SNOW DAY!

People here get really excited about snow. They cancel school, at the mere mention of snow in the forecast. The roads close and buses stop hours before the first snowflake falls from the sky and the stores are packed with people stocking up on survival gear. Coming from Detroit, where snow is common albeit not as common as people think (we're not Cleveland or Buffalo), it's kind of funny to watch.

The forecast was nowhere near accurate this time (they said up to 15"), but we did get around 6". As soon as the roads were coated in snow, we had fun watching the panicked drivers on the Begin from our living room window. There were cars stopping in the middle of the road, unsure what to do, while others sped by as if the roads were dry. They don't have normal snow plows here and the tractor things they use crawl down the road at a snail's pace.

In the morning our power went out, so I went outside to see if human life had survived the terrible storm. Thankfully there were a few people outside, still I needed to investigate further. I picked up some snow and formed it into a ball, lo and behold it was the same snow that I've known all my life. It turned out to be excellent packing snow, so I attempted to build a snowman. Embarrassing secret: I've never actually built one by myself before. I tried several times, about 20 years ago, but never could finish. This time I found it quite a bit easier and in about 10 minutes I had one built. For the sake of speed and stability, I built more of a snow totem pole than the typical snowman (picture below).

Then I set out to find an open store to get some food and candles. Walking down our driveway I found one of my neighbors (there are more than 500 people living in our complex) attempting to drive his tiny KIA. He was stuck within feet of the garage, spinning his wheels, doing everything anyone familiar with snow driving knows you shouldn't do. I offered to help push him out, but he said he had it under control. Two minutes later, I pushed him out and he wisely said he was going to go back inside. Miraculously, the mini market down the block was open and I was able to stock up on everything we needed.

As I walked back to our apartment I helped two other drivers get out of the snow. Both of them thought they were invincible in their SUVs with two wheel drive. When I got back, I was somewhat surprised to find the guy I helped earlier was still stuck in the driveway. His wheels were turned in the wrong direction, spinning furiously, going nowhere. Another neighbor was attempting to instruct him, but neither of them knew what they were talking about. I went over and offered assistance, which he declined, and warned him about inevitably damaging his transmission if he continued what he was doing. He said he knew all about it and continued rocking the car back and forth, spinning the wheels and sliding out of control. I've helped plenty of people push out their cars before and I've been helped many times as well, but I never experienced anyone as stubborn as all the Israeli drivers. Oh well, I tried to help, but I wasn't going to waste my time arguing with stubborn people and I didn't feel safe walking on the sidewalks near them, so I went inside and left them to their own devices.

In short, snow in Israel is the same as snow everywhere else, just way more exciting and stubborn. The whole thing is blown out of proportion, but that's exactly what makes it so fun. 
Here are a few pics I took of Jerusalem in the snow.