Hi everyone! Some of you know parts of this already, but to catch everyone up to date:

Our mailing address is: US Embassy - DCMC

McDonald

PCS 98, Box 0037

APO AE 09830

DO NOT mention Israel in the address.

Our home phone number is: 011-972-9-951-8385

(please remember we are 7 hours ahead!)

To mail stuff to an APO box, just use the regular postage. Packages have to be mailed through the USPS with a customs form. I have to receive and send all my mail through my office in order to take advantage of the APO rates. So, if I'm on leave or TDY, we don't get any mail. Some items take two weeks and others four days - don't know why. We used to have a Hebrew recording on our answering machine, but I think I am on there now.

We were sorry not have been able to get together with some of you more prior to our departure, but things got pretty hectic with the move and I worked up until the day before we left on June 19.

It sure is a long (11-hour) flight from JFK to Tel Aviv. At least TWA feeds you dinner (after 11 p.m.) and breakfast! We were both able to sleep on the plane. We breezed through Ben Gurion airport easily and were met by a co-worker driving the Government-owned van (good thing - we had 12 pieces of luggage!). He drove us to our "flat" which is in Nof Yam north of Herzlia Pituach north of Tel Aviv. My new co-workers had bought food, made the bed, and brought in a welcome kit containing bedding, dishes, toaster, etc. from the Embassy. We have a brand-new Commander who started right before me.

We are the only American Embassy people in our complex. Nof Yam ("Ocean View") is one of the ritziest areas in Israel. Supposedly our condo cost $300-400,000 to buy. Two stories, marble floors, three balconies, nice landscaping and the people below us have two tortoises in their yard! We are on a hill. The Embassy supplies furniture. Our neighbors, of course, are quite wealthy. We are almost the poorest people in the entire neighborhood. We have made friends with a real young couple - the husband is in the German military. There is also a couple who work for Gucci, some auto execs, and a retired college professor who taught Hebrew history in Chicago. The Embassy pays the rent and utilities. Oddly enough, there are no window screens and a/c is room by room, not central. We have gas burners, secured parking under the building, an indoor pool, weight room, showers and sauna. We subscribe to an English language newspaper, the Jerusalem Post.

The Embassy installed a security alarm and made a leak-proof "safe room" in case we get gassed. They will put grills on the windows. We were issued radios and gas masks too. There is also roving security who stops by our house daily.

We are a fairly short walk from several Ambassadors' homes, including ours, Ned Walker. We can also walk to a couple of Mediterranean beaches. One is close to a mosque. The Muslim women bring their children to the beach and play in the water, fully clothed. The beach is narrow because of the cliffs - rough surf, and rocky. We also climbed around an archeological dig (Appollonia) which was a former Roman and Crusader fortress. Kevin would like to work at the excavation that just started, since they don't need him at Epcot right now.

Kevin and I were picked up Monday afternoon to meet the co-workers and begin in-processing at the Embassy in Tel Aviv, 11 miles south of the office. The Embassy is on the beach. Half of my co-workers are "foreign service nationals" who have moved to Israel from such places as Argentina, the British Isles, Canada, India, and Romania. Many are tri-lingual at least. Amongst themselves they speak a lot of Hebrew, so maybe I will eventually learn a little. Most of the contractor people speak English, but it helps that I have a bi-lingual assistant. My first week was terribly rough, as I didn't sleep much for 3-4 nights due to jet lag. Things are better now. Some immigrants have stomach problems, but so far it hasn't been too bad. The water here is very bad and the fruits and veggies are covered in pesticides.

We handle contractors in Israel and Turkey. (A lot of my co-workers have brought back Turkish rugs.) Many of the Israeli firms are owned by the Israeli Govt. I have visited two contractors so far. One is associated with Lockheed Martin in Orlando, FL! Some of their facilities are disguised as kibbutzes to deter aerial surveillance. I visited one contractor built on the hills of Galilee. Lots of hairpin turns in the road, rocky, and the hazy hills roll away into northern Israel and then into Lebanon. En route were Arab villages with cement buildings stacked into the hillsides, vineries and olive trees. It seems funny to see road signs that say "Beersheba," "Jerusalem," etc. I have also been to Ramla and Lod. One of our contractors is a contingency hospital set up after the Gulf War but now to be closed down. Can you imagine having to count all the drugs? One of the contractor ladies used to live in the city next to my home town in Connecticut, and also in the same town where my sister lived years ago. We learned that we liked to eat at the same deli! My assistant and I are supposed to visit Turkey for a week, at the end of this month. The people have Biblical names like Eliezer and Shmel (Samuel). Some of the property records are in Hebrew characters.

My co-workers have been taking turns bringing me to and from work, and to other places we need to go. In short, they have been extremely kind. Our car has finally arrived via ship into the Port of Haifa and has been driven to the Embassy for inspection, modification, and diplomatic plates. We have to buy part of our insurance through the Israeli Govt and part through a private carrier. We don't have our household goods yet.

