Chutzpa

It's what Israelis do best. Allow me to set the stage. I went to the supermarket with Menachem last night. At Israeli supermarkets, you need to put down a deposit for your shopping cart. The carts are locked together. To unlock one, you insert a five shekel coin, and when you are finished, you lock the cart to the wall again and your money comes back out. It's a nice system, it keeps carts from piling up in the middle of the parking lot like at American supermarkets. Menachem was returning his cart in the basement of the mall when a woman approached him and asked if she could lock his cart to her's. The wall attachment was broken so she couldn't get her money back; instead she wanted to take Menachem's money and stiff him with the same problem! Needless to say, he told her to take a hike.

I spent about two hours at their house in Ramat Eshkol last night. We watched some Israeli television, which still seems funny to me. There was a cooking show on that was the same as any number of cooking shows in the states, but the show is called קרב סכינים, literally "battle of the knives." I love it! Devorah and I chatted for a while and ate, and she helped me to outfit my kitchen some more with a pot (which until yesterday I still didn't have) and some food and silverware. It is really nice to have family here.

I spoke with one of my roommates-to-be this afternoon over lunch. His name is Hamzan and he is Arab. This will be good for me I think. We chatted (all in Hebrew) for a while and he looked over my Arabic homework and chuckled. Apparently it isn't on a very high level. I don't know how his English is. We've spoken twice now, but never a word in English. Whether we are using Hebrew out of convention or necessity, this should do wonders for my ability to speak and understand. The university strike is still going on, so he went home and won't be here to stay until classes start. I would think that people would want to get out of the house and come to college, especially if they don't have to worry about classes. Apparently not though, considering that there are still 4 empty bedrooms in my apartment.