Haggling

Today is one of those days where the winds blow across the city in from the desert. The sky is a murky grey with sand and a walk down the street means you get a free exfoliating facial treatment. They feel like the winds of change, as in just over a week, The Chicken and I will be leaving Israel. 

We went to the shook one last time yesterday, and James caught some awesome video of the strawberry seller yelling about his "Toot-eem". You can hear his competition yelling from behind with a similar refrain of "Toot! Toot! Toot!" 

Sometimes the shook sellers just like to hear their own voice and yell out nonsense. While trying to bag some swiss chard, the shook dude in front of me bellowed mournfully out to no one in particular

"LAMMA! LAMMA SHALOSH SHEKEL! HOO RAK SCHTIME VE HETZI, BETAH!" 

"Why? Why three shekels? It is only two and a half, surely!"

(FYI we are talking about the difference between 90 and 75 cents)

Today I headed to the old city and haggled for some X-mas presents and I am proud to say I finally discovered one of the great tricks of haggling. Whereas we North Americans tend to put a little extra in our pocket to make sure we have enough on the way to the store, when in a haggling environment one should put less in your pocket than you expect it to be. If the dude wants 60 shekels and you only have 42, there is no question about the most you will pay. 

Also, I got another good deal after an arab seller asked if I liked my two years in Israel and wanted to stay. "I can't stay, I'm not Jewish. You know how it is." He just lifted his eyebrow nodded once and dropped the price further on an item I was looking at.