Packing stuff. A lot of stuff.

We started packing today. Considering that on Friday the shipping company is coming to pick up all our stuff, you might think that starting to pack on Wednesday is last minute. However, in light of the weird feeling an empty-house-full-of-boxes induces, postponing that as much as possible was the right thing to do. Noga was really sad when she got back home today, realizing that it had turned into a bunch of boxes in her absence. But I guess this is inevitable when transferring one's life across the ocean. At least both Anat and myself have already finished working, so the whole ordeal is not too hectic. And yet, it's almost unbelievable how much stuff we have accumulated in our 3.5 years here. There is certainly a liberating feeling in throwing away or giving away a lot of the unnecessary items we own.

While speaking with several people, it occurred to me that some of you are unaware of our next steps. So here goes. We'll be leaving Pittsburgh in a few days - after shipping our belongings to Israel, we'll ship ourselves to the western US. We'll spend about 80 days hiking and camping in Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and California.

In early September we'll fly out from San-Francisco to Israel and start a new phase in our lives, in Haifa. After a few weeks of settling down (mostly helping the girls to get used to the new environment), we'll start our new jobs. Anat is going to be a faculty member in the department for learning disabilities, which is part of the school of education of Haifa University. I will be working for Google, in the Haifa office. We've rented an apartment in Ramat-Begin neighborhood, and Noga, Hadas and Maayan are enrolled in the relevant schools.

But frankly, all this seems very distant right now. I'm much more focused on all the beautiful nature attractions we're about to visit starting next week. We'll keep you posted...

Giora

Dual Citizenship

My green card was confiscated yesterday. At this time I'm not allowed to leave the United States. That is, at least until I get my US passport :-)

Yep, I was sworn in yesterday, and you are now reading lines written by a US citizen. Just in the last moment, before returning to live in Israel... The oath ceremony was very interesting - more than 250 immigrants, from 64 nations, becoming Americans. You don't see similar events in many places around the globe. I should admit that for me it is more a matter of technical convenience than an exciting and emotional day, but it was obvious from the faces of my fellow new citizens that this wasn't the case for most of them. And for what it's worth, I'll be able to freely travel in the future without ever needing to renew a green card or to apply for a US visa.

Giora

Here we go again...

At last, we too have established our presence in the blogosphere :-)

We are leaving Pittsburgh in three weeks, and embarking on a three month adventure in the Western United States. In early September, we are returning to Israel, to open the next chapter of our life in Haifa. We hope to use this space to keep in touch with all the important people in our lives!

Anat, Giora, Noga, Hadas & Maayan

Last winter in Pittsburgh

It's been almost six months since I last wrote here, and I'm properly ashamed of myself. Let's start fixing that. The last few months were extremely busy for me, and the coming ones are expected to be even denser. To begin with, as most of you already know, we will be returning to Israel this summer. Anat has accepted a tenure-track position with Haifa University, and we're about to wrap up the wonderful period of life we've been spending in Pittsburgh.

As I previously wrote, I have mixed feelings about our decision to leave the US, but at this point in time it's a done deal. We were fortunate to remotely rent an apartment in Haifa in advance (Ramat-Begin neighborhood, not far from the university); Noga, Hadas and Maayan are already registered to school and day care, and I've started looking into employment options, Google Haifa being the natural first candidate. We plan on leaving Pittsburgh mid-June, and before that we have several planned trips (pleasure and business), grandparents' visits, and lots and lots of errands to run, inevitable when moving one's life across the ocean.

We leave here mid-June, but will first be heading west, to spend some 3 months traveling, hiking and camping in the western parts of the US. Our current plan is to start from the many national parks in Utah, Arizona & Colorado (Zion, Bryce, Arches and Grand-Canyon to name a few); then drive up north to Wyoming (Yellowstone, Grand Teton); cut westbound through Idaho to Oregon and spend a big chunk of time there (e.g. Crater Lake); drive southward to California (Yosemite, Kings Canyon, but skipping southern California) and conclude in the San Francisco bay area, where we have dear friends and family. The only finalized detail at this point is our flight back to Israel from San-Francisco on September 4th. Transition points in life are certainly the best opportunity to take such long vacations, and judging by our 2 months in New Zealand "on the way" to the US, we're gonna have the time of our life! I'm so very excited!! I look forward to spending time with Anat and the girls around beautiful lakes, on trails in the forest, on mountain tops and around camp-fires in the evenings.