We were assigned an office sponsor (husband and wife team from England and India, respectively) and a community sponsor who look after us. We are allowed 45 minutes during the workday to exercise at a health club in our building. We also get about 10 extra holidays a year per the Jewish calendar.

My boss and I are the only Americans on our team. He is an observant Jew who wears a "kipa" on his head and brings his own grill to eat kosher at office get-togethers. In his absence, I am team leader. Over here the acting team leader can sign leave slips and overtime requests.Since his mom is extremely ill, he is gone quite a bit.

There is a lot to learn here, and some catchup to do since my predecessor left the country unexpectedly last November during an evacuation. International contracting is different, plus I am learning some of the computer systems we didn't have at my last job, and the contracts are production-type which I haven't dealt with in years. It should be interesting. The Americans of course rotate every 5 years max, whereas the foreign service nationals stay put year after year.

Besides the ruins and the Embassy and my contractors, we got to attend the Ambassador's Fourth of July bash at his residence. About 2000 people were invited so with all the security folks, it was pretty crowded, but no one fell in the pool. Kevin had a blast mingling with foreign military, various countries' embassy folks, and he even got to speak with outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli President Ezer Weizman spoke, and there were other Israeli bigwigs there, including the new P.M., Ehud Barak. As you can imagine, there were armed guards standing on the roof, guards on horseback on the beach, metal detectors, etc. But there was tons of FREE food and drinks (by American corporate sponsors like Starkist, Hilton, etc.). They shot off fireworks over the Med. Too bad no cameras were allowed inside.

There is a mall close by work, and lots of grocery stores and delis that Kevin has been walking to. He is tired of carrying bottled water up the hill in the heat! Until our goods arrive, the Govt is paying for our food. We bought special discount coupons for gas. The Israelis pay 17% tax on everything they buy, but Americans only 3%. Not bad. Sometimes there are armed guards in the stores who check purses. We have been shopping at a kibbutz that owns an Ace hardware, pharmacy, toy store, McDonald's, and Office Depot. But, it still smells like a farm! Several grocery stores and restaurants serve pork. Even the modern grocery stores have birds flying around inside, and bread is left out unwrapped for customers to handle. The ingredients on the prepared foods are mostly in Hebrew (Ivrit). I did find a health food store.

There are tons of uniformed soldiers (male and female) walking, taking buses, and hitchhiking all over the place.

Money: We were advised to keep our American bank accounts. However, in our neighborhood no one except the Embassy wants US dollars or checks. They all want charge cards or shekels (4 shekels = $1). You use your ATM card to withdraw shekels and then convert the currency with a computer program to post your checkbook. The credit card receipts are in Hebrew and shekels also. In fact, the phone book, business signs, and store receipts are mostly in Hebrew. Some Americans take language courses.

An apartment is a flat. Women's slacks are trousers.

There are huge cockroaches here - also very large flies and fast ants. Cats and dogs run loose everywhere, including on the beach. There has been no rain since our arrival. Hot and humid. Kevin is extremely tan and has lost weight from all that walking around. Even I am getting a tad darker, and my hair is bleaching out.

Our co-workers get together fairly often for dinner parties, "diamond parties," and barbecues. We have been invited to several. Several co-workers belong to an Assemblies of God home church and Bible study, which we have attended. The pastor is from Nigeria and was beaten there for being a Christian. Another co-worker attends a Messianic Jewish congregation. We were going to attend their baptismal service on the Sea of Galilee last week, but she was not feeling well. Later we learned that Orthodox Jews had rioted and tried to prevent the church buses from getting there. They had stationed protesters at the Sea in advance, but the service managed to proceed anyway. Apparently the Orthodox sometime plant spies in Mess. churches because they don't want Jews converting to Christianity. We also plan to attend a Mess. congregation in Tel Aviv once our wheels arrive.

Our work week is Sunday - Thursday. We get paid 5% extra for working on Sunday. Churches meet on Saturday. Everything shuts down by Friday at 2 p.m. and doesn't re-open until Saturday night. Israelis eat dinner very late and the night life starts around midnight. There are some restaurants open on the Sabbath, but no newspaper and no flights. There is special sweet wine and sweet lumpy "hallah" bread used only for the Sabbath.

The drivers here are something else. Including lots of motorcycles who lane-split. Fortunately, I only have a 2-mile drive to work and can take residental streets. The office is in a city-type neighborhood with lots of shops and restaurants, terribly noisy and crowded. We have secured underground parking but there is not room for everyone. Also the parking garage is full of pillars that are supposed to prevent collapse of the building in case of a bombing - many people have bashed up their cars. Maybe I will park on the street! There are mostly Japanese and European cars, and of course the pesky motorcycles.

The Embassy has provided recommended names of doctors for us. We live near a medical center that is on the beach. There are excellent tours through the Embassy that we can take. We can also order goods through the duty-free catalogs.

Well that's certainly enough for now. Next time...our first trip to Jerusalem! Shalom!