Monday, February 12, 2007
Israeli Living
We haven't posted in a while because there's really no new news here. So, I thought I'd do something a little different and give you a little taste of what it's like to live in Israel. Here's a tour of what's different in an Israeli apartment:
1. Hot Water: Water is heated in solar tanks on the roof. In the summer this is a great system, but during the winter the heat needs a boost. So, you turn on an electric heater directly above the shower. It takes about 2 hours to get the water hot. You'll also notice the light switch outside of the bathroom. The voltage is very high here, so all the switches are on the outside of the bathrooms. There are also no outlets, so you can't dry or curl your hair in the bathroom. And of course, you all remember our famous "shbath." Most people have hooks for their hoses to make the shbath into an actual shower.
2. Doors: For some reason, all the inside doors in this country seem to come with windows. The weirdest part about this is the bathroom. And no matter how nice the apartment, the paint job in every apartment I have been to never seems to be straight or to keep from bleeding (see the picture). Also, all the doors come equiped with locks, but they lock with keys, not buttons or knobs. However, in most of our homes (the students) the apartments are rather old and all the keys are either missing or don't work. Oh well.
3. Windows: Most windows and backdoors are equiped with a covering called a triese. This can block light, weather and some bugs. It rolls up into a box ontop of the window. You tug on it to make it go up or down.
4. Cooking: Israelis use electric kettles. What's fun about them is that they are called Coom-cooms. It's just fun to say. Because stoves and ovens often don't come built into kitchens, electric burners are very common. After our gas stove stopped working, our landlord bought us electric burners so that we could fit in. Do you see the irony of the electric burners (which work very poorly) sitting on top of a gas stove (which used to work very well)?
5. Outlets: Unsurprisingly, Israel has totally different outlets. After 7 months, I still think they look kind of funny. You can also see the adaptor we use for the computer. Outlets are also pretty far off the ground. My theory is that the apartments usually have tile floors for easy washing, so the outlets are high up to avoid getting water in them. Or just as really ugly decoration. Also, notice how the phone cable goes through the house on the outside of the wall. It connects to the phone cables which run all the way down around the outside of the building. Not kidding.
6. Closets: Israeli apartments rarely have closets. Often they have something called a closet, which we would call a cabinet. We have a wardrobe, which I think is much cooler anyway.
7. Laundry: We were told before we got here that washingmachines are an Israeli luxury. Perhaps, but I don't know anyone without one. Dryers, on the other hand, are an absolute luxury. Today it is sunny (not warm), so the clothes are outside. But lately, with the rain they've been inside and can easily take most of the week to dry.
8. Heat: The laundry brings me to the next point - there's no heat in these old apartments. The buildings have tile floors for easy cleaning and are desined to stay cool in the summer, so most of our friends (and us too) are freezing in our homes. So we have a little space heater that travels from room to room with us. We huddle around it like it's our fireplace. We've also figured out ways to drape clothes over a chair in front of the little heater to dry them. It's effective, although time consuming.
9. Mystery Circles: I have seen these in most apartments and have no idea what they are. We have a few of them. Their circles on the wall, where it looks like there might have been a smoke detector, but I can't figure out why you'd need so many in an apartment, or in one room for that matter. I think they're related to the crop circles:
That's about all the excitement in one apartment. You should also know that I've been updating our photo site on Shutterfly, http://princessandthegeek.shutterfly.com. There's a link listed on our blog, too.
Current countdown: 3 weeks until Purim, 4 'till family comes to visit, 6 'till we go to Ukraine, and in 15 weeks we come home.
1. Hot Water: Water is heated in solar tanks on the roof. In the summer this is a great system, but during the winter the heat needs a boost. So, you turn on an electric heater directly above the shower. It takes about 2 hours to get the water hot. You'll also notice the light switch outside of the bathroom. The voltage is very high here, so all the switches are on the outside of the bathrooms. There are also no outlets, so you can't dry or curl your hair in the bathroom. And of course, you all remember our famous "shbath." Most people have hooks for their hoses to make the shbath into an actual shower.
2. Doors: For some reason, all the inside doors in this country seem to come with windows. The weirdest part about this is the bathroom. And no matter how nice the apartment, the paint job in every apartment I have been to never seems to be straight or to keep from bleeding (see the picture). Also, all the doors come equiped with locks, but they lock with keys, not buttons or knobs. However, in most of our homes (the students) the apartments are rather old and all the keys are either missing or don't work. Oh well.
3. Windows: Most windows and backdoors are equiped with a covering called a triese. This can block light, weather and some bugs. It rolls up into a box ontop of the window. You tug on it to make it go up or down.
4. Cooking: Israelis use electric kettles. What's fun about them is that they are called Coom-cooms. It's just fun to say. Because stoves and ovens often don't come built into kitchens, electric burners are very common. After our gas stove stopped working, our landlord bought us electric burners so that we could fit in. Do you see the irony of the electric burners (which work very poorly) sitting on top of a gas stove (which used to work very well)?
5. Outlets: Unsurprisingly, Israel has totally different outlets. After 7 months, I still think they look kind of funny. You can also see the adaptor we use for the computer. Outlets are also pretty far off the ground. My theory is that the apartments usually have tile floors for easy washing, so the outlets are high up to avoid getting water in them. Or just as really ugly decoration. Also, notice how the phone cable goes through the house on the outside of the wall. It connects to the phone cables which run all the way down around the outside of the building. Not kidding.
6. Closets: Israeli apartments rarely have closets. Often they have something called a closet, which we would call a cabinet. We have a wardrobe, which I think is much cooler anyway.
7. Laundry: We were told before we got here that washingmachines are an Israeli luxury. Perhaps, but I don't know anyone without one. Dryers, on the other hand, are an absolute luxury. Today it is sunny (not warm), so the clothes are outside. But lately, with the rain they've been inside and can easily take most of the week to dry.
8. Heat: The laundry brings me to the next point - there's no heat in these old apartments. The buildings have tile floors for easy cleaning and are desined to stay cool in the summer, so most of our friends (and us too) are freezing in our homes. So we have a little space heater that travels from room to room with us. We huddle around it like it's our fireplace. We've also figured out ways to drape clothes over a chair in front of the little heater to dry them. It's effective, although time consuming.
9. Mystery Circles: I have seen these in most apartments and have no idea what they are. We have a few of them. Their circles on the wall, where it looks like there might have been a smoke detector, but I can't figure out why you'd need so many in an apartment, or in one room for that matter. I think they're related to the crop circles:
That's about all the excitement in one apartment. You should also know that I've been updating our photo site on Shutterfly, http://princessandthegeek.shutterfly.com. There's a link listed on our blog, too.
Current countdown: 3 weeks until Purim, 4 'till family comes to visit, 6 'till we go to Ukraine, and in 15 weeks we come home.
Comments:
<< Home
The circles you mention in the walls give access to the wiring - electrical, telephone, etc. This is important when you consider the walls are cement block and you can't easily access things
shoshana
Post a Comment
shoshana
<< Home
