Surprise Surprise: 10 Things That Shocked Me When I Moved to Israel

"Moving from one country to another always produces surprises, but I encountered things that are totally out of the ordinary — many of which unique to Israel — when I moved here."

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In 2013, I moved halfway across the world, from my hometown Los Angeles to Tel Aviv. That’s the short story.

The slightly longer version is that I never planned to live in the Holy Land. I was simply on a 10-day trip in Israel, my first time here, and I unexpectedly fell in love with the place. So much so that I didn’t get on the scheduled flight back to the States.

Moving from one country to another always produces surprises, but I encountered things that are totally out of the ordinary — many of which unique to Israel — when I moved here.

For the sake of brevity, here are 10 of them: