Dept. of Falafel: No means ... Maybe?

After sporadic calls and occasional email dispatches, a solid technological communications link was finally established between Eugene, Or and Beersheba, Israel - effectively tethered between two pearly white early-model Apple iBooks, half a world apart.

Special Middle East Foreign Correspondent Jessica L. Mauer spent more than an hour on iChat Audio describing her experiences thus far in Israel. Continued...

Mauer has found Israelis to be exceedingly friendly, almost to fault. She said they rarely seem capable of just calling it quits.

"This is an entire country built on the presumption that 'no' means 'maybe' and 'maybe' means 'yes,'" she said.

She also reports that she is single-handedly producing 75 percent of the country's ENTIRE supply of ice cubes in her freezer (which, incidentally is one of the those crappy icebox models that consumes your entire refrigerator with a steadily growing frost). Iced beverages and ice water are reportedly very hard to come by outside of her apartment.

Mauer said she has also noticed some other culinary shortfalls.

"There is, like, no ethnic or cultural foods here at all. You go to the mall and every single booth is falafel and schwarma," Mauer said. "Zero diversity. No mexican food, no pasta, no Thai, no Indian. It's getting freaking crazy."

Jeramie Bloom, Mauer's roommate piped in on the conference call.

"Yeah," Bloom said. "I am dying for a burrito."

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