israel, china
so I'm in China, how are you??
My life has been sort of super crazy recently and the major way that's manifested (aside from the fact that y'all haven't seen hide nor hair nor entry of me lately) is that I've been more or less out of the country for the last month.
On Tuesday I got back from a week in Israel, which was far more fun than I was expecting. The major reason for this is that I was in town for both an installation and a demonstration, but due to documentation snafus, the second system wound up never making it out of customs and so I basically had 3 or 4 days all-expenses-paid vacation in Israel instead. Cool huh?
The trip there was more or less uneventful except I was sitting next to this horrid old lady who cannot be described without resorting to expletives. The kicker was when, once we'd landed in Israel and someone kindly took her luggage out of the overhead compartment for her, she shoved me as hard as she could to keep me away from it. I had never spoken a word to her? idgi lol.
The first day or two I basically just sat in my hotel room and moped because let's face it - jet lag ruins me, every time. I can't get decent sleep on a plane and my own personal brand of jet lag involves exhaustion, homesickness, and unrelenting nausea. I have learned that I can NEVER trust my initial impression of a country because it's always I HATE IT CAN I GO HOME YET FUCK BLARGH, so we won't talk about that lol. The installation went as planned/expected.
(One thing I will mention - there was a cafe right next to my hotel that served, among other things, a frozen lemonade slushy thing with SHREDDED MINT IN IT. holy fuck it was good, I had one every day).
So I arrived Tuesday morning, and Wednesday and Thursday I was at the first installation site doing the training. Friday, since the demo system was still stuck, I managed to have two groups meet at the first hospital and I gave the demo guy a brief demo while simultaneously giving the first group a (free) half day. Everyone was happy!
Then the demo guy took me for a quick tour of Tel Aviv - he showed me their riverwalk, took me for ice cream, drove me down along the beach, then we parked and had some beers and &@%# amazing hummus at a beachfront restaurant on the boardwalk. It was lovely.
The next day was Saturday, and one of the younger doctors called me up. Her brother lives in Jaffa, the old port, in a section that is now very exclusive I guess (you must either be an artist or a board has to vet your application to live there). There are tons of little galleries and jewelry shops, and we explored there for a while before we went to lunch. We saw an Ethiopian wedding, which was very neat :)
Then they took me home and I basically passed out from the wine and the heat. She called me later to tell me her husband was going to a concert in Jerusalem, but I honestly didn't have it in me, and she wasn't going, and I don't understand Hebrew, so I declined.
The next morning, since everyone had told me I needed to go on a tour of Jerusalem, I headed down to concierge and tried to book one. I was told that the tours had left 4 hours ago (hahaha) so I booked one for the following day, grabbed my nook, changed into my bathing suit, and headed for the beach :) I got a tremendous sunburn but had a fabulous time. When I finally overheated I wandered over to one of the beach bars and drank a bunch of Coronas until it was time to stagger home.
The final day I took a tour into Jerusalem, which was fantastic. We started in the Old City, with tours of each quarter. In the Christian quarter, we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is said to contain the site of Jesus' crucifixion, the location of where his body was prepared for burial, and the site of the cave where his body was buried.
After that was the whirlwind tour of the Muslim quarter and a lengthy stop at the Western wall.
After that, we went to the Holocaust Memorial which was .... I don't really know how to describe this, and I don't really want to, I think? I don't think I could do it justice. I was reduced to tears more than once. The children's memorial wrecked me.
And then I headed home? I did the tour on Monday morning; got back to my hotel around 7ish, then changed and headed for the airport. Left Israeli airspace around 11, touched down in Newark aroud 430, home by 730 Tuesday morning :)
...Friday morning at 630 I was at the airport heading off to Beijing.
(Actually, wait, let me interject a moment, okay? Many people in the US who are fed up with the US security theater have this bizarre boner for Israeli airport security. "It's so much easier," they say. "It's all behind the scenes, much more streamlined. The traveler doesn't notice an inconvenience at all!"
Okay maybe a lot of this has to do with my UAE passport stamp - I needed to explain what the fuck I was doing in Abu Dhabi to no fewer than five different people - but HORSESHIT ALL OVER THIS. I will not dispute the efficacy of Israeli airport security, and I didn't have any sort of rush so I wasn't put off by having my luggage hand searched three times, but any idiot who calls it "streamlined" has never actually experienced Israeli security, ok)
Yeah so anyway, Friday morning I got my ass on another plane and flew back to Newark and then to Beijing and then to Nanjing, where I am currently sitting. This time I gave up and brought along a bottle of valium and brute forced myself to sleep on the plane - my neck is still all messed up, but I arrived exhausted but not wanting to faint or vomit. Still wanted to turn around and go back home though, lol. Progress!
I'm here for a training and a conference and then an installation; the pre-conference training is a two day affair. I'm supposed to do a 2 hour presentation to something like 100 engineers tomorrow from 10-12, and my powerpoint got rejected so I am just gonna wing it lol. The training is today too, so they basically told me today is my "rest day" and to hang out in my hotel room all day. They're gonna come collect me in a couple hours (6:30) and show me the sights. Whee!
(There is no twitter here, nor facebook. It hurts me).
