Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Wisdom Gained category.
Where to go dancing in Jerusalem: Salsa, Israeli, Clubs, Belly, and more
Thank goodness there are places in Jerusalem to let go of my pent-up energy after long days spent staring at a computer screen. Unfortunately, I felt like the information for different kinds of dancing in Jerusalem like salsa, Israeli/folk dancing, clubs, belly dancing, and others was all over the place. So, I sat myself down and gathered what I could into one central, organized place (I love lists, what can I say?). Make sure to call the person or venue to verify any information below. If you would like to add any dance venues, please leave a comment below.
In related Salsa news, while I was searching for everything Salsa and Israel, I came across the 7th Annual Mediterranean Salsa Congress’ , which is hoping to create peace in Israel through salsa. If you’re still skeptical, just watch this clip. How come no one thought of this before?!
Salsa
- Merkaz Hamagshimim
Tuesdays at 8pm
Includes: Salsa, Marengue, Roueda, Cha Cha and Kumbia and Bacheta.
Cost: 25 NIS
Location: The Merkaz, 7a Dor Dor VeDorshav St.
Phone: Dudu 050-856-3117 - Candela Club
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays:
21:00-22:30 – Learning Salsa LA style
22:30-02:00 – Salsa Party
Cost: 40 NIS
Location: Rav Chen Mall, 16 Haoman St. Talpiot
Phone: 050-565-3997 - Mirage Club (really nice teachers, and even if you’re just learning, lots of good people to watch)
Note: I heard this club moved to the Malha area (updated Mar 2009)
Thursdays: Continue reading this entry »
Jerusalem supermarket price wars target caffeine-addicted, chicken-lovin’, messy babies
I am no official Hebrew translator, but I do believe Ynet is telling me there is a massive price war happening between the Talpiot supermarkets Mega and Rami Levi. It was probably my post about ridiculous supermarket prices that really got things moving. Ha!
The price wars are centered around the price of chicken, which is at an all time low at Rami Levi for 89 agurot a kilo (if you spend over 200 shekels). At Mega, it’s now 99 agurot a kilo ( if you spend over 150 shekels).
I went to Mega firsthand tonight to see for myself. There was in fact 99 agurot a kilo chicken as well as hour long lines to take any joy and fun away. It was also Tuesday, Mega’s shuk night where fruit and veggies are very cheap.
I’m still trying to figure out what all the items featured in the price war have in common, but I can’t exactly put my finger on it. The items are
- Chicken: 89 agurot/kilo at Rami Levi; 99 agurot/kilo at Mega
- Elite Coffee: 9.99 NIS at Mega
- Pampers Diapers – 33.90 NIS at Rami Levi, 39.99 NIS atMega
- Colon Clothing Detergent – 34.99 NIS at Mega
- CocaCola 6 bottles – 19.99 NIS at Mega
- Soft Toilet Paper 32 rolls – 19.99 NIS at Mega
I guess they figure there must be a lot of caffeine-addicted, chicken-lovin’ messy babies crawling around out there. Anyone got any better ideas?Mega has declared that it wants the Mega in Talpiot to be the cheapest in Israel. Truly amazing. I wonder if people will come in all the way from Haifa…
Thanks for the tip, Ari.
Update Feb 15: Rami Levy ain’t chickening out, and at 0.79 per kilo, everyone’s fleeing
Free Rice – addictive, davka
I recently discovered the website FreeRice.com and it takes me back to my studying-for-the-SAT days. Weeee! FreeRice.com is a very simple concept – for every vocab question you get right, they donate rice to Africa, thanks to the advertisers.
I never thought it would happen to me, but it seems I’ve become like other anglos in Israel who can’t seem to keep their languages separate. I’m starting to notice that I’m slowly losing my vocabulary and every once in a while words like davka, matim, and lahefech creep into my conversations without even noticing.
Sometimes I even click my tongue to say no. No, Gd forbid I should ever start doing that. But I don’t think Free Rice could help much with that anyway…
I am so happy I found this site as a way to refresh my vocab. And how cool to know that by improving my vocab, I’m donating rice. Who thinks of these things? Genius.
