A round of applause

At a concert last night I was reminded of a bizarre cultural phenomenon in Israel.

Whenever I go to the theatre, opera, or concerts in Israel, the performance inevitably ends and the audience naturally breaks into a round of applause to show their appreciation. The applause is chaotic, like I'm used to in Australia, Canada, Japan, England, and other places I've been to in the world.

Then after a few seconds, a strange thing happens. Everyone starts clapping in unison, like they're clapping along to music. Now what I'm used to hearing in a packed theatre is of tumultuous, thunderous, chaotic applause. But all I hear is clapping in unison, like people clapping to a marching band of music piece. And I can't resist it and I clap along. I can't escape it. I can't understand it. I want to clap differently, to create the sound I'm used to. But I can't, I'm trapped, and even if I clap totally off the beat to everyone else, I'm just one person in a sea of hundreds.

This really frustrates me, I feel like I'm not showing how I really feel about the music, and that the audience isn't showing its appreciation as it should do. Instead they seem to be clapping along together like it's a game, and not like they've just experienced some world-class culture.

Have you ever experienced this bizarre clapping behaviour before? How do you feel about it? Is it a purely Israeli thing??

The concert I saw last night was with Richard Galliano, a musician from France who is said to be the best accordionist in the world, playing with the Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra. It was a fantastic performance, and they gave four encores (despite the fact that the audience kept getting up to leave the theatre even though the orchestra remained seated! And they did this terrible clapping thing! Poor Mr Galliano).

The program from last night's performance at the Tel Aviv Museum

I found another blog post from a few years ago that discusses the strange Israeli behaviour or synchronous clapping:  The Muqata: Synchronous Clapping

Cleaning floors, Israeli style

This country is incredibly dusty. There is more dust here than I have ever experienced in Australia. It must be blowing off the Sahara.

All this means that our apartment gets dirty fast - dust covering everything and that lovely grainy feeling under your feet as you walk on the tiles. Now if I were in Australia I would fix this with a quick dust, a vacuum, and a mop. But no, that's not how it's done here!

So here are the amazing steps to cleaning your floor in Israel.

1) lift everything off the floor. Not just chairs, but everything. Pile chairs on top of tables, couch chairs on top of the couch, computer off the floor, cables off the floor, everything.

2) fill a large bucket with hot soapy water

3) throw the water all over every floor in the house. Puddles are required everywhere.

4) get a water scraper thingo and push the water into every corner of the house so it makes the dust and dirt soggy. Lift up every piece of furniture, beds, giant bookcases, everything. You must catch all the dust and dirt with the water!

Amit cleaning the floor - notice the furniture piled up!

5) scrape the lovely dirty water from all over the house into the hole in the floor, which is usually located up a slope, in a tiny corner of the bathroom.

6) drape a piece of cloth soaked in fresh water over the scraper thingo and use it as a mop to get the rest of the water of the floor. Somehow you are supposed to manage to keep this piece of fabric draped over the scraper. I've no idea how! I ended up standing on the cloth and shuffling around the house.

7) put all the pieces of furniture back, plug everything back in, and you are done. It only took us (2 people) over an hour to complete.

Needless to say, Amit and I have only cleaned the house in this way once. I tried an improvised version (partially throwing water around and scraping it into a whole, partially shuffling around the house on the cloth, pretending I was a mop).

Finally a few weeks ago we bought a mop. Now I'm sweeping and mopping, and not using the Israeli scraper, which I was obviously not born to handle!

Here are a couple of blogs that share my experience with cleaning Israeli style.
You have got to be kidding
Lesson 5 - this is a mop

Tel Aviv, Eilat and beautiful Jerusalem

I stumbled across this article published in The Times about travelling to Israel. I think it captures the energy of this country, and the diversity.

Tel Aviv, Eilat and beautiful Jerusalem

Week one at the Ulpan - learning Hebrew

After two months of being surrounded by Hebrew I am really wishing I knew what people were saying. Things are changing now though, as this week I started learning Hebrew at Ulpan Gordon in Tel Aviv. I go from Sunday to Wednesday, from 9am to 1pm, for five months.

On the first day I discovered that most of the people sitting around me had similar stories to me - they had moved to Israel to be with their boyfriends or girlfriends. Seems like Israelis are going round the world and not just coming home with a tan, they are bringing girls and boys back with them! Mind you, it is mostly women in the class, so it appears that Israeli men are doing a better job at this importing business. The other half of the class are new Jewish immigrants to Israel.

The list of nationalities in the class of 40 people is impressive by any standard. I'm the only Australian, but there are people from the US, Argentina, Sweden, Russia, England, Germany, Brazil, Spain, France, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Kenya and Colombia (I'm sure I've left some out...).

The teacher is very good, but hasn't spoken any English after the first day. Things move quickly, we cover grammar, masculine and feminine forms of nouns... I'm just hoping it all fits into my head.

I've realised I'm terrible at grammar so that is what I'll be practicing most. Fortunately Amit helps me with my homework - learning the Hebrew script letters at the moment, and filling in the gaps of things I missed in class.

Some of my Hebrew homework - learning how to write the cursive script (looks like a bunch of squiggles hey)

I never expected I'd be learning Hebrew in my life. The language of the bible is a pretty strange thing for a non-religious Australian to learn. But then I never thought I'd live in Israel, or meet the love of my life on a cooking class in Vietnam, or talk about the science of slime to thousands of Australian kids, or write a blog, or talk about chocolate on BBC radio, or walk to university in the snow in Montreal, or ride a camel in Jordan either. Life is full of the unexpected, and that makes it wonderful. Learning Hebrew is another part of this adventure, and it has a great reason behind it - making a life with Amit in Israel. Love is always the best reason for doing unexpected things, in my opinion.

And here is a fantastic song by Feist. It has some great lyrics, like "I feel it all, I feel it all". That's what I'm trying to do right now, feel everything that life makes me feel. Hope it makes you feel happy too.

Visiting the doctor, Israeli style

I've had a cough for a week so it was time to see a doctor. I have health insurance here for tourists, so I called up to make an appointment with the local clinic. There I encountered my first problem: recorded instructions in Hebrew. I got an appointment for the next day eventually (with some help from Amit).

I go into the clinic and report to the desk, where they give me a piece of paper and send me off. I sit down on a chair, a nurse comes and says "Are you seeing the nurse? Blood test?" I say no, I'm here to see the doctor. She says to sit next to the doctors door so he can see me and he will call me in.

So I go and sit next to the doctor's door, and he doesn't call anything. It seems the way to see the doctor is to push your way through the door. Open the door when he has a patient with him, retreat, but as soon as that door opens you jump up with your elderly charge and push into the room. An alternative tactic, performed by a religious lady with three kids, was to barricade the door entrance with her double pram and push her way in at every moment.

After 30 minutes I was really wishing that Israel had queues, lines, a doctor who went down a list of names, and people waited their turn, despite being older, more invalid or more religious than you, like in Australia or the UK. Lucky I had my book with me, to say the least.

With all this time passing I continued to sit there and ponder the fact that in Israel elderly people hire young female Filipino carers to look after them, so these old people and their carers can be seen on their daily walks hobling through the park (or being wheeled in their chairs), or being escorted through the doctor's door in a typical Israeli pushy way. In Australia old people go to nursing homes, or live with their children, and are generally not living in the middle of big cities. They hang out with other old people, and I must say I barely saw an old or invalid person in Canberra - like there were all hiding in the suburbs. Here old people are in your face, everywhere, very present. It actually makes me feel like Tel Aviv is more of a real place, with old people, babies, and everything in between.

Eventually the elderly, disabled, religous and crazy had gone ahead of me, I'd waited for 40 minutes, and I finally got in. The doctor started the meeting by saying "Why do you want to live here? People are so rude, I saw you sitting there but I didn't know it was you who are on my list, and all these rude people pushed in front of you! Why do you want to live here, you are educated, polite, well mannered. Israelis are so rude? Are you really going to stay?"

