Az Hinei Shuv Magiah...

Today, in addition to the normal, I found the most amazing place to have lunch. I had great eggplant lasagna, salad with spicy chumus, and butternut squash soup. The whole atmosphere was so un-Israeli, it wasn't even fake American Israeli...it was quite nice. I thought that today I would re-visit the notion of things that differ between Israel and the United States...

1. Prices do not appear on a large number of items. This generally isn't a big deal in the United States, because the pricing in different stores tend to reflect some sort of standard. However, in Israel, something may cost 16 shekels in one place, but 8 in another.

2. Toilets. I'm not sure why I haven't written about this before, but Israel has two basic types of toilet. The first type has a large separation between the bowl and tank, and the two flushing handles are sticking out. The other version has the "bowl and tank" set-up more like in America, and the flushing handles are actually buttons. The reason for the two types of handles, one for light flushes and one for heavy flushes.


3. Jerusalemites and Israelis in general are more public about their events. During the past month, including today, there have been so many outdoor celebrations for Israel, Jerusalem, and who-knows-what that stages have hardly been taken down.

4. Except for the meat, which is killed in Uruguay and Argentina, food in Israel tends to be very, very fresh.

5. Unlike America, where it seems that people tend to, and are even encouraged to shluff off their unique backgrounds, Israelis of varying heritage have a way of being fully Yemenite/Moroccan/Galicianer, and fully Israeli at the same time. The social structure, in this way, tends to mimick the "salad bowl" idea of multiculturalism rather than the "melting pot".

6. In America, it isn't too common to hear someone yelling uncontrollably at the top of their voice about how So-and-So said he would be here in 5 minutes, and after 5 minutes and 10 seconds he hasn't arrived. In Israel, however, it happens every day.

7. My personal favorite of the moment: You can see a check-point for the West Bank from the rhino exhibit at the zoo.

Cow Juice in a Sack

As I previously wrote that I would try to update on the things that I find different about Israel, I have been meaning to make a new post for it for the last week or so. I was standing at a street corner waiting for the light to change (okay, so I was really waiting for a long enough break in traffic to dart across, light change or not) and an American girl next to me was talking to her friend about her blog about Israel. She said that each post she tries to give an interesting or random fact about Israel at the end. Maybe I will do that, but until then....

1. In Israel, NO ONE wants to give change. If something costs 5 shekels, you better have 5 shekels on you. One day, while it was raining, I decided that I absolutely MUST go out an purchase an adapter for the outlet. I went first to a small shop near my apartment. As they were closed, I decided to walk just a little further to another similiar place. Again, closed. I decided to try one more shop, and it happened to be open. Already annoyed because I was wet, I tried my best to describe what I was needing without knowing the actual word for it in Hebrew. Seeing that this wasn't going well, I happened to see the adapter under the counter and pointed. He took them out and handed me one, marked 4 shekels. I handed him a 20, and he asked if I hd anything smaller. Honestly not having anything else, I told him that I didn't. He began searching high and low looking for change, he took out his own wallet, asked other customers...finally, I got so tired of waiting, watching the rain outside get worse, that I took a second adapter just so he could make change. Knowing Israelis, I doubt that it was such a big deal for him to make change, but so it goes.

2. Israelis express themselves much differently. My roommate went to the shuk (Middle Eastern, open-air market that sells everything from lettuce to underwear) to buy Crocs. Clearly not REAL Crocs, but he needed something to wear around the apartment. When he walked into the "store", he asked the man if the had Crocs. Saying that they did, the store attendant asked, "Which?" to which my roommate replied, "Black". The Israeli got a strange look on his face, and barked back, "Which SIZE?" Israelis simply aren't soft people. A famous joke goes, "An American, a Russian, a Chinese persion, and an Israeli were asked for their opinions on the meat shortage. The American replied, 'What is a shortage?', the Russian replied, 'What is meat?', the Chinese person replied, 'What is an opinion?', and the Israeli replied, 'What is 'excuse me'?'" Too true...

3. In Israel, milk comes in a bag. Yes, a bag. When you buy it, you put it in some plastic container and slice a corner off so that you can pour it. This still makes me cringe when I see it.

Really Not That Different...

Since I've been in Israel, it hasn't really occurred to me that I'm in a different country. I can walk into almost any store or restaurant in the surrounding area of Rechavia/Shaarei Chesed/Nachlaot/City Center and speak in English, and get an English response without much hesitation. On the bustling Ben Yehudah Street, packed with seminary girls and yeshiva guys, English can be heard over Hebrew 10 to 1. I still feel like I can get in a car and drive over to my parents' house, or go to Sarah Chaya and Avraham's for dinner. There are, however, a few things that I have picked up as being "different" in the time that I have been here so far:


1. traffic: By traffic, I don't mean just vehicles. In most places, pedestrians and automobiles share street and sidewalk alike, with people walking in the middle of busy streets and mopeds and cars driving in open air plazas. The most popular place for cars to park in Jerusalem seems to be slanted on the sidewalks, and because many of the neighborhood streets are so small, people are forced to walk in the middle, with cars (usually taxis) zooming by, barely missing the people.

2. taxis: In America, taxis are generally outdated cars, or at best some mediocre make and model. In Israel, however, the vast majority of taxis are either Mercedes, Volkswagen Passats, or Peugeots.

3. check out counters: The places where you place your items is about half the length and width as in America, meaning that you can't generally put anything up until you are the person being checked out. Also, you normally have to bag your own groceries.

4. lines: I have noticed this each time I came to Israel, and it can also be found among the Israelis in America. If you see people in Israel waiting in a straight, normal line, then you can be sure that those people are not Israeli. Israelis tend to huddle by whatever it is they want to enter, bypassing any silly Westerner who has some sense of being cordial and waiting their turn. When I came back from Israel last time (during the summer), my plane landed at JFK at the same time as a British Airways flight from London. When we went through the border and got our luggage, the El Al passengers were all huddled at the customs gate, while the British Airways passengers were standing in a single file line at their gate. After several warnings, the customs attendant at the El Al gate closed his gate and left. The (seeming) need for order leaves Israelis confused.

5. living quality: In general, the interior of average Israeli homes and apartments just isn't what it is in America. Before I came to Israel for this extended stay, I voiced my reservations about living in a country that is "minimalist and quasi-section 8; a Third World country pretending to be Western." Well, I seem to be doing okay, but still, looking at unpainted walls and exposed wires, ignored cobwebs and laundry hanging over streets for all to see makes me cringe a little. Also, I miss being able to shower without pre-planning. Now, I have to press a switch and wait 30 minutes for my water to heat up so that I can take a 5 second shower.


6. expression: Unlike America, expression seems to be found all over in Jerusalem. There is hardly a wall without some form of grafiti or art. Here, people don't seem to frown at what Americans call "defacing public property". Except for private homes and upscale hotels, one can find political statements, small art exhibits, and poems sprayed on the columns and retaining walls. This is especially true in the adjoining area of Nachlaot. Nachlaot is, for lack of a better description, an Orthodox Jewish 1960's Haight-Ashbury. On my walk to the city center, I pass an organic co-op garden in Nachlaot, where men in tye-dye shirts and dreadlocks with yarmulkes sit with barefoot babies and women with elaborate, colorful scarves covering their hair (as opposed to the usual wigs), playing in the dirt with the scent of incense clearly present. This open expression seems to extend all across Jerusalem, as well as in Tel Aviv, though the flavor there is a bit different to say the least.

For now, these are the most prominent differences that I can recall. Perhaps later I will edit, or make occassional "What's Different" posts as I see the need.