LIZRAEL Day #1

Aroma and Grocery

So after staying up until 2:30 AM watching Glee on my laptop due to jetlag, I was in no hurry to start my day this morning.  I was sooooo excited to “go do everything” last night, but not so motivated this morning.  What is with that!? The only reason I even woke up when I did was because my tummy would not stop growling.  Perfect, a bare cupboard and fridge…roll over and get some more shut eye. I think I was dreeeeeeeaming of Aroma Café…frozen iced coffee, shashukah, the works!

When we finally did get out of bed around noon, thanks only to Lauren Friedman’s second wake-up call, Ira informed me that he had been having the same Aroma dreams.  That’s right, we come halfway around the world and the first thing we can’t wait to do is go to a coffee shop.  PRIORITIES. 

Aroma was everything we dreamt it would be and much, much more. Too much more.  We still cannot even think about eating again and it is 9PM.  What is in that coffee!?

While we were in Aroma it started to rain, so thank goodness for my amazing husband who remembered to pack 2 umbrellas.  I remembered to bring 18 necklaces. 

Because of the rain we decided to hold off on any major excursions.  So, when Ira asked me what we should do next, my mind immediately shot back to the bare cupboard and fridge. I thought, “Great, we’ll hit up the grocery store quickly, then if the rain stops we’ll do something fun.”  Okay, I have never made a more wrong assumption in my life. 

We hopped in a cab, because the grocery store nearest to us apparently has a 25% mark-up on everything.  Trying to save money, right? Well, we must have had “American Tourists” stamped on our foreheads.  Ira told him he better turn the meter on so we wouldn’t get ripped off when we arrived to our destination.  Well, the cabdriver then proceeded to drive in circles for the next 17 and a half minutes before finally dropping us about 2 miles from our starting place.  I guess he picked up on the fact that we have NO IDEA WHERE WE ARE. The way home took less than 5 minutes. Glad we tried to be smart with our money.

Once at the store, I was pleasantly surprised to remember how fantastic the produce is in this country, but I was unpleasantly surprised to remember that almost all products have strictly Hebrew labels.  Is this what they mean when they say “selective memory?” Ira reads and speaks Hebrew about as well as our Vietnamese cab driver Tom spoke English, but it’s still a whoooooooole lot better than I do.  This means, grocery shopping without Ira is pretty much hell.  Especially because in America I do all of my shopping based on the nutritional facts labels.  (Then of course I end up gorging on whatever “treats” Ira made me buy. And having like 4 glasses of wine.)  It’s really a pain to grocery shop with me.  I just like to know what I’m putting in my body…good or bad. 

Right as I was starting to get comfortable with our system…(this being me picking up items that look somewhat familiar and having Ira translate the labels and ingredients) an older man comes up and starts asking us a million questions in Hebrew.  We tried to converse, but failed miserably until we finally made out the word “mincha.”  (Mincha is the afternoon prayer that is preferably prayed with a group of at least 10 men [a minyan].) Once Ira heard “mincha” he knew they needed him to make a minyan.  Praying? Really? In the grocery store?  That’s right ladies and gentlemen, there is a small synagogue right next to the paper towel aisle.  Amazing. 

But not so amazing for me, because I lost my translator.  I think I had about 10 break-downs over the next half-hour (break downs right and left as my friend Marissa and I call it).  At least 10.  I just wanted to buy some peanut butter! Most of what would be the peanut butter aisle in America looks like this.

 No, I don’t want chocolate or hazelnut spread, I want peanut butter. But how do I know which one?  Which one is healthier?  It’s hard to tell when you can’t read the freaking label!

Then I spent at least 10 minutes trying to explain to an employee that I was looking for apple sauce.  He showed me canned apples, apple juice, and apple cider vinegar, before he realized what I was talking about.  “Of course! Apple sauce! It’s underneath the apples!”  Well, obviously it would be under the apples! But when is it ever under the apples?  Is apple sauce usually in the produce section?  It was at this exact moment standing there in the produce aisle with my jar of apple sauce, that I decided I will be starting Ulpan on Sunday.  (“Ulpan” is Hebrew language classes, for those who don’t know).  My Hebrew goals for the end of this trip will be to grocery shop without Ira and ask for my coffee with skim milk.

When Ira returned from the inner-grocery synagogue, we spent the next three hours continuing our mission.  We struggled to communicate with the butcher, and the baker, and while there was no candle-stick maker, we actually DID NOT struggle to find Shabbos candlesticks.   That was one thing that was easy!

The highlight of the grocery experience for me was most definitely watching a cashier help bag our groceries.  Anyone who has ever been to Israel knows this NEVER happens.  In Israel you bag your own groceries.  I guess that’s what happens when you spend 1400 shekels at the store.  At the inexpensive grocery store.  I was so thrilled by the bagging services that I had to capture the moment.  Also, because nobody would ever believe me if I didn’t have concrete proof.  So here it is!

We somehow managed to get allllllll the  grocery bags into the cab in the rain.

Also, please enjoy some pictures of our home for the next 3 months (no bedroom or bathroom pics lol).  We’ll take outdoor pictures when the weather improves.  We truly feel blessed to have such an amazing place to stay!