Following up my previous blog entry with my first thoughts on the plane home, here’s a more planned version based on my notes during my less-than-a-week visit to America about one year after moving to Israel.

Thresholds

America loves it’s thresholds. Thresholds. Thresholds. It seems there’s a worry about chaff spilling over into the next room, or just so many changes in materials and heights between rooms that thresholds are everywhere. Some of them seem to be designed for a sole purpose of tripping me.

The last one tripped me up.

Israel puts the bumps on the road for cars instead of in the buildings for people.

Around the House

The first thing I noticed is that houses are “cozy”. Wall to wall carpeting, dainty water pressure from the faucets and showers, and smells of lacquer from the finishes on the wood.

“Blackout” curtains in America – or what is called as such – kind of black things out … just not around the curtains where light has no problem saying ‘hi’ in the morning.

Look at those nice cozy curtains too. Can’t recall seeing that in Israel where things are more utilitarian.

Maybe all the coziness inside is necessary because outside is usually some shade of grey.

Grey Skies of the Northeast US

Back to Israel … here’s a hike in blue sky on no particular day:

Here’s a town overlooking the Kinneret on no particular day:

No adjustments to lighting have been made. It’s hard not to be happy with so much sky light.

Food In America

Pizza is only worth buying in the New York metropolitan area. Maybe, just maybe, in Chicago … certainly not outside of the U.S.:

That was a good piece of pizza. Oh, how I miss that greasy mass though I couldn’t decide between deep dish vegetable and regular with spicy beans. In Israel you can ask the server, “what should I order?” and they’ll probably have some suggestions. In America, even after pressing the guy a few times, all he said was, “flip a coin”. So I did … though who is going to trust a guy that says make a food decision by flipping a coin? Not me. So I flipped the coin and chose the one that his coin toss shenanigans didn’t land on.

Is it too much to sell seltzer in cans?

Israel only has them (that I have found) in one liter bottles. It’s not convenient. I also miss this protein drink stuff because outside of Costco, in any country, these are too expensive:

Then take a look at this:

That is a tuna steak. There’s no salad. No potato. No dressing. No colorful whatnot on the plate … err… foil. It’s just one, pick slab of a tuna put on a grill. Admittedly, I liked it though it’s so American.

Then there are these snack aisles:

This particular supermarket had two long aisles of ultra-processed snack foods. When I came to Israel, I was surprised how hard it is to find good snacks.

Malls

This is Paramus, NJ – the mall capital of New Jersey which is the mall state of the country. Perhaps something like this exists in Tel Aviv and I just haven’t found it though this mall has big, open, granite-floored spaces with a sports card inside. <shrug>

Here’s another picture of a too-expensive mall – one of many large, cavernous malls:

For review of the American Dream Mall and their super fake fancy section, at the second largest mall in the United States, click those links ^.

Another thing American malls have are directories telling you where to find things:

That puppy was in a Jewish mall … what has the world come to when Jewish stores are that fancy?

Enough of that. What about -man- stores?

This, of course, is Home Deport and you can see about 1/3 of 40 aisles here. All interior buildings seem to be a constant, in every corner, 68 degrees. Freezing. (Well, 36 degrees above freezing.) The best Israel has is “Home Center” which, the entirety of the store, while having orange shelves, is about the square footage of one, maybe one and a half, aisles of Home Depot.

. . . and outside notice how a) everyone pulls into the spot (in Israel, at least 50% back in to a spot) and b) the cars are unnecessarily large:

. . . and the sky is still grey. Compare to cars and car parking in Israel.

Other Cultural Differences

In Israel there is security at malls and no security at synagogues.
In the United States there is security at synagogues and no security at malls.

Commercials on American radio are crazy long. Impossible (for me) not to change the radio station when commercials come on. Come to think of it, in America I had long since stopped listening to the radio because there are so many commercials. Podcasts long replaced radio.

Honorable mention: a lady who didn’t shave her legs. No picture for this one. It gave me the geebies and I don’t want to look at a picture and add the heebies tot that. (It is posisble to get the ‘geebies’ without the ‘heebies’ though not the other way around unless you’re meeting with Jews from the projects.)

In the same park, I tried to have a political conversation with another guy … no matter how hard I tried, he wouldn’t give me any of his opinions on Israel, Trump, Ted Cruz (he was from Texas) … nada. He was American through and through.

Soon after that I got a haircut from a Lebanese man. Ah. Felt like home again. He had no problem giving me his political opinions. Oddly enough, he was discussing his trips to Israel when I walked in. His father used to trade diamonds in Tel Aviv and fled Lebanon after Hezbelloh smashed his shop and goods during the Civil War.

Still, in America, no one seemed to have kids – the dog park people had dogs instead of kids and the barber said to me that he’d have to open a second barber shop to afford a child. I don’t even think he had a dog.

In Israel when you meet an adult … they probably have kids.

One more article on my trip to America coming …

The Entire Aliyah Diary

Arrival

01. Aug 19, 2024: Preparation In America
02. Aug 25, 2024: First Few Days
03. Aug 29, 2024: Moving In
62. July 17, 2025: I MADE IT

Cultural Adjustment Fun

Cultural Adjustment Difficulties

On The Roads

Shopping

11. Oct 13, 2024: Packages. (חבילות.)
34. Feb 17, 2025: Finding Obscure Things
41. Mar 23, 2025: New Shopping Habits
44. Apr 6, 2025: Pesach Shopping & Osher Ad

Government and Bureaucracy

Politics and Thought

Travel: South Israel

Travel: Central/North Israel

Travel: From Israel to …

54. June 4, 2025: Marseille and Avignon
66. Aug 11, 2025: Return to America 1
67. Aug 14, 2025: Return to America 2