Apparently there IS such a thing as a stupid question in Israel

...for me at least. While this may be a broad generalization, it seems that if we ask a question with an (obvious-to-Israelis, at least) answer, we get glared at (we have learned that this means yes. well, it can mean no, too. see, its tricky--since you're supposed to know the answer, you're supposed to know the answer to the question, too. Sometimes we get thrown a bone with a blatant "...of course"--that's helpful). But in all seriousness, polite questions or "just-checking" questions here seem to be out of the norm, and get answered as such. While this may seem like I'm starting my blog with a rant about Israeli 'bad' manners, let me tell you, it may turn out to be quite the opposite (DUM DUM DUM....foreshadowing).

Let's see, what other tangents can I go off on before I get to the meat of this entry? Hmmm...oh! I know! My roommate has found a way to keep me from fainting. For those who dont know me intimately...see...I have this thing with blood. As in, I can't be around it or I have a tendency to pass out if I overthink it. As in, me popping blood blisters is a reallllly bad idea (ewwwww, I know. TMI. Just deal for a hot sec, ok? I promise this is going somewhere). So, my roommate saw me freaking out and was like "uh, uhhh, tell me what to do!" so I told her to distract me, to put on some music or something! To which she replies, "ohok!! What kind of music????" To which I, true to form as my mother's daughter, immediately scream the first thing that comes into my head: "PUT ON SOME TECHNO!!!!" It was just the most bizzare thing to pop out of my mouth, that we just busted into giggles and forgot all about fainting and ended up listening to I guess the closest thing to techno in Canada-- "another one bites the dust". Suffice it to say, it worked, no fainting spell. Although, it moves me to question my roommates taste in music (ahem, canadian, ahem) (JUST KIDDING JAKS).

One last tangent, which is not so tangental, I promise. So, the FLOWER SHOW WAS SO FREAKIN COOL. It was a legit carpet in the middle of rabin square made ALL out of flowers, and we got some pretty cool postcards and they even gave us little flower plants to take home!! Oh how I love the belgians. So nice. Be sure to stay tuned for pictures below!!

So, this weekend was the beginning of the Chagim, or high holy days. Rosh hashanah, to be specific. Happy new yearrr woooooo (insert annoying horn/shofar sound here). My first high holy days in Israel, wow. And what an experience! Friday night was Shabbat and also the beginning of Rosh Hashanah. I was lucky enough to have a wonderful friend in Michal who invited me to spend Rosh Hashanah celebrating with her family in Ra'anana, which was wonderful (as is the word Ra'anana. I think it might be my new favorite hebrew word--On the way in the car, I kept saying 'I want to eat a bananaaaaa in Ra'ananaaaaa'. Sooo annoying, I'm aware haha). Her whole family is South African but they all live in Israel so they have these wonderful accents and are the most charming people. AND COMPLETELY BROKE MY STEREOTYPE: FORESHADOWING BOOYAAA. And now, of course, what would one of my blog entries be without the FOOD?!?!?!? Nothing I tell you, nothing.

So, the food. Let me start by saying that this was a pretty traditional Ashkenazi Rosh Hashanah meal, full of symbolic foods for a sweet and wonderful new year. Let me also say that my family eats maybe 1/2039482 of these foods, so although I knew about them from my Jewish studies classes, I had never experienced them. Shawwweeeet. Pardon my memory, but I am going to try to sum up what we had symbolically (and ALL covered in sugar, if you can imagine that) and (maybe) what it means:

• spring onions
  
• dates
• pomegranate- following the commandments. oh, and sweetness.T
  
• spinach omlette
• apples and honey-sweet new year, apples are round like the earth
  
• green beans
• sweet challah- round like the earth. and the womb (fertility woop woop). oh, and sweet.
  
• a whole fish--so as to be the head and not the tail of our endeavors. oh, and a sweet new yr.
  
• roast pumpkin

Ok, so I got 4/9... I dont really know what the rest mean (curses on me, vanessa ochs would be so ashamed of me right now) but most are for defeating enemies, being leaders, money, and having a sweet new year. duh.

After all that shmorgasboard, the plates were cleared, and I was just feeling satisfied as....I was informed those were just the appetizers. Woah, nelly. THEN we proceeded to have even MORE of a traditional, symbolic, FEASTOFALLFEASTS and it was glorious. These included: chopped herring (sounds ew, but SO GOOD), stewed spicy fish (i wanted to makeout with whoever made this dish...jk but no really), spicy chicken, sweet chicken (with raisins and apricots and prunes, oh my!) and an overall shmorgasboard of potatoes: sweet and roasted and kugeled and all topsyturvy up in potato land. YUM. And, of course, I had to try my magical honey cake. It was good, I will give it that, but I was looking for, well, MAGICAL. and I think I am going to have to continue on my search for something that good--it was good, definently on the dense bread-y side of a cake, and rested so that I found the outer parts ever-so-dry, but still a rather successful adventure.

Rosh Hashanah dinner aside, spending the day in Tel Aviv was pretty cool. And by cool, I mean eerie. Imagine a city with traffic like NYC. then, imagine being able to walk down the middle of lex, and not get hit by a car. Like, woah. it was like being out at 4:30 in the morning on a Monday: except broad daylight. Verrry creepy. This was on our way to the beach, where we spent a wonderful day relaxing and dipping our feet in the Mediterranean. Oh, life. We also had a chance to watch another wonderful Israeli film this weekend, called Walk on Water. Really, really fabulous: again another one I would recommend.

The past few days I've been trying to be good and study for my LSATs, but days like today just creep in there and I say, you know what? I'm going to get in my friends car and go with them to hertzilya. I dont know why, but I shall. And it was glorious. I love how I'm amost always spot on with what I need at that moment. Almost. Tomorrow, for example. Having biiig reservations. We are going to Sderot, which is less than 1 mile from the Gaza strip. Aaaand Hamas shoots rockets into it, on a daily basis. As in, the last bombing was 2 days ago. Its a daily thing, really. So i'm a little skeeved about that, kind of feel like it may turn into a 'oops wrong place at the wrong time' kind of moment, but I'm staying positive and keeping an open mind and am going to go. Woop, field trips. Silly wabbit, these field trips are for grownups. gulp.

I know, right? what a great note to end this blog entry on. But, look at it this way. I am giving you a real glimpse of life in Israel. You have happiness and joy surrounding the holidays, with celebration in the air and vitality and love, and its immediately coupled with loss, and danger. It's always a theme here, and is inescapable. So yay, me, for being true to Israeli form.


Night kids, to bed we go.
AAND HWOTD: nachon. It means 'of course' or 'correct' and is rather appropriate given the title of this blog ;)



P.S. There are all of these Murakami-like flowers scattered as graffiti throughout Tel Aviv. I have decided that I am going to let the flowers lead me on a tour throughout the city: pictures to follow. For now, these are flowers i found on Hamelech George between Dizengoff and the Merkaz (less for you and more for me so I dont post the same graffiti twice!! ps, doesnt the word graffiti make you want to say Rafiki, and then start singing and quoting the Lion King? no? Just me? figures...)

murakamI?



flowerss