Israeli Attitude

This morning I had a head-on-crash with how frustrating Israel can be.

As I forgot my camera power cable, I have the daunting task of having to find a replacement in Israel, Jerusalem specifically. Hanna was really kind and found a place which sells just what I want on Yaffo Street downtown. I don't realize until I get there that it is in the Merkaz Clal, perhaps the ugliest excuse for a mall in all the world. Even though it's a closed building, the inside looks as though it was the sidewalk of an industrial area, with stray cats and suspicious puddles all over. I can't remember why, but Josh and I used to have to come to this building for something having to do with rent and I remember we cringed as we walked through. So, I was looking for a store called Sollan on the second floor, but because part of the building is underground and nothing is marked it wasnt clear which of the 6 half floors might be the 2nd floor. I went to a store to ask and the clerk said he didn't know what floor he was on. This continued with every store; some people said it was 2 floors up, some said 1 down, etc. After walking the entire building finding many "Salons" (there are no vowels in Hebrew, so I couldn't tell) I decided to get official. I tried to find the information desk, which was absolutely impossible because even as I followed signs I made a circle.

Finally a young boy fliering the building took pity on me and directed me to the information booth, whichw as hidden on a floor which required the elevator to get to. For some reason no one would get on a down elevator to go up, they preferred to stand and wait. No, to be correct, they preferred to crowd onto an elevator, argue about what direction it was going in, and then shove people off as they themselves tried to exit. I tried to reason with my boy-guide; certainly the elevators which go down must also go up, they couldn't just continue on their path. But he was adamant. Once at the information booth the woman told me the store never existed, and if it had she had never heard of it, and if she had she had forgotten about it, and slammed her little info booth window in my face.

Very discouraged I followed one man's advice to try Prisma, a camera store opposite Kikar Zion. I walked in and was so thankful to see American-style service in the store (i.e. the clerks generally seemed to want to help the customers). I was hopeful at first, the mane knew exaclty what I needed and thought he had it. It turns out he didn't have it, but he could get it in the hour. Then he couldn't get it in the hour, but he would call me. When I returned much later, he suggested I take the store's number. Needless to say, I'm still waiting, and with fervent prayers.

Just as I left I received a phone call from my internet man. He told me if I wanted the lower price that I needed to take the tv cable as well. I explained, as I had before, that I don't have a tv, that I don't need the cable, and tht they should keep it since I didn't want to have to wait around for them to deliver something I didn't need. He assumed there was a communication problem, and put someone with better English on the phone. The conversation was repeated a few times, and at the end of each argument the man would say "Ehhhh, so we come tomorrow." Finally I gave in and I said I would only be there at 10 am and they could come no earlier or later. We will see what happens.

Just as I turned off the phone and I was at my most frustrated, I felt a comforting hand on my shoulder, Naomi! She was like an angel. She was heading to the university area as well, so we rode together on the bus. After she did a bit of studying, we met up again to enjoy an ice cream at the falafel stand. We thenheaded over to her new place, just next to the Mahene Yehuda shuk and we did some perusing and buying. There's a new bread guy with incredible, soft bread, and so we split a loaf of whole wheat sour dough which I think is groundbreaking for Israel. Then I had ti visit my cheese shop. I asked for something hard and I got a boring cheddar, I asked the guy what he had that was interesting and out came a hot pink wine cured cheese. Then a cilantro, bright green cheese. Next an aged gouda. Mmmmmmmm, I took a bit of each to make myself little sandwiches with my new bread.

I met up with Ela, another friend from WUJS, on Emek Refaim for dinner. She is this beautiful, sweet, Swiss woman who knows how to get exaclty what she wants. We tried a new meat restaurant on Emek, and I remember why I got mostly vegetarian in Israel. There's just something about the beef that I don't like. It was so nice to catch up with Ela, she's also very passionate about peace in Israel and is looking for a way to contribute, and I hope that I can help her make some connections while I'm here. We took a little walk around the neighborhood to The Colony, a very nice bar outside of Emek, where we watched Spain beat Germany in soccer while she sipped a mojito and I worked on a Mediteranean Arak (I love Arak, but it's illegal in the US for some reason). I'm hoping the drink will do the trick and I can go without the sleeping pill tonight.