Israeli Living: Part 1
When visiting Canada last month, the doctor and I happened to mention to family and friends that our bedroom doubles as a bomb shelter. No big deal, right? Wrong. People were shocked and quite curious about this piece of Israeli living, but at that point in our six month stay, a room doubling as a bomb shelter was old news to us. I was surprised to be confronted with my lack of culture shock in comparison to my Canadian brethren and wondered what else had snuck its way under the definition of normal since moving here. This inspired me to write a two part blog post uncovering some weird facets of Israeli living. Since out arrival in Israel almost four months ago, we have seen/lived in nearly 10 different places. While these places don't speak for all Israeli homes, they do represent the collected knowledge that the doctor and I have. Let's get into it!
The Bedroom - AKA The Bomb Shelter
Bomb shelters are a common part of emergency planning in Israel. They can be found in just about every building, sometimes one for each floor, respectively known as maman and mamak. In residential spaces where each unit has its own shelter it is known as a mamad.
Some common features of safe rooms include concrete and reinforced steel walls, a thick door, and weird ventilation (?) (see pictures blow from our unit).
The Bathroom
The bathroom is another area of the home that is quite different from what the doctor and I are used to from living in Canada. The first major difference is the lack of a bathtub. Now I'm a big fan of showers, but sometimes after a long day, you just want to come home and have a nice soak - well you can't do that in Israel! From all the places we've visited, lived, and seen, only one of them had a bathtub/shower combo, but the shower was the size of a regular single stall meaning that the tub was only about 2 1/2 feet long!
Another bathroom Israelism is the absence of a fan to clear out shower steam and other unpleasantries that may find themselves in the air. Instead, bathroom are outfitted with a sizeable contraption near the ceiling that emits hot air when turned on. As a non-native, the presence of a heater is somewhat mind-boggling given how hot it is in Israel for most of the year!
The biggest bathroom difference by far is the manual control of the dud, aka the water heater. On our first night in our apartment, after spending hours cleaning and making the space feel like home, all I wanted was a nice long bath, but you now know that wasn't going to happen. So I settled for a shower. The water was nice and warm for about two minutes before it started to cool off and I promptly shut it off. Dude! Where's my hot water? I was cold, wet, miserable, and didn't have a clue. Luckily, the doctor's colleague clued us in to the little doohickey above the light switch that we'd have to press each and every time we wanted hot water, well, 20 minutes before we want hot water that is. Despite living here for over 3 months, I still forget to turn the dud off after a shower. Luckily the doctor is the one footing the electrical bill!
Look out for the next Israeli Living post where I cover more general housing differences as well as somethings that are specific to our unit.
The Bedroom - AKA The Bomb Shelter
Bomb shelters are a common part of emergency planning in Israel. They can be found in just about every building, sometimes one for each floor, respectively known as maman and mamak. In residential spaces where each unit has its own shelter it is known as a mamad.Some common features of safe rooms include concrete and reinforced steel walls, a thick door, and weird ventilation (?) (see pictures blow from our unit).
The Bathroom
The bathroom is another area of the home that is quite different from what the doctor and I are used to from living in Canada. The first major difference is the lack of a bathtub. Now I'm a big fan of showers, but sometimes after a long day, you just want to come home and have a nice soak - well you can't do that in Israel! From all the places we've visited, lived, and seen, only one of them had a bathtub/shower combo, but the shower was the size of a regular single stall meaning that the tub was only about 2 1/2 feet long!
Another bathroom Israelism is the absence of a fan to clear out shower steam and other unpleasantries that may find themselves in the air. Instead, bathroom are outfitted with a sizeable contraption near the ceiling that emits hot air when turned on. As a non-native, the presence of a heater is somewhat mind-boggling given how hot it is in Israel for most of the year!
The biggest bathroom difference by far is the manual control of the dud, aka the water heater. On our first night in our apartment, after spending hours cleaning and making the space feel like home, all I wanted was a nice long bath, but you now know that wasn't going to happen. So I settled for a shower. The water was nice and warm for about two minutes before it started to cool off and I promptly shut it off. Dude! Where's my hot water? I was cold, wet, miserable, and didn't have a clue. Luckily, the doctor's colleague clued us in to the little doohickey above the light switch that we'd have to press each and every time we wanted hot water, well, 20 minutes before we want hot water that is. Despite living here for over 3 months, I still forget to turn the dud off after a shower. Luckily the doctor is the one footing the electrical bill!
Look out for the next Israeli Living post where I cover more general housing differences as well as somethings that are specific to our unit.
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