Today was my first day at work in the Land of Israel. It was at a biotech startup that wants me to work one day a week helping them on a new product they’re developing. They’re very nice people. I try my best to speak in Hebrew but when I really need to understand important details we can speak in English. I brought my own laptop, reviewed some of their literature and documents, had a couple of good espressos from their machine in the kitchen, and had a few meetings. Overall, a good day. I arrived a bit before 9AM, after dropping off the boys at school – their last day is tomorrow. When I arrived, the guy who hired me was the only one here. He told me that the rest of the crew would filter in over the next hour or two and made a comment about the younger generation and about that’s how it is in hi-tech. Which was funny because I was worried about showing up too late on my first day! Actually, Valerie dropped me off after dropping the boys off at school. My hope is that I’ll be able to figure out the bus to get home and then take the bus both ways down the road. Because its only been one day I haven’t really noticed any striking cultural differences between office culture here vs in the US, but I’ll keep you posted if things come up.
And I made it home on the bus! We drove south along highway 4, through all the small towns a little bit in from the coast. It was a pretty ride, even if it took a bit longer than I had hoped. I took one bus from the Industrial Park in Cesaria to the main street in Hadera, walked a block, waited for a little over 30 minutes, then caught the next bus south to Ra’anana. Next week I’ll see if there’s a route with less waiting between stops. (And I’m still going to work here as an actual cardiologist – that one is still in the works….)