One more Superhot car!!

Hottest 2010 Car Models!! Exclusive!!

Israel is known for it's incredibly styled and fancy cars...cars here are often the newest and fanciest. Enjoy the following pictures of cars with sport-tuned suspensions, hottest paint jobs, and sports-car inspired engines.

Apartment and Neighborhood Pics

These are some pictures from my new place...we were moved from the first place yesterday because it will be undergoing some work which is why I am not unpacked. It's a pretty bare bones accommodation - two-inch thick mattresses, no heat (really want to stress this) but we do have (crappy) space heaters, a tiny fridge, and supposedly we are going to have five people here soon...which means two people each in the bedrooms and one living in the common room.

I'm living with two guys right now; Jack from Arizona and Natan from Istanbul, Turkey, both of whom are making Aaliyah (which is a commitment to live in Israel a minimum of two years, go through Ulpan (seven months of Hebrew classes), and become a citizen. I've also met some girls living in our building- a couple of Canucks and a Brit. Two of which are going home in the next few months and one whose father is Israeli and is working here.

I went for a run yesterday to find the gym and the city is quite pretty all around...though it's a suburb of Tel Aviv it is very much a small city with decent public transit and stores and shops within walking distance. Also, because of it's proximity to Tel Aviv and it's relatively affluent locals prices here are pretty high for real estate and essentials like food.

The following pictures I took from right outside the center...the area is really beautiful and these pictures don't really do it justice. There is quite a bit of foliage, from palm trees, to some regular conifers/deciduous ones. There has not been any rain since I got here (which is bad for Israel) and it's been between the high 40s/low 50s at night to the mid-60s during the day. I am going to the beach in Herzilya today and Tel Aviv tonight and I'll be putting some pics up from that in the coming days as well.

Shalom from Israel!

Shalom Family and Friends,

Wow, I am writing this blog at 5:00 am (Israel time) because I am so jet lagged (7 hours) that I can't sleep. The last day or so has been pretty stressful, but I got to the absorption center in one piece and am resting comfortably.

My traveling went something like this:

1. Flight to London Heathrow - If you haven't been to London's new Terminal 5 it is monstrously large...getting from my first flight to second flight probably took 45 minutes to an hour including walking, train-taking, and another security screening

2. Flight to Ben-Gurion Tel Aviv

3. Train to downtown Tel Aviv - 12 NIS (New Israeli Shekels), the exchange rate is currently a little over 4 NIS : 1 USD which is pretty solid considering not even a year ago the dollar sunk to 3.3 : 1 ...one upside of the crap economy is the relative strength of the USD to currencies such as Israel's Shekel

4. Taxi from Train Station to Israel's Central Bus Terminal (according to Wikipedia the largest in the world) - 30 NIS

5. Bus from Tel Aviv to Ra'anana - 12 NIS... big thanks go out to the guy I met on the bus who is in real estate, very friendly

6. Taxi from Bus stop to Absorption Center - 20 NIS, interesting story here...the taxi driver is a big fan of American music and has a dvd player constantly playing music dvds in his center console...the first song he showed me was "Massachusetts" on a BeeGees live concert dvd

NB: I was carrying an ungodly 120lbs or so in four different containers (two suitcases, laptop bag, and gym bag). I don't know how I didn't get something stolen, lost, or otherwise.

Pictures of my accommodations (no heat in my room) are forthcoming. Today I'm going to look for a mobile phone, a pillow, some other basics and I go into my office on Thursday (Peres Center). I'll put some pictures up of the area today or tomorrow and a new blog post in a few days when I get settled in.

I'm going to try to post updates at least once a week with pictures or stories, but I am going to be doing some traveling so bear with me as I figure out a schedule for the blog. Thanks again for all of your well wishes. I appreciate all of your support and hope I can keep you all in the know about what's up with me in Israel.

Best,

Pavel

P.S. I've already talked to a lot of you about Skype and Gmail video chat, but if I haven't then I strongly suggest you get an account and a webcam. Video chats are really easy to setup and free and I do want to see and hear from all you in the States and beyond.

P.P.S. Google Maps and Google Earth give you a good idea of where I am living...take a look:
13 Ha-Sharon Ra'anana, Israel