Coming "home"

We arrived home yesterday at 4am from Greece, after two weeks of family visits in Paris, Prague, and Zilina, Slovakia, capped by a few nights in Greece.  We missed the September holidays here, a time that locals say is very quiet around town.  We discovered why – we weren’t the only ones taking advantage of the opportunity to go on vacation.  Greece is for Israeli's like Florida or the Caribbean is for Americans. 

Coming "home" felt interesting.  Our stuff is here, but it doesn't quite feel like home yet.  I'm struggling to recapture the little Hebrew I learned so far, and of course, daily activities are still a challenge. 

For instance, I went to the grocery store yesterday, Chetsi Chinam (literally translates to "Half Free"), and it took me over 2 hours.  Dairy is managable, as I can read the types of cheese (g'vina)because they use universal names like "edam" and "mozarella" written in hebrew.  And flavored yogurts are obvious (thanks to the pictures of fruit on the packaging). But I wasn't sure about plain yogurt vs. the wide variety of soft cheeses, like cream cheese, in the same types of containers, so I skipped that. 

They have great selections, but much of the good dairy, meat, and fish is behind counters with staff, which requires discussion.  They don't like to slice thin (I wouldn't even know how to ask for it anyway), and they don't like to provide small quantities.  I did fumble through at the lunch meat counter by pointing and asking for "mea" which means 100 (grams were inferred).  That's another thing I'm adjusting to - translating in my head the quantities I want in grams and kilos.  I didn't have to pay a lot of attention to the visual representation of weight for foods at home, as everything is pre-packaged and priced by the package, even the produce, meats and dairy.  Here they have the whole cheese wheel and the price per kilo.  When you read 119 shekels per kilo for parmesan, you have to divide by 3.6-3.9 depending on the exchange rate ($33/kilo), then divide by 2.2 to find out the $/lb price, which gives me a reference compared to what I'm used to paying in the U.S.  ($15/lb).  I came up with a few tricks to help - for instance, when I see something posted for 9.99 shekels per kilo (common price for tomatoes), that works out to about $1.20/lb.  Feel free to use this as a real life math lesson for those of you with kids in school this fall.  You can skype me to the homework table if you'd like. 

I also had an interesting interaction at the fish counter, where I pointed at the salmon filets (the only fish they had pre-prepared.  Most of the fish you order whole, then tell them how you want it prepared, get a sticker, and come back in 15 minutes when they've gutted and sliced it accordingly).  I pointed a piece that was about 0.4 kilo.  He picked it up, said something that was lost in translation, then handed me a different one that he said was "beseder gamur."  My general sense was that he was trying to tell me that the one he was suggesting was better.  It was a bit over half a kilo (i.e. slightly more than I wanted), but I decided to go with his recommendation.  It turned out ok, as it had no fishy smell and tasted excellent last night.

We're still waiting for the guy to bring the cabinets we ordered and hang the ones we already have on the wall.  Once that's done, I can finally clean up our kitchen, bathrooms, and office space.  I've always been an organizer, but it takes some skill to fit a 3,000 sq ft home into an 1,800 sq ft apartment.   

shana'a tova!

Last night we celebrated the Jewish New Year with dinner at Uncle Igor's house in Nes Ziona, about a 40 minute drive from our place in Tel Aviv, going southeast.  Everyone had a half day of work yesterday (like Friday's, when they're getting ready for shabbat), and today is a holiday. Rosh HaShana'a (which literally means "head of the year" in hebrew) lasts 48 hours, so with the way the holiday falls this year, it ends when shabbat begins, which means another day and a half of closed stores and empty roads afterwards. 

I went to the Shuk HaKarmel (the big street market in Tel Aviv) yesterday and came home with a backpack full of fruits and veggies for 140 shekels ($37).  Then we took a cooler with us on our way to Igor's so we could stop at the Tiv Tom near his house and buy some meat and dairy.  We try to go out there because the city only has smaller, more expensive grocery stores.  Tiv Tom is a big chain here, opened by russian immigrants.  It is not kosher, so you can buy shrimp and pork there, and they stay open a few hours later.  It is on the higher end, so it looks a lot like a large Whole Foods.  Hope this food will last, because everything is shut down now until Sunday.

There were about 20 people at Igor's.  Aunt Nechama cooked a traditional meal.  It starts with a series of appetizers that are the same every year, as each item represents something.  A prayer is read before each item is passed.  (Although there was discussion that Nechama's brother, who was trying to get through the readings over the chatter at the table, wasn't even reading the correct blessings).  The most well known of the foods passed around is the combination of apples and honey.  This is a wish for a "sweet" new year.  They also pass some foods that are savory (or sour) like zuccini to which you are also supposed to add honey to make the new year sweet.  There were also pomegranite seeds and fresh dates (not dried).  Then came a first course of more traditional foods - fish cakes (gefiltefish), liver pate, boiled eggs, roasted veggies and garlic (yum!), potato salad, and lettuce and tomato salad.  Soup came next, and this of course was matza ball soup.  When you didn't think you could fit any more food in, out came the mains - beef stew, chicken over potatoes, and several rice dishes.  It's a good thing they took an hour break before bringing out the honey cake and ice cream cake!

As you have just read, it sounds a lot like an American Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Get the family together, eat until you pass out, then eat leftovers for a week. 

The one difference I noticed was that while family travels to be together (the road traffic is WORSE than the day before Thanksgiving in the U.S.), people don't stay over.  We left at 11:30pm, and got caught in the traffic jam of a lifetime on the highway.  Except instead of sitting in it like we would have in the U.S., we joined dozens of other vehicles that pulled into the breakdown lane and then backed up about half a mile to the last turn off.  Can you IMAGINE?!?!?