Here in Israel, the workdays run from Sunday to Thursday. Friday and Saturday are the weekend. We arrived here on Wednesday, worked a little on Thursday, and this Friday is the first day off. Momo and I decided to walk to the nearby shopping mall after late breakfast.

On the way we met this friendly lady, who smiled to us and said “Shabbat Shalom.” How this greeting made me feel like home. This is the greeting we exchange every Sabbath at Beit David Messianic Congregation, Long Beach, California. It was not exactly Shabbat yet, because it officially starts Friday evening at sunset, but it did not matter. This simple salute somehow connected me to the land.

At the mall, everything is of course written in Hebrew! Persey Jackson is in Hebrew, and Hunger Games is in Hebrew.

Hana at Shevet asked us to get a box of covid tests at Super Pharma, a drug store in the mall. We found the store, went in, made three rounds throughout the store to find the product but in vain. We poked each other to decide who ask the help. Well, mom got to show the example first.

I approached someone with the store jacket and said, “Silha (excuse me), do you have this?” showing the picture we took of the used box back at Shevet (good thinking!). She brought us to the basket full of the boxes that was sitting right there in the middle of the isle, where we passed so many times. Apparently, we did not have much faith that we would really find it, and we totally missed it.

We were then waiting in the wrong line to make a purchase (we were in the prescription line), and some kind people showed me the way to the right counter and made the purchase! Yey, the very first shopping in Israel. Good thing is that we are only Asian around here, and we do not have to say we don’t speak Hebrew. They will figure it out and help us.