Yesterday morning I took a long walk along the main street right outside of the Weizmann Institute. On weekdays the place bustles with activity, but yesterday all the shops were closed and none of the buses or trains were running. There was nothing to do in Rehovot and I couldn't even leave if I wanted to! Of course, I know what my Dad would do on Saturday…. The only people I saw on the street were little old Jewish men wearing skull caps. They sat contently on various park benches doing sudoku puzzles! The puzzles look pretty much the same as back home, but the Israeli's tend to write their number 9's like lower-case g's instead.
Because there was nothing else to do, I went to work until later in the afternoon. I'd been told that nothing opens back up till 8:00 at night, so between work and having nothing to do I was quickly bored out of my mind. I took another, longer walk along main street and stumbled upon the mall. The mall was shut-down, but I did notice that occasionally a few people would walk in through a side entrance. I decided to discover what all the hubbub was about and followed some people in, past the security guard and through the metal detector. Turns out, the one thing that's open on Saturdays is the movie theater. I guess, if you can't go shopping, run errands, or leave town, the only way to avoid Synagogue is to go to the movies instead! Since I wasn't planning on attending Synagogue either, I decided to buy a ticket to the new Indiana Jones film. I crossed my fingers and hoped the movie was in English.
Except for a few minor differences, Israeli cinemas are a lot like back home. When I went to hand over my ticket 20 minutes before the start of the movie, the ticket collector laughed, said that I was way too early, and made me step behind the entrance line for 15 more minutes. And I was afraid that the theater would be packed! As I had nothing else to occupy myself for ten minutes, I studied the ticket and recognized that it had three numbers on it (everything else was written in Hebrew). Because Indiana Jones was playing in theater 1, I figured that 1 stood for the theater and the other two numbers must represent my seat and row. Thankfully, I figured this out before barging into the theater and stealing the best seat. Luckily, both numbers on the ticket were the same (6 and 6) so I didn't have to try and figure out which one stood for the seat and which for the row.
After watching a few commercials (it was kind of funny to see Eva Longoria advertise shampoo with a poorly done Hebrew voiceover), the movie started. Unlike the commercials, the film was presented in English with Hebrew subtitles. The film was very good…that is, until the small 12ft tall movie screen turned off and the lights came on halfway through! Without hesitation, everyone stood up and began to file out. Didn't they realize that the movie wasn't over? Or did we have to pay more to see the end of it? Once I followed the others outside and saw they were all using the restroom or purchasing concessions, I realized that this must be an intermission. Five minutes later, the movie resumed and with it, my odd experiences at the theater came to an end. The film played through and I headed back to my dorm.
For the remainder of the evening, I did some more computer stuff for work and then walked down to the only grocery store in Rehovot that's open on the Sabbath. The store is fairly nice, though about a quarter of the size of our major supermarkets back home. The Israeli people, however, suddenly appear not so nice once you enter a grocery store. They just don't seem to comprehend that I, like most Americans, have a personal bubble, a comfort zone, around me. Instead, they rush around frantically, brushing past one another and pushing each other aside. Several times I had to forgo looking at an item because various customers had squeezed in front of me and blocked my reach! The most irritating thing of all was that none of the customers seemed to know how to form a line at the cash register. I'd been warned about this before by somebody back in Tucson. All the Israeli's just huddle around the register like sheep being herded into a corral. Gradually some make it into the chute and are able to get their items paid for. Attempting to avoid all confrontation, I waited for the activity to die down before buying by groceries!
Overall, yesterday was less exciting than Friday but was still filled with new cultural experiences. I really hope that all Saturday's aren't like today, though I expect they will be in Rehovot. I've been told that much of Tel Aviv and the surrounding cities do remain active and that there is actually some sort of transportation called a minibus that takes you from place to place. I'll definitely have to check this out—otherwise I'll see if I can work on Saturdays and take a weekday off to go exploring…
(Some photos from earlier in the week--)
Dining area of dorm room--two refrigerators!
The beach in Tel Aviv
Israeli flag outside somebody's window in Tel Aviv
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