The 15 Things I Love About Living Here

After 25 things that strike me as odd and amusing, I have decided to dedicate this journal entry to the 15 things I absolutely adore about living in this country.

1. The heat.  Granted, most people find this to be the thing they hate about Israel the most, but for some reason the heat here carries really great memories of summer vacations here.  Today is the first really unbearably hot day.  It's like yesterday someone just pushed the 'on' button for summer.  I went outside to do some grocery shopping for my Uncles and I and I came back sweaty.  Win?

2. Eucalyptus trees.  Ohhh my God they are my favorite kind of trees in the world.  They smell amazing and remind me of my childhood.  Whenever I see one, or even a tree that mildly looks like one, in any part of the world, I immediately think of Israel, even though they didn't even grow naturally here (imported from Australia).

3. In that same respect, I love the grass here.  It's softer than the grass in Columbus, and I don't know how that makes sense, but it's marvelous.

4. THE BEACH.  On Friday, Ortal and I went to the beach together.  We took a bus from Kfar Saba to Herzeliyah, this gorgeous town right on the beach.  The bus was filled with chattering middle schoolers.  Ortal lamented that if she had her license (it's a much more complicated system to getting your license here in Israel, and a major topic of conversation with me and people my age) we wouldn't be stuck standing on a bus full of "juveniles" as she called them.  Anyway, the beach was amazing (breaking out the bikini was NOT), and the water was a tad cool, but I was brave and got in all the way, while Ortal took her SWEET TIME.  When we got out of the water we laid on the sand in the sun.  I have re-learned some very important things: 1) while Ortal can lay in the sun for three hours without getting even a major tan, I cannot.  2) Sunscreen should be applied vigorously every twenty minutes.  3) Sunburns hurt.  Yes, everyone, the entire back of me is red and angry with me, but luckily when my body gets sunburned, it doesn't peel or look terribly gross, it just itches slightly and fades into a nice tan.  Regardless, the beach was amazing.

5. The Negev.  Okay, granted I have not been there yet in my current time in Israel, but next weekend my Uncles and I and their friends from Norway are going to spend a night in the desert.  I assume we will be hiking and eating in amazing Bedouine restaurants.  Some people absolutey hate the desert, but for some reason I love it.  I really shouldn't - everything that bothers me about a place is in the Negev, but against all likelihood, I am in love with the desert - every time I go I feel amazing.  I love the endless stretches of rocky abyss and the random growth of trees in the most unexpected places and the nights, where the entire sky opens up and you can see every star and the breeze is cool.  I am excited to go with my Uncles - it'll be about a week or so before I have to leave, and I think it's good I'm going at least once.

6. The food.  Mmmm.  Did you know tomatoes and cucumbers are way better here than they are in Columbus?  And there's incredible cheese called White Cheese that is the Israeli form of cream cheese but way less creamy and way better?

7. Getting around on my own/my independence.  The last two times I have been out of the country (including this time), I have developed an independence which includes being able to get around by myself.  I love the first part of this because I am free to do what I want pretty much whenever I want (re-entry issues to come, I can tell), and the second part of this because I feel less like a tourist when I know where the Central Bus Station is and how to get there and that the 63 stops running at 10:30 and to keep your ticket for the trains because otherwise you won't be able to exit the train station.  It was the same in Germany.  I can remember being happy with myself that I knew how to get around when my Dad visited me in May and being able to tell him that we could take the number 1 tram or the number 2 or switch here, bla bla bla.

8. Mizrahi music.  I know a lot of people don't actually like Mizrahi music, but I reeeeaaallly do.  I don't know why.  I LIKE Middle Eastern music, but not a lot of Ashkenazi Israelis do.  (Quick tutorial: outside of Israel, it only matters if you're Jewish, but inside Israel, Jews come from all over the world.  Ashkenazi Jews are white, coming from Eastern Europe, Sephardic Jews tend to be darker, and Mizrahi Jews come from other parts of the Middle East - like Northern Africa and Yemen, etc.)  I wouldn't listen to Mizrahi music on my own, but I like hearing it in the streets.  It's cheesy, corny Middle Eastern beats and melodies paired up with pop styles.  Here's a pretty good example of what you might here on a bus in Israel: Sarit Hadad Live in Caesariyah

9. The smell of Israeli detergent when your clothes are dry.  Don't ask why.

10. The abrupt smell of Arab hookah on the streets in Yafo.  I also like when you're walking underneath an apartment building and you can smell the aforementioned laundry detergent.  When you look up, you see clothes drying from the balconies of apartments above you.

11. The eclectic nature of Yafo.  Palestinians, Ethiopians, Russians, Israelis.  Everyone.

12. Making friends at Sadaka-Reut.  (:  AWWWWWWW.

13. Learning the slang - "bah-li" is directly translated as "it comes to me" but it actually means "I feel like."  Yesterday as me and my friend Shaked and her friend Danielle sat on the roof of her apartment building listening to dance music and eating chocolate, Shaked said "Bah-li misibah" which means "I feel like partying."  Also: "mah hakesher" is what you say when someone says something random.  It means "what's the connection".  I already mentioned that the Israeli word for 'wow' is actually 'eyooo'.  Also, girls say to each other "achoti" which means "my sister" and boys say to each other "achi" which means "my brother".  Everyone also calls each other "mammi" or "coosh-coosh".  Also, everyone in Israel says "oh my God".  The translation in Hebrew would be "Elohim" but I hardly hear anyone saying that - they just say it in English.  Also - this is weird, when Americans would usually scream "YES!" when something good happens, the Israelis scream "YESH!".  'Yesh' in Hebrew means 'there is', so it doesn't really make sense, along with most of the slang.

14. Friday night dinners.  My family and I used to have Friday night dinners with each other every week in America, but when I got into high school sometimes I'd go out with friends.  Either way, my family and I usually do the Israeli thing of having dinner together on Friday nights and lighting the Shabbat candles, blessing the wine and bread.  I have now learned that in Judaism you're technically supposed to have two kinds of meat and two kinds of starch on Friday night dinners (my family sticks to chicken and potatoes), and so what ends up happening is that you roll out of your chair in the end, having stuffed yourself on rice, potatoes, chicken, meat balls, two different kinds of salads, couscous, and bread.  HEALTH!

15. The way that the entire country (at least the Jewish portion of it) is quiet on Saturdays.  I woke up on a Saturday in my Uncles' apartment in Tel Aviv last week and all I could hear were children playing and people laughing - no cars, no buses, no construction workers.  It's lovely.  It's the same kind of quiet that happens around 5:00 in the afternoon (right about when I'm writing this).  Before kids go out to meet their friends at night and before parents get home from work, the streets are relatively empty and everyone who's not working is resting.