A juicy day, to say the least

I apologize for not blogging about this yesterday but I have spent all of 40 minutes in my room in the last 24 hours. Let me give you whirlwind tour of Wednesday.

As some of you might know, yesterday was Yom Yerushalayim, the day commemorating the reuniting of Jerusalem during the Six-Day War. Do you know what that really means?

Free orange juice the day before.

In preparation for the chag, a moshav in the south donated eight tons (I don't know the metric converstion) of oranges to distribute free orange juice to people on the street. Booths were erected in on Ben Yehuda and King George (probably other spots that I didn't pass). People crowded around for few ounces of freshly-squozen (is this a word) goodness. And we all know how pushy Israelis can get (just look at how they drive).


While I don't really understand the connection between free orange juice and the reuniting of Jerusalem, I will jump at the chance for free orange juice. On a side note, I notice that my orange juice intake has decreased dramatically since leaving the dorms on campus. At school, I had a three cup per meal standard (about 24 oz. of orange juice per meal). In Israel, I am drinking about as much orange juice as beer (Once it hits your lips, it's so good).

I have digressed.

I passed by all of this pre-Yom Yerushalayim mayhem on my way to work at the SPNI offices, which I have not properly described to you.

The SPNI offfices are located in one of the coolest structures I have ever worked in (or seen, for that matter). They are housed in the Russian Compound, inside of what looks like an old fort.


Once you get inside you wouldn't believe that you are inside of a fort, except for the turret/tower to the side. There is a magnificent garden with a fountain and plants. So much serenity just a block from the hustle and bustle of the downtown area.




Being the day before Jerusalem Day, I wanted to go to a museum that would get me in the mood. I decided to visit a museum called the Last Day Museum in the Old City. Apparently, the museum chronicles the day that the Jordanians took back the Jewish Quarter during the War of Independence. I wouldn't know anything about that because I was on a tight schedule and couldn't find the museum on my first two passes. Why was I on such a tight schedule you ask?

Well, I had a job interview (more of a meet-and-greet but I will use the term job interview) an hour later in Bet Shemesh, a town about twenty minutes outside of Jerusalem. I had to push the pace back to my apartment, drop of my bag, and head to the Central Bus Station to pick up a Sherut. In conclusion, no time to search for the museum ( I will return to it soon, I promise).

Now, you might be thinking, "Ian, you should've planned your day so that you had more time to go to the museum." Or you might be thinking "Job interview?"

I will address the latter question and ignore the former.

As some of you might know, I might be doing the Yavneh Olami Summer Internship Program for the second part of my summer. I had an interview with an internet marketing company in Bet Shemesh to see if that is where I would like to intern for the second six weeks of my stay.

I had never really heard much about the field of internet marketing before. I think it is a pretty interesting field. I am intersted in pursuing that internship but I will wait to hear back from a couple different companies and organizations before makiing a final decision about my plans.


Let me just give one highlight from the interview. I had an experience similar to the former presidennt off the M-Shvitz Club at a medical school interview. After I sit down in the office to start talking to my possible boss, the first words that come out of his mouth are "Oh, Shmooze Club. Interesting. Tell me abouut it."

It's a good thing that i have been working on the 20 second plug. I gave him a shpiel about it and tried to show him how popular Shmooze had become on Google searches (at one point we were on the second page of the Google search). By now, we have fallen down the list (we didn't have time to search extensively for it).

After my job interview, I headed to Tel Aviv to meet up with a friennd who was in town. But before i get to Tel Aviv, let me give a great story from my ride there.


That is the Bet Shemesh Train Station in that photo. Before two days ago, I had never used a train to travel between urban areas (I don't consider one corner of the Detroit Zoo to another an inter urban area commute).

After I sit down on the train and marvel an the surroundings, I start talking to the person sitting next to me. Let me give you a transcript of the conversation (from within the first three lines of dialogue):

Girl sitting across the aisle: Where are you from?
Ian: Michigan. Where are you from?
Girl sitting across the aisle: Bolivia
Ian: Oh that's funny. Last night, my friend ditched me to hang out with a Bolivian.
Girl sitting across the aisle: What's you friend's name?
Ian: (I said my friend's name)
Girl sitting across the aisle: I am that Bolivian that your friend ditched you for.

Pretty incredible. Maybe I could've found a better way of saying it, but I think it turned out pretty good. I talked to my friend and she thought it was equally incredible.

Once I get to Tel Aviv, there a miscommunication with my friend about where she is in town but we find each other, eventually. We walk through town for a little while before she has to go meet up with her siblings who live in Tel Aviv.


I had to get back to Jerusalem becuase Wednesday night was something called Yom ha-Student (Student's Day). This means that there was pretty big concert in Gan ha-Atzmaut with one of the biggest Israeli bands (Hadag Nachash). I had a great time. It was my first concert in Israel. I hope to go to a bunch more, which is weird because I rarely attend concerts in the US (Maybe I am becoming more acculturated? Maybe I won't attend many more shows?)




I will post about my Yom Yerushalayim experience later tonight or tomorrow, but it will come.