I laughed and said I was here because of my boyfriend, and that it will be much easier to push in when I understand Hebrew. I think he was still wondering why on earth I'd want to live here, rather than in Australia.

Result: He gave me some drugs for my cold, and they were free! And I'm going to learn how to be more pushy...

A kibbutz experience

The day after the passover Seder meal the whole family went for a drive north, to visit some relatives who live at the Sasa Kibbutz, in Northern Israel, very close to the border with Lebanon.

View from Kibbutz Sasa

The Kibbutz is in the mountains, with beautiful fresh, crisp air and lovely green scenery. Amit's Dad's cousins live there, and all their families were visiting for the holidays. One of the cousins, Varda Yatom, is a ceramics sculptor, and we visited her gallery, filled with interesting pieces.

Sculptures by Varda Yatom

Every Kibbutz has a factory of some sort that is a main source of income. Amongst all this lovely scenery I was surprised to discover that the Sasa factory produces vehicle and body armor for vehicles, with large contracts with the Israeli and American defense forces. We had an interesting tour of the factory there... not at all what I'd expected to find!

me with sculptures

a concert in Jerusalem

On the plane from Korea to Israel a few weeks ago I sat next to a really interesting man, Yitzhak Yedid, a composer from Israel who lives in Brisbane with his Australian wife and child. He told me about few of his concerts that would be on in Israel while he was here, so last night Amit and I headed up to Jerusalem for an evening at a cool venue called the Yellow Submarine. A trio of piano, violin and cello played a few pieces, some more jazz, so more celtic music, and also a world premier of Yitzhak's piece called Senstaions.

After the concert Yitzhak was in a bit of dilemma as his sister in law had taken off with his phone, wallet and keys. We drove around the beautiful streets of Jerusalem at night, with their old stone walls and atmospheric neighbourhoods. Luckily we found the sister-in-law and Yitzhak directed us out of the confusing streets of the city.

You can see some of Yitzhak's performances on YouTube.

On the way home from Jerusalem we picked up a hitchhiker, a teenager with a guitar, and dropped him further down the road. Hitchhiking is really common in Israel. I realised I have a bit of a phobia about it due to the backpacker murders in Australia. However, I think I'll get used to it here (although I don't think we'll get into a habit of picking up hitchhikers!).

week two in Israel

Settling in
I cooked my first meal here in our kitchen. I managed to go to the supermarket and buy ingredients without being able to read most of the labels. In the bigger supermarket I was very confused that I couldn't find any bacon... turns out it was a kosher supermarket. I made spaghetti bolognaise, a classic fave of mine, and it turned out fine, despite me buying veal mince instead of beef mince... That's what happens when you can't read labels!

The spaghetti sauce - From Our apartment in Tel Aviv

Smoky bars
I realised that it had been years since I'd stepped into a bar or pub and been assaulted by cigarette smoke when I came across it here. There are signs in every bar saying no smoking, and there are no ashtrays on the tables or anything, but everyone it smoking inside! The bar tenders make ashtrays from folded cardboard coasters, so if the police come in they can say that they had nothing to do with encouraging the smoking. It's another little thing that tells me I'm really in the wild west, rather than a western country! And I really do hate that smoke of course, it makes your clothes stink and your eyes water, so unpleasant.

Seeing the country
I went to the area near Be'eri twice in the same week, just by chance. It is about an hour or so south of Tel Aviv, close to the Gaza Strip, that is famous for the red anemone flowers that are (supposed to) carpet the grass fields there. The flowers don't seem to be that cooperative this year though, probably due to the very hot weather we're having (about 28 degrees C each day - lovely!). 

