But first, a couple of comments. For those who haven't seen, here is a summary of everything that happened not too long ago: http://www.idfblog.com/2012/11/21/ceasefire-agreement-comes-into-effect/ (admittedly I posted this on facebook and most of you probably got here via my facebook, so it's probably not new). I also saw an statistic that a few of the southern cities each heard an average of 21 sirens per day during the eight days. Whoa. Jerusalem's two sirens total over eight days was nothing.
I'm not sure how much news the bus bombing last week in Tel Aviv generated in the U.S. No one died, thank G-d, but usually that means less news. Here, it was a pretty big deal. That was the first bombing in Tel Aviv since 2006. At least one of the suspects arrested is an Israeli citizen, obtained through marriage to an Israeli Arab. Whereas previously, my school specifically told us, in spite of the fighting, to carry out business as usually, our school then said we should avoid public transit and crowded areas when possible. The ceasefire is no guarantee, but hopefully there will be no more. We're still wary.
So, only in Israel.
1. Salespeople throw things at you. Next to you at least. I was sitting trying on shoes, and the sales girl literally threw the shoes down next to me from 5 or so feet away. (Then she tried to charge me 80NIS more than they were marked, but that's a different story.)
2. Cars honk whenever a person/car/bike is in the remote vicinity.
3. Drivers make u-turns to get out of traffic. Well, there was no no u-turn sign there..
Ignore the poor photography, it was from a bus, on a rainy night, with my phone. But you can see the car on the center island with the tree to the left and the planter to the right. For some reason, the curb onto the island was angled.
4. To stop cars from going the wrong way in a one way parking lot, they put spikes. I guess you can't blame them, as drivers will do whatever they feel like doing (see #3).
5. There are lines to get into malls. Not because of black friday. Because Israel needs security everywhere.
6. Women soldiers with machine guns in H&M trying on clothes. It looked like it made it more difficult for her.
7. Although 98% of Jerusalem families have 6 kids under the age of 8 (just to clarify, that's a made up exaggeration), there are often no curb cuts at crosswalks.
I apologize that most are shopping and driving related. The latter is ironic, as I've never actually driven here.
Considering that this post heavily involved both terrorism and driving, this is a good place to point out that more people have died in car accidents than terrorist attacks and wars combined.
All of this said, Israel is an amazing place to be, a feeling that only becomes stronger in times of distress. As one of my rabbis said, Jews should live in Israel unless they have a good reason not to. That it's hot in the summer and that the people are rude, though true, he said, are not good reasons.
