Adventures in Food, Culture and Language

For the first time in a long time, I have had a week that I would consider normal. I went to work, I went to the gym, and I cooked- that pretty much describes my week. So I decided, so that you all can fully understand my experience here, to give you and update on my experiences in food, culture and language in Israel (backwards).

Language- The most meanyen (interesting) words in Hebrew
*to pronunciate these words it is important to understand i= the sound ee, e=eh, a=ah, and ch=the guttural sound Hebrew is so famous for.

stam- this is by far the best word in the Hebrew language. It means jk (just kidding for the non-instant message/text message generation). To clarify, this word does not translate to just kidding, it translates exactly to jk. It entertains me to no end that there is a socially acceptable word for jk.
agvaniah- this means tomato. It also means butt cheek.
balagan- this translates in English to the word chaos, but it doesn't quite have the same beauty that balagan has. In Israel, every situation is chaotic, so balagan comes up a lot
lenaker-when you are drowsy and are about to fall asleep while you are sitting, you start to nod off and your head tends to fall then it wakes you up a little and you quickly bounce it back up. That is what this word means. It comes from the word for woodpecker.
bassa/chaval- Bassa means bummer and chaval means shame. The root for the word chaval is the same as the one for sabotage and for terrorist. However, in Hebrew, the connotations for chaval and bassa have switched. If you forget your cellphone or you are having a bad day, thats chaval. Bassa is used in the sense, "Whoops, I just killed a little girl. Bassa." or "Oh no, there's about to be a nuclear attack. What a bassa." As much as we try to convince that killing little girls or nuclear attacks are not bummers, they are tragedies, we have yet been able to get the point across.
Shniya- It means "one second" Shniya is always accompanied by a hand motion- take all of your fingertips, put them together, and with the back of your hand facing the person you are addressing, wave back and forth, bending at the wrist.
Tamara- in Hebrew, Tamar means date and the "a" at the end adds a hint of God to the word. What's far more important, is that in Amharic (the language spoken by Ethiopian Jews), Tamara means amazing. I thought that was fitting. You should all remember this in any future interaction with me. Stam.


Food
The food in Israel is amazing. We have been fed Russian, Yemenite, Moroccan, Tunisian and Ethiopian food on different occasions. When you are a guest in Israel, it is very important to never turn down food that is offered to you. However, if you make the mistake of turning it down, it doesn't really matter because they will bring you food anyway. Always. And way too much of it. I have also learned a lot about how to cook since coming to Israel. As I mentioned earlier (like months ago), I learned how to make a grilled sandwich this year. Since then, I have become an expert at vegetable soup (from scratch), Petitim (Israeli couscous), lamb kabobs, egg drop soup and sauteed vegetables. I have successfully attempted shakshuka (sauteed vegetables with an egg poached on top in the juices) for the first time tonight. Although I have yet to attempt it, I have a feeling I could cook fish too. Lentils and chicken is next on the list to attempt.

Culture
Two foods have crossed over to be more a part of Israeli culture than its cuisine. Shwarma is one of them. I have seen people eating shwarma at ten AM on a regular basis. I personally overdosed on shwarma living next to Nazareth, the shwarma capital of the world. Every single time that I have talked about favorite foods with Israeli children, shwarma is always one of the first ones mentionned. Humus is also a major part of Israeli culture. In my fridge right now, there are three tubs of humus and one regular sized container of humus. It is served with absolutely everything. There are many humus restaurants in Israel- the meal is entirely humus with pita, the only option when you order is if you want spicy sauce with it.

One thing is very important to understand about Israel- everyone is family. It is completely acceptable for cab drivers to ask you if you are here to look for your husband, and then offer their son to you as an option and invite you over for shabbat dinner to meet him. This has also happened on a regular basis with people who sell vegetables at the shuk. People will invite you to come stay with them after conversations even as short as ten minutes.

Israelis are also very proud of their cellphones- especially teenagers. It is their most prized possession. All teenagers use their cellphones as ipods but you can hear them without headphones too. Often during classes someone will whip out a cellphone and put music on for everyone to enjoy- because listening to music in English is much more interesting than actually trying to learn something from me.

There is also a major difference in Israeli dress- especially in the periphery. Since living here, I have seen more zippers than I have ever seen before. Extra zippers apparently add some spunk and decoration to a boring pair of jeans. Many tops look like they've been bedazzled near to death. It entertains us to no end.

Music from the 90's is huge here. Every bar we go into plays hits from the 90's and every teenage boy can play "Time of Your Life" by Greenday on guitar.

This is a taste of what daily life in Israel is like for us. All these cultural differences we find all the time make great conversation topics between ourselves and makes us appreciate the differences between here and the US. It adds flavor to everyday life. Every bite of humus we eat is just a little bit better because of all this.

The City of Angels

Kiryat Malachi translates to the City of Angels in English. People make a lot of jokes of how it is just like Los Angeles and often ask us (as Americans we are the official experts on Los Angeles) if it is true. It's not.

