Ami Ohayon

I know, I know, I know … I have to stop whining about the weather, so I’ll keep this short. I’m tired of grey. I’m tired of clouds. I want to walk outside and feel some sun, I’m sure I’m suffering from Vitamin D deficiency, waaaagh!

OK, I’m done with whining. In other news, I had a great couple of days last week. Some friends of mine recently got engaged (hi Gal, hi Nomi!) and we threw them a big party to celebrate. It was originally planned to just be a few friends getting together for dinner but very quickly it turned out to be a guest list that may end up rivaling the wedding itself. So, having the party at a house was out, as were most of the restaurants we know. A quick planning meeting was convened (four of us got together for coffee and then swapped emails … that’s the big planning meeting) and we decided that if it was going to be big, let’s make it big. Continue Reading »

As I wrote in my last post, our water situation here in Israel is becoming more and more serious, but there was a small ray of light over the last few days. We had a huge storm that covered pretty much the entire country, including the most critical area in terms of water management, the Kinneret (often known outside of Israel as the Sea of Galilee). The Kinneret is the main reservoir of fresh water for much of Israel.

It’s still only a drop in the bucket so to speak but it was a pretty big drop … we had over 20 centimeters of rain and snow in the last few days, which goes some small distance towards making this winter not quite so disastrous.

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Since we’re in the Middle East it’s reasonable that people assume that Israel’s weather is always hot and sunny. Well, in the summer it sure is that way, but we have quite cold winters and we’re deep in the middle of one now! The sky is grey and overcast, there’s lots of fog, and the temperature has dropped over the last week.

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In my first post on this blog, I mentioned in passing that I had spent several years in Boston as a student. I was lucky enough to attend Harvard, where I got my MBA.

I liked Boston very much. It’s such an intensely college town, with several universities and colleges scattered around the Boston area, so student life is very full and fun. I lived in Brookline, a suburb just outside Boston proper, where I lived on what would in the usual circumstances have been a quiet side street. But Beals Street is the street on which the birthplace of John F. Kennedy stands, at number 83, and so it was a very busy area particularly around the time of his birth, when there are ceremonies and remembrances of him. Continue Reading »

The place I live is something of a contradiction. I live in a quiet corner of one of the most bustling parts of Jerusalem. Machane Yehuda is the central market in Jerusalem, the place you go to for good deals on fruits and vegetables and where you can see live chickens sitting in crates at the back of a market stall, just waiting for the knife to descend. It’s noisy, busy crowded and cheap. Great fun if you’re a people person, and you really can get some terrific bargains there. Continue Reading »

I promised that I would write about my experiences in Boston for my next post. But hey, I don’t always keep my promises. It occurred to me that it might be a surprise for some people to see an Israeli guy writing a blog in (reasonably) fluent English. But Ami, I hear you ask, how come your English is so good? (That is what I hear, isn’t it?) Continue Reading »

Well, all blogs have to start somewhere, so here is where I’m starting mine. My name is Ami Ohayon, and I live in Jerusalem. I’m in my late 20s, and work for a web development company here in Israel. I spent several years living in the United States, in Boston, where I was at university. I don’t plan to talk a great deal about my work on this blog, not because it’s so terrifically secretive or exciting or cutting edge, but because I’m more interested in writing about some of my personal experiences. Continue Reading »