Israel is a place filled with people who are very direct.

These experiences all convey the same message. Israel is a place filled with people who are very direct. Being that I have not been to a place that is similar to this environment, I previously couldn’t relate to how the people around me look at various situations. Israel is special in many ways, and these are only some of the moments I have experienced thus far into my short eight weeks here. I hope to have more of these memories in which I can look back on later in my life and laugh about.

Since being in Israel, I have experienced many moments in which I thought I would never come across. Shortly after arriving at the airport, I needed a place to put my luggage from Colorado. I grabbed a cart which was right in front of where anyone could go to get them and a man started yelling at me. I was completely unsure of what was happening, and eventually I realized that he wanted me to let go of his cart. This experience was something I have never encountered before. This was just the first experience of my only in Israel moments.

Another moment in which I was shocked at the environment around me was this past weekend. I was at a restaurant in Tel Aviv and I asked for the directions to go to the bathroom. After waiting at the counter for the man to tell me where to go, he said “make a right, then another right.” Of course I decided to follow the man’s directions exactly, so off I went to and when I was leaving the bathroom to walk out, two women were entering the bathroom I just walked out of. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I just went in a  different gender’s bathroom, and after I was super embarrassed. They started to sternly talk to me in Hebrew, and since I am practically fluent all I could say was “Slicha.” I walked away as fast as I could and was caught up laughing about that moment for the rest of the night. This is something that I wouldn’t think would happen in Israel. It illustrates the completely different environment that exists here and how people act very differently about a situation which many would find funny in other places of the world. I had no idea what they were saying yet it taught me that in my life I have to go with the flow. I may not always like the situation at hand, yet when I relax and take a moment to appreciate what just happened, the little moments will make life much happier.

The final time when I realized that life in Israel is very unique was when I went to the shuk in Tel Aviv. I was looking at a nice speaker and when the man trying to sell it to me asked if I wanted to buy it in Hebrew (I later learned what he was asking), I said no. He started to follow me in the market until I told him that I would definitely come back later to check it out.