Study under the MASA program in Israel

- Is Israel a big or small country?
- Of course, a big one! Otherwise, her name would be Isey ...

Good day, dear reader. Please do not swear much, this is my first publication. Photos are not the best quality, but the main thing is the essence.

In this article I want to share my impressions about the MASA program, which makes it possible to spend up to two semesters in Israel and get training on the basis of one of the universities of the country in a specialty of interest.



I started studying immediately from the second semester, due to the fact that I have quite a lot of experience. The first semester is intended for people who do not have knowledge of IT. Judging by the reviews of the guys who came without experience and knowledge, the first semester really brought them up to date and gave general ideas about network technologies and Microsoft products. Many of those who came to study and did not lose time managed to prepare and successfully pass the exams at the MCSE. (The cost of exams is not included in the program and is paid separately at the request of the student.)
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What does the BIT-Technion program include:
1. Education at the Israeli University of Technology (Technion) under the program of External students;
2. Study Hebrew;
3. A room in a hostel;
4. Lunch on class days;
5. Scholarship (in dollars);
6. Payment of travel (in the form of a sum of money for a travel card);
7. Medical insurance.

We are preparing for the trip

Register on the program website. We register in the Israeli embassy by phone, choose a convenient day. We are preparing all documents for obtaining a student visa (the list is on the website ). A trip to the embassy is an exhausting occupation that takes a whole day (at least in Moscow). If everything is successful, you can buy plane tickets (you should take care that you did not fly to Israel on Friday or Saturday , Shabbat ...).

Upon arrival

We will have to get to the venue of the program ourselves. Either by taxi (expensive) or by train directly from the airport to Haifa (in the case of the BIT-Technion program). It takes about two hours to go, but time flies, most likely you will find yourself in a quiet, comfortable train car with sockets “under 220” and WiFi (departing from the topic, WiFi is almost everywhere, even in the most ordinary bus).

Meeting with the coordinator and check-in

After arriving in Haifa and meeting with the coordinator, you will be assigned to one of the many hostels in the Lower City, this is the name of the Haifa district with the lowest housing prices, located close to the seaport. A distinctive feature of the area - a huge number of students of similar programs. Also in the lower city is concentrated a large number of bars and cafes. Another attraction is the cat, which lives on the streets very, very much.



The area itself is very dirty.
Israel is a very contrasting country.

Hostel

The hostel can vary greatly depending on the program for which you arrived, on whether you came as a married couple or alone. For example, my wife and I were placed in a small "apartment" in which there was no frills, but everything was minimally necessary for life: one, but rather spacious room, an entrance hall-kitchen and a combined bathroom. When settling give a set of essential items.

As you know, this is the minimum set, and for a comfortable life you will have to buy more or bring in advance what you see fit. Each room has its own WiFi access point (by the way, in Israel, the Internet is very slow, especially upsetting outgoing speed, the upper ceiling of which is 4 Mbit / s, and therefore, the use of cloud services in the corporate sector is not very common in Israel) .

The big surprise was the tariffs of cellular operators: full local unlimited (calls and SMS, 6 Gb of Internet, unlimited calls to Russia and many other countries to landline numbers) cost 59 shekels (about 830 rubles at the current exchange rate).

Leisure

In the photo one of the walks in Haifa:



If you are going to live on a scholarship, then from leisure you are left with several excursions included in the MASA program, walks and the beach in good weather. All excursions take place with a Russian-speaking guide, comfortable air-conditioned buses and WiFi are used for transportation. During the program, I visited with excursions: Caesarea National Park, Sorek Reserve, Golan Heights, and also went on an excursion to the high-tech company “daughter” Johnson & Johnson - Biosense Webster , which develops and manufactures devices for radio-frequency catheter ablation .



Israel is a very unusual country in which religion and modern life are intertwined. Shabbat, which I have already mentioned, puts into a stupor: how can there be a day in the modern world when almost nothing works, including public transport? It turns out that maybe this, the Sabbath begins on Friday in the middle of the day. On one such day, my wife and I went on a bus for a walk and did not have time for the last bus, which led to a walk to a house of almost 16 km or about three hours.

The cities of Israel are very different from each other. Haifa is not the most religious city, with approximately 30% of the Russian-speaking population. Most people speak at least two languages: Hebrew and English, less often Arabic, and even less often Russian. People are very easy to contact, always responsive and try to help. Walking is widespread in Israel. Haifa is located on Mount Carmel , while walking on the mountain offers many beautiful views. Bicycles, often electric, are becoming increasingly common. It is not recommended to leave on the street for a long time without supervision.

Haifa's city beach is one of the most pleasant places in the city. White fine sand, sea, free wifi loungers.
There are many concerts and entertainment programs. You should not leave things unattended (there are thefts), a child running around in the vicinity, without hesitation, can run on your laptop or just fall asleep with sand.

Shops and prices

After arriving in Israel at the end of August 2014, it seemed that Israel was becoming more expensive (on average, by 30%) than in Moscow, which was very surprising (I always thought that Moscow was one of the most expensive cities). At that time, the shekel was worth about 11 rubles, now - 15 rubles. Gasoline costs 6.4 shekels. The fare in urban transport is about 7 shekels, students a discount on the purchase of 15 passages in the form of a 33% reduction in cost. Unlimited monthly travel in the city of 246 shekels. Bread in Israel is very expensive (there is no usual “rifled” one), the price starts from 7 shekels. A package of milk costs 5.5 shekels. The assortment of goods in stores is several times smaller than the usual Moscow, but there is everything necessary for life. Food in the cafe is expensive, the cheapest business lunch costs from 50 shekels, but the portions are huge, and in most places snacks are included in the price of the main dish. Snacks are: olives, salinity, hummus, thina, pita. There are very unusual products.

Study

Classes are held at the Israel University of Technology - Technion. The university is quite far from the hostels, the journey takes about 30 minutes by bus on very steep roads with sharp turns. The territory of the university is covered with greenery, it is actually located in the forest by the standards of Israel. The architecture of the campuses is very diverse and interesting.

The BIT-Technion program of the second semester includes the following topics:
- Microsoft Exchange (Deploying, configuring and managing);
- Forefront TMG (Deploying, configuring and managing);
- Hyper-V (Deploying, configuring and managing);
- Study Hebrew.
Classes are held four days a week. The school day starts at 8.00 am with breakfast in the form of a sandwich and coffee and lasts until 5 pm, with a lunch break (at the local food court). There are no strong differences from classes at any training center in Moscow. Conducts classes Microsoft certified trainer with extensive experience. Classes are very well equipped, all computers are HP Compaq 8000 Pro with 16 Gb of RAM and Core i5. Hebrew “blows up the brain” in the first month, then you start to get used to it. After the first semester, you begin to understand everything, but things are hard to talk about. After the second semester, the guys are already quite tolerable talking. The primary responsibility for learning both the language and interesting areas of IT, for the most part, depends on the student. If you wish, then this is a great opportunity to find time to pass the tests and get professional certificates. Upon completion of the program issued a personal certificate from the Technion. I managed to get ready and successfully pass ICND1, ICND2. I got ready for the exams LPIC-1 and will soon go to take them.

Instead of an epilogue

Being able to live in another country for some time allows you to compare your usual way of life with the way you live in another society. Israel is an interesting and unusual country. If you have the opportunity and desire, I highly recommend the MASA program: there are plenty to choose from. Grant is very easy to get if you have Jewish roots. I myself am waiting for the beginning of the second semester, for which I have an internship (also for the MASA program). \\

I hope you were interested. I am happy to answer any questions. If you like the article, I plan to write a description of the internship.

Thanks for attention!