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.