January, Tel Aviv, 50 shades of blue

10 things we like in Israel (more than in the US)

1. Food. As everywhere around the Mediterranean, food  in Israel is a top priority and investment. It is elaborate, flavorful, and usually spicy. It is also pretty much the only thing that unite everyone in the region: Arabs, Jews, Christians, Druzes; secular and religious people; political right and political left.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Friday rituals. For the secular crowds in Israel, Friday became a sacred day, much more special than Shabbat.  Most of the adults do not work.  Kids are in schools or day-care till around noon. The adults enjoy these few hours of freedom by relaxing in coffee shops with partners or friends, then stopping at the neighborhood markets to buy Shabat hallah, weekend newspaper, flowers, pastry and other last-minute food.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   The majority of shopping is usually done in advance. Then, there is cooking for expansive Shabat dinner or anticipation of going over to the parents' house, Galei  Zahal radio in the background. Those who do not cook, enjoy a sweet rest in the afternoon. And at night, everyone puts on festive clothes and goes over to meet the rest of their families for large, noisy, late and delicious dinner. For young adults this all is just an prelude to continuing the night by going out with their friends. They get back home only around 2-4am and sleep till noon on Shabbat.
3. Public display of affection.  Parents are openly "devouring" they kids on the school steps or playgrounds, while kids comfortably enjoy it and giggle. Relatives express love for each other openly in person or on the phone. Even our kids started saying "I love you" to us a few times daily. Adult men can greet each other with a kiss without any embarrassment. Lovers behave like there is no one around, sparking the air with affection and sexuality.
   
   
   
   Image from Flickr, distributed under CCL.
4. Warm clean sea and fantastic beaches. 
5. Passion for life. It may be the warm and passionate Mediterranean blood, an antidote to the daily political stress, or something else, but Israelis live to the fullest.  Even on the weekdays, even those with kids, all eat, drink, laugh and party till late. Fun opportunities are never missed for the sake of sleep. Tel Aviv is rightly advertises itself as a city that never stops.
6. Flower bloom instead of snowstorms in February.
   
   
   
   Image from Flickr, distributed under CCL.
7. Relationships: warmth, hospitality and easy-going. Anyone and anywhere you are visiting, you can expert to be seated and fed anything from a coffee-and-cake to a full meal. If you run out of eggs, salt or sugar - feel free to knock on your neighbors door. Pregnant or visibly sick, everyone - garbage men, market sellers, bank employees, or supermarket bag packer - will be wishing you a safe and healthy delivery and a quick recovery.
8. Strong women. They work (even with 3-5 kids), they manage kids-school-babysitter-activities logistics, they cook (very well), they do most of the housework, they dress well and look great, and they mostly spoil their husbands. They are smart and opinionated leaders.
9. Playground gyms - sportex.  Someone somewhere got an ingenious idea that in a country like Israel with mostly sunny and warm weather gyms should not necessarily be indoors. Now you can find adult gym equipment corners in every park. Why not build some strength,  while your kids are playing at the playground?   Why not work on the muscles after finishing your morning jog or on the way to work?
   
   
   
10. Abundance of exotic fruits and vegetables. Brown tomatoes, spherical zucchini, sabres, papaya, kiwi,  guava, anona, persimmon, pomelo etc. And if you, like me, do not know what to do with them, any shop seller or fellow shoppers will gladly offer you a few recipe suggestions.
    
    
    
    
    
    Image from Flickr, distributed under CCL.

Next to come - 10 things we miss most about US

White in October and some rules of Israeli etiquette that we learned

Nights are becoming cooler but midday is still hot and humid. To us it is a continuation of a long summer and I enjoy wearing white weeks after Labor Day. (It is an American tradition to wear white shoes and clothes only during summer crowned between the Memorial and Labor Days)  But October here is so warm and clean that white reflective linen, cotton and silk are still the most comfortable materials.  Unlike me, some fashionable locals are already using this small drop in the temperatures (around 80 F now) to switch sandals to high ankle boots.

Mediterranean sea here is a privilege. It is so pleasantly and surprisingly warm (after Atlantic and Pacific oceans), beaches are clean, sandy and shallow. However waves are always dangerously high allowing for dipping, jumping, surfing, boogie-boarding but not swimming. We are lucky to live just 10 mins away but given that the country is narrowly stretched along the sea, you can get to the beach in 1 hour from almost any location. We still fantasize about the beach more than we go there. Routine daily life is expectantly hectic and most of the Israelis have to challenge themselves to get to the beaches more often.

Kids are finally happily go to and from school yet still think and talk about their American friends more than about their local buddies. Just today Naor mentioned that if we end up going back to the US, he would like us to live in the Boston area. Nadia attended her first class birthday party, after a lot of encouragement. She really enjoyed it and we all learned a few rules of Israeli etiquette:

1. Everyone was invited and everyone came (30 or 40 kids!) No RSVP was required.
2. Party was on a school day, at 5pm, in the park. Almost everyone showered and changed from the school uniform to a fancy clothing. We didn't...
3. There was a store-ordered pizza and home-made chocolate cake. You heard it: home-made! I love home-made cakes and cupcakes and we usually made them in the US for small home birthday parties but I do not recollect any large scale event for 20+ kids or adults than didn't have store-bought sheet cake with a disgusting colorful frosting. I should start practicing making chocolate cakes for my kids' birthdays in April.
4. Another surprise: no goody bags.

We invited a family from Naor's class for Friday night dinner and at the end of the dinner, after a few beers, the father admitted that he realized we spend a lot of time abroad when the dinner invitation arrived via email two weeks in advance (instead of a casual phone call or instant message a day before) and the invitation was for Friday night - time customary set aside for family gatherings. Saturday lunch or dinner turns out to be more appropriate for non-family friends.