Barcelona rocked my world!

Hola!

So Barce was amazing!  I am going to keep this blog short because pictures are a far better way to show you everything I did, plus I took close to 600.  Whoops! 

I was there for only 4 days, but I did everything on my hand-written "alex does spain" itinerary.  Complete with almost every Gaudi attraction, a long bike ride through Barri Gotic and along the beautiful boardwalk, a jaunt to Nou Stadium to check out FCB's digs, and realllly great food--I couldn't have asked for a better trip.

The weather was amazing, my hotel was in a perfect location minutes from the subway, the Rambla, and my favorite neighborhood the Raval.  I walked around in the early mornings to catch the best sunlight and to avoid the crowds if only for an hour.  I sipped espresso and ate pastries, and read my book while I sipped beer from Catalonia.  I stumbled upon restaurants not listed in my Lonely Planet guide and was happy to discover fresh fish, colorful veggies, and a local twist on mediterranean staples.  

Barce was a great way to end my travels...

After only a 5 hour flight, I arrived back in Israel Monday evening.

The last time I'll have my passort stamped with the "Israeli entry ink."  So crazy that my time here is almost done. I only have 11 days left!!

Thanks everyone for reading!

Adios

I've been working here, not just traveling!

Hi everyone,

So it's been about 2 weeks since my last post, which is about how its been going all summer.  I thought I would post not about travel or food, but about all the work I've been doing here.  I know that may come as a shock to you all as the entire blog is covered with pictures from around Israel and Egypt--how could I really have time to work? Hopefully, after reading this post you'll have an idea of just what that work has entailed...

Ok, so as most of you know I am here doing environmental law-related work towards my Masters degree. So the bulk of this post will focus on that area.  However, I've also done a smattering of other things completely unrelated to the environment that have been equally as rewarding.

After my Birthright trip, I took a few days off before I met with a handful of people to discuss what exactly I would be doing with my time here in Israel.  First, I traveled to Kiryat Ono, a city just east of Tel Aviv.  At the college there, Ono Academic College, I met with Hanan Mandel--my supervisor, a professor, and lawyer.  We discussed my work with the students at Ono who are part of a variety of legal clinics the school has established.  I would meet with them to discuss their work and try to set up some sort of collaborative model where I might be able to help them with their work.  First, there is the clinic who is run by all orthodox men.  This clinic was started to bring awareness to the Haredi community about environmental issues that might be affecting their quality of life.  Then, if anyone wishes to express a concern or get help in determining whether any legal right is being violated by say a company polluting air space, or by the city putting a weird wire on their property, they would have a comfortable group of law students to phone or email and discuss the issue.  Obviously, my hands on interaction with members of this community would be limited because I am a woman and secular. But, these men were very nice and interested in how some of the issues they were facing here in Israel might be resolved in the U.S. Next, I met with a group of students who follows legal decisions handed down by the courts in Israel, specifically focusing on those affecting the environment.  The idea was to discuss these issues as they arose and for me to provide insight as to how they might be dealt with in the U.S.  Unfortunately, this particular arrangement hasn't really taken off because either there have not been very many legal decisions affecting environmental law in the past couple of months, or because the students may feel uncomfortable emailing me.  Nevertheless, I have had other opportunities to communicate with two other student groups at Ono.  

One group is made up of three students who have worked on and completed a model to evaluate local government's sustainability actions in Israeli cities.  The idea was for me to look at their model, and then to do some comparative research about the different models implored in the U.S. to evaluate local governments sustainable actions.  I have been conducting research since this initial meeting almost two months ago and have discovered that ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability), has developed a number of models that many different municipalities have used to evaluate sustainable actions.  These models are more focused on simply evaluating those actions, not ranking different cities against each other.  Other evaluative methods used are ranking methods, and give actual letter grades to cities in one region.  Reporting on both of these type of methods will give the students an idea of the categories and indicators used, the actual process by which the government was evaluated, stakeholders, and expected results.  Hopefully, this information will be useful as they push forward and look to use their model in a pilot city.  

The next group, is a group of students who is part of a general legal clinic at Ono.  Although unrelated to the environment, my work with this group was awesome.  They asked for my help in creating an English contract for an Israeli salesman who had entered into an exclusive purchasing agreement for an air freshener made somewhere in Europe.  I spent a few days sitting down with two students and worked to build on what they had already translated from Hebrew to English, continue the translation, and restructure the contract a bit so that our client would have the best agreement possible.  For the first time since graduating law school, I felt like an actual lawyer.  We not only translated the agreement, but we discussed our client's interests and how best we could draft the agreement to meet his needs.  Great stuff.  

