Things that are Israeli

...Alright, so I'm sure none of these things are specifically Israeli. You can probably find all of them in any number of places, perhaps mostly in the Middle East. But the point is that they're different from anything I'm used to at home.

• Walls. Israel is full of walls. Practically every house here has a garden wall around it, with a gate out front. This causes the streets to be completely lined with walls, so that narrow streets basically feel like hallways.
• Stone. Everything is built not just out of stone, but tan stone. There is almost no variation. Everything is the same color.
• Super-concentrated juice that you mix with water. Maybe we have this in the US, but if so I've never known about it.
• Blended iced drinks. Israelis seem to love them. Their iced coffee isn't coffee with ice cubes floating in it; it's like a coffee smoothie/milkshake/blended-ice thing. There are also smoothie places all over, especially by the beach.
• Toilets with flush buttons instead of levers. They also have two different buttons, for different flush strengths depending on, you know, what you've put into the toilet. Obviously this is really good for a place like Israel that has no water, but I think if we're trying to be green and all, these toilets should be more prevalent around the world.
• Wild cats. They're everywhere! I guess you could compare them to squirrels. There's a sign on the laundry room in my dorms that says "close the doors of the washers and dryers so the cats don't jump in," because there are lots of cats living around the dorms and they just wander into the building. I wonder why there are so many.
• Security stations everywhere. It's definitely different having to open your bag for inspection every time you go into a mall or train station or anywhere.
• Small, neutral-colored cars. I mean, obviously I knew that many Americans drive disgustingly huge cars. I've never liked that. But the cars here aren't just smaller, they're also not as colorful. Most of them are white, grey, dark blue, or black. I've only seen a few green or red or other brightly-colored ones.
• Giant rosemary plants. I wish we had these back home. Over here rosemary is basically a shrub, not just a potted herb, and you can smell it as you walk by.
• Of course, hummus, pita, etc. I'll never be able to eat falafel in Tyler dining hall again.

That's all for now. There are probably other things I wanted to put on this list that I'm forgetting, but if I remember them later I'll write them in another post.