Kiryat Malachi is a very small city in Israel. We walk across it in about fifteen minutes. Our apartment has a great location in the city. We are right across the street from MegaBol- the grocery store, the open-air market, Kastina-a major bus stop in Israel- all buses going to Beer Sheva stop here, and the gym. The gym is by far the best part of Kiryat Malachi. You step into it and it feels like you're stepping into America. It's huge, clean and everything works; all things we are not used to encountering in Israel. In the gym, there's a smoothie bar, a spa with lounge chairs right by it, and a steam room. There's really nice shower rooms which we have definitely made use of during the week our shower stopped getting hot water. Last Friday, we had to stay out of the apartment for four hours as it was being exterminated- we don't want to know what for. All of us spent at least 3 out of four of those hours at the gym- it is truly an oasis for us. Little tears of happiness come to my eyes just thinking about how clean the gym is. The gym also offers classes for us. We have already experimented classes from pilates to spinning to belly dancing. Zara and I are in love with our new belly dancing classes- we both now have belly dancing skirts with bells to wear to the classes.

Slowly and surely, we have picked up volunteering in this city. I work in both an elementary school and a high school, tutoring English during the mornings. I've learned that I love working with all ages except 7-9th grade. Those kids give so much attitude and always cause so much trouble. Last Wednesday, after Zara, Sarah and I finished with our 7th grade classes, we were all so worn out from dealing with them. Luckily right after seventh grade is 12th which is the funnest classes. Right now, the 12th graders are preparing for a big oral English exam that all high school seniors have to take. We prepare them for their interviews so we spend a few hours talking to them all, finding out about them and what they do in their free time (a little bit of research so that we can know what to do in our free time). I met one boy that is going to be a hacker in the army next year and is a photographer in his free time. One girl is named Ruth Danna. Her mother always wanted to name her daughter Danna, but before she had her daughter, her mother-in-law came to her in a dream, told her she was pregnant with a girl, and that she should name it after her, Ruth. That's how she got the two names Ruth Danna.

It appears that every teenage girl in Kiryat Malachi has fallen in love with Adam, the only boy in our group there. All of us have experienced trying to teach a girl English who is not paying attention until Adam comes in. Then they suddenly develop a keen interest in the language. Once I was trying to get a group to create a poster for Tu B'Shvat. One girl was far more interested in chatting with her friends until Adam came in. She immediately asked me how to say "You have beautiful eyes" in English. All of us girls have experienced the opposite. I had the unique experience of trying to help a group of 11th grade boys write an essay about eating healthy(in English). They were far more interested in using the English they knew to find out if I had a boyfriend, where I lived, what my plans were for that night, and if I wanted to come over for dinner.

The city itself is an interesting place. There are more shwarma stands than are really necessary for a city of that size. It is a much busier place than either Arad or Natzrat Ilit, which is nice to feel something different. There are also a lot more young people in Kiryat Malachi. For some reason the high school seniors all look like they're 23 so it's hard to tell if the people we see are our age or younger. We made friends with a group of soldiers who are volunteering in the city. They are in a unit called nachal which is more community-oriented. They volunteer at all the same places we do. They informed us that we came to the most impoverished place in Israel with the wildest kids. About every five minutes, we hear firecrackers go off. They sound a lot like gun shots. Even in the hallways at school, the kids are lighting firecrackers. At first it scared us every time they went off, but we're getting used to it. But it really scares the kids. I was working in an afterschool program with 4th graders and firecrackers were going off when they were on a break. It really scared all of the kids, especially since they have all been listening to kassam rockets fall recently.

Seeing Americans is definitely a rare experience in Kiryat Malachi. We get stared at a lot when we walk around because we obviously stand out. Everyone asks us what we're doing here, especially once they hear us speak. One little girl first thought I was from Africa. When I told her I was from the United States, her first question was if there are kassams in the United States. The kids in the schools love having us here. We get to play with them and teach them English in fun ways through games and music. Next week I begin working in a teen center, which has been my favorite thing so far in the other cities. It's always more fun hanging out and getting to know them in a less formal setting. Once I start that, I'll have my schedule all set up and officially be settled in Kiryat Malachi

There's No Place Like Home

I have a home!!!!!!! I have a home!!! I have a home! We never thought this would happen. Tuesday afternoon last week, we found out we had an apartment in Kiryat Malachi and would be leaving Arad at 8 AM the following morning. We thought the house was small and cramped but we did not know how true that was until all six of us were running around our two bedrooms and our group closet/living room trying to pack and clean. Somehow we managed to finish and came to Kiryat Malachi the next morning.

But of course nothing ever works out for the Kiryat Malachi crew. Let me preface by saying we knew the apartment could have been great. It was two floors with four bedrooms, a real living room, and no lime green to be seen in our kitchen. Unfortunately it was hard to focus on that when it was all covered with a layer of filth like we had never seen before. The floors were disgusting. Our bathroom had used Q-tips on the floor and toilet paper streaming out of the toilet. At first we decided to clean it ourselves. As I was wiping down the counter, there was a dead spider on it. When i knocked it a little, other bugs came out of the dead spider. When we found out we didn't have any water (or gas), we were able to convince OTZMA it needed professional cleaners.