Aside from working with the students at Ono, I was lucky enough to work with the head of MBA Environmental Management program--Dr. Miki Haran.  Miki, former Minister of the Environment for Israel, is still a highly regarded environmental consultant and policy expert and now teaches at Ono.  She gave me the opportunity to do some research for her concerning a project that she had taken on pro bono. In a nearby city, there was an issue with air vapors at a school. Parents were so concerned with the test results that showed slightly elevated chlorinated volatile organic compound (VOC) levels, that the school had been shut down.  Becase the school was positioned at the beginning of sewage system, there was no way that the sewer pipes were carrying any harmful chemicals from nearby industry--the usual source of chlorinated VOCs.  So, she was interested in how some of the tests could still be showing there was slight contamination.  After completing research, it turns out that the level of these chlorinated VOCs is present when vapors are testsed because they are naturally occurring in water resulting from use of typical dishwashing soap, typical household cleaning solutions, and even from some adhesives or paints.  Long story short, Miki was able to use this research and present it to the community to reassure them that these slightly elevated levels were not unusual.  Obviously, in a perfect world the school might stop using particular harmful cleaning solutions or stop its use of certain paints, adhesives, etc.  However one step at a time--the school is now set to open on schedule in the fall. 

I was also lucky enough to work with Emanuel Weizer, head of the Environmetnal Law section of the Israeli Bar Association and an adjunct professor at Ono.  Emanuel had two issues that he wanted me to research.  First, I was to complete research about whether radiation from cellular antennas could be the basis for at trespass action.  After reseraching U.S. case law, it was clear that this radiation might be enough for the basis of an intangible trespass claim.  However, in the U.S. it was important to assert this claim within the statute of limitations that starts to run as soon as the permanent trespass, the antenna, is placed on the property.  Here though, it wasn't that simple as the antenna was never actually placed on the property, but near by.  In this hypothetical, this seems to work in favor of any private property owner trying to assert trespass and recover damages in Israel.  This is because, instead of being concerned by the statute of limitations for the permanent trespass, the owner would have a claim for each intangible, on-going trespass.  There is no intent to bring this action in Israeli right now, but the research might provide a basis for asserting this sort of claim and recovery should exist in Israel.  

In addition, Emanuel also wanted to know about the permitting system under the U.S. Clean Air Act.  This was particularily relevant to him because Israel just recently passed the Clean Air Law.  He was intersted in whether the U.S. issued general permits or whether each source (major and minor) were evaluated and issued permits with specific conditions.  He wants to make sure that all sources in Isarel, not just major, are held accountable and meet emission limits.  In Israel, smaller sources although very prevalant, are issued general permits, instead of specific permits addressing facility specific-issues.  

Ok moving on...are you still with me? Just a couple more projects related to the environment:

I was lucky enough to work with the largest environmental non-profit in Isreal, Life & Environment. My task was to do research about NGO initiated partnerships/collaborations with companies to evaluate their Corporate Sustainabiltiy Reports (CSRs). These reports are compiled by small and large companies and evaluate the company's sustainble actions, including what it is doing for the environment.  Life & Environment wants to catch Israel up and establish a better connection with companies in Israel who have started to complete CSR reports, a new concept in Israel.  The idea was to look at the U.S. and UK to see how similar partnerships were started and cultivated.  Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any partnerships that focus on evaluating an entire CSR report.  Instead, the idea is for an NGO to identify one particular issue it finds most important and has expertise with an then pitch the idea of collaborting to the company.  For example, companies like Ben & Jerry's used to work wtih NGOs in evaluating its entire CSR report, but found that it was far more useful to start partnerships that focused on one issue, like helping farmers institute sustainble practices.  Obviously, this model is extremely important in Israel so that non-profits can be invovled in the discussion with companies and make sure they are pursuing environmental stewardship.