Future plans aside, there is still a lot going on in the present tense. The main contributor to my hectic schedule is my relatively new job. Google is a unique employer, and a notable aspect is the unusual professional level of its employees. I am surrounded by many people who are simply better software engineers than I am, in every reasonable measure. This was a new and not at all pleasant experience for me. Don't get me wrong – it's not that I was the best in every workplace to date. Far from it. But it'd be fair to say I was used to feeling that I belonged to the upper half of the professionals around me. In Google, I need to do my very best and still see many that are plainly better. There are also some technical reasons in the Google environment that make such differences more visible, but I'll skip the details.

You might be saying that it's terrific, being among people from whom I can learn so much. In theory, I strongly agree. But as many smart people said - in theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they're not... That is, getting used to such a new environment was, and still is, a challenge for me. The fact that I am very slow when starting in new workplaces only made things worse. All in all, I believe this is a very important experience, at a deeper level, and I try to remind myself of that when things are down. I can certainly say that things have significantly improved over the last 3 months, but this is not to say that everything is rosy. I should clarify, that despite the above I still think Google is superior as an employer for me comparing to almost any other alternative. Talking about Google's advantages, I can mention the company-funded ski trip in Vermont next week. Tough life...

Enough with work, back to the really important stuff. Though my workload was increased, I'm very careful not to reach a point where I don't get to spend enough time with the girls. This is, and probably will always be, the ultimate highest priority. It feels like Maayan grew up amazingly fast and all of a sudden we have 3 girls running around. No longer 2 girls and a baby. Even in objective measures, her development was astonishingly quick – she started walking before turning 10 months and is acting regularly as if she was much older than her meager one year. I guess the catching up with older siblings isn't a myth. She's unbelievably cute, fairly stubborn and possesses an exceptional talent of wreaking havoc. Her favorite activity is invading cabinets and dressers and quickly removing their content and transforming it into one big pile. It's hard to express in words how joyful she is – with her natural happiness, her meaningful facial expressions, her outstanding ability to understand what's being said to her (and ignore it outright if it happens to be a request to cease mess-creating activities). Her rolling laughter when I tickle her between her toes at bath time would leave anyone with a big smile.

Equally satisfying is seeing Noga and Hadas treating her with the sort of kindness reserved to siblings. Although Maayan tends to protest every time a parent is hugging or cuddling one of her sisters, pushing them aside as forcefully as she can, both Noga and Hadas are amazing sisters to her. It's not unusual to see Noga feeding her from a bottle, or Hadas playing hide-and-seek with her, laughter and screams of joy filling the house. In general, Noga and Hadas are as marvelous as ever (only bigger and more mature all the time). We're lucky that they are still young enough to accept hugs, kisses and cuddling willingly, while already old enough for very interesting discussions and conversations. I'll spare the details, as I'm already beyond reasonable length for this post.

I'll just add that there are plenty of new photos (and soon some videos as well) on our web site - http://picasaweb.google.com/AnatGiora

Hope all is well with all of you,
Maayan, Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora

Becoming a Googler!

This week I became a Googler! Or, more precisely, a Noogler (New Googler in the company jargon). As many of you know, I recently terminated my employment with Vocollect in order to start working for Google. As an aside, I should mention a notable difference between the Israeli high-tech market and the American one. While in Israel leaving a company gets you many "you traitor!"-like responses, the basic attitude in the US is that people normally move on after some time. For the most part, the response I got at Vocollect was "Congratulations!", which is a tribute to the company and my past colleagues there.