I went first with Amit's mum for a drive around the area to visit some memorials (including an ANZAC monument, how unexpected!) and to view Gaza from a safe distance. We couldn't see much, just a densely populated city in the haze. It is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. We drove through towns nearby and saw the missile shelters on the streets, as missiles randomly land in these areas. It was an interesting experience, and made me think about the fragility of peace in this country. In Tel Aviv and surrounding areas you would never think there is any danger, yet 80km away missiles could land on your street. Amit's mum said something about how Israelis don't really talk about the weather in Israel, there are more important things to talk about, like life and death.

View album - Heading south - looking at Gaza

I went again to Be'eri on Friday (the weekend is Friday and Saturday here) with Amit, Noa and Yair. We had a lovely picnic in a eucalypt plantation (very common here) and then a 'hike'(what we would call a walk or a bush walk) through some lovely grassland dotted with wild flowers. See photos on Amit's album.

The Synagogue
On Saturday we went to a synagogue in Petah Tikva (where Amit grew up) for a religious ceremony related to Elad and Einat's wedding last week. After the wedding the husband goes to the synagogue to say a prayer and say basically that he will be a good husband in front of god. Amit and his friends go to the synagogue only very rarely, so everyone felt a little out of place at this event, not only me!

Men and women are segregated in synagogues, with the men downstairs in the main part, and women upstairs, behind a curtain, so the men aren't tempted by us (apparently). So we go upstairs, and you really can't see anything from up there - you can peek through the curtain but the religious men don't really like that. Us ladies sat up there and whispered about what was going on, wondering when Elad would finally get to speak... Once he spoke we all threw wrapped lollies on Elad (and all the men down there), which was quite fun. Then we escaped to the outside.

That was about it. I would describe the experience as being just as dull as a church, but without being about to see the people speaking or what is going on, or understanding a word that was said! Also, the building was very modest, not decorated and grand like a church. This was Bulgarian type of synagogue with it's traditions by the way, there are many different branches of Judaism I hear. While we were sitting in the synagogue, Amit's friend pointed out a line in the Torah, a very famous prayer that says something like "Thank you God, king almighty, for not making me a woman". She said that explained one of the reasons she wasn't too enamoured with the religion... Fair enough!

After the synagogue we went to Elad's sister's house in a town nearby. There we had a fantastic lunch, reminding me of probably my most favourite thing about this country - the food! It is incredible - huge quantities, amazing variety, great quality and super fresh. I could go on and on about it... and I will, but later, after I've eaten the delicious leftovers from Friday dinner at Amit's family's place. His mum is the most amazing cook!

Finally, the people
I've reached the end of this blog post without talking about the people here, which is a huge oversight. Of course everything I've talked about couldn't have happened without the amazing people facilitating it all. Amit's family have been so welcoming, asking me for lunches and dinners and taking me on day trips and cooking amazing food. Amit's friends are lovely and making sure I'm enjoying life here. The people I meet are so open, warm and friendly, it makes me feel so excited to be here. It is hard to describe how wonderful everyone is, hopefully you can see it throug the smiles on our faces in the photos. 

Next destination: Israel

I've been told I'm not very good at updating this blog. Which is true. I tend to only write here when I'm travelling.

I'll be travelling again soon - I'm off to Tel Aviv to see Amit, who I met in Vietnam in April. I am incredibly excited. It will really interesting travelling to the Middle East, to a country with so much history, ancient and modern, and so much politics. To be honest though, I'm most excited about seeing Amit. We've been keeping in touch constantly since Vietnam, and get along so well. I don't want to write what I think it could be, I may jinx myself if I do. I leave on Friday and return on August 2. I'm not looking forward to my 29hours of travelling to get there! Canberra - Sydney - Bangkok - Amman - Tel Aviv....

On Saturday I had a ladies night at my place. There were 7 of us, and it was a great night. I made lots of tasty food with a Mediterranean theme - Hummus, Babaganoush, Souvlaki, Falafel, and sticky-date pudding for dessert. It was nice having just ladies at the table. We discussed travel, work, drunken stories, palm reading, life, love and of course men. It was agreed by the end of the night that we should have more ladies evenings in the future.

From Canberra winter