Made it home!

Sorry the last to posts are back to back...The last few days in Israel were pretty hectic.

I finally made it home! It was a rough flight back. It's kind of like when you have to pee really bad and the closer you get to the bathroom...the worse it gets! The first flight was about 14hrs...I slept for a while so it wasn't too bad. When I woke up, I watched a couple of movies and we were in Atlanta. The flight from Atlanta to Phoenix was agonizing! Those 4 hrs were terrible! I couldn't wait to get off of that plane! When I hear someone say they love to travel...sheesh!

Paige and Payton picked me up at the airport which was very sweet. They came in and were waiting for me. I think Payton was pretty excited to see me come home...he was pulling one of my suitcases and headed for the door!

I had to cut my hair and take a shower as soon as I got home. I had been going for about 40 hours and I couldn't wait for a shower. We got settled in and went to the park for a bit. Payton was showing off his throwing and batting skills.

It's definitely nice to be home!

The home stretch!

This past weekend should be our last in Israel. We are scheduled to head home in a couple of days and are anxious to get back home. Things have kind of wound down now. We haven't been doing all the running around we were doing before. This weekend was mellow. I went up to Haifa by myself to check it out.

Haifa is a working city. It looks like the main port for things in and out of Israel. The majority of the city is up on a large hill. It's pretty much the same as Tel Aviv except up on a hill. I didn't take a lot of pictures because it seemed all the same to me. The weather was hazy and it looked like it was going to rain any minute...Neither make for nice pictures. Check them out here.

This has been a trip of a lifetime and I thank everyone that I have met here, for the positive experience. I really didn't know what I was getting into when I found out that I was heading this way...I was happy to find out the worrying was all for nothing.

I definitely recommend, if anyone has a chance or is interested in going...Don't hesitate!

Another road trip....

Well, I'm still here! I was supposed to fly home on the 29th, but due to customer delays in the US, I will need to stay a little longer and complete a little more training here.

So this weekend was a little off the hip. We had some of our counter parts leave this weekend. We were talking about the possibility of going down to Elat and heading over to Petra this weekend. With all the last minute changes and the up in the air schedule...We had to wing it.

Yesterday we headed up to the sea of Galilee to see the boat of Galilee and Tiberias. We also made a stop at Capharnaum and The Church of the Beatitudes. All stops were pretty cool. I wish we had a little more time at each.

Today was pretty mellow. I am pretty sure that we are all getting worn out and want to go home. I did go out and walk around for a few hours today. Not much is going on due to Shabbat. The weather has been really windy which makes it very nice for the Kitesurfers. That looks like a lot of fun but I think it needs a motor!

One of the many things that I have realized on this trip...I am so glad I can read! Trying to buy things in the store when you have no idea of what is in the box, bottle, or can is a bitch! There have been many things that I have picked up that looked really good and not being able to read the label, to know what it is, can be a real bummer. As we drove around yesterday the English started to disappear the further we moved out of Tel Aviv. There were multiple times where we wish that we were able to read the signs. The same goes for menus at a restaurant. You will start feeling pretty silly after ordering a few meals by pointing to the picture. We have been making it though!


By the way...It's been 5 weeks and I haven't seen a single set of wheels bigger than 18"! No perfectly clean lifted trucks...No 3ct faux diamond earrings...No significant sources of bling! Its quite nice!

Things here are a lot more simple than back home. It is quite refreshing. It makes you think about things and where we are heading.

Till next time!

Humbled....

This weekend was experience that is hard to put into words! Some of things were of movies others made one feel insignificant in the scheme of things. Our plan was to take a guided tour of Jerusalem which we did. On the way the guide asked if we wanted to go to Bethlehem...Everyone said that we shouldn't do it, but we couldn't say no!

Going to Bethlehem is a little different that going to the Dead Sea or Jerusalem. Bethlehem is in the West Bank and under Palestinian control. Our tour guide could not go with us into Bethlehem because she was an Israeli citizen. She explained how things would work and I don't think it brought much comfort to any of us.

Since she could not go in...We would have to go with another person that we have not met, in a place we were told not to go! Hmmm...Not sounding like a real good idea so far.

We had to go through a security checkpoint and walk down this long caged in walkway to get in. Once in we were shuffled into cars and whisked off. As we were driving through Bethlehem we ran into a truck that was stopped in the middle of a hill by police. They were arguing about something in Arabic. We were told to get out the car and start walking. At this point the comfort level is zero or less. We finally got to the top of the hill and regrouped. Now we meeting another person that was going to give us a tour of Bethlehem.

Our first stop was the center of Bethlehem. Usually this is the area they show in the movies. In the center of town is the Church of the Nativity. This is where it is believed that Jesus was born. In the center of 3 churches is a grotto that has the birth place and manger location of Jesus.

We walked through the three churches and listened to the history of each. We walked around Bethlehem a bit and ended up at the guides shop where they sold items made out of olive wood. The whole situation was a little weird.

As we walked in the shop...They started talking and apparently told everyone to leave. The place cleared out and we all looked at each other trying to figure out what was going on. We got a pitch about the wood and were being persuaded into buying things. After the whole deal we were put back into cars and brought back to the boarder. We went back through security and met our original guide.

I don't think we were really prepared for the trip into Bethlehem. Everything was OK...I just think we were a little sensitive to things. We were now headed off to Jerusalem.

Our first stop with the top of Mt. Olive. It was amazing to here how each area was important to each religion and how each thing varied with each religion. It would take a lifetime to get everything on everything. A quick trip around Jerusalem and we headed for the "Old City". The city is surrounded by a wall and split into 4 quadrants and each argues about who is right.

We went though the stations of the cross and walked the Via Dolorosa, getting the history of each site. We got everything from the history of the wars to the current excavation going on near the western wall.

One day is not enough to get through everything thoroughly in the "Old City". If anyone is thinking about going over...Make sure you have a couple of days to spend. Also be sure to hit Bethlehem! Don't worry about crossing into the west bank it's not a big deal. I think we were a little on edge because everyone was telling us that we should not go. They welcome tourists...Their economy depends on it.

The trip was the most interesting of my life...Without a doubt! My biggest regret was not researching more about the history and ideas of the other religions before my trip. I found the disputes and arguments the most interesting. Building one thing on top of the other, to prove that the other was right, seemed to be the norm. Things are still being discovered proving how far each one went to prove their cause.

If you have a chance to go...Don't hesitate!

This coming weekend is our last in Israel. I'm not sure where it is going to take us.

Talk to you soon and be sure to check out all the pictures on my Picasa!

I think my brain is full....

So for the past couple of days we have been hitting the training hard. The problem is that we can learn all about it...But we can't touch it! The tools that we have are for R&D and tool time is pretty limited. We are fighting for time with the engineers that are trying to make the tool operate better.

The equipment is very precise. Resolution of movement is down to less than a micron! That's one millionth of a meter! A red blood cell is about 7 micron wide! We will be measuring things in the nano meter range. That's a billionth of a meter! This thing is basically an over grown microscope with cameras and lasers that are very sensitive. Everything is mounted on a 4 ton granite block that floats on air shocks to minimize any induced or outside vibration. Quite a sight to see!

The equipment is very new and so is the training. Everyone is still trying to figure out what is going on. That in turn has caused mental overload. We are trying to learn how it works as well as how it is being changed. Not being able to crawl around the thing and check it out is tough too. Theory can only get ya so far....Then ya have to look at it and play with it.

One interesting thing is that the stage floats on "air bearings". Air is used to allow everything to float as it moves. The whole stage is made by Aerotech then sent here for installation into the tool. If ya click on the site...Check out where they are built!

