Culture Shock in Israel

Yup, I have arrived in Israel, finally!!!

Right after I’ve landed at the Ben Gurion International Airport (which was a really really grand airport, opened not too long ago), I took the direct train to Herzliya, the city where my partner university IDC Herzliya is located, about 15km north of Tel Aviv. (Coincidentally, the train which I took was made in Germany and looked so much like German trains!) I received the key from the administration in the morning, and went straight to my apartment (which thankfully, only a 10-min walk from the university).

My two flatmates were not around when I moved into the apartment. One of them is Tal Gal-On, a local Jewish Israeli, and he was working in the day. Another is Issac Berthaus, a Jewish migrant from Uruguay, and he happened to be in Jerusalem that day. I was all by myself when the sun was up. When the sunset was approaching, I decided to step out of the apartment to find dinner and get some cleaning agents to clean up my room…

… and it was a real culture shock.

Herzliya has 2 sides, one towards the sea where there’s more tourism activities, where many diplomats and rich families stay and where more English-speaking people are found. However, I am staying on the other side, where they are less English-speaking people. Although English is a language which is useful in Israel, Hebrew, being the national language, is nonetheless the best language to be used in the country. During my short ‘adventure’ in that other side of Herzliya, the signboards, advertisements and menu boards in eateries I saw were all in Hebrew. When I went to this supermarket to buy stuff, my goodness, even the brands and the information on the products were all in Hebrew! I would not be able to locate and differentiate hair shampoo and hair conditioner if I did not bring out with me the Hebrew phrase book which I have bought in HK.

I was so lost… I was like the only Chinese-looking person walking around in the streets of Herzliya…
I felt so alone… and that’s because my flatmates were not around, and I was away from my family and friends back in HK and Singapore respectively. I realised that leaving my comfort zone was not as easy as I thought to be…
I was somewhat helpless too… but I thank God that He have arranged some local people who knew how to speak English to come to ‘rescue’ when I couldn’t communicate properly at the cashiers (i.e. Elvis w/ English only vs The Cashier w/ Hebrew only)…

I knew I was not lonely because He is with me (there’s a difference between alone and lonely)…
But as I walked back to my apartment, I broke down in tears… and in even more tears when I met Tal in the apartment and I shared with him my misery.

And guess what? God is a very interesting God, and He really has a good sense of humour. Tal speaks fluent Mandarin, and he knows how to read and write both Simplified and Traditional Chinese characters!!! WOW!!! (That should give enough motivation for those of my friends in Singapore who are not so fluent in Chinese!) He used to work in China and Taiwan for more than a year, and I could see his love for the Chinese culture when I saw the huge map of China taped on one of the walls in his room. A while later Tal brought me along to meet some of his friends blocks away, and one of them was a Korean! Great to see another face from East Asia! When we returned to the apartment, Issac has already returned from Jerusalem. Everyone was back in the apartment, at last and thankfully!

That was a real interesting and memorable first day in Israel… what a way to start my exchange experience!
On the other hand though, I am preparing for more culture shocks to come…