Hello from Bat Yam, readers! Israel fell back an hour last night, so gaining an hour of sleep was awesome! I woke up this morning and my roommate and I went to Super Douche to restock our cabinets and fridge after the holiday. We discovered, I believe, the ultimate time to conquer Super Douche - 8:30 AM on a Sunday when most people are at work. We loaded up on juice, milk, cans of tomatoes and olives, and eggs. Two hundred shekels later (about $50... for fifteen bags of groceries. I love Israel) we began walking back to the apartment, which is not even three blocks away. However, we were so laden down with bags, and concentrating on keeping the eggs intact, we were moving at a sluggish pace. Finally, once at the traffic corner to cross back to Katzenelson street, we (stupidly) allowed a wave of relief to wash over us... only to realize that one of the bags had broken and a can of diced tomatoes was rolling into oncoming traffic. Unsure of what to do, we looked at each other, and then at the cars coming toward us. Luckily, traffic was light enough so I could climb to the other side of the sidewalk, stretch out my leg and roll the can toward us with my foot (thank God for all those years of dance). We repacked our groceries and got home as fast as possible.
In case our morning adventure wasn't exciting enough, I realized that my clothing supply was dwindling, and my laundry pile had grown exponentially. It was time, unfortunately, to do laundry. Unfortunately for us, this required quite a shlep from our apartment to the nearest laundromat. That's the other issue: there is not a "real" laundromat nearby, and by "real" I mean loading coins into machines and waiting for your clothes to stop spinning. Instead, we drop off our laundry and go back to pick it up in two days. Not a bad deal, since it requires little effort on our part, with the exception of the shlepping to and from. So, I packed all my dirty clothes and towels into my obnoxiously pink (complete with a gigantic white peace sign) laundry bag, and we began the trek to the laundromat. To say we got a few odd looks would be an understatement. Four American girls, sweating and complaining (in English) and looking lost with fifty pounds of laundry (each) - we were not exactly discreet. Upon arriving at the correct store front (this took a while because we were told to go to the corner of Eli Cohen and Razi'El, but there is more than one Eli Cohen street. Couldn't they have been slightly more creative?), we were greeted with a cloud of cigarette smoke, dropped our laundry bags (literally) and were told to write our names on slips of paper, which were promptly stapled to our respective bags. Apparently, our laundry will be weighed and we will be charged by the kilo. I can almost guarantee that this will be anything but a cheap expenditure. On the other hand, clean clothes are priceless...
After dropping off our laundry, we explored the small strip of shops surrounding the laundromat, and lo and behold, we stumbled upon a home improvement store! And they spoke English! Until a few hours ago, we were in desperate need of a can opener (good luck having pickles with your Israeli salad when you can't open the pickle can), but we found one! Not only a can opener, I am now free of garlic chopping tediousness because we purchased a garlic press (wahoo!) and, to truly complete the houseware trifecta, we found a lemon juicer! I cannot tell you how excited this all made me. And, our total came to 50 shekels. I could not get a garlic press, let alone can opener and lemon juicer, for $10 at home. To say our excursion was a success would be like saying Michael Phelps can kind of swim. Complete understatement.
Tonight we're hitting Sheinkin Street (downtown Tel Aviv) to shop, have dinner, and visit Dragon Tattoo, where I plan on having the Sistine Chapel ceiling, in its entirety, tattooed on my back (JUST KIDDING! Calm down, Mom). But we are going there... for piercings, NOT ink!
More pictures and updates soon.
Lots of love,
Elana
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