Sede Boqer
After a bit over a week here, I thought I'd give some impressions of the "town" that I'm living in. I put it in quotes because there isn't really a town here - it's really more like a campus, where people live on campus. It's a bit hard to explain really. There is a university research center here, and there are a number of graduate students of various stages, but there are no undergrads, except the rare few who are involved in a research project. There are a number of departments here - ecology, social sciences ('man and the desert'), anthropology, hydrology, geology, architecture, and a few others. Each has a small building, with a seminar room, and offices. There is also a high school here, and a field school, though these seem quite small. I think there may be an elementary school here too, but I can't tell. There is also a kind of pre-army school for teens. My understanding of this thing is that it is for teens who are about to do their mandatory army service (at 18, all Israelis must spend 2 years in the army). Apparently this camp is set up to teach kids, many of whom are immigrants, what the army will be like, including learning various commands in hebrew. I hear them doing counting out pushups a couple times a day, and they are often seen along the road digging holes or filling them in.
There are probably a couple hundred people who live here. There is a small cafe, a small (and expensive) grocery store, a post office that is open a few days a week for a couple hours. That's about it. Oh, and a swimming pool.
So, it's a pretty sleepy little academic compound. It is located on the edge of a large area of relatively undeveloped desert, which is pretty rare here. The campus is on the edge of a deep canyon over a wadi (dry river). There is not a lot of vegetation there, except right in the wadi. It makes for a spectacular view from that side of the campus. I am living in the new student apartments, which just opened a couple of months ago. They are quite nice, but are located on the growing edge of the midrasha ('learning center'; what this campus is called). I am on the end of a row of apartments that are 2-story blocks of stone. the main building material here is stone, at least on the outside. They use a strange cement block to actually build the walls - it looks like a regular cement block, but has a lot more air in it. So what looks like a solid, 1x1x2 foot block, only weighs about 15 pounds. the idea is that all the air in the block makes for good insulation. It seems to work pretty well too. then they cover this with nice looking stones. (I'm still working on the photo thing, be patient). There are a lot of interesting architectural experiments here, some more successful than others. the windows all have metal shutters on them to keep out the sun during the hot times. Everyone has solar hot water, which may or may not work, depending on individual whim.
There is a fair amount of wildlife here, given that it is in the middle of a pretty dry part of the desert. There are a lot of ibex roaming around - they sort of like a cross between a deer and a goat, and can climb the most ridiculous cliffs. There are also a fair number of birds. Israel is famous as a migration corridor for birds, and bird fanatics descend on the area during spring. This time of year is good too, although the real concentration is about 40km away in the rift valley (where the dead sea is).
As I said, it's pretty dry here - they get about 100mm of rain per year. It is also relatively trashed habitat, by N. American standards. Most of the desert here has been overgrazed for a few thousand years, and in recent years, cars, bulldozers, and the odd tank have spend a lot of time around here. There are some relatively less disturbed places, but nothing is 'undisturbed'. It's still pretty though. And you do get to see Bedouin camel trains from time to time.
Sede Boqer is pretty isolated from the rest of the world, too. We are about a 50 min bus ride to the nearest town, Beer Sheva. That makes it a bit harder to make a midnight run for ice cream. Or to go to a movie for that matter. it is also relatively expensive to make that trip (21 new Israeli shekels each way - about 5 dollars). Actually, this is an expensive place to live in general. Food isn't cheap, rent wouldn't be cheap if it weren't subsidized by the university, gas is outrageous (not many oil producing countries will sell oil to Israel). Add in the low salaries, and things get pretty tight. I'm actually making less here than I did as a graduate student in Madison.
The social life here is pretty cozy, as you might imagine in such a small, isolated community. There are students from all parts of the globe, and english is spoken in a bewildering array of accents. The funny part about that is that the one student here from the UK is the least understood by the rest of the crowd because of his accent. So much for the empire. Folks get together on Friday night for dinner, and the students have a lounge where they show movies each weekend. Seems like a generally good group, and everyone seems to know that I'm the new ecologist.
