Let's go to the movies...

As we drove to the movie theater last night I expected a semblance of home.  After all, movies are the same everywhere are they not?

I was incorrect in this assumption.  I'm enjoying new experiences even when I least expect it!  Firstly,  as in most public places security checks your bags before entering the building.  When was the last time you saw that in that States?  Also unlike the US, movie times are listed for when the doors of the theater open, not the start of the movie.

Once the doors do open, even though there are assigned seats, people mill around the doorway pushing to get in first.  Lines just don't seem to happen in this country.  It's more of the funnel and push mentality.  People will put out hands to block you and shove you "unintentionally" if you are in the way.  I have no yet perfected this method of getting around.  Moreover, unlike the US 3 foot personal space bubble, Israelis prefer much closer proximity to strangers.  Try three inches.  It's not considered rude, it just is.

The previews start around no particular time after door opening.  By the time we were seated the previews were halfway finished, which I found to be slightly disappointing as someone who adores previews.

Less than two minutes into the start of the movie the lights suddenly turn on and the movie stops.  I think there must be something wrong with the projector.  Why else would the movie stop?  Incorrect again, Shosh.  The movie was stopped becuase not all of the customers had been seated.  They stopped the movie to let ten more people find their seats.  One more occurance that was surprising to me.

Once the movie officially started I was really enjoying it!  Alice in Wonderland was an amazing film, and one of the first Tim Burton movies that really resonated with me.  If you haven't seen it, you should.  Right as Alice is managing another exciting escape of wits and guts the movie again stops.  This time for sure I thought the projector was broken.  Wrong again.  In Israel, they take "breaks" during the movies!  There's a five to ten minute intermission in the middle of every film.  People go to the bathroom, buy more popcorn, catch up on texting, etc...  Shiri was surprised when I told her that we don't do the same in the States. "What is someone has to go to the bathroom?" she asked me.  I told her you go or you hold it, no one is going to wait for you.

At the end of the movie, I was in for one more surprise.  You exit an entirely different way than you enter.  The theater exit goes around the back in a long poorly lit hallway that drops you off into the middle of the shopping center.  So many new things in just two hours!  It goes to show that nothing is ever how you expect it to be.