Brrrrrrrrrrrrr

No, it isn't cold! It's gorgeous and beautiful and unseasonably warm, which is precisely why I moved to this country, so yay!

I've been missing for a while, having had a bunch of rather urgent translation jobs to take care of, and they took precedence over everything, what with my having to come up with money to pay the rent on MY NEW APARTMENT! WOOT! So excited. I'm moving on Wednesday, and had spent all of the last week stressing about the expense of getting a fridge (both used and new), and was holding off on moving until I got my hands on one. Well, today that mission was accomplished, and I've got movers coming on Wednesday afternoon to cart away my (very limited but awkward to transport) belongings. My sister will be bringing boxes from work today, and I should be all set to go by tomorrow. I don't actually know *when* the fridge will be arriving, as I bought it online and it said it might take up to two weeks. I guess I won't have any dairy products until then. *embraces tea*.

So anyway, as soon as I have the place all set up and rocking to go (with the literally NO POSSESSIONS I have), I'll post a few pictures.

Foreplay

Israeli television, with little exception, sucks smoking donkeys. One of the exceptions is this wickedly fluffy dating show, called Foreplay.

The idea behind it is that you match one person (from herein "The Chooser") with four potential mates (I'd say of the opposite sex, but there was apparently one same-sex episode which I didn't see, so yay for liberal Israeli television!)(from herein, "The Chosen"), and for most of the show, the chooser only gets to learn about the personality of the four chosen, and eventually selects one blindly. Afterwards, all four are brought out and the chooser needs to select them one of them on the basis of looks. If the selection on both fronts is the same, they win a joint vacation somewhere - oftentimes in Europe, but on particularly cheap weeks, to a resort in Israel. If the selection is wrong, the true chosen is revealed, and then the chooser gets to choose which of the two they'd like to go on a date with. Fluffy, but fun.

But here's the best part! The selection process ROCKS. There are all sorts of fun selection games.

The first game usually has the show rummaging through the personal belongings of the chosen. On today's show, for example, pictures of the girls' closets were shown, and also the outfit they'd wear on a first date with the chooser. Other times the items examined have included wallets, bags, car trunks, etc. Something interesting always pops up. The chooser gets to question the chosen about anything he finds, and the host always manages to throw in a few zingers.

After this game, the chooser is asked if there's someone he'd like to let go at this stage, which he chooses, but at this point it's just a warning, and no one is eliminated. Today the girl who brought a dress made of her mom's curtains from the 70s was warned.

The next game is "meet the mother/best friend" game. The poor chooser gets to go to a hotel room to meet either the mothers or best friends (and on occasion some other person close to the chosen), to grill and be grilled. This stage is often embarrassing for the chosen, and hard on the chooser.

After this game, one of the chosen is eliminated.

The next game is a twisted kind of "what if" game. The situation today was the meal on a first date. Each of the remaining chosen selected the type of restaurant she'd go to on a first date (actual meal and beverage supplied and given to the chooser to taste), accompanied with the question of who pays on a first date. Other "what if" situations they've used included "what text message would you send (the chooser) on the morning after a first night in bed?" Another included the type of drink the chosen would drink at a bar (This one was used when the chooser was a bartender. Not unsurprisingly, Israeli famewhores list "bartender" as an occupation just as frequently as their American counterparts)

Next? The! Best! Game! Ever! The Ex Factor. The host (who happens to be one of Israel's most well known models - see picture)
calls the exes of the remaining chosen, and asks some seriously nosy questions. The exes often volunteer exceptionally embarrassing information, mostly relating to sex, but not exclusively. It's especially funny when the chosen are women, because you can totally tell the exes are getting a hard on from just talking with the host.
This is the part of the show where the chosen must do the most backpedaling, as they are often, um, exposed in an unflattering manner.

At this point another chosen is eliminated, and with only two chosen remaining, they join the host and the blindfolded chooser on the other side of the studio (which is a stage in the shape of a red heart). After some yammering and last words from the chosen, the chooser gives the chosen he selects a small cupid doll.

At this point we go to commercial, and when we come back, all four chosen are herded out, and the chooser has to choose the one that he's most intersted in physically. This part is obviously the hardest, because while we all want to avoid the presumption that we are shallow, shallow human beings, it's almost inevitable that we choose the hottie, and there's really nothing better than being exposed as super-shallow on national TV! The person the chooser selects then steps forward, and reveals their hands, where the little cupid may or may not lie. Nothing more embarrassing that choosing an empty handed chosen! I was hoping there'd be some statistics on the show's site regarding the number of time that the same person was chosen in both stages, but no information is available. I'd say it's probably 50-50.

In short, y'all better hope that some American network picks up the format, because it's rocks beyond compare.

On reading some more

Another magnificent book.

The Namesake is the story of a Bengali family, from the time that the parents arrived in the US in the 1960s, through to the birth of their children in America, and their tribulations. I found myself relating to several of the stories in the book. The shifting narrative was particularly well done.

Many thanks to roo for the excellent recommendation. Next on my (imaginary) bedside table is Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.
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