Top 6 Bargains in Israel (and the runner-ups)
After being in Israel for over 3 years, I think I have established the top 6 bargains in Israel. But please, if I forgot any, leave a comment and tell me all about it.
- Tablecloths for 18 shekels 10 shekels
I found pretty Shabbat tablecloths that just about everyone seems to have for 18 shek. This deal is so good, it turns out, that every time my mom comes to visit, it is the only thing she stocks up on.
Where: Agrippas St in Jerusalem, coming up from King George toward the Mahane Yehuda shuk. It is on the left hand side and they usually have the tablecloths displayed on the street.
Update: The store on Agrippas went out of business. But you can find an even better deal at Bazar Strauss in Talpiot across from the Achim Yisrael mall Haircut for 35 shekels
We previously wrote about how you can get a 35 shekel haircut by a hair-cutting student at Shuki Zukri Diri in downtown Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.Turns out that Mr. Zikri owes millions on the grey market and therefore has shut down his beauty salons. Real bummer. The only thing I can recommend now is to wait for a good deal to show up on group deal sites like Groupon or the like.
Phone: 02-624-0171- Nesher Shared Taxi Sherut for
4558 shekels
For 455058 shekels you get door-to-door service from anywhere in Jerusalem to the airport. My friend said he had a hard time finding Nesher’s phone number online so I thought I’d post them. Make sure to call a day or two before to reserve a spot. Here’s a Nesher-specific “Did you know”. Did you know that they don’t have Nesher in Tel Aviv? I mean, I guess it makes sense since it’s so close to the airport but… how do they survive?
Phone numbers: 02-623-1231, 02-625-7227 - Iced Coffee for 5 shekels
Personally, I like the smooth iced coffee without the icy chunks. But the Iced Coffee from Marzipan in the shuk is so cheap that I just wait for it to melt.
Where: The Legendary Marzipan bakery is on Agrippas St. but you probably already knew that and just got up to check the fridge to see if you have any rugalech left over. - Autenti clothes 20-50 shekels.
Autenti sells hippie-ish clothes between 20 and 50 shekels and usually have cute skirts.
Where: Stores on Yaffo St. and Agrippas St. - 30 pitas for 10 shekels
Stop by the shuk at night around 8-9:30 as it’s closing to find good deals on pita and other stuff they’re trying to get rid of.
Where: Try on Yaffo St by the entrance.
Runner-ups
- Stove Lighters for 5 shekels from the dollar store. Obviously the conversion rate of the dollar needs a little update.
- Duvsheinit Challah for 6 shekels from the shuk
Soup Festival at the David Citadel for 48 shekels. The all-you-can-eat soup is from 10am to 11pm every day until the end of March for 48 Shekels. They also have wireless internet, so you can pretty much just move in and set up your office right next to the soup buffet.
These deals are updated as of January 18, 2012, so they are likely to change due to inflation. No guarantees.
Nir Barkat and the Soup Festival
Last week, we attend the Jerusalem Business Networking Forum’s evening with Nir Barkat, who is running for mayor of Jerusalem.
http://www.meetup.com/swf/membership_badge.swf?chapterid=807042
We wanted to see, if elected, would he take care of the most pressing issues in Jerusalem:
- get rid of the ridiculous TV tax
- install a ticket machine at the Central Bus Station that assigns seats for inter-city travel
- teach city office workers to be pleasant, polite and helpful
Although he didn’t give a direct answer, he did talk about bringing 10 million tourists here over the next few years and mentioned a website he started called gojerusalem for finding out about what’s going on in Jerusalem.
This is how I found out about the soup festival which I plan on attending. I don’t know if I would actually call it a “festival” but rather a good deal on soup that gives you entrance into the fancy David Citadel Hotel. But I guess that title wouldn’t be as catchy.
If you need me, I’ll be in the David Citadel from 10am-11pm packing in the all-you-can-eat soup for 48 shekels.
Where the @#$*& is my bus? Using the online Egged bus schedule
If you want to find me in Jerusalem, I’m probably the tall girl running, arms flailing, out of breath, trying to catch the number 18 bus. Either that, or I’m drooling at the bus stop in what seems like eternity waiting for the bus to come.
