Thursday, October 31, 2013

From 10 Shekel Movie Night to Babyland as Israelis

Hello everyone! It's been a while since I wrote an update - so here is just a quick general overview of what's been going on in our lives lately.

I am not working (and no one is willing to hire a pregnant lady), so I spend everyday trying to figure out ways not to be bored. Matt is a couple weeks deep into the semester after spending 3 weeks working on an archaeological dig. He is actually taking some coursework in Hebrew this semester which will be a great challenge and an excellent boost to his Hebrew. He spends the rest of his time writing articles with (read: for) his advisor and working on his dissertation. 

As the babies (yes, we are having twins for those who haven't heard yet) are due to arrive in just about 2 months, we have also been taking advantage of our last months of couplehood to travel around the country, see friends and go out on an occasional date. This led us to be motivated to take advantage of "Cinema Day" where most major movie theaters in the country were offering all movies for the discounted price of 10 shekels (about $2.50). The cheap tickets drew us in as well as, it seemed, every other person in Haifa. Granted, I don't know what the mall and movie theater are like on an average Thursday evening, but it was like someone was giving away free iphones with all the people and crowding and pushing. I was acutely aware of the lack of personal space with my new ginormous size and had to fight my way through the crowds blocking strangers from inadvertently groping my belly.

Since we waiting a little bit too long to order our tickets, it meant that our first choice movies (that were showing at reasonable hours) were sold out. We ended up getting tickets to see "Behind the Candelabra" / "חיי עם ליברצ'ה" (which turned out to be and HBO special, but was playing in theaters over here) about the last 10 years of Liberace's life and his secret affair with a young man. We knew very well what we were getting into when we decided to see this movie: explicit sexual content, vulgar language and "adult" themes, which is why we were particularly surprised to see so many young teenagers when we got into the theater. The film was rated 14+, lower than the possible 16+, and there seemed to be a lot of people who just squeaked in past that 14 year old cut off. These kids were particularly noticeable since movie theaters in Israel have assigned seating and many adults coming in (including us) had to ask these teens to get out of their seats. This lead us to believe that maybe these kids bought tickets to another movie and sneaked into ours. The most annoying thing about teenage Israeli kids is that they talk to each other in loud voices as if they were in their friend's bedroom, some of them even talking on the cell phones, WHILE THE MOVIE IS PLAYING! And all the shushing from people around them doesn't make it any quieter. However, after a few sexually explicit scenes between Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, teenagers could be seen hurrying down the aisle as if they couldn't get out fast enough. I guess they didn't read up on what the movie was about before they sneaked in. 

Early the next morning I found my self back in the exact same movie theater, but this time for a pregnancy convention put on by Rambam hospital, the largest hospital in Haifa. Replace crowds of loud, obnoxious teenagers with large, round pregnant ladies pushing their way to get free samples of diaper rash creme and formula. A completely different scene, but no less terrifying. Don't get me wrong, I love a free sample of stretch-mark preventative lotion as much as the next woman, but I refuse to push my way through a 10-belly-deep crowd to get it. This put me in the minority, although I still left with quite the booty of baby related sample items I may or may not ever use. The convention also hosted a series of speakers, doctors and midwives, from Rambam hospital who spoke about topics ranging from labor and delivery to post-natal care. In the stadium seating movie theater full of pregnant women (another terrifying/hilarious scene) I found the woman from my birthing class who had invited me to this event in the first place. It was good for me to sit next to her during the lectures so I could ask her questions when Hebrew words I didn't know were used. This happens fairly frequently in our birthing class also, where new words are constantly coming up. This is mainly due to discussions of body parts that don't commonly get discussed in ulpan or anywhere outside of birthing classes for that matter. Thankfully, the people in our class are very forgiving and don't judge me for asking what פטמות / p'tamot are (they are nipples) when discussing עיסוי פטמות / eesui p'tamot (nipple massage) in the context of stimulating labor.  

Later in the week I found myself again at another baby convention, this time in Tel Aviv, accompanying a friend who wanted to hand out surveys there as part of her Master's thesis research on the impact of disposable diapers on the environment. Unlike the previous convention, this one had no education content and was just a massive convention center packed with vendors giving away free samples and trying to sell their baby-related wares. Oh, did I mention that this convention was called "Babyland"? If the Haifa convention which filled a couple hundred seats in a movie theater seemed overwhelming, this place was teeming with thousands of parents (mainly mothers) pushing their super fancy strollers and chasing after toddlers while still pushing their way through crowds to collect their free samples. Again, I left with tons of free stuff, which I can't complain about, but I think I have had enough baby-related consumer stimulation to last me until our babies are born. No more baby conventions for this mama-to-be. 

This weekend we are off to Matt's aunt and uncle's kibbutz with some friends to spend Shabbat in the desert before it gets too hard for me to travel and my only mode of transportation will be getting rolled around like Violet, the blueberry girl from Willy Wonka. Thank God, at this time, I am still walking around and feeling great!

Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend,
Stef and Matt

P.S. Here is the magnet I received as a gift for my participation in the Rambam convention (29 weeks pregnant).