Week #4

This week brought many amusing experiences.

First of all - I finally found an obstetrician/genecologist that can see me without a very advance reservation (I am now at the 7th months of pregnancy). Through the slit of the door we saw an athletic bold man in his 40th with two earrings in his left ear, jeans and a button-down shirt tucked into a fashionable belt. In the office I noticed a miniature motorcycle model that was holding business cards on his desk. This very much reminded me of Adam Gopnik's description of their ob/gyn encounter in Paris in his great book "Paris to the moon." Unlike the French doctor in the book, my doctor didn't ask me about the day of conception and his shirt was not half way open revealing a burst of black hair. But my doctor relaxingly rested his hand on my thigh while performing external ultrasound that struck me as very non-American behavior. My Cambridge ob/gyn also liked earrings but she was a woman, always wore long white robes and was very careful to wear gloves and apologize every time she touched my body. I should admit that despite the unorthodox appearance and small informalities, my new Israeli doctor seemed professional, knowledgeable and reliable.

I stopped by a random haircut salon to trim and shape up my hair. After shampooing, the haircut master, Itzik, told me that instead of a light trim he would like to suggest a perfect haircut for me. My straight thin hair will look great in a short-back, long front combination, he said. Although this bold offer took me by surprise, I just loved it. This is exactly what I have missed in those 17 years in US. Somebody taking my hair under his/her expertise and offering me some befitting options instead of waiting for my order of what to do or following pictures that I printed from the Internet.

I feel very Tel Avivian with this new stylish haircut:


It seems that the average technological level of the population is exceptionaly high. People are trusted to figure things out. Here is a waiting room monitor at the neighborhood medical center's blood laboratory. You pick a number at the computerized station at the entrance, you know exactly how many people are before you in line, when your turn is coming and what technician you should go to.

Even 60-year old people are communicating by texting each other.
Large percentage of 8-year-olds have a Facebook account.

Today is the first day when temperatures are below 90F (it is 86F). My mom took the kids to the pool in her building and was worried that it may be too cold. I reminded her that they happily swam in the outdoor pool next to the windy Atlantic Ocean in Vancouver when it was below 70F.

Speaking of the heat, a candle that I lazily left outside while unpacking, melted into a wax puddle.

From my preliminary communication with the parents of kids from the school it looks like there are quite a few divorced couples with 2 or 3 kids. I do not recollect any woman I know in the US that is divorced + 3. Do you think Israeli women are more independent and less tolerant than American? Is it related to their mandatory Army service or to the fact that almost all of them have to work for living? Even mothers of 3 and 4 have a career and enjoy a strong sense of self-confidence that such fulfilling life brings. It seems that this desire for respet and independence had spread to the senior people as well. Moshe's 85 year old grandparents are talking about divorce.

Almost everyone here (women and men) is a great cook and usually very modest about it. Weekend newspapers publish excellent recepies.

We went to the museum called Mini-Israel and were surprised to find how large it is. It contains miniatures of the most significant places and buildings in Israel giving amazing overview of the multicultural history of this land, rich architectural traditions, geographical attractions from the Red Sea to the Hermon mountain. We took a bunch of snapshots to create our tourist map of the places to visit. This is a great first stop for any Israeli tourist. Pick and mix your list of attractions.



The evening circus show at this museum turned out to be devoted to Gilad Shalit (Israeli soldier held in captivity by Hamas since 2006) and as today was his birthday started with a very sad Happy Birthday song and candle on the cake blowing with audience wishing for his return. I am not sure how to explain this properly to the kids without scaring them... When Naor saw on TV an exploded bus headed for a popular resort town of Eilat, he pleaded to immediately move back to Boston. Were we right to come here endangering our kids? I don't know yet.