DIRT

So, yesterday we went on a tour of Neve Tzedek, which was the first Jewish neighborhood built outside of the walls of Jaffa. It was really interesting at first, but since we were an hour and a half late to Neve Tzedek because of Tel Aviv traffic, we were pretty ravenous. Thirty minutes into the tour, myself and four of my friends left in search of some food. Because some of my friends here are Jewish, the restaurant had to be kosher, which is surprisingly difficult to find in Tel Aviv because the city is so secular. After walking for an hour in crazy humidity, we finally stopped at this little kosher Italian place called SouPizza. My friend Miriam and I split a Spinach and pesto calzone, which, by the way, had a boiled egg in it because boiled eggs are in a lot of dishes here, and a Marguerite Pizza with mushrooms and zucchini. The food was so delicious and the service wasn't as bad as usual, which was a plus.

Good customer service is popular in America and perhaps a few other countries. Unfortunately, Israel is not among them. Service in restaurants is pretty terrible here, but you just get used to it. As long as they bring you your food and the correct change for the bill you learn not to complain. One of the biggest shocks to me was when I went to the market (the shuk) for the first time. After they had scanned my food, I waited patiently for them to bag it. Little did I know the cashier was waiting patiently for me to do the same. In Israel, the customer bags his or her own groceries, which is a far cry from my experience shopping in Publix, where the teenagers bag your groceries, bring them out to your car, and help you load them.

I was talking to my friend Anna the other day about the little conveniences we miss here in Israel. One of the biggest is AC. Luckily, we have AC in our bedrooms (which, by the way, was only installed 3 years ago), but there is no AC in the kitchen or the bathroom. There is AC in some of our classrooms, but there is none in the common areas of campus buildings.

Another thing, the showers here are different. Even in most hotels there are no shower curtains. There are half glass doors. But those are luxurious because at least you're standing in a bathtub. In my apartment, there is a stand-up shower with a glass door that doesn't really hit the ground. Therefore, every day water flows out of the shower and into the bathroom, under the bathroom door and into the kitchen, then under my bedroom door. Every day. Without fail. I'm not complaining at all, but it's interesting how we get so used to little convenciences that others don't enjoy at all.

One more thing, I've learned how to function without a car. Most people here take public transportation because not only is gas about $8 a liter, but cars are taxed 100%. That means if you purchase a car for $20,000, you end up paying $40,000 because of taxes. Therefore, it's not surprising at all that most people take public transportation. As a student, I've taken a cab a time or two, but the primary way my friends and I travel is by bus. Buses are pretty convenient but they don't exactly run on time. In fact, I'm not sure there's even a schedule. (It's customary when you get to the bus stop to ask the other people if they have seen the bus you need go by in the last ten or twenty minutes. If not, it might be close. If so, you might not see it again for quite some time.) But, even if there is a schedule, the drivers don't go out of their way to keep it.  We just head out to our bus stop and hope for the best.

Another means of transportation here is the sherut. It looks like a mini-van. It's similiar to a taxi in the sense that it can be hailed from the side of the road, but it doesn't drop you off at your exact destination. It rides specific routes and you just have the guarantee that it will drop you off "near" your final destination.

These are just a few of the things I've learned in the past couple of weeks. As Dorothy told Toto, "I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." :)