Last but certainly not least, I was invovled with a Green-Building Workshop.  I began planning this workshop when I first arrived, and it took a bit of effort to find a day where the four particpants could speak and to arrange some of the logistics.  Luckily, we were able to arrange for Miki Haran, Hanan, Jonathan Libber (with the EPA in Washington, D.C.), and myself to present to small audience of students and faculty on July 28th.  Although the workshop was small, I think it provded a great overview of what the legal landscape is in Israel, a great model developed by Jonatahn at the EPA that could be used to evaluate the economic benefits of green-building here in Israel, and then a good overview of green-buiding laws in the U.S. and their application to sports stadiums--I supposed you could have guessed that's what I presented on.  I'll admit, I was nervous to present.  I hadn't ever talked for an hour in front of people and wanted to make sure I knew what I was talking about and conveyed all the important information.  I talked about green-buidling laws at the federal, state, and municipal levels, briefly discussed the LEED guidelines, and then used sports stadiums as an example of how those laws apply and potential benefits of this application.  Miki, was very intersted in using the information contained in my presentation as she had never thought about green-building laws applied to sports stadiums.  Here in Isarel, they just aren't as crazy about sports or stadiums as we are in teh U.S. so the application is not as obvious.  But, she told me that she wants to use the example and include it in her class in the fall--really great to bring attention to the issue.  In addition, I think this presentation was helpful to a woman from the Research and Development section of the Knesset, Israel's parliament government.  She is conducting comparative law research about green-building in a variety of different countries and was excited to get my presentation.  Awesome.

And we are nearing the end!

Completely unrelated to all the environmental stuff I just told you about, I has the privilege of working with the NOGA Center in Tel Aviv.  The NOGA Center was established to offer legal advice and representation to victims of serious crimes and to raise awareness in Israel of the needs of the victims.  Obviously, I was very interested in helping them in any way I could.  I was able to complete research on two different issues--both realted to inheritance, specifically to intestacy law.  The center was very intersted in who would take and how much under U.S. law so that they could use this research as a way to support their arguments in Israeli court.  At times, the intestacy law is unfavorable to their clients and having comparative law research showing how another country's intestacy laws work provide additional support for a change in the laws here and possible recovery for their clients.  

Obviously, I am no expert in intestacy law, but it gave me a great opporutnity to step outside of my comfort zone and research issues that really helped some of the NOGA Center's clients.   

Ok, that's it.  I promise.  I hope now you believe me that I've actually been working!  But, don't worry--I am taking a vacation to Barcelona for four days next week so I will soon again be posting about the cool, fun stuff complete with many pictures for all you visual people out there.

Thanks for reading!

Egypt in only 4 days!

So it's been quite a while since my last blog post, but I'm hoping this one will make up for the long delay.  As some of you may know, I just went on a 4-day trip to Egypt--you know the country you see in the southwest corner of the Israel map.  I planned this trip just about 3 weeks before going on it, and by planning, I mean I bought cheap plane tickets and looked through a Lonely Planet guide.  I was a bit apprehensive about traveling alone, one because I've done little to no traveling solo and two because Egypt is a Muslim country.  Well, both of my concerns were put to rest when I talked my new friend Ian into traveling with me.  Ian, like me, was lucky enough to take advantage of the amazing hospitality of Robin Sandenburgh--the mom of Signe's best friend.  

Her house is simply gorgeous, and in a part of Cairo called Maadi where a lot of foreign diplomats live. I arrived here around 9:30p.m. from the Cairo airport after only a 1 hour flight from Tel Aviv--so quick!  I met Ian and we were off to watch the soccer game at a place called the Swiss Club, somewhere in Cairo.  I quickly became accustomed to the stares, smiles, and yells from men and the crazy, dirty, congested streets of Cairo.  When we arrived I tried my first Egyptian beer, and tried to soak in the culture--well the culture of everyone not from Egypt.

The next morning, we got moving as quickly as possible and started in the white Land Cruiser first to Saqqara and then on to Dashur.  In Saqqara I saw the amazing Step Pyramid and many many tombs full of hieroglyphics.  After wandering around here, we made the drive to Dashur where I saw the very first pyramid ever built--the Red Pyramid.  We trekked up 125 stairs to the entrance of the tomb where we were greeted by one of many "tour guides" asking for baqsheesh or a tip for doing pretty much nothing but saying "Asalama" (Arabic for "hi!"). 

We went down a very steep passageway and were greeted by three inner-chambers with high triangular ceilings that consisted of a series of pretruding stone levels.  Really amazing.  Driving back to Maadi, I knew that this trip was going to be really fantastic.

After quickly eating a great lunch of organic veggies from the farm Ian is interning for and traditional balaadi bread from the corner market, we quick took the Metro to downtown Cairo to purchase our overnight-sleeper car train tickets to Luxor.  After spending only 680 Egyptian pounds each, about $120 for a roundtrip ticket, we traveled to the Khan al-Khalili market where I ate amazing fatil bread with the greatest layers of spongey dough, sprinkled with powdered sugar and wrapped in old, used computer paper.  