So far everything has been very interesting. Everything is computer based. VERY computer based. The tool will pull in 1 terabyte of data during a single read. A single terabyte would let you take about 200,000 pictures on a 10 mega pixel camera. This is done with 64 quad core computers in a server system...that's like having 256 computers tied together! Geek central!!!! Wait...The computer racks are water cooled! That ups the geek factor!!!

This thing is going to take a lot of time to get comfortable with. It's a lot different from what I am used to. The lasers are interesting. We have to wear glasses that block out the laser light wavelength which is kind of funny. We have to see the light to calibrate the laser. If you have your glasses on for the calibration...You can't see the light! Talk about a catch 22!

Guess I should get back to it!

We are planning on a trip to the pier to the north as well as a trip to Jerusalem this weekend. I will update the blog and pics as soon as I can.

Talk to ya later!!!!

Old Jaffa and a road trip!!!!

Sorry...It's been a while since I posted an update. We had a few days where we were working at midnight and our schedules were all backwards.

We managed to get out and make it through Old Jaffa on Friday. We walked through the old churches and along the port. Everything was amazing. Jaffa also had a market that we walked through. We took in the sights at this old port town. It is just south of Tel Aviv. A google search will give you all the history you could ever want. Old Jaffa

On Saturday we took a road trip to the Dead Sea. We decided to drive and checked in to the safest way to go. Most said that it was safe to go through the west bank with the "as long as you don't get off the highway" clause. We decided to avoid it. Our goal was to make it to Masada. However we made a wrong turn at Albuquerque! Wow! Ya want to talk about getting nervous! There was no one else really on the road we ended up taking on our attempt to get to Masada. As we traveled down the road through the twists and turns...I couldn't help but think of every movie that I have watched where the tourists run into armed road block. We ended up driving 20 kilometers on this twisty desolate road, to find out that it was a dead end. We ended up on the back side of Masada and couldn't see the Dead Sea. We had to drive all the way out and go around the south side of the Judean Desert to get back around to the east side of Masada. There is a cable car that will take you all the way up to Masada. You can see on the Google map where we went on the road to no where! Oh well! It was definitely an experience!

You can see where we had to back track just above the "B" marker. We could also see smoke coming from the Gaza area as we drove south.

The Dead Sea was amazing. If you ever have a chance to check it out...Don't hesitate! It is the lowest place on earth as well as having the highest concentration of salt of any body of water. Nick and Kary actually went swimming. I had no desire to get in there! The view was beautiful but it smelled like rotten eggs!!! We managed to time it about right and had the chance to see the sun set. It was a nice romantic moment for 5 guys to experience together!

The Dead Sea is split down the middle by Israel and Jordan. The mountains you see across the water is Jordan. It was a cool experience. I wish the pics would have come out a little better. The day was hazy and made the pictures a little difficult.

Check out the pics on my Picasa when you get a chance!

A walk through Tel Aviv

We had plenty of time to kill today due to our class schedule change. We walked around Tel Aviv and found a market that was huge. They had everything from clothes to bread to candy to meat. I don't think I have ever been to something that size.

The place seemed packed for a Wednesday afternoon. There were people everywhere just bustling around. We walked back to the hotel along the beach and took a few pictures of a mosque. All of the pics have been uploaded to Picasa. Doesn't that iPhone take good pictures? Dang!

It was nice to go out and about today to see what the city is like during the day.

Oh yeah....By the way, If you take pictures of the U.S. embassy...You will be introduced to the security guards automaticly! You don't even have to ask!

I am going to try to get a little sleep in before we have to leave for class.

I will talk to you soon!

I would have never thought....

If you would have told me that I would be here right now....I would have told you that you were crazy.

During class today we were told that we had to work the night shift to get tool time. There are 2 tools in the lab and since they are both being used for R&D...the time that we can use them is limited during the day. We were told that we had to either come in at 6pm or midnight on Wednesday and Thursday. So now we were left with a ton of time to kill before we have to go back in to training.

