Promising land

Today is my first day in Israel, and I'm as excited as a terrier at a postal convention. For the first time in my life, I arrived at the office on my first day before anyone else had shown up. This is a clearly great omen of things to come.

Yehudit met me at the airport last night, and we chatted while Yuval and Jacob battled pkak (a traffic jam) on their way back from Jerusalem. Yuval graciously put me up for the night, but I'll need to find another place to stay for the rest of the month (despite his exhortations to the contrary), as I'd certainly be cramping his style otherwise.

I've had to reprogram my brain for each country's exchange rate (clearly, I comprehend the value of dollars best), but sometimes this effort fails me. For example, I accidentally withdrew $600 thinking it was $60 in Taiwan. However, I'm hopeful that Israel will be immediately intuitive -- dividing everything by four shouldn't be too tough.

My trek to the office is pretty reasonable. I walk five blocks to the bus stop and wait 20 minutes for the bus to arrive (which can doubtless be shaved to 5). After about half an hour, the bus drops me three blocks from the office. The ride to the office is beautiful and reminds me of California.

I will look into taking Hebrew classes twice weekly in the evenings. Other than that, I'm excited to start my job and learn the lay of the land.