip from a distance and then on Saturday I get on a plane and fly to Nashville via Newark and Cleveland. I will meet Yoel in Nashville for some good old Opryland fun, and then I am busting out of there Monday night, flying to Chicago, staying overnight (Thanks Sally!) and then home to Minneapolis on Tuesday morning where I will have quality time with the family, and then Oren will join us on Friday. I cannot wait for a vacation- this whole starting a business thing is exhausting!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Bikram Yoga Hell
Well, another week has gone by and it is time for a brief update. First and foremost, I am officially and legally the president of a small business now, so that is exciting.
Also, yesterday, I experienced my first Bikram Yoga class. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Bikram yoga is when you do yoga in a room that is 105 degree with 40% humidity. I know, it sounds awful, but Oren has raved about it since he started going it in Cambridge so I agreed to give it a try. Well, needless to say, it was literally like Hell. It was hot and painful. I don't particularly like heat, and I don't like pain.... so the combination of the two made me quite angry (which I'm assuming is the opposite response you are supposed to achieve from yoga...) About half way through the class (which was all in Hebrew, by the way, and when Oren would try to interpret something into English for me the teacher yelled at him for talking during class) I vowed I would never step foot in a Bikram Yoga studio ever again, and started getting extremely angry at Oren for convincing me that this was something that was actually enjoyable as opposed to a form of cruel and unusual punishment. Thanks to the heat and the bending over and having the blood rush to my head to try and achieve particular poses, I got pretty dizzy and nauseous about 3/4 in to it which I used as a good excuse to lie on my mat and silently curse my situation while rudely looking at my watch to see how much longer I had in Hell. However, I did stay in the room for the entire 90 minutes (you'd be surprised (or maybe not) by how many people walked out half way or 3/4 of the way through because they couldn't handle it anymore) and once I finally got out of the boiler room and cooled down a bit, I somehow came to the conclusion that I wanted to try it again. I'm not sure what it is.... maybe the challenge, maybe the curiosity of wanting to know if it is always this awful, or if it gets better... and after all of that sweating, I did feel quite cleansed... We'll see.
Alright, I'm about to call it a night. Happy Halloween to all!
Also, yesterday, I experienced my first Bikram Yoga class. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Bikram yoga is when you do yoga in a room that is 105 degree with 40% humidity. I know, it sounds awful, but Oren has raved about it since he started going it in Cambridge so I agreed to give it a try. Well, needless to say, it was literally like Hell. It was hot and painful. I don't particularly like heat, and I don't like pain.... so the combination of the two made me quite angry (which I'm assuming is the opposite response you are supposed to achieve from yoga...) About half way through the class (which was all in Hebrew, by the way, and when Oren would try to interpret something into English for me the teacher yelled at him for talking during class) I vowed I would never step foot in a Bikram Yoga studio ever again, and started getting extremely angry at Oren for convincing me that this was something that was actually enjoyable as opposed to a form of cruel and unusual punishment. Thanks to the heat and the bending over and having the blood rush to my head to try and achieve particular poses, I got pretty dizzy and nauseous about 3/4 in to it which I used as a good excuse to lie on my mat and silently curse my situation while rudely looking at my watch to see how much longer I had in Hell. However, I did stay in the room for the entire 90 minutes (you'd be surprised (or maybe not) by how many people walked out half way or 3/4 of the way through because they couldn't handle it anymore) and once I finally got out of the boiler room and cooled down a bit, I somehow came to the conclusion that I wanted to try it again. I'm not sure what it is.... maybe the challenge, maybe the curiosity of wanting to know if it is always this awful, or if it gets better... and after all of that sweating, I did feel quite cleansed... We'll see.
Alright, I'm about to call it a night. Happy Halloween to all!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Update...
Since I wrote that last post this morning, I was invited to attend the private ceremony for the anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination in the Prime Minister's office by Oren's boss and sat two rows behind Prime Minister Olmert. Cool stuff.
Live from the Knesset
Boker tov (good morning)!
I am writing to you live from the Knesset (aka the Israeli Parliment- in DC, this would be the Capitol building). I am here at the Knesset in Jerusalem for the second time this week to start working on Yoel's fundraising. Monday was my first day here and, needless to say, it was quite interesting.