We made plans to meet at 8pm and go out for the night. We have a couple of co-workers that are staying at a hotel that is about a 25 minute walk from our hotel. After getting directions from their hotel, we ended up finding a string of bars/restaurants that were very classy and trendy looking. The odd thing is that these places were in the middle of these run down alley ways. For the most part you wouldn't even think that people would walk down the street, let alone live in the area. The apartments are beat down and things are falling apart.

We ended up eating at this place called "NG". They had fantastic food! This was more of an upscale restaurant that had a wine list longer than the food menu. I started off with an artichoke soup that was really good! And I followed it up with T-bone of lamb and mashed potatoes. So much for the diet! The rest of the guys had pretty much the same but had escargot instead of the soup. After seeing the escargot...I would have traded the soup for it. Phil was nice enough to offer me one. It was as good as it looked!



After we ate we walked around looking for a place to hang out. We were looking for just a bar to kill some time. The bars that were close to the restaurant were a little to upscale for what we were looking for. So we asked a few locals and they pointed us in the right direction. We found a street that pretty much had a row of bars that were ripe for the hopping.

Just like typical bars in America...They have security out side the door. Well, almost everywhere seems to have security out side the door. I don't think I have been frisked and checked with a metal detector more in my life! Anyway we started talking to the security guards to find out what is going on and what is popular. It seemed like most of the places had loud music and you could see what you were getting into...At least that's what you thought. The first place we walked into was dead quite when we opened the door. We walked in and found a dark hallway that had a few twists and turns. At first we thought it was a joke and didn't expect much. At the end of the hall we open the door and find a bar that is jammed packed with people and we could not even fit in to the room. The placed seemed really cool but we couldn't fit 5 more people in there!

We decided to weigh our options with the other places on the street. As we walked down the street we noticed that not every place was clearly marked. There were doors that were blacked out...doors on the side of the buildings. It was like a big puzzle. If you didn't know where these places were...You would pass them by and not even notice. We ended up finding a bar to hang out in for a while.

After the bar we walked around to see what else we could find exciting. After walking for a while we realized that we had no idea of where we were and that we could not see our hotel or even point in its general direction. The interesting thing is that it wasn't really frightening...It was more intriguing. We found ourselves walking at 3am, in Tel Aviv, can't read or pronounce a singe street sign, and felt more secure than if we were doing the same at home. I would have never thought that that was even possible!

This is a very interesting and ancient culture that we are getting to experience and I am very glad that I had the chance. I never would have thought that I would be able to say that....

Sunday and Monday

Nothing too exciting going on....We have started training so it is taking up most of the day now. We started training on Sunday with a slow start. Everyone was still trying to find the place and get situated. Today was the first actual day of training.

Last night we went out for dinner. Odd thing was that we ended up in a place that was playing the Dolphins/Ravens game. It was on at 9pm here and it felt like Monday night football. It is amazing how Americanized some things are here and how big of an influence we have on other parts of the world.

Today we actually got to go to the lab and see the tool and kick the tires. We were able to run a few tests to see how things worked. You end up with those couple of guys that take everything over and ask a million questions about things that are not even relevant to the real life application of the tool. Hopefully the novelty will wear off soon and they will calm down a bit.

Here is a little information on the equipment - Aera 2

Tonight we went for a walk to check out the local mall. I was curious to see what the mall was like. After a good frisking and wanding by security...I found that was amazed by the size and lay out of the mall. It looked just like a mall that is in Scottsdale. I noticed that there were a lot of odd shops in the mall compared to what we have in the state. It went from tattoo and piercing parlors to lawyer offices. One advantage this mall had was the total lack of pushy sales people trying to get you to buy things. For the most part it was a typical mall filled with teenagers having fun and being seen.

That's about it for now. We are trying to plan our weekend. We are going to try to go to Jerusalem or to the Dead Sea. I don't think we can get everything set up for Jerusalem for this weekend...So that might have to wait. We are also planning on making a trip north. The southern part of the country is not the safest place to be right now.

