Laundry Day

Okay so this post isn't going to be nearly as exciting as my last post. I do my laundry about every two weeks. The laundry facilities in the Student Village are only in Building 2 which is the family building. As in most colleges people mainly do laundry on the weekends. So if you have time you can do yours quickly during the week and you won't have to wait for an open machine. Friday is the busiest day for the laundry room. Observant Jews keep the Sabbath (Shabbat) meaning they don't do any work on Saturday. There is always a rush of people trying to get laundry done before sunset on Friday which is when the Sabbath officially begins. I try to be respectful of the fact that they can't do laundry on Saturday so that is when I choose to do my laundry. If you can get up early to do laundry I recommend it. I like getting laundry done before most people are awake. So I usually start my laundry sometime between 7am and 8am. If you wait there are sometimes creepy guys in the laundry room that stand there and watch you put your clothes in the machine but they don't say anything to you.

As you can see each washing machine has a number on it. The laundry room only has the smaller European washers. Sometime in the middle of the Spring semester they got rid of the few American sized washing machines. I miss the American sized ones. These machines can take either powdered soap or liquid.

This is how you pay. One load in the washing machine is 10 NIS or about $2.50. One load in the dryer is 9NIS. Put your clothes in the machine first add soap. Then put your money in and select the number of the machine then go back to the machine select what type of load and push to start. This machine is sometimes picky. Sometimes it doesn't want to take bills no matter how straight you make them. Other times it will only take bills. Sometimes it will reject some coins and take others. I've noticed this with the ten shekel coins. If the coin is new sometimes the machine will spit it out a few times before taking it or it will only take the less shiny coins. I have no idea why. Occasionally it will eat one shekel coins and not count it and no amount of pressing coin return will help.

The wall of dryers. Note the colorful banner on top with the machine logo. They added this banner during the Spring semester for some reason.  I should mention that this is the only laundry room in the Student Village which is quite remarkable if you consider how many people live here. There are twelve buildings total. Two of the buildings 11 and 12 have multiple sections 11A,11B,11C. I think on average each building has 6 floors. Each floor has at least three apartments. The Graduate buildings have three rooms in each apartment. The Undergrad dorms have five rooms in each apartment. Then you have to consider the family dorms with multiple children in each family. Just keep this in mind when you are trying to decide when to do your laundry. At Texas A&M there was a laundry room on each floor of the dorm.

And now for a little bit on food. This is Shakshouka. I like to make this on the weekends. I cheat though I use the sauce from a can. I think I'm the only one that buys this sauce from the store because the shelf area is always full each time I go to buy a can. I think this is because this dish is usually made by Grandma and it's insulting to use the can. That is just a guess however.

I've made French toast a few times this Summer as a treat. And that is about the only real cooking I've been doing except for making Spaghetti but I don't really count that.

Shabbat (Sabbath Day)

The weekend in Israel is Friday and Saturday. On Friday everything seems to shut down around noon and they don't reopen until after sundown on Saturday. The grocery store was packed yesterday morning as everyone was getting what they needed before the weekend started. The taxis don't run unless the company is owned by Muslims. Even the city buses stop running. The parking lot to the mall is blocked off. Shabbat is truly a holy day of rest very different from how we treat Sunday in America. There used to be blue laws in America where restaurants and other businesses would be closed on Sunday but the only business I know of that is still closed on Sundays is Chick-fil-a. The only blue law still on the books I'm aware of is you can't buy alcohol on Sunday before noon.


On Shabbat some Jewish sects refrain from any work at all on Sabbath and that includes using electronics even turning on and off lights. The elevators at the hotel are set to stop on every floor on Saturday so no button pushing is required. In the rooms themselves there is a Shabbat clock that guests may use. Pressing this button will turn off all the lights in the room except for the bathroom light and desk lamp at 11pm and will turn them back on an hour before Shabbat ends. I've noticed few cars going by on the road than other days of the week. The restaurants in the hotel have restricted menus today if they are serving at all. I think the menu restrictions have something to do with Kosher food laws but I don't know much about those yet.


I will also have to get used to the idea that Sunday is going to be the new Monday for me. Once school starts I will be attending classes on Sunday's which is going to feel very strange.