bags, bruises, and bovine

So the last two days have been spent with Gilad and the tutzim. This isn't so bad, the work is easy and I have plenty of time to think, which is always nice. The strawberry plant total is now over 4,000....kind of insane. Thats like, two tons of actual strawberries. Eat your heart out, boys.

Nothing of real significance has happened of late, so time for a few randoms.

• I keep forgetting to mention it, but for all you Pearsonians, Lilach SERIOUSLY reminds me of Jan Nijman. Personality and wisdom for one thing, and looks for another. Fo real, this woman could pass for his sister. Then it was REALLY funny to me when she said people told her she looked Dutch and not Israeli.....I was like, well, I only know two Dutch people, but you look EXTREMELY like one of them.

• Have you ever seen milk sold in a BAG? I was very confused when Lilach first pulled one out of the fridge, but apparently that is normal here. You cut off a little corner, then stick the whole thing in a pitcher and pour away. The problem, my friends, is that I really suck at the whole cutting off the corner thing. I have yet to find scissors in this house, and when trying to accomplish this task with a steak knife, I have on more than one occasion ripped open half the bag. This is really terrible, because inevitably I seem to always the one who gets stuck with the empty milk bag. Sigh.

• Another weird Israel thing (or maybe just international thing): two different flush buttons on the toilet. Whaaaaaaaat?! Half flush for pee, full flush for poop. Both if your name is Laura Searcy and you just had your daily elimination.
  

• Today when putting on my shoes, I somehow managed to slip, and slammed the side of my elbow into the staircase. I almost cried, it hurt so bad. Now I have a lovely bruise there to match the ones on my fingers from the damn tutz scissors and the one on my head from standing up into the ceiling of the loft. Apparently I am a disaster waiting to happen. Thanks, Israel, for trying to make me match your flag.

• There is a herd of cows that roams outside the greenhouse where I've been planting, and they are very, very loud. They are not, as Giselle would say, wild cattle, like the ones we have seen meandering along the road here and they want you to know it. Sometimes when Gilad talks to me I can't hear him over the cattle. I could, however, hear the angry farmer who shares the greenhouse when he came in today while Gilad was out and was yelling at me in Hebrew for apparently planting strawberries on the blueberry side of the greenhouse. Let's chill out, people, its not that serious.
  

• I am taking a few days off and going to Haifa tomorrow to explore/go to the beach. This is provided that my Israel cell phone arrives today. Oh, in case you want to spend an atrocious amount and call me without using Skype, the number is 011972503175855 (from the US). I realize it's a lot of effort to dial that many digits, but whatever floats your boat.....it's free on my end :)

• I realized last night that I have a George Foreman grill in my little kitchen, and it is AWESOME. I made a very non-kosher panini for dinner and it was excellent. Time to hit up Asia Davis for some very-illegal-in-my-dorm-room-but-who-really-cares College Cooker recipes!! (see www.thecollegecooker.com)
  

• Roommate update: Catherine is apparently in Scotland now, trying to find her runaway schizophrenic brother (I swear I'm not making this up) but is coming back in two weeks, according to Lilach. Another american named Melissa is arriving on Monday, and someone named Stephen is coming the same time as Catherine. Looks like it'll be a full house soon!

All for now, more for later.