Tel Aviv, IOSCO Conference, and Tiyul to North

Last weekend I went to Tel Aviv for Laura and Rose's birthdays. Thursday night we we all went to a nice bar/club on the Tel Aviv Port, which is a really nice area right along the water with numerous restaurants and bars. We had a fantastic time there, and my friends and I were actually the very last ones to leave the club at about 3:30 am! Then one guy had the brilliant idea to go to the Mediterranean, so Dan, Leora, Laura, and I all stopped to eat pizza, and then headed to the beach. Tel Aviv really is the city that never sleeps. We were definitely not the only ones eating pizza at 4 in the morning! Then we went skinny dipping! Probably not the smartest idea to go swimming in the dark, but we didn't go over our waists, and now I can always say that I went skinny dipping in the Mediterranean in the middle of the night. How many people can say that?? The rest of the weekend was very relaxed..hung out at the beach, and watched movies. Tel Aviv is much hotter than Jerusalem, and humid, while Jerusalem is dry. But the water temperature was absolutely perfect and the waves were high. Buses don't start running until 8:30 Saturday evenings after Shabbat, and Leora and I didn't want to get home so late so we took a taxi at about 4:30pm to the bus station with another guy from our program who also lives in Jerusalem. From the bus station we took a sheirut, which is basically a ten person van that runs on Shabbats and holidays. It is a little more expensive than the bus, but sometimes it is worth it just for the convenience. The sheirut dropped us off in Jerusalem somewhat near the Old City and near Mea Shearim--the ultra, ultra, orthodox Haredi neighborhood in Jerusalem (basically it is the most religious Jewish neighborhood in the world). Michael, Leora, and I figured that we would walk the half hour home and safe money rather than taking a taxi. We are walking along and see a couple hundred Haredi men and boys all gathered on the street. They all are wearing the strimmels (beaver fur hats), funny bathrobe-looking jackets they wear on Shabbat and festivals, payes..the whole shebang. Then we see a secular man on his cell phone screaming at them in Hebrew. The Haredi men all start screaming "SHABBOS! SHABBOS! SHABBOS!" (Sabbath). The women and children on the balconies were also screaming it. Then they all start crowding around this man, one Haredi boy throws a rock, and the secular man also picks up a rock. We are standing a few feet away watching all this in shock--we had no idea what the hell was going on. We honestly thought there was going to be some huge physical fight. Then two older Haredi men pulled the man aside and talked to him and he then walked off. It was a really crazy thing to witness. We then found out the next day that there had been a huge protest at city hall (nearby) over a parking lot! Apparently the city decided to open up a parking lot nearby on Shabbat in order to control illegal parking in the Old City. The Haredis are against this because you are not supposed to drive on Shabbat, and they feel this disrupts their neighborhood and the sanctity of Shabbat. The protest apparently turned violent, with a few Haredi and police officers wounded. So I think we saw some spillover from that. It's so sad. Forget the Palestinian-Israeli crisis--first I feel we need Jews of different sects to stop fighting about religion! It is a problem that I have with the ultra-Orthodox--I feel it is completely unacceptable and detrimental to Judaism to shun Jews who they feel aren't religious enough.
Tuesday morning I took a taxi with a coworker to Tel Aviv for the IOSCO (International Organization of Securities Commission) Conference. Ruder Finn was in charge of all the PR for the event, and my coworkers were generous enough to bring me along. It was a really fantastic opportunity and experience for me. The conference was at the Hilton Tel Aviv (a gorgeous hotel right on the water) and Ruder Finn put me up at a nearby hotel. This conference was basically the first time the world's leading financial regulators all came together since the economic crisis. There were huge names there--CEO of Goldman Sachs,and heads of state banks from across the globe. The US SEC Chairman was supposed to be there, but last minute was requested to attend a meeting with Obama so she spoke to the meeting live via satellite! The whole event was quite fancy. I got a laptop bag (yay for free goodies!) and ate lunch there the 3 days I attended the conference. It literally was the best food I have ever had in my entire life. The desserts were to die for--little chocolate boats, filled with cream and sliced fruit, and drizzled with strawberry sauce (just for one example!). I attended some of the panels and twittered about what was happening (the whole social media craze), and hung out in the press room for most of the rest of the time. The discussions were very technical, and it was all completely over my head, but I guess that didn't matter so much. I was able to see live Reuters and Bloomberg TV interviews, which was definitely cool. The first day (when it wasn't so crazy) I wrote a press release and an hour later it was emailed to 1200 journalists! Pretty neat stuff. Public sessions were held the last two days of the conference and my coworkers were churning out press releases and releasing them within two hours of each panel finishing. So I was able to see firsthand how stressful PR can be at times!! I spent the evenings with two of my female coworkers, and got to know them on a more personal basis which I actually really enjoyed. I had to miss the first two days of my program trip up north, but it was worth it. It was a great experience, and this conference will look amazing on my resume.
Rose and I then met at the Tel Aviv train station Thursday evening to take a train to Naharyia (a city north of Haifa) to meet up with our group. I was carrying my hiking backpack, a laptop bag, and then a fanny pack containing all my important stuff (wallet,cell phone, ipod). I put all my stuff down on the scanning machine and proceeded to walk through the metal detector. As I went to pick up my stuff, my backpack and laptop bag were there, but my fanny pack was nowhere! I asked the guard watching the monitor if he had seen a blue fanny pack, and he nonchalantly replied "No, maybe you should check lost and found." Well, of course I knew it wasn't going to be in lost and found--I had set it down literally 15 seconds before!! I started panicking and hyperventilating. I had no idea what the hell I was going to do--everything was in there! I thought the guy ahead of my had stolen it, and I started frantically yelling at the soldiers standing there. They looked at me like I was crazy, just stood there, and offered absolutely no help. Perhaps they didn't understand English, but they saw me freaking out--you would think they would offer some assistance!! Then the same man who told me to look in lost and found held it up and said "Here it is...it fell" and threw it at me. Oh.My.God. It took me 20 minutes to be able to breathe properly again!! Once that nightmare passed, the train ride was actually quite pleasant--much nicer than the bus. We went along the Mediterranean just as the sun was setting (the sun sets over the Mediterranean), so that was beautiful. It was actually my first time on a train--ever!! Not sure how I went almost 23 years without ever having been on a train. We then took a taxi from the bus station and met up with our group at a field school nearby. Friday morning we went to the most northern kibbutz in Israel. We were basically surrounded by Lebanon from this beautiful vantage point. The border was just a fence that was literally 5 feet away from us. All the buildings spread out before us belong to Hezbollah and everyone who works in the area works for the Hezbollah. There were actually Hezbollah flags flying--not Lebanese, just Hezbollah. The buildings actually looked decent, but we noticed there were no glass windows in any of the buildings and we were told this is because they have tons of ammunition in these buildings and they want to be able to fire through the windows without the shattering of glass. Terrific. All has been quiet there since the last Lebanese War almost 3 years ago, but apparently they are all just waiting for the word from their boss. But the view was spectacular. We then went rafting on the Jordan river which was great fun. We spent a quiet shabbat at another beautiful field school in the northeastern part of the country. We hiked down to a running stream/creek where there was an upturned Syrian tank that has been there since the War of 67. Interesting.
I can't believe I have been in Israel for 4 months. I leave 4 weeks from tomorrow. It's a very bittersweet feeling. It will definitely be hard for me to say goodbye to Israel, but simultaneously, I miss the states immensely.