Anyway, I spent my first week at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California. And what a fascinating week it was! I assume each and every one of you has heard of Google, though I'm not sure how familiar you are with the details. Google was and is growing at an astounding pace. Not even a decade since it was founded, the company has well over 10,000 employees and is considered one of the major players in the technology industry. In each of the past 2 quarters Google recruited more than 1500(!) Nooglers, bringing the rate to well over a hundred new employees per week. And the week I joined was no different from any other. On the down side, it almost felt like enlisting in the army again. On the up side, the luxurious "service" conditions more than made up for it ;-)

Google is considered by many the best employer in the US, in terms of employee satisfaction. I can fully understand why after a week in the Googleplex. The Mountain View campus is ENORMOUS! It's comprised of numerous not-very-tall-but-fairly-fancy buildings, and spans a huge area. To allow easy transportation between buildings if one prefers not to walk, there are free bikes and scooters all over the place. Equipment such as laptops and desktops is top of the line. Generally speaking, the attitude is that as an employee you can have whatever will make you happier and more productive, and then some. In Mountain View, the company provides day-care for employees' kids, on-site doctors, massages, free laundry and more. But the most notable perk has to do with food. All employees have a constant free supply of food. The campus hosts more than 10 gourmet restaurants, and you can dine free of charge – breakfast, lunch and dinner. That easily explains the "Google 15" rule, according to which a Noogler gains 15 pounds (circa 7 kg) within a short amount of time. I must say that I was quite overwhelmed by this wealth, and made a big effort to beat the statistics. Not sure if I succeeded...

In terms of organizational behavior and culture, Google is like nothing else. It'd be fair to say that it's a big corporation that sticks to its start-up mentality. And don't get me wrong, I'm all for it. It's just highly unusual. One central characteristic is the striking difference between the secrecy outwards and the total openness internally. Once you've passed the recruiting process and joined the company, pretty much everything is at your fingertips (the main exception is information about users, for privacy reasons). The level of access to information is really overwhelming, and my main task in the first few weeks will be to start digesting the relevant information and more importantly learning to ignore or defer irrelevant information. It is no secret that this is not one of my strengths, but I'll have to learn. I simply have no choice, and I hope that working in the much-smaller Pittsburgh office will also make it somewhat easier.

Technologically, there is so much going on, and so much cutting-edge fascinating technology being developed inside Google. In some unexplainable way, despite the somewhat chaotic feeling, the resulting technology and innovations are jaw-dropping. And even more importantly, I'm going to be surrounded by many brilliant engineers, from whom I can learn so much from. Heaven! So, I truly hope that the coming months will live up to my expectations. I'll conclude here, as I'm on board an airplane, and the battery in my shiny new Mac laptop is running low. By the way, this trip was my first kidless flight in more than 4 years! A refreshing change by itself...

Hugs and kisses,
Giora

PS: To avoid total lack of new updates about the girls, I'll simply substitute the verbal blabbing with a Picasa link, where you can find numerous photos, including recent ones: http://picasaweb.google.com/AnatGiora

The wonders of Paternity leave (and - Israel, here we come for a visit!)

It's been a while since I last wrote about what's going on with us in Pittsburgh. And there's a LOT to tell! Indeed, we're going to Israel tomorrow, and we'll get to see many of you. However, chances are that we won't have the time to verbally cover all the aspects with each of you, so I figured a posting might be a good idea.

All in all, the past few months were fairly hectic on our end, owing to several different things. For one thing, as you all know, baby Maayan joined our family 3 months ago. But that's not the main reason. The main cause of our recent hectic schedule was that all of a sudden, very unexpectedly, Anat found herself preparing a job talk for Haifa university, which she's going to give in May during our visit to Israel.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the specifics of the academic world, I'll say that getting your first job as a faculty member is probably the most challenging stage in an academic career. This is true worldwide, but is terribly emphasized in the current reality in Israel. The Israeli academia is burdened with extreme budgetary difficulties across the board, and every position that opens attracts dozens of candidates, all of whom are highly qualified.

