The latest in the ongoing list of quirks about life in Israel:

-modified Harem pants are considered normal daywear;

-Egged bus drivers play music near the front door while driving the bus; they also turn the news up really, really loud around 5pm;

-real news, either about Israel or the rest of the world, is never boadcast; I am more likely to see it on NYTimes.com or have the article sent to me by a friend than to actually hear about it locally;

-seeing Ultra Orthodox Haredi on cell phones on the bus, or listening to audio sets at museums, never gets old;

-all but 300,000 Jews were killed in Poland during the Holocaust;

-David Guerstein's art is everywhere;

-I always forget that fish and mayonnaise are both neutral or pareve;

-unless otherwise stated, by default food is vegetarian, i.e. dairy/halavi;

-people love buying fresh flowers; most buy little supermarket-quality bouquets every week either from the seller who shows up on campus on Thursday or from little men with buckets set up by bus stops on the street for just a few dollars; despite the price, there is incredible variety;

-even just a few blocks constitute a "neighborhood" that actually gets its own label on the municipal map of Jerusalem;

-unless you are Jewish, a standard hostess gift is a platter of baklava from the Old City; this is always a nice treat as it comes out of the bag wrapped in each bakery's individual wrapping paper;

-Egged buses are so NOT handicap-friendly that women with normal, one-child strollers have to board at the rear of the bus as they cannot make the tight turn near the front door... although some orthodox women also do it to save the fare as the driver will hardly ever chase after them from the raised seat;

-all Egged bus drivers are men (I have yet to see a woman) and they are super secular;

-it's not uncommon for young people on their 2-year stint in the army to get on the city bus on the way home from work with their satchel and AK-47;

-conversely, you can go through the 413 West Bank checkpoint East of Tel Aviv (when coming to Jerusalem) and have a 22 year-old, super serious soldier sucking on a sucker with a straight face in the front-facing parapet;

-loud, NYC/Brooklyn-style Jews are a very specific phenomenon;

-many American Jews, even those who made aaliyah many years ago, often never improve on their pathetic, lazy Hebrew accent;

-it's not uncommon to find the odd lone 22 year-old American Jew at university who made aaliyah all by herself;

-Arabic never sounds rude or out of place;

-little, if anything is made of wood here...as there just is no wood;

-roofs are not pitched as there is no heavy snow (and practically no rain) to speak of;

-Friday, before Shabbat starts, there's an Orthodox rabbi call-in hour on public television;

-because the men in religious families are utterly consumed studying Torah, the women actually lead the home much more than you would think...i.e. women drive while men pray;

-Saturday morning is when most Arab women have their driving lessons; many are accompanied by a younger brother or mother; thankfully, cars that are learning to drive are carefully marked;

-hanging from even the most ornate cages on expensive apartment buildings is the day's laundry;

-solar panels on rooves, AC units perched below windows;

-there's never any warm water to speak of in the faucets;

-the actual threat of dying keeps you moving on a slow day;

-regular vending machines are refrigerated, to keep the chocolate from spoiling;

-most Israelis have no concern for personal space, but the bus boys in restaurants in particular;

-people here LOVE LOVE LOVE the mini, no-name laptops that are so popular here;

-every emergency exit is cracked open as a makeshift smoking room;

-expect barbed wire and cement;

-most people drive beaten up sub-compacts that are barely being held together with tape in shades like grey, tan, fawn, white, and silver; tradesmen drive brands like Skoda, the Perault Roo (hunchback), and the expacts are in Mercedes sedans, decked-out Isuzu jeeps, or Range Rovers with all the bars and caging you would expect on safari in Africa; you see the occasional Audi and Chevrolet, but most American and luxury brands (Dodge, Impala, Hummer) are just unheard of...especially if you expect to get into the Old City;

-Jews are trying to convert Christians, and Christians are trying to convert Jews; missionaries for both are not uncommon on the streets;

-Jerusalem Syndrome;

-fresh pita has SO, SO many subtle varieties depending on your ethnic background and usage preferences;

-occasionally you will come across a seemingly secular person binding their arms in tfila;

-the Jews are convinced that the Arabs are going to kill them, meanwhile the Arabs are also convinced (not so openly) that the Jews are going to kill them;

-everyone acts like Gilad Shalit is their own brother;

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