Christmas

In Bucharest people conquest the hypermarkets and spend hours waiting for their turn to pay. Everywhere there are people looking for gifts and buying food for the holiday.

In Tel Aviv I spent almost 20 minutes in front of the fitting rooms in order to try a shirt, which didn't look good on me anyway. People are looking for gifts not for food. Except for "sufganiyot" ...

Frustration

Small room. White walls. Destroyed old doors. A dusty heater. Beyond the door, male voices talking in Arabic. Sound of boiling water in nargila.
And I feel useless. I cannot heal HIM.

Neighbours

Israeli guy: Hello! I am XY and I want to know more about this event …..

Parparush: The event will take place on Thursday, XX of November, at … pm … … …

Israeli guy: When did you came to Israel? … Wow and your Hebrew is so beautiful … Where do you live? In Tel Aviv? Where in Tel Aviv? … Do you like it here? … How long will you be here in Israel? … How old are you? … What is exactly your job here? ….

Parparush: Would you like to give me your email address so that I will send you more details on this issue?

Israeli guy: Personal or official email address?

Parparush: Official.

Israeli guy: Ok, Parparush, here is it.

Parparush: Thank you. … What is this (ending of the address)?

Israeli guy: ….. 11^th floor

Parparush: What 11^th floor?

Israeli guy: Take the elevator for 6 levels and come to have a coffee together.

Parparush: I am afraid of heights.

Israeli guy: I will come down then!

Parparush: Ok, if you come down, then I will not send you the email.

Israeli guy: No, send it. How will I know your email address?

Parparush [shakes hands with him before he leaves]

Israeli guy [holds my hand]: Don't forget: 11^th floor! … Nice meeting you and I would love to have a coffee with you some time.

Parparush [pretending not understanding Hebrew]: Shall I call to offer you a coffee now?

Israeli guy: No no. I must go. Have a nice day! Bye!

Tired

When I am tired, I make salad with cinamon istead of cumin.
When SHE is tired, she makes coffee with 19 l of water ...

Israeli coffee

Drinking coffee in Israel is quite an adventure. Watch out - what you want is not what you get!

Survival guide:

• cappuccino - "kafe hafuch" or "twisted coffee", what they mean is an ordinary coffee with milk; until yet I haven't discovered the real cappuccino;
  
• caffe frappe - here they call it simply "ice coffee" and they have some amazing combinations;
• caffe latte - and they mean "coffee with milk" but not the above mentioned one :-/
• black coffee - don't expect a coffee without sugar because you're wrong; they mean coffee with sugar but with no milk, that's why it's black isn't it!?

And if you still have doubts about coffee in Israel, look at the picture and try to guess what I have ordered. Oh, and I have received a fork and a knife too!

Eran Grebler's dreydlekh

The Old City of Caesaria has it's own special charm, no doubt.
But what makes it even more special for me is the small welcoming gallery of the Israeli artist Eran Grebler.
Spinning the dreydlekh means spinning the memories of my love for Yiddish, means getting even deeper in the Jewish sensibility and re-descovering the child within myself.
Last summer I chosed a hamsa and a "foot"-hamsa. The small vulnerable hamsa sacrifice itself for me - it fell on the floor a couple of seconds after I had fixed it on the wall. It says that when a hamsa is broken, it takes all the Bad with itself and protects the owner. But however I felt pitty on my hamsa. So, after one year almost, I have decided to replace the previous hamsa and to bring to the "foot" it's mate.
And since I believe that things just don't happen by chance, today I picked up the "love and happiness"-hamsa, because I forgot that this was written on the "foot" also.

Restaurant review

If you want to try the sushi on Rothschild Blvd. in Tel Aviv, near Neve Tzedek, you should think very well first. No toilet. No avocado. At least the sushi they prepare is delicious.

On the other side of the road there is a very nice and welcoming restaurant called "Benedict", specialized in breakfast. I had no idea what time it was when we entered but the nice waitress welcomed us with "Boker tov" - although it wasn't after midgnight ;-). The capuccino there is delicious, the pancakes are amazing ... the people are young and nice and sweet. It's just one thing I didn't understand: how can you drink water with a straw!?

Giveret!!!!

Tonight I made some errands at AM:PM, and on the way back home, two high school youngsters asked me: "Giveret, tirtzi she'naazor lach im ha'sakyiot?" (Madam, would you like us to help you with the bags?"). I was so bored and I pretended not to understand Hebrew, so the same guy added: "Hi lo mevina ivrit. Raita et ha'tachat shela?" (She doesn't understand Hebrew. Did you see her ass?). And then, they passed me by chatting about their problems.

And here I was, alone with my three bags moving my 'ass' back home. I was shocked to be called "giveret" - am I suddenly so old so that young people could call me like this? And since when my bottom is an issue for the high school kids?

"Ma? Anachnu Ashkenazim?"

Or put it in other words "what? are we Ashkenazim?" -

This is the reaction to my "European tea ceremony" - big red cups, tea spoons, napkins, small fancy porcelain sugar bowl, small fancy box with a rich selection of teas, small fancy porcelain nana bowl, kettle with boiling water ... everything "mesudar kmo she-tzarich" (in order, as it should be).

If I were Bedouin I would drink a boiling hot Bedouin tea with a lot of sugar (I will not tell you the secret of my boyfriend's delicious tea), in a more relaxed atmosphere, sitting on comfortable pillows (and not on my stiff Ikea wooden chairs), in the middle of the nature (not in the middle of the noisy Tel Aviv) ...

But, even so, I enjoyed more the company than the tea itself, which was just an excuse.

sequence of tenses

Today I called the Cinematheque in Tel Aviv to find out some details concerning Mungiu's film. The young lady who answered me was very kind and she really struggled to help me but she seemed to missunderstand me: "There isn't such a film!" "Is it a private screening?" "I'm telling you, this film doesn't appear on my list! Listen, I will check if this film exists and maybe in the future we will host it." and so on.

How could she tell me there's no such film! My Romanian pride started to take shape: "Look, you cannot say that there's no such film when Mungiu has won so many prizes!? And how can you say this when the screening was mentioned even on your website!? I myself was there, in the audience!" ...

And then she screamed "rega!" and asked someone in the office who told her "I heard of this guy!" I thought I would go mad!

In the end, after the neverending sound of her keyboard, she concludes: "I cannot make you a reservation for a film that doesn't exist!"

And then I realized what her problem was: sequence of tenses! pararel worlds!
And how come I was unaware of the fact that I can make a reservation for a film that doesn't exist at the time we speak but existed a month ago!? That's still a mistery to me ...

http://www.4months3weeksand2days.com/blog/