Thus, although Anat's original plan was to start looking for a job in the coming fall, when a job search was announced in Haifa, there was no question that she can't let the opportunity pass. And whereas preparing a job talk is a stressful task no matter what, doing so in the middle of a maternity leave and with a newborn at home is virtually insane. But as said above, there wasn't really a choice here.

Fortunately, Maayan turned out to be a magnificent baby, and taking care of her is much easier than we originally anticipated. As opposed to our situations in the past with Noga and Hadas, I had to get back to work full-time a few days after the birth. And as opposed to the previous two daughters, we had no family around to help. And yet, in some strange and inexplicable way, we both feel very strongly that this time was much easier for us.

I know you'll suspect that I'm biased, but I don't care. I'll still say that Maayan is the cutest baby in the world. She does have her fussy days from time to time, like every baby, but typically she's very alert, extremely responsive, good-natured and full of smiles. She's already sleeping at night pretty regularly (typically 8:30 pm until 6:30 am), allowing her parents the much-needed rest and sleep. I usually say that I'd rather start with a 1-year old baby, but with Maayan most days are very enjoyable now as well. Humming, grrrring and hooooooing to her usually gets you conversation-like sounds in return. Smiling at her almost always grants you a wide smile. Her beautiful eyes, wide-open, are constantly looking around and studying her surroundings. Not to mention her cheek smooshed against my chest when she's sleeping on me in her BabyBjorn,or her tiny fingers unknowingly drumming on my shoulder when she's being fed.

In general, it'd be fair to say that right now I'm enjoying one of the best and happiest times I've ever had. Anat has completed her 12-week maternity leave, and I have been off work for more than a week already and am officially on paternity leave. For 6 weeks (4 of them in Israel) I'm going to be completely detached from my workplace, dedicating all my time and energy to my lovely daughters. And that's the most enjoyable and rewarding thing to be doing, in my opinion.

The weather is also cooperating wonderfully, and for the past two weeks we're having very non-Pittsburgh days, with blue skies, sunshine and perfect temperatures. Most of my time is spent walking around the neighborhood with Maayan in her stroller, absorbing the sun while drinking coffee, visiting Hadas at daycare and Noga at school and spending a lot of time with the three of them. If there wasn't that annoying need for my salary, I would have joyfully adopted this lifestyle for good ;-)

Hadas and Noga definitely had the expected post-family-expansion difficulties, each in her own way and time. However, we're long past these episodes by now, and they're both back to normal - extremely happy and lively girls, ever developing and evolving, fascinating company and most importantly true friends for each other. Hadas grew up so much and has become so mature, that it's sometimes hard for me to believe. She's still full of mischief and she has the inherent tendency not to obey, but I think this is a big part of her charm. Noga is simply blossoming at school, where she had a fantastic year. She is now a book worm just like her mother, reading full length books any time she can. Sometimes she's so absorbed in a book that it's really difficult to draw her attention...

Generally speaking, the recent developments with Anat's career, namely the (currently remote) possibility that she'll be offered a job in Israel, forced me to think where I want to live the rest of my life. The relevant and practical options are, naturally, the US and Israel. That's a topic for a much longer and detailed discussion, for which I don't have the time right now, but the bottom line is that I can't yet decisively answer this question, even to myself. I feel that the answer, at least for me, is not as obvious as it used to be 10 or 15 years ago. But, again, this is a subject for a separate posting, and I need to start the morning routine and get the girls organized for their last school day before going to Israel.

Looking forward to seeing many of you very soon!!
Maayan, Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora (this list became longer, ha?! ;-)

Welcome, Maayan!

We want to share some happy news with you! On Wednesday, 31 January 2007, our third daughter, Maayan was born. The birth was exceptionally quick and smooth, and 8 hours after she was born at the midwife center we were all situated back home, healthy and feeling well. Maayan weighed 3.8 kg (8 lb 7 oz) and is without a doubt the cutest thing!!! We promise to update our web site with additional photos as soon as our hectic (and so far sleepless) schedule allows.

Hugs and kisses,
Maayan, Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora