I saw an apartment this morning that I LOVED, and I loved all three of the Israeli girls that live there. They were so nice, and funny. We talked for a good hour. I know it's going to be super competitive though... we'll see what happens.
Then I saw another apartment that I liked very much, and I loved the roommates again, but there was weird painting on the walls and the roomies said I'd have to track down the ex roomie and get her to paint it as she was contractually obligated by neglected to do... I'm not very excited by that idea.
I was waiting for a light when a little girl with a gap between her front teeth came up to me, and we had this lovely interaction...
Girl: Slicha (excuse me), blah blah blah stuff I couldn't understand in Hebrew?
Ariane: Uh... At Medeberet Anglit? (Do you speak English?)
Girl: No... Rak Rega (one moment)... (she went to a group of other girls in similar clothes, campers maybe, and tried to get her to translate, but the other girl was too shy.)
Counselor: C'mon, girls! You know English. Here, you speak and I'll translate for them. They asked what you've done so far this summer?
Ariane: Oh! Well... I went to Paris, I went to Madrid, and... I moved to Israel!
Counselor: Blah blah blah Paris, blah blah blah Madrid, blah blah blah ISRAEL!!!!!
And when she said the last part, all of the girls went "AHhhhhHHHH!!!" and started jumping up and down and clapping and cheering for me. "Israel!!!!!"
Little patriots <3
I needed a little break from apartment hunting, so I went to the shuk (open-air market). I went to my favorite dress shop and browsed for a while... I didn't buy anything because I have all the time in the world! And I think I probably shouldn't buy more stuff until I'm settled in my new apartment.
The shuk is awesome. So many amazing tasty things, and so fresh. I didn't even know what to buy.
ENORMOUS POMEGRANATES
My haul: Some apples, two giant avocados, a giant mango, some olives and some stuffed grape leaves.
I may never buy from a grocery store again. It's way more fun to go to the shuk.
I also found handsoap in the shuk! It's been strangely hard to find.
And I took the bus for the first time! Now I'm addicted. So fast. So air conditioned.
Hebrew I learned today:
olives - זיתים - zitim
I got coffee with an Israeli who did linguistics in the army. You might not know that army service includes a lot of different jobs, not just combat positions. He was learning high level Arabic for intelligence and also teaching Hebrew to new immigrant soldiers. He was telling me that the famous "chet" throat sound in Hebrew is actually a new Israeli thing, and that it should be a softer H, but the only people who still do it the "right" way are Yemeni Jews. I found this very interesting.
When I got home, I was just sitting on my couch talking to Lily on the phone when I heard my very first red alert siren! It's kind of a creepy sound. Like this:
When you hear it, it means Hamas has fired a rocket over your area. If you're inside, like I was, you need to head into your building's shelter, if it has one. Mine does have one - but it was locked, fascinatingly! If that's the case, or your building has no shelters (and many buildings in Israel do not, I supposed their builders were optimistic), you hang out in the stairwell.
Israel has a great anti-missile system called the Iron Dome. It has a very high rate of interception, but of course it's expensive to fire. So if it looks like the rocket will fall in an open area, they let it. If it looks like it will fall on a populated area, they attempt to intercept it.
So when you hear the siren, you go into the safest place you can and wait until you hear a BOOM. Hopefully the boom is an interception, although there's a chance it hit something. You have to wait ten minutes after the boom, in case there's falling shrapnel or anything. According to the news, it was intercepted. And Hamas is proudly owning their missile launch at civilians and a city they claim is holy to them.
Now might be a good time to say that things might get political on this blog, because it's hard not to feel political when people are trying to kill you. If politics is something you'd like to discuss with me, then feel free to schedule a coffee date with me. But I'm just going to be blunt and say I won't post or engage with anti-Israel comments on this blog. This is a log of my feelings and experiences and it's not open to critique. There are other avenues for discussion if you want.
Anyway, I hung out in the stairwell with a nice family. The mom was telling her little son it was like a midnight pajama party.
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