Answers Part II

Here's the second half. These were not an easy set of questions to answer. But I used my incredibly honed reporting skills to find them.

What kind of electricity do you have? US plugs, british, euro, etc...? Do you know if it's expensive or cheap? How do they make it?

They seem to have their own brand of plugs, but the European plugs kind of fit, sort of. Electricity is crazy expensive. (In my humble opinion.) And to get it, we have to go to the electricity store with a special key and then they somehow charge the key up and then we take it home and touch it to our electricity thing and then more electricity comes. That's the highly scientific explanation. As for how it's made, in Israel, there's a lot of solar power. According to the highly accurate Wikipedia, 90% of Israeli homes use solar energy for hot water, the highest per capita in the world. Also coal and hydro-electric power. That's not a very comprehensive answer, but it's a start.

How do you heat your apartment? DO you heat your apartment, or does it not get cold enough often enough?

We have electric heat that is very necessary in the winter, but we only turn on the heaters at night. These big stone houses are frigid in December.

Have you seen/heard anything about Better Place, the electric car company there?

No, what is it?

Are there many SUV's? What does gas cost? Everything's in metric, right?

Little mini European SUV's. And then the big black SUVs that the American secret service drives with mirrored windows that make them incredibly conspicuous. Gas is hovering around $4 a gallon, which is probably why tiny little VW's seem to be the most popular car. Everything's in metric, so I haven't known what temperature it was for months.

How far from your apartment to your office? How often do you travel for work?

It's about 3 km, but it can an hour or more to get through the checkpoint. I haven't traveled at all for work, which makes me sad. But I just returned from a vacation in Jordan.