My life has been sort of super crazy recently and the major way that's manifested (aside from the fact that y'all haven't seen hide nor hair nor entry of me lately) is that I've been more or less out of the country for the last month.
On Tuesday I got back from a week in Israel, which was far more fun than I was expecting. The major reason for this is that I was in town for both an installation and a demonstration, but due to documentation snafus, the second system wound up never making it out of customs and so I basically had 3 or 4 days all-expenses-paid vacation in Israel instead. Cool huh?
The trip there was more or less uneventful except I was sitting next to this horrid old lady who cannot be described without resorting to expletives. The kicker was when, once we'd landed in Israel and someone kindly took her luggage out of the overhead compartment for her, she shoved me as hard as she could to keep me away from it. I had never spoken a word to her? idgi lol.
The first day or two I basically just sat in my hotel room and moped because let's face it - jet lag ruins me, every time. I can't get decent sleep on a plane and my own personal brand of jet lag involves exhaustion, homesickness, and unrelenting nausea. I have learned that I can NEVER trust my initial impression of a country because it's always I HATE IT CAN I GO HOME YET FUCK BLARGH, so we won't talk about that lol. The installation went as planned/expected.
(One thing I will mention - there was a cafe right next to my hotel that served, among other things, a frozen lemonade slushy thing with SHREDDED MINT IN IT. holy fuck it was good, I had one every day).
So I arrived Tuesday morning, and Wednesday and Thursday I was at the first installation site doing the training. Friday, since the demo system was still stuck, I managed to have two groups meet at the first hospital and I gave the demo guy a brief demo while simultaneously giving the first group a (free) half day. Everyone was happy!
Then the demo guy took me for a quick tour of Tel Aviv - he showed me their riverwalk, took me for ice cream, drove me down along the beach, then we parked and had some beers and &@%# amazing hummus at a beachfront restaurant on the boardwalk. It was lovely.
The next day was Saturday, and one of the younger doctors called me up. Her brother lives in Jaffa, the old port, in a section that is now very exclusive I guess (you must either be an artist or a board has to vet your application to live there). There are tons of little galleries and jewelry shops, and we explored there for a while before we went to lunch. We saw an Ethiopian wedding, which was very neat :)
Then they took me home and I basically passed out from the wine and the heat. She called me later to tell me her husband was going to a concert in Jerusalem, but I honestly didn't have it in me, and she wasn't going, and I don't understand Hebrew, so I declined.
The next morning, since everyone had told me I needed to go on a tour of Jerusalem, I headed down to concierge and tried to book one. I was told that the tours had left 4 hours ago (hahaha) so I booked one for the following day, grabbed my nook, changed into my bathing suit, and headed for the beach :) I got a tremendous sunburn but had a fabulous time. When I finally overheated I wandered over to one of the beach bars and drank a bunch of Coronas until it was time to stagger home.
The final day I took a tour into Jerusalem, which was fantastic. We started in the Old City, with tours of each quarter. In the Christian quarter, we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is said to contain the site of Jesus' crucifixion, the location of where his body was prepared for burial, and the site of the cave where his body was buried.
After that was the whirlwind tour of the Muslim quarter and a lengthy stop at the Western wall.
After that, we went to the Holocaust Memorial which was .... I don't really know how to describe this, and I don't really want to, I think? I don't think I could do it justice. I was reduced to tears more than once. The children's memorial wrecked me.
And then I headed home? I did the tour on Monday morning; got back to my hotel around 7ish, then changed and headed for the airport. Left Israeli airspace around 11, touched down in Newark aroud 430, home by 730 Tuesday morning :)
...Friday morning at 630 I was at the airport heading off to Beijing.
(Actually, wait, let me interject a moment, okay? Many people in the US who are fed up with the US security theater have this bizarre boner for Israeli airport security. "It's so much easier," they say. "It's all behind the scenes, much more streamlined. The traveler doesn't notice an inconvenience at all!"
Okay maybe a lot of this has to do with my UAE passport stamp - I needed to explain what the fuck I was doing in Abu Dhabi to no fewer than five different people - but HORSESHIT ALL OVER THIS. I will not dispute the efficacy of Israeli airport security, and I didn't have any sort of rush so I wasn't put off by having my luggage hand searched three times, but any idiot who calls it "streamlined" has never actually experienced Israeli security, ok)
Yeah so anyway, Friday morning I got my ass on another plane and flew back to Newark and then to Beijing and then to Nanjing, where I am currently sitting. This time I gave up and brought along a bottle of valium and brute forced myself to sleep on the plane - my neck is still all messed up, but I arrived exhausted but not wanting to faint or vomit. Still wanted to turn around and go back home though, lol. Progress!
I'm here for a training and a conference and then an installation; the pre-conference training is a two day affair. I'm supposed to do a 2 hour presentation to something like 100 engineers tomorrow from 10-12, and my powerpoint got rejected so I am just gonna wing it lol. The training is today too, so they basically told me today is my "rest day" and to hang out in my hotel room all day. They're gonna come collect me in a couple hours (6:30) and show me the sights. Whee!
(There is no twitter here, nor facebook. It hurts me).