It started out with me going with Oren to his office in the building where the Prime Minister works (in DC, this would be the White House) and got a great tour from Oren. However, unlike a White House tour, I was able to actually walk into the PM's office and take a picture behind his desk, etc. It was pretty cool. I then made my way over to the Knesset where I went through some of the most intense security for the 2nd time in an hour (the first time was in the PM's office)... The security here to get into one of these buildings is like trying to get into the Captiol, White House, and Regan National Airport all put together. Ridiculous. But I do understand and appreciate it.
After finding my way to Yoel's office, I quickly bonded with his other staff members who are great and then got down to business. Yoel is going to be in the states for the GA in November and has asked me to plan a 4-state fundraising trip for him while he is there. This gives me roughly 3 weeks to make this happen, but I think we will make it work... anyway.
Right after I got to the Knesset, I had a meeting with another Member of Knesset who had heard about me and wanted to talk with me about doing some fundraising for her. It was a very interesting meeting and I am going to do a bit of research on her potential donor base and get back to her in a few weeks...
After spending some time with Yoel's intern, Nicole, who is assisting me, Oren and Avi came over to go to lunch with us in the Knesset dining room. Of course, during lunch, Yoel had to point out to me that I have been in Israel less than 4 weeks and I am sitting in the Knesset dining room which few people ever get to be in, but not only am I there, but I am there with a "Member of the Jewish Parliament" (I was able to quote that last part along with him- it is one of his favorite statements) and that I should appreciate how special that is. It was quite funny. One minute I am in Joe Lieberman's kitchen, the next I am in the Knesset cafeteria... crazy.
So, this next part can be appreciated by my fundraising colleagues... I am trying to see how the "American style" of fundraising works here, meaning very structured, very detailed, very "American". So, I spent my afternoon making a few call sheets for Yoel (we make these for American politicians to give whoever is making the calls a feel for who they are speaking with, the background of their relationship to the person, and specifically what to ask them- they are a pain to make, but expected by US politicians). Also, I only made about 4, because the chance of getting an American politician to make more than 10 calls in one sitting is a rarity, and I wanted to start slow with Yoel since this was new for him. So, around 5:30 I finally sit down with him to start making calls. He picks up his master list of contacts and points to one and says "I am going to call him." I say "Ok... but you know, I have these call sheets with our priority calls..." And he says "Ok... we will call them later, but I'm going to call him now." I say, "Ok... well, do you want to take a look at the purpose of these other calls so that you know what we are asking these people?" He looks, says "Very professional..." I say "Thanks..." and he says "Ok, I am going to call this person now" and just picks up the phone and starts making calls. At first, this worried me, because it was so much less formal than our "American" system. However, Yoel turned out to be a natural, and as we made calls, he would ask me if he was saying things appropriately, I would coach him on how better to say this or that, etc. So, he makes a few calls and I figure we're good for the night, as I didn't want to overwhelm him on his first time... but then he kept going. And going. And going. Yoel must have made about 40 phone calls which, at least from my experience with American politicians, is unheard of. It was ridiculous. And amazing. We were here until 9:30pm, picked up Oren, and then went to dinner until 12:30am. Needless to say, I was completely exhausted (it was my first full day of work in a month!) but really pumped about how productive it had been.
That was Monday. Yesterday, I worked like mad from home all day until I had my meeting with the accountant, during which, I filled out the necessary paperwork to officially establish my own business. So crazy. Yossi, my accountant (I've never had an accountant before!) is fantastic and I could not feel more comfortable knowing that he is handing all of my "stuff."
So, I am back at the Knesset today, having lunch with Oren and his boss, and getting ready to go over the status of our trip with Yoel later this afternoon. I'm going to get back to work, but wanted to give a quick update because it has been awhile and a lot has happened!
Hope all is well with you!
I am writing to you live from the Knesset (aka the Israeli Parliment- in DC, this would be the Capitol building). I am here at the Knesset in Jerusalem for the second time this week to start working on Yoel's fundraising. Monday was my first day here and, needless to say, it was quite interesting.
