Halloween and Farewells at Work

I can only remember a few times when I've been more tired at work than right now, and they were all during grad school when work and school and friends competing for my precious sleeping time.  This week was on par with those days and I have no clue how I used to do it.

Last Year's Halloween

Halloween is one of the only holidays that we can celebrate at our work.  Everything else seems to be tied to a nation or religion that not everyone can buy into, or that offends at least a few people in the office.  But Halloween - I think no one really knows enough about it to be offended, and God knows they have kids.  An afternoon to bring in the kids, get free candy, practice English - they love it.  So the work Halloween party is crazy! (Not like a company Christmas party...more like a school carnival.)  Today at work there were sooo many kids running around on sugar highs and lots of people in costumes.

Rewind a few days.  One of our favorite colleagues is leaving.  This is part of life in the foreign service - everyone moves every 2-4 years so you get to know people just well enough to make the goodbye sad.  The guy who is leaving now is a great guy and awesome co-worker (in my office).  He's been over to our house a bunch of times for dinners and parties and for a few movie nights.  His request for his last night here - dinner and a movie at our place :)  It was a lot of fun (and a huge compliment) - but I was also making 4 cakes for his farewell on Friday.  Wednesday night was cake baking time in our house, and Thursday (after the movie was done and guests left at 1130pm) I started the frosting.  I didn't quite finish so I woke up early this morning to put the final touches on and throw all 4 cakes into boxes.  (Yaawwwnn!  5 hours of sleep was not enough!)

It had to have been one of the best lunches at work!  The guy who is leaving bought pizza for the entire Mission (25 pizzas) and because I was ordering we, of course, had gourmet pizza from the best pizza place in town :)  I enjoyed two pieces of arugula pizza followed by a slice of salted caramel cake!  Correction:  "a slice of the famous Vaca cake!" as the boss told everyone.  I heard from at least 5 people that I should open a store :) (and if our trip to Brazil didn't remind me why I got a degree I might just be working on a business plan!)  It was all very fun, and now (at 445pm) I am ready for bed.

More Israeli than the Israelis!

Yesterday at the grocery store I think we were more Israeli than the Israelis.  We gave them a taste of their own medicine! (Although they didn't mind as much as we do because it is normal to them.)  Here is the story:

You know the stereotype of penny pinching and watching the price of every item that scans?  Well that was me yesterday.  BUT...it was totally justified and in the end it turned out very well. 

Let's assume you are buying olive oil.  So when you go shopping in the grocery store here items are not always on the shelf where their price sticker is.  The bottles may have been put on the shelf above, below, or to the side depending on where there was space.  Luckily, you can read just enough Hebrew to match the price tag on the shelf to the name on the bottles.  Then you have to check the prices, the price on the shelf is not always the same as the price sticker on the bottle.  To go the extra step, see if all of the bottles have the same price on their stickers.  It could be the front bottle is 35 shekels, but the identical bottle just behind it is only 30 shekels (meanwhile, the price tag on the shelf says 32).  You obviously should take the bottle with the 30 shekel sticker on it.  You're final test is when you get to the checkout line - the price that rings up may  not match any of the three previously mentioned prices.  If it is lower, let it go.  If it is higher, the thing to do is to stop everything, hold up the line and demand the lowest of the four prices.  The people around you will either a.) roll their eyes and look for another line to go to because this will take a few minutes to resolve, b.) ignore you, leave their groceries as a place holder and run back for that carton of ice cream, or on rare occasions c.) get involved in the argument and tell the cashier that you have a right to the lower price.


Also, one last cultural thing before I get to the main part of this story, it is the holiday season here.  The high holidays include the Rosh Hashana (the new year) and Yom Kippur (the day of atonement).  Then right after those, they have Succot and Simhkat Torah. Line this up with Columbus Day and basically the whole month is holidays.  And the grocery stores run crazy specials right before the holidays, especially on wine, apples and honey (like how an American store might run a sale on champagne just before New Years or turkey and stuffing before Thanksgiving).


So...finally, the story.  We go to the grocery store with the intention of buying wine.  The price on the shelf says 3 bottles for 100 shekels.  The price sticker on the bottle says 57 shekels each.  Then I look at the bottle behind it...and it says 4 for 100 shekels.  Fast forward to the check-out line.  The bottles scan at 3 for 100 - but there is a sticker on each of the four bottles that says 4 for 100.  So I pull the chord and stop the line.  The cashier and I are awkwardly trying to explain to each other our points (using the simplest of phrases) when the lady behind me in line jumps in....and argues for me.  (You have to read this with your best Yiddish accent) "Just give it to them. The sticker says 4 for 100, give them 4 for 100."  She keeps going in Hebrew so that the cashier has to call the supervisor.  Once the supervisor comes she and the cashier are speaking and the nice lady smiles at us and then runs off to grab that ice cream that was for sale.  When she comes back they were still debating the price of the wine and the nice lady left for another register and a different woman is in line behind us. 

They always say something right before you pay asking if you want to buy this gum that is on sale or these batteries...something you don't need.  We always say no.  So they ask Paul (in Hebrew) if he'd like to buy the honey that is on sale for 1 shekel a jar. We have 2 full jars in our pantry and we don't go through it that fast.  "Lo, toda."  I kid you not, we were shamed into buying honey.  (Nice lady in English) "Come on! It is one shekel. Just buy the honey." Paul laughs, "we already have two jars at home."  "I'll buy it for you then!  It is only one shekel!"  (1 shekel is about 30 cents.)  Yes....we were shamed into buying a 1 shekel jar of honey.  Wine and honey.  If we'd have gotten the apples too we'd have been completely Jewish.


Meanwhile, the supervisor says something like "come here" (pointing to the main "service" counter) and walks me over (bottle of wine in hand) to the manager.  (Yes, this saga is still going on.  It has been like 5-10 minutes.)  They look at the receipt, back at the bottle, back at the receipt and the conversation all sounds like gibberish to me, I'm catching maybe every 5 words.  Finally, the supervisor goes behind the counter, does some magic on the computer (while other customers now roll their eyes because they have to wait) and eventually hands me the bottle and my receipt. "Shana Tova!!" (Happy New Year) she says and hands me my bottle of wine. 

I know it was a hassle, but I got that 57 shekel bottle of wine for free!  And it was the nicest that anyone has ever been to us in a grocery store here!  In fact, multiple people were nice to us!  I guess my tactic of being rude and stingy is actually the way to win them over.