I saw more junk in that market than I knew existed for the cheapest prices one could imagined.  Men asked Ian how many camels he would sell me for and I was lucky to even have one grab my butt--something I was warned about in my guidebook.  All was well though as we made it out of the market and sampled cactus fruit before jumping in a cab and heading home.  

After a fantastic traditional Egyptian dinner and nice sleep, we were headed to Alexandria--a gorgeous city on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.  After a short 3 hour drive, we were greeted with blue waters and tall buildings.  We scoped out a fantastic fish restaurant where you chose your fish from an open ice-packed cooler and instruct the nice Egyptian man how you'd like it cooked.  While waiting, we ate countless amazing salads and balaadi bread-yum! 

The rest of the afternoon we strolled along the sea, Ian went for a swim, and we saw amazing Mosques.  We quickly drove back to Maadi, and in with one hour turn-around time, we were off again.  This time, to catch our train to Luxor.

We got to Giza Station, just Northwest of Maadi and boarded a "deluxe" train to Luxor about 14 hours south of Cairo.  After being served what I think was dinner, we slept in bunk-style beds and were awakened by a knock on our door--"1 hour until we arrive in Luxor."  The sleeper-car was so clutch and we wasted no time at all making the journey.  When we arrived we quickly got our bearings and went straight for Luxor Temple.  Wow.  It was amazing.  Perhaps one of my most favorite parts of the trip was seeing the two rows of sphinxes that start at the entrance to Luxor Temple and reach 3km to the entrance of Karnak Temple.  It was quite the sight to see.  After the Temple, we decided to take the ferry across the Nile River to the East Bank and hire a cab driver to take us around to see the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, and Hatshepsut's Temple.  

Although these are typical desinations for any tourist, they did not dissapoint.  The Valley of The Kings was very amazing--seeing all the narrow passage ways utilized to deter grave robbers, the dark and solid stone sarcophagi, and the amazing and colorful hieroglyphics made the long and hot walk up to the Valley completely worth it.  It was especially fantastic when I went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo the following day and saw the very-well preserved bodies of the some of the kings whose tombs I had walked through.  Hatshepsut's Temple was also stunning as you can obviously see in the picture to the left.  

115 degree heat makes you tired, very tired.  So we decided to sit and rest at a cafe on the East Bank.  It was nice to sit and drink Egyptian beer, while eating more balaadi, greek salad, and dates soaked in sugar syrup from the tree hanging above our heads.  Coincidence or not, we ran into a felucca driver at the restuarant who encouraged us to take a relaxing float on the Nile.  It of course was exactly what we were looking for.  So for about an hour and a half we floated on an old and rickety felucca in the Nile River.  Our driver spoke perfect English and let us nap as we coasted a long.  It was surreal putting my feet in the Nile, and staring at some of the oldest and most amazing historical sites.

Our Luxor trip concluded with a trip to a fantastic bakery on the street where we purchased every bread item possible, including a fantastically hot and slightly sweet spongey bread that had been cooked in a huge black, cast iron pan and brought to us directly from the oven. And I'm sorry, forgot to take a pictures of this.  We also visited a fair-trade store where for the first time I was not hassled to purchase anything.  Don't worry, the 4-year old boy in the park who walked up to us and simply said "Hello baqsheesh" made up for it.  I guess tips are expected for just about anything.

On my last day, I was on my own for the first time.  I decided to brave the Metro from Maadi to downtown Cairo on the Women-Only car and go to see the enormous Egyptian Museum.  I spent 4 hours walking the halls of this museum seeing more jewelry, stone figures, furniture, tombs, mummies, and artwork then I knew how to comprehend.  And to think that the items in the museum were only 1/4 of the museum's total collection.  Highlights were for sure King Tut's special rooms where I saw jewelry ridiculously well-preserved and then of course the Royal Mummies room where I stared at the almost perfect mummies of the some of the Kings dating back thousands of years.  After the musuem, I spent some time on the nearby islands of Zamalek and Gezeira and took a well-bargained for taxi ride to the Citadel of Muhammed Ali.  The stunning view (plus some smog) of the city and the ornate celing inside the mosque was definitely worth it.

To end my journey, we went to the very corny light and sound show at the Giza Pyramids.  I wanted to go so that I could see the Pyramids and of course the Sphinx.  The show I could have done without, but the view of these vast monuments was such a great way to end my trip.  They were amazing, even from a distance and it was so cool to think about all the different people in history who had stood before them.

I will say it one last time, Egypt was amazing! I had the time of my life and hope I did it justice.
~Thanks for reading, and if you want to see more pictures please click here.