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.