Around the World in 60 Days - Israel

While the rest of the world reports of Fatah and Hamas rivaling over tiny portions of land, here is the local news from Haifa the other day:

- Last night, a driver was caught driving down a road the wrong way. The police pulled the car over and found that the driver was drunk. He was arrested and brought to jail.

- Yesterday, 8 men impersonating electrical engineers went to the headquarters of the power plant and stole four transformers. They were caught and brought to jail.

- The weather will be sunny and warm this week with no chance of rain.

The news here runs once an hour, on the hour, for 15 minutes, and the news culture is completely different from that in the U.S. As you can see from above, everything is news, no matter how small. If they're reporting the weather conditions, its a good sign.

Last week we arrived on Tuesday and spent the week adjusting to the sizeable time change. On Friday, we went to a Michigan reception with over 50 potential Ross MBAs organized by Ohad, a current MBA at Ross. Since Ross has absolutely no brand name in Israel, the Israeli Ross MBA crowd is trying to change the tide and show how Ross is also a top class school.

Roy presented first before the slide presentation, and did the hard part - convincing the audience why they should be there, listen, and consider Ross. Despite the fact that I could probably understand only about 10% of the Hebrew, it was really interesting to see the cultural difference here - instead of smiles and nods, the audience responded with critical looks and furrowed eyebrows. Instead of slowing the momentum, this seemed to fuel Roy's talk and make him more emphatic. Here, argument nourishes discussion rather than quashing it. Photos of the event are at: www.israelatross.com

The next day we had a picnic with Ross MBA from three classes: those who just graduated, those who will be MBA2s this year, and the incoming class. There are seven Israelis, all men, who will be joining Ross in the fall, four of whom are married with small kids (under 2). Kids are the best at getting around the language barrier, so I like hanging out with them. At one point, I found myself trying to play with two kids who spoke no English (one only Russian, and the other only Hebrew), but nevertheless were interested in interacting. Very cute.
http://www.israelatross.com/Home/WebAlbums/Tel%20Aviv%20Picnic%20-%20May%202007/index.html

More later from me, and next time, with photos!