Only in Israel

Israel is truly full of surprises. Good ones and bad ones. But the Israeli, as tough as it is on the outside, it is sweet on the inside. We had to drop off a document to our landlord and so we decided to "stop for a minute" on the way to buy our son's schoolbooks after we dropped him off for his first day of elementary school. I got out of the car to drop off the document while my husband and our daughter waited in the car. When the landlord opened the door, she said, come in. I apologized and said my husband was waiting in the car. Well, to our landlord, there was no way she was going to let us off. She insisted he get out of the car and come in. She served us coffee, cookies, took out a box of toys for our daughter to play with, and we talked for over an hour. I guess landlord/tenant relationships here are more than just a financial transaction. It means we are living in their house and we should have a relationship. She said she feels I am like a daughter to her. She invited us to her house for Rosh Hashana, but because we already have plans, we settled for succot. Amazing. She just met us, yet she feels like family.

Coincidences that only happen in the holy land... We went to the mall and my husband wanted to buy Crocs. Three-times-as-much-money-as-in-the-US-Crocs. He didn't get a chance to buy them before we came and although we are going back to visit in just two months and he could buy them then, he wanted them now, and so we went into the store. In our "challenged' Hebrew, we strike conversation with the sales lady, who happens to speak Spanish, so we immediately switch languages. She is from Argentina, her sister lived in Mexico and then in Miami, so there we have a few things in common. As we are filling out a form to get a discount, she asks for our address and as we say "Migdal Oz", she says "I live in Migdal Oz! what tower?" (there are 11 towers). "Number 1", we say. "I live in Number 1 too" she responds, amazed at the coincidence. her mom has already come up to our apartment to welcome us and offered us help in whatever we need.