I just bought myself 2 hours!

Today, an old seminary chum called me up and asked "Are you seeing anyone?" (no). "Would you date an Israeli?" (Yes!)

She described a certain man to me, someone she does not know well. She only knew the very basics of his age, his profession, where he lives, and his general religious label. All of those sounded good but it's not a lot to go on.

Now, in case you haven't figured it out from reading my blog, I am developing quite the penchant for Israeli men. But only certain Israeli men. Not, you know, the whole country. There is a constellation of other factors that must be in place for a man's Israeliness to be endearing to me instead of a turnoff.

So I asked her to go back to him and find out a little more. Has he ever been outside of Israel? Has he ever dated an immigrant before? Has he had contact with other cultures in any way? Does he speak English? If not, can he at least understand it well enough that if I'm really too tired to speak in Hebrew, and if I use simple words, that he could understand me? And, does he know that I have a Master's degree and am sort of "out there"? Does that intimidate him? (See, one must fish around to find out whether we are talking about a "backward, male-chauvinist Israeli man" or an "enlightened, fun, and frankly unbelievably cute Israeli man.")

Ten minutes later she called me back and said

a) He really does not speak or understand enough English for us to be able to communicate in that language at all -- not a complete deal breaker for me, but it makes things difficult

and

b) She told him that "she has opinions and speaks her mind," and he immediately said "no, that's no good for me."

I'm a bit worried that she may have made it sound like I'm a shrew who won't let him get two words in, which is not what I meant. But still . . .

::sigh::

Well, at least I can spend the 2 hours I otherwise would have wasted on a date with him to do something constructive, like re-organize my closet.