Please note that the observations below are based on my personal experience. They do not reflect the opinions of any organization, employer, company, or other contributors to this blog.
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Kids keep their pacifiers a lot longer in Israel. One of the parks in Haifa has a pacifier tree with an explanatory sign that (hopefully) makes it easier for kids to part with it.
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I love dates! They are like tiny candy bars that grow on trees. They also taste surprisingly good with onions.
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On Yom Kippur, there are practically no cars on the street. In Haifa, kids ride bikes and scooters in the main thoroughfares. People walk and stand in the middle of the street. Surreal and very cool.
- Running every few days suppresses your appetite and suppresses negative thoughts.
- Cars often drive onto the sidewalk when parking. Sometimes they park perpendicular to the curb if there is not enough space to parallel park. Somehow I don’t have a photo of this practice.
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You really only need one phrase to be a lifeguard at Haifa beaches: “yeled, bo leh po” (boy, come here). That’s all I ever hear them say.
- It is rare to see a full-sized pickup truck here. So rare that I started taking photos of them. I included a few at the bottom of this post.
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Sukkot is the favorite holiday of flies and mosquitoes. It’s more like “bite-eavon” (b’teavon)!
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Ulpan fee: $400. Ability to make the occasional pun in Hebrew: priceless.
Keeping It Israel 