It started out with me going with Oren to his office in the building where the Prime Minister works (in DC, this would be the White House) and got a great tour from Oren. However, unlike a White House tour, I was able to actually walk into the PM's office and take a picture behind his desk, etc. It was pretty cool. I then made my way over to the Knesset where I went through some of the most intense security for the 2nd time in an hour (the first time was in the PM's office)... The security here to get into one of these buildings is like trying to get into the Captiol, White House, and Regan National Airport all put together. Ridiculous. But I do understand and appreciate it.
After finding my way to Yoel's office, I quickly bonded with his other staff members who are great and then got down to business. Yoel is going to be in the states for the GA in November and has asked me to plan a 4-state fundraising trip for him while he is there. This gives me roughly 3 weeks to make this happen, but I think we will make it work... anyway.
Right after I got to the Knesset, I had a meeting with another Member of Knesset who had heard about me and wanted to talk with me about doing some fundraising for her. It was a very interesting meeting and I am going to do a bit of research on her potential donor base and get back to her in a few weeks...
After spending some time with Yoel's intern, Nicole, who is assisting me, Oren and Avi came over to go to lunch with us in the Knesset dining room. Of course, during lunch, Yoel had to point out to me that I have been in Israel less than 4 weeks and I am sitting in the Knesset dining room which few people ever get to be in, but not only am I there, but I am there with a "Member of the Jewish Parliament" (I was able to quote that last part along with him- it is one of his favorite statements) and that I should appreciate how special that is. It was quite funny. One minute I am in Joe Lieberman's kitchen, the next I am in the Knesset cafeteria... crazy.
So, this next part can be appreciated by my fundraising colleagues... I am trying to see how the "American style" of fundraising works here, meaning very structured, very detailed, very "American". So, I spent my afternoon making a few call sheets for Yoel (we make these for American politicians to give whoever is making the calls a feel for who they are speaking with, the background of their relationship to the person, and specifically what to ask them- they are a pain to make, but expected by US politicians). Also, I only made about 4, because the chance of getting an American politician to make more than 10 calls in one sitting is a rarity, and I wanted to start slow with Yoel since this was new for him. So, around 5:30 I finally sit down with him to start making calls. He picks up his master list of contacts and points to one and says "I am going to call him." I say "Ok... but you know, I have these call sheets with our priority calls..." And he says "Ok... we will call them later, but I'm going to call him now." I say, "Ok... well, do you want to take a look at the purpose of these other calls so that you know what we are asking these people?" He looks, says "Very professional..." I say "Thanks..." and he says "Ok, I am going to call this person now" and just picks up the phone and starts making calls. At first, this worried me, because it was so much less formal than our "American" system. However, Yoel turned out to be a natural, and as we made calls, he would ask me if he was saying things appropriately, I would coach him on how better to say this or that, etc. So, he makes a few calls and I figure we're good for the night, as I didn't want to overwhelm him on his first time... but then he kept going. And going. And going. Yoel must have made about 40 phone calls which, at least from my experience with American politicians, is unheard of. It was ridiculous. And amazing. We were here until 9:30pm, picked up Oren, and then went to dinner until 12:30am. Needless to say, I was completely exhausted (it was my first full day of work in a month!) but really pumped about how productive it had been.
That was Monday. Yesterday, I worked like mad from home all day until I had my meeting with the accountant, during which, I filled out the necessary paperwork to officially establish my own business. So crazy. Yossi, my accountant (I've never had an accountant before!) is fantastic and I could not feel more comfortable knowing that he is handing all of my "stuff."
So, I am back at the Knesset today, having lunch with Oren and his boss, and getting ready to go over the status of our trip with Yoel later this afternoon. I'm going to get back to work, but wanted to give a quick update because it has been awhile and a lot has happened!
Hope all is well with you!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
New bike (again)
Well, I finally got over my bitterness from getting my new bike stolen after having it for less than 24 hours and bought another new bike yesterday! This one is hot pink, cruiser style, with a basket. It is very pretty, but more importantly, it has a heavy duty lock (for the daytime, at night, it will be sleeping on our deck of our apartment- taking NO chances with this one). Pictures coming soon!
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