I will keep everyone updated...And will talk to you later.

A few new pics have been posted here

By the way...The new camera is awesome!!!!!!

Tel Aviv in the day...

This morning we met for breakfast and got a dose of culture shock. Salads, olives, fish, bread, tuna salad, cheese, and hard boiled eggs were things that I could identify during breakfast. The food was very good...just a little different that what we expected.

Today we walked around Tel Aviv and made a test run to the building where we will be training. The test run was a good idea, because it was not that easy to find.

We weren't sure what to expect today due to the sabbath. Things seemed to be the norm. Just watch out what elevator you use. Today it is considered work to push a button. The sabbath elevator is programmed to stop at every other floor so the buttons are not needed. That could make for a long ride.

We mad a dry run to the training building and found that it was a lot harder to find than we thougth it was. We got to know the area pretty well. Now if we can just get there tomorrow we will be good to go!

After our trip...We went to Mike's Place to eat. We found it down on the beach and it looked pretty "American". The food was pretty good. The culture is definately different here. People brought their dogs into the restaurant and let them roam free. Kary had made a new friend in there. The dog would just jump up and sit with him. The dog did get a little distracted when the people next to us got their food.

We walked around a little longer and made our way back to the hotel. I did get my own room today. That was nice to have. We are having an internet shortage too. We have to pay for the internet until we get the company to pick it up.

Now its about time to go find something for dinner.

I will talk to you all later!

The Trip!

Wow! That takes a lot out of ya! It's been about 22 hours of travel time with about 16hrs on a plane. My butt is sore!

All went well. We made it with out any major issues. A few little glitches.

We flew to Atlanta and had to sit on the tarmac for about an hour before we could get into the gate due to traffic at the terminal. A little set back. We had about 2 hours before our flight to Tel Aviv, so it wasn't a big issue for us.

We had dinner once we made it to the terminal. Everyone was making a mad dash for their last "American" meal before we left. I didn't think about it and had a salad.

In case anyone was wondering...12hrs is too long to spend on an airplane! That was rough! We got to watch free movies which was nice as well as 2 hot meals.

After arriving to Tel Aviv...It was bussiness as usual. The airport is very nice. Security is not. I got the 3rd degree for some reason after getting off the plane and once again when I was taking pictures in the terminal. Oh well!

Somehow our rental car reservation was lost and the girl working at the counter was not providing any help. We ended up renting from Avis instead.

We left the airport and made our way to the hotel. Most of the signs are in english also. The names are hard to pronounce even in english.

We checked in to the hotel. My reservation was lost somwhere. Unfortunately they didn't have any rooms available. Luckily enough...Kary was nice enough to let me sleep on the couch in his room for tonight. I should be able to get my own room tomorrow.

We walked around down town Tel Aviv tonight to find something for dinner. Quickly we were brough into check with the local religous customs. From sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday is considered the Sabath. During this time...90% of everything is shut down. We found a steak house that was open and ate there. The food was really good. Maintaining a diet is gonna be tough here!

Tomorrow we are going to check out Tel Aviv and figure out how to get to training on Sunday.

By the way...everything is quiet here. You would never think that there is any issues in the area.

I will update tomorrow.

Talk to ya later!

Packing

Getting things ready to head to Israel for a month. Talk about not wanting to forget anything. I have been wracking my brain to make sure that I don't forget anything.

I think I have nailed down the essentials. If I forget anything...I will just have to buy the Israeli version.

I am really looking forward to this trip despite all of the "activity" going on over there! I hope to do a fair share of sight seeing...At least as much as I can with out being in harms way.

I will be staying in Tel Aviv at the Isrotel Tower. The hotel is not far from the beach and about 20 minutes from where we are training.

I guess I need to get back to the packing! I will try to update this as much as possible during my trip! I will also be adding pictures to my Picasa site too!

See you later!