Unfortunately, ultimate has fallen by the wayside in the last few years. Apparently there used to be a group that played here once a week, and also went to the nearby kibbutz once a week to play a big round of pickup (2 fields going at once, I hear). sadly, the field here has gone to dust, literally, and no one plays anymore. I'll have to figure out some other way to keep my belly on the right side of my belt, especially since my morning commute is about 2 minutes, on foot... if I take my time.
There are probably a couple hundred people who live here. There is a small cafe, a small (and expensive) grocery store, a post office that is open a few days a week for a couple hours. That's about it. Oh, and a swimming pool.
So, it's a pretty sleepy little academic compound. It is located on the edge of a large area of relatively undeveloped desert, which is pretty rare here. The campus is on the edge of a deep canyon over a wadi (dry river). There is not a lot of vegetation there, except right in the wadi. It makes for a spectacular view from that side of the campus. I am living in the new student apartments, which just opened a couple of months ago. They are quite nice, but are located on the growing edge of the midrasha ('learning center'; what this campus is called). I am on the end of a row of apartments that are 2-story blocks of stone. the main building material here is stone, at least on the outside. They use a strange cement block to actually build the walls - it looks like a regular cement block, but has a lot more air in it. So what looks like a solid, 1x1x2 foot block, only weighs about 15 pounds. the idea is that all the air in the block makes for good insulation. It seems to work pretty well too. then they cover this with nice looking stones. (I'm still working on the photo thing, be patient). There are a lot of interesting architectural experiments here, some more successful than others. the windows all have metal shutters on them to keep out the sun during the hot times. Everyone has solar hot water, which may or may not work, depending on individual whim.
There is a fair amount of wildlife here, given that it is in the middle of a pretty dry part of the desert. There are a lot of ibex roaming around - they sort of like a cross between a deer and a goat, and can climb the most ridiculous cliffs. There are also a fair number of birds. Israel is famous as a migration corridor for birds, and bird fanatics descend on the area during spring. This time of year is good too, although the real concentration is about 40km away in the rift valley (where the dead sea is).
As I said, it's pretty dry here - they get about 100mm of rain per year. It is also relatively trashed habitat, by N. American standards. Most of the desert here has been overgrazed for a few thousand years, and in recent years, cars, bulldozers, and the odd tank have spend a lot of time around here. There are some relatively less disturbed places, but nothing is 'undisturbed'. It's still pretty though. And you do get to see Bedouin camel trains from time to time.
Sede Boqer is pretty isolated from the rest of the world, too. We are about a 50 min bus ride to the nearest town, Beer Sheva. That makes it a bit harder to make a midnight run for ice cream. Or to go to a movie for that matter. it is also relatively expensive to make that trip (21 new Israeli shekels each way - about 5 dollars). Actually, this is an expensive place to live in general. Food isn't cheap, rent wouldn't be cheap if it weren't subsidized by the university, gas is outrageous (not many oil producing countries will sell oil to Israel). Add in the low salaries, and things get pretty tight. I'm actually making less here than I did as a graduate student in Madison.
The social life here is pretty cozy, as you might imagine in such a small, isolated community. There are students from all parts of the globe, and english is spoken in a bewildering array of accents. The funny part about that is that the one student here from the UK is the least understood by the rest of the crowd because of his accent. So much for the empire. Folks get together on Friday night for dinner, and the students have a lounge where they show movies each weekend. Seems like a generally good group, and everyone seems to know that I'm the new ecologist.
Unfortunately, ultimate has fallen by the wayside in the last few years. Apparently there used to be a group that played here once a week, and also went to the nearby kibbutz once a week to play a big round of pickup (2 fields going at once, I hear). sadly, the field here has gone to dust, literally, and no one plays anymore. I'll have to figure out some other way to keep my belly on the right side of my belt, especially since my morning commute is about 2 minutes, on foot... if I take my time.
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