I had forgotten how early the day in Israel begins. When I opened my eyes at 7:00 am, the light was already streaming into my window, and I could hear the steady buzz of traffic flowing by outside, four stories down. As I ate my breakfast, I read the label on the apple that I was eating, and saw that the brand was "B'reishit," and that its motto was "Ta'am Gan Eden." That is, the fruit enterprise was named after the first book of the Bible (literally the "in-the-beginning" book), and it boasted that its fruit had "the taste of the Garden of Eden." Sure, this is marketing, but it's a particular kind of marketing, the kind that is typical of a country that takes as much pride in its ancient agricultural heritage as Israel.
I walked to Ramleh's local library, and read for maybe thirty or forty minutes while waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. Carmel, the program director, arrived first, and he and I set up chairs in the library's conference room in preparation for our meeting. I met the other participants in the program, whom I hope I will get to know well over the next few months. Some of them are fresh out of college, like me, but a couple have a few years' experience teaching young children. Based on our introductions, we're a fairly ideologically-motivated group; almost all of us chose to teach in Ramleh in particular because of the community's high diversity and low income. Most of the others don't have many Hebrew skills, either, although one guy, Alex, seems to be able to form complete sentences, which is more than I can say for myself. (Somehow, all of that vocabulary from Mishnah Nezikin isn't that useful; I don't find myself needing such words as "bull," "field," "heir," "gentle," and "cloak," to name just a few.) My tour group displays a surprising collective gallery of tattoos, something I hadn't at all expected. We reviewed much of the information from the webcast, and a few of the other participants asked questions about cell phones; I didn't know it, but it would have been better if I had brought my smart phone to Israel, and "unlocked" it here, buying a plan. Now, I'll need to shell out for a phone, SIM card, and monthly plan. After the meeting was over, and we had all agreed to meet again at 4:00 pm in order to take a walking tour of the city, I sat upstairs in the library and read for an hour. I then walked to the shuk for the first time while it was open. It's a lot like the shuk in Jerusalem, but with most of the tourist-oriented businesses (keychains, cheap souvenirs, Kippah Man, etc.) absent. There were many, many piles of produce; Israel loves its fresh fruit and vegetables, its spices, its dried fruits and nuts. I bought a box of figs at ₪13 per kilo (a touch high, I later found), or about $1.63 per pound. I even tried to communicate entirely in Hebrew. This is approximately how the conversation went
JD: Kama echad kilo shel ta'anim [How much is one kilo of figs]?
Seller: Echad-esrei [Thirteen shekels].
JD: Ani rotzeh liknot echad kilo shel ta'anim [I would like to buy one kilo of figs].
Seller [begins to weight out figs]: Atah im Taglit [Are you with Birthright]?
JD: Lo, ani im Oranim. Ani melamed Anglit, v'lomed Ivrit. Ani ba'a b'yom revi'i [No, I'm with Oranim. I am teaching English, and learning Hebrew. I arrived on Wednesday].
Seller: Zeh chamesh-esrei [This is 15 shekels' worth of figs].
JD: B'seder, b'seder [That's fine]!
Seller: [Something I can't understand]
JD: ????
Seller: Where are you from?
JD: Ani m'Nyu York, m'artzot habrit [I'm from New York, from the United States].
Seller [hands me figs with no smile]: Welcome to Israel.
JD: Todah rabbah [Thank you very much]!
I kind of miss my local bakery in Paris, where I once plucked up the courage to tell the baker that his were "les meilleures baguettes à Paris."
I walked back to my apartment to collect a few forms that I had forgotten to bring to my trip organizers that morning. It was incredibly hot, and by the time I arrived back at my apartment, my entire back and shoulders were coated in sweat where my backpack and its shoulder straps had rested. I ate, and returned to the library for the next few hours; my jet lag hit me a little bit at this point, early afternoon, and I uncontrollably drifted off for a bit. Soon after, Carmel showed up, and told me that the walking tour had been cancelled. He kindly sat down with me, though, and helped me navigate cellphone plans available in Israel, something that I simply cannot do with my limited Hebrew skills. My SIM card will arrive in a week or two, a little bit longer than I had hoped to wait, but I partially blame myself for not knowing to have brought my cell phone overseas, as all of my peers apparently did (why does this trick work in Israel, but not in France, where my only option was to buy a new French cellphone?).
I took another visit to the shuk, partially to look for stores selling phones, partially to pick up more food, and partially just to look at all of the vendors' wares. I saw some enormous orange squashes that must have been around a foot and a half long, maybe two to three times the size of a large watermelon. I don't even have a name for all of the different crops I saw for sale. I stopped to buy some dried dates; just at that one stand, there were at least six varieties of dates for sale, each of slightly different size and color. None were labeled; the discerning seller, presumably, would be able to distinguish and name, based on appearance, exactly the desired kind of dates. I just pointed to the ones I wanted, and said "eileh" when the muscular vendor asked me of which kind of tamar I wanted one kilo. I also bought what looked like small white-fleshed peaches going for just ₪5 per kilo. They were excellent. I wanted to buy milk from the shuk, but I couldn't find any, so I went around the store to a small convenience store to buy some instead. I still can't read these Hebrew-Arabic milk cartons.
I again walked back to my apartment, and spoke to Ben (the Australian one, not the one whose bedroom I share) for about two hours. His Hebrew skills are top-notch, especially for someone who has only been in this country for about four months. He enjoyed practicing on me, and I enjoyed hearing as many words in Hebrew as possible, but I think that I understood far less than he thought that I had. We also spoke about career paths, grad school, theses, research, teaching, law school, medical school, academia, etc. Then I wrote this.
Tomorrow, I'm planning to try to explore more of the city, this time with my camera. If I'm lucky, I'll also be able to find a family to host me for Shabbat. We'll see how that turns out.
Also, quick reality check: why does there seem to be more moral outrage aimed at Miley Cyrus than at Bashar al-Assad?
~JD
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