Movie & Mall

Yesterday, we finally ventured a bit outside the main city of Jerusalem to the nearby Malcha shopping mall to see "Superman Returns". The mall was similar in some ways to a large American mall - 4 or 5 levels with all types of stores - clothing, shoes, camping, cosmetics - and a huge food court with both American and Israeli chains of fast food, ice cream, etc. But of course there were differences too - we had to go through security to get in (metal detector and a bag search) and many of the store signs are in Hebrew, English or Hebrew & English. I sort of wondered if Israelis think it's odd that so much of their commercialism is in English - tons of American/English & European brands, lots of English is used everywhere, etc. Of course its fun for us to see familiar things, but we were almost disappointed not to find more "Israel" brands - it's just all mixed up here. Oh, and when trying to find the movie theatre, I noticed a sign with an arrow to a shelter - many buildings here, especially more modern ones, have specific areas for bomb shelters - so that was an instant reminder that we were in Israel.

The movie theater was fairly small and they had assigned seats - which we learned is common here in Israel. A couple sitting near us was shocked to hear that American movie theaters didn't have assigned seating since they said that there would be fist fighting if they didn't have it here... I thought that was interesting to think that American society is actually more civilized in this way?! Also, there was a lot of commotion during the movie - people talking and stuff - not sure if it was just our crowd or if it is just more common here to not just sit and be quiet - sort of like in our ulpan!? The movie was in English with Hebrew subtitles - so nice to just be able to sit back and enjoy the movie. And there is a break in the middle of the movie here - they just stop it and turn on the lights and everyone gets up and goes and buys more food and then comes back. Nice if you have to go to the bathroom, but sort of annoying if you are really into the movie.

When we left the theatre around 9, we figured the mall would be quieting down, but it was totally the opposite. There were tons of people everywhere, the food court was packed and all of the stores were open and showed no sign of closing anytime soon. Totally different to experience this on a random Wednesday night. Of course, it being summer, we weren't as surprised to see more kids and families, but by the time we left after 10, it was still packed and hopping - guess it's the place to hang out :)