The very first steps - hoping for the best :)

Hi...

Where are u coming from? What do you guys do?

Life is not easy here and jobs are not that easy to be found. But I guess it also depends on what your occupation is.

We are coming from Hungary. I will get my degree - officially: "economist - specialised on tourism".
I work with languages (translation, interpretation, education) and real estate.
My husband is a "harder nut", he works as an insurance agent, but I guess this differs from country to country. He is in the middle of a law university (Hungarian law, also useless in an other country ). He speaks no other languages, but I try to make him catch up. But he is good with construction works.

I'm willing to work anything at the start that pays. Being a waitress, whatever. Later, when my Hebrew will be fluent, I would like to shift to a better job. Teaching, or anything that includes dealing with clients, I'm really good at that.

We will start a full ulpan to learn Hebrew as good as possible.

I'm also concerned about the military issue - what is the situation about that? To tell the truth I don't want to see any of us in the front line in case of a war...
I'm 28, my husband is 39.

First of all you as a woman won't have any military issues.. Women are obliged to serve in the army for 2 years, but at your age they won't be demanding it. Your husband may be asked to go for a few weeks to get the basics, but that's it. He won't be serving 3 years as young men are obliged to. Once a year he may be asked to serve in the reseve forces again for 2-3 weeks, but not more than that. There's also a chance he won't be asked to go at all.

Regarding work - well it's quite hard here and you will need Hebrew. If you don't mind working as a waitress at the beginning, you can do that in beach restaurants in Tel-Aviv. I know they employ quite a lot of English speakers (with no Hebrew) and they make some nice profits there (especially from tips).
Tourism is a problematic sector in Israel, since it can be blooming for several months and then you get a terrorist attack and suddenly tourism is dropping. EVen now with what's going on in Egypt and other countries surrounding us is affecting tourism in Israel. Real estate on the other hand is sky rocketing. You can also work as a translator, either through a firm specializing in translations (such as "Hever" for example) or post some ads on the net.
You can also give language lessons by posting ads.
In the insurance business (for your husband) he will have to learn Hebrew. I suggest you start taking some basic language courses in Hungary.

Thank you for the information.
Well, beach restaurants would be a problem for me... I have a very white skin and photoallergy... I do any work that is not open-air. Otherwise I should use sun protector in every half an hour not to get burnt or have "chicken-poxlike" dots on my skin.

Hebrew - I started to learn it. I'm progressing pretty well with speaking. Reading is harder and extremely slow - I have to look up everything in the alefbet and wonder what vowels the word may contain. This is the harder part, but I'm not worried, it only takes time. I have an Israeli friend living here, we cross-teach each other, he learns Hungarian, I learn Hebrew. I cannot really pronounce Chet yet, but maybe later I can pronounce it without giving the illusion of vomiting

We will travel to Israel next Thursday for two weeks. One purpose is to be tourists and enjoy sunshine (what I have not seen for months here ), the other is to get the "feeling of the country".

We have a friend family (the parents of the above mentioned friend), they will guide us and already gave a lot of help to find accomodation on normal (not tourist range) prices. This way I learnt that problem solving means to yell out loud in Isreal

I do have big expectations, but I'm willing to be flexible and pick up the language fast. I had several foreigner clients even here, I liked to work with them. I used to work a Hungarian, but Israeli owned company, so I have a little knowledge on how business may work among Israelies.

Lack of religion may cause any problem? We are both ateists, not interested in any religion. We do respect all religions, only we are not belivers.

zzombie wrote:

Thank you for the information.
Well, beach restaurants would be a problem for me... I have a very white skin and photoallergy... I do any work that is not open-air. Otherwise I should use sun protector in every half an hour not to get burnt or have "chicken-poxlike" dots on my skin.

You do know Israel is an extremely hot sunny and humid country right? We have almost no winter and our summer is hot as hell! Especially during July and August during which you practically melt.

Hebrew is not that difficult as a language. Yes we don't write the vowels and many times you have to guess how a word should be pronounced but you get used to that. The "Chet" as well

About religion - You will find Israel a very modern country. Tel-Aviv and the rest of the center cities and the northern cities are very modern. If you go to Jerusalem you will see and feel a big difference and religion does play a big part in the daily life in that part of the country. Also in regular supermarkets everything is kosher. But there are non kosher chains all around the center such as "Tiv Taam". During week-end (starting Friday afternoon till Saturday evening) and Jewish holidays you have almost no public transportation, but there are other ways to get around if you don't have a car such as private transportations.

And yes you got it right - in Israel if you're not loud, you will get nowhere. You have to yell in order to be heard and have things done

I know the weather I hope to stay in air conditioned buildings during the day, or expose my skin to sun only late afternoon.
Or simply everybody will know, I'm a new-comer, since I will be red all over

I hardly can wait Thursday, we are leaving to Israel for two weeks. For a holiday and for a final decision, but I'm pretty sure the decision will not change.

About religion - I don't mind kosher food, it is healthy. When I want to make Hungarian food (our national cusine is extremely anti-kosher, meat with diary products, pork-based meals, etc.), I can do it at home. But I will not miss fatty Hungarian food. Maybe a pizza with pepperoni and cheese

I will arrive back home 1 April, and share my experiences. But I'm sure they will mostly be positive.