I answered a public telephone the other day. In America and in English it might have be sort of amusing, but in Israel and in Hebrew I felt like I had conquered worlds! :-)
We were on Ben Yehuda Street, minding our own business on a bench by the public phones when one of them started ringing. It didn't stop. I mentioned it to Lisa and we looked at the phone with mild curiosity. It still didn't stop so I suggested I might answer it. Ha! It kept on ringing. I asked Lisa how to say 'public' in Hebrew, got up and picked it up.
"Shalom."
"Shalom."
"This is a public telephone."
"Really?"
"Yes, on Ben Yehuda."
"Where?"
"On Ben Yehuda Street."
"In Jerusalem?"
"Yes."
"Oh. Okay, bye."
"Bye"
There. Thrilling adventure wasn't it? At least I kept him from calling Ben Yehuda Street for the next week, thinking it was his cousin's, or the lawyer's office, or whatever, and never getting an answer. Katie the superhero saves the day!
4 comments:
How intriguing and delightful! And way to be brave and bold!
Love,
Gretchen
I am so impressed!!! Being the Hebrew scholar that I am, I translated some of your conversation into Hebrew as I read so I could picture it better (that is, after short deliberation, I managed to remember that "yes" = "ken". I am awesome.) Man alive, those Israelis are determined folk. I can't believe the phone kept ringing all the way through your working up the courage to answer! It would have made for a much more boring story, however, if it had stopped ringing right as you picked up.
Now I will end this speech. Love and prayers to you both!!
~Melissa
I bet you wouldn't have done that in the USA. Being in a foreign country just seems to make people a little bit "wonky", not that that is always a bad thing...
Wonky-
1 British : UNSTEADY, SHAKY
2 British : AWRY, WRONG
got that off a forum I frequent. to get a legalized definition, i would recommend dictionary.com
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