Why did the water not work? Well it turns out that the people who had the apartment before us didn't pay the water bill. So the city took out the clock that directs the water to the apartment. So for us to have water, they needed to come and reinstall it- and Kiryat Malachi is not exactly known for efficiency or speediness.

The apartment also did not have any furniture. Not even a refrigerator. All of the food we brought had to be thrown out and we decided to spend our first night in Kiryat Malachi with other Otzmanikim who lived ten minutes away in Kiryat Gat.

We left for five days on a seminar. We had no idea what we were going to face when we returned. There have been things preventing us from having a home for two months. In all that time, I never slept in the same place for more than four nights. We were all exhausted and felt like it would never end. You can imagine our surprise when we came back and found that not only did our apartment have furniture, but it was also cleaned! And we had gas! And water! We are living in luxury. For five hours, we moved furniture and unpacked boxes. Not only do we now have a livable apartment, it really feels like home. I cannot begin to explain how happy we are to be here.

Like I mentioned, we were away for a five-day weekend seminar, called the Conflict and Hope Seminar. I can honestly say that after this seminar, none of us have any hope. It was five long days about the Israel-Palestine issue. The first night, we had a presentation showing how the conflict came out in Israeli and Palestinian culture. We saw poems written by Palestinians showing how trapped and powerless they felt when they left Israel for the settlements. There were pictures of graffiti from both East and West Jerusalem asking for peace. We saw art from both sides, the paintings by Israelis showing broken-hearted soldiers and their families and the confusion with how people can be both a martyr for one side and a murderer for the other. The Palestinian artwork looked scarily like Holocaust artwork, showing pain, suffering and a feeling of a complete lack of power.

The most amazing part of the presentation were videos that were submitted in a contest from a news station asking to show your view of life in Israel. On video, submitted by an Israeli Arab, showed people picking through rubble for anything they can salvage. You see shots of buildings with the fronts blown off and one building that's front was completely covered in bullet holes. Behind all the rubble, is the Israeli flag, waving proudly. But the video that was by far the most powerful was called Ringtones. Israelis are absolutely obsessed with their cellphones. They are a thing of pride and most people use them as phone, Ipod and camera. Ringtones are a true statement about yourself. It started showing shots of all these different phones ringing; Sarah calling, Dad calling, Home calling. They have all the typical ringtones. Then one phone is covered by broken glass, the next by even more. Then phones with dirt and glass and then you can see them on really torn seats. One phone shows Dad calling and 23 missed calls. Eventually you see a blown up bus and hear a news report about a bus full of Israeli school children that was blown up by a suicide bomber as they were on their way to school. All that was left of them were their cellphones, ringing as people called to see if they were still alive. The last shot is a phone in the rubble, playing the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".

Our weekend was spent staying with different families in a Jewish settlement called Tekoa in the West Bank. Different speakers from the left made it seem that the settlements were the main reason that there is not peace, even though the Palestinian Liberation Organization was created against Israel in 1964, three years before Israel won the West Bank and at a time when Israelis were not allowed into the area. The town of Tekoa is very interesting. It is half religious, half secular and the majority of the religious people are Modern Orthodox hippies. In Israel, there is a constant battle between religious and secular but in Tekoa, they got along well. The school in Tekoa is even mixed and there are also mixed marriages, both shocking for Israel. The family I stayed with was a Modern Orthodox family. They were both Israeli and decided to move to Tekoa because it is the cheapest place near Jerusalem where you can own a big house. After all the fuss that is made about the settlements and the West Bank, we didn't expect such an ordinary reason. When we asked the family if they felt safe there, they said they thought it was as safe as any other part of Israel (although the dad did have a gun stuck in his pants all weekend- even at synagogue). It was very interesting to spend time in a settlement and see that even though there is such a big deal made about them worldwide, for some people they're just home.

So why are we all depressed? Because no one seems to agree on anything. The left thinks the right is evil and conniving and the right thinks the left is naive and conniving. As time goes on, Arabs and Israelis are becoming more and more separated. Everyone in Tekoa had stories for us about how they used to be friends with an Arab. People kept saying how they used to drive to Jericho or Bethlehem but are now afraid to go. The people we met in Natzrat Ilit would often tell us about how they used to go into Nazareth but were now afraid. Most people now do not believe in a 2 state solution. When Israel left Gaza, Kassam rockets started to come into Israel regularly and with fervor, which is what sparked the recent war. The same thing happened when Israel left the bases in the north a few years ago, which led to the Lebanon war. Everytime Israel leaves an area, it leads to attacks on Israel. Its obviously that land for peace hasn't been working. After this weekend, not many of us see much hope for peace in the near future. Especially since rocket attacks have increased on Israel again- eighteen were fired into Sderot and the surrounding area yesterday. All of us who just moved in are worried that we may have to leave again soon.

As depressing as the seminar was, it was very informative. I have heard many talks on Israel and been to many conferences. This by far was the best and most even-handed one I've seen.