As the rest of the world (=Helsinki, Finland & WA, USA) is struggling with snowstorms, I’m struggling with other climatic and cultural intakes. I’m calling it the Culture Shock El Niño. And now I stopped making any sense.

Anyway.

Now that I’ve been here closer to 3 weeks, I have actually experienced some changes in the weather and life, and I’d like to write about some of the fascinating oddities that this city has. Normally Beersheva has a nice, sunny weather during daytime, and in the evening it gets colder. Simply, it’s the desert weather. However, sometimes the city gets a foggy veil upon it, not because of actual fog, but because of wind that causes the sand and dust to fly around. And experiencing wind here gives me the creeps. It flutters the window screens and howls around the street blocks. Imagine Siberia wind in the desert and you got it.

Yesterday and today it rained. And apparently rain around this part of the earth causes power cuts that are caused by snow elsewhere. The power cut this morning made me really nervous, because I’m not someone who just gets up and goes to work without two nice cups of coffee. Luckily the power cut lasted for only 5 minutes or so, and I sighed of relief when I finally had my coffee cup in my hand. But blackouts are also weird around here. The whole city goes dark with a flick, and suddenly you’re standing in your chilly livingroom looking out of the window into the dark from the dark. And somewhere around the corner a cat or two meows with the wind…

Living in Beersheba makes me feel like I’m in a story from Arabian Nights. The starry night skies are magical and evocative, and the moon is sooooo big around this neck of the woods sand. At work we usually take the friends for an evening walk, and by then the sky has turned black and there are about a zillion stars dancing around in the horizon. If you’re the romantic type, then you should definitely check out a desert during nighttime! Walking home from work with the sky wide open upon you is something else. To add to the “Eastern” atmosphere, you can usually hear some really loud Arabic music playing around in someone’s apartment. And again, the cats…

I’m fully embracing the mystical feeling of this city sans the weird connotations of the word “mystical”. I love how different it is here than it is in Finland, although sometimes the difference gets to me and I crave for familiar comforts of home. But for some reason, on the most beautiful and best of days, I feel like Aladdin flying on the magic carpet.

p.s. If you’re wondering about the two varying spellings Beersheba and Beersheva, then let me explain. The Hebrew letters vet and bet look the same except for one dot. And because all dots of any kind are usually omitted from writing, it can get a bit confusing for anybody. So feel free to choose between the v and b. Just thought I’d let you know.

p.p.s. Something beautiful to enjoy:

Rain clouds passing by Beersheba.