Luckily, my friend showed me how to navigate the tricky Egged site and read the online Egged bus schedule.
Here’s how: Continue reading this entry »
Sushi take-over of Jerusalem
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Just a few weeks ago, it was very difficult to come across sushi in Jerusalem, especially kosher sushi. Apparently, not anymore. It’s as if someone heard me wanting sushi and I got my wish – but did they take it too far? These sushi restaurants are starting to pop up in every Jerusalem neighborhood, including taking over what used to be a cute little cafe called Faza in the Katamon/Palmach neighborhood. I loved Faza – with their TV entertainment system in the bathroom and wireless internet. 😦 But I also like sushi. What to do.
Here’s the list of kosher sushi restaurants in Jerusalem I’ve come across. You can find more details and coupons at Eluna and rest.co.il. In case you’re too cold to leave your house, I’ve included the phone numbers since most of them offer delivery. I put them in order of the ones I want to try out. Continue reading this entry »
The unspoken fear – unemployment
I was reading Life in Israel’s review of blogs during the “Bush week”, I discovered a new blog, wayeshevyaaqov. It’s been a while since I’ve had the attention span to read an entire post – especially when it’s a long one. But I had no trouble getting through Ya’aqov Ben-Yehuda‘s brutally honest account of being unemployed in Israel. Despite his despair about finding a new job, he decided to share valuable advice with others on what employment sites to look at, especially if you’re an English teacher (drushim, jobcentral, English Teaching Network, etc.). Ya’aqov, if you’re reading this, I put together a list of employment sites – maybe it will help you. (Just so you know, I tried to leave a comment on your blog, but I don’t have a blogger account so it wouldn’t let me.)
Ya’aqov also pointed out what seems like an unbelievably helpful website – a free faxing service within Israel. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks awesome. As we know too well, Israel is forever stuck in the 80’s and believes that faxes are the wave of the future. Thank you, Ya’aqov, for your great tips, good luck finding a job, and I’ll pass your resume around to whoever I can.
Spontaneous adventure: Israel’s last-minute travel sites
Whenever I see a Hebrew newspaper, I pretend to read the headlines and then head straight for the last few pages to get a glimpse of all the travel deals to Amsterdam, Barcelona, Budapest, etc. for crazy prices like $200 for 4 days and nights in Istanbul. I know that these last-minute trips are reliable since my friend was lucky enough to travel to Italy through Daka90 . As for convenience… it should be noted that she left the very same day she bought the ticket.
So far, these trips haven’t worked out for me. I just have a really hard time seeing how to juggle spontaneity and responsibility. Has it suddenly become acceptable to give approximately 10 minutes notice before packing and heading off to the Netherlands for 3 nights. Is it possible to take advantage of one of these trips or is this a luxury for the non-working or rich.. which when you think about…
Here’s a list of Israeli services that offer last minute travel deals, packages, and flights. Continue reading this entry »
The 35 shekel haircut
Update: Turns out that Mr. Zikri owes millions on the grey market and therefore has shut down his beauty salons. Real bummer. The only thing I can recommend now is to wait for a good deal to show up on group deal sites like Groupon or the like.
You may not be able to remember the name of the salon (was it shuki zuki? shuki zukri?), and you might not want a student cutting your hair, but at the end of the day, the satisfaction of having a cheap, 35 shekel haircut is what will make you smile.
Shuki Zikri is a haircutting school in downtown Jerusalem that lets its students try out their skills on those that want a cheap haircut. They can cut, color, blowdry, etc for much less than if a ‘real’ hairdresser did it. But who can be bothered with professionals – at Shuki you don’t have to even make an appointment – you just show up. Once they shampoo and massage your head (my favorite part), they take you to a chair, pull out their handy dandy ghetto haircutting kit, and start sectioning off your hair, about 40 times until you beg them to move on to the cutting part. Maybe that’s what they focused on in their classes that day?! And not to worry, if they mess up and you notice it’s a little uneven, their teacher comes over and fixes everything. Continue reading this entry »
The Big Felafel 