Maintaining Ties

July 17, 2007 - 11:00 AM by Stephanie

Moving back and forth cross-continent-like, a person tends to pick up bits and pieces from each place. Some habits get retained, others get lost and forgotten.

John transplanted to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and recently re-patriated back to Carolina. He went shopping yesterday in the U.S. of A. and bought…

..a koom-koom. This is what Israelis call an electric water kettle. You know, it boils water for you so you don’t have to use the stove. It’s convenient and perfect for tea and coffee. Not a lot of people use them in the US. More should.

This week I also purchased a big squeegee for doing “sponga” or floor mopping. Some folks in Israel flood the apartment with water and then use a squeegee to push all the water into drain hole in the floor. I was always scared of electrocuting myself. Instead, in Israel I used the squeegee head wrapped with a towel moistened with cleaning solution to clean the floor. I arranged a similar set up here.

I’ve also learned that Israeli-esque negotiating gets you far. Just today I got $50 off the sale price of a washer and dryer and free delivery! I didn’t even have to walk out of the store once!

Nice one on the discount, John. Visit occasionally to keep the skills current.

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