hairdryers are weird

I am totally jetlagged, but wanted to hang out with my friend and classmate Eliana. So she came in from Hod Hasharon and we went to the Azrieli center. We went to the top (50th floor) that has a panorama view. You can see not only all of Tel Aviv, but many of the surrounding cities. We could make out Herzilya's chof pituach pretty easily and in the distance we could see Netanya. We grabbed a lunch of Tosteem (panini) in the food court and then proceeded to walk around and talk about stuff. We got some coffee to try to help my jetlag. It had it's usual effect of making me punchy, but still really tired. Then we began the quest for a hairdryer. I owned an Israeli hairdryer last time I lived here, but I only used it once so I got rid of it. Still, for some reason, I feel like I will use it this time and that I really NEED it. We went to Super-Pharm, but they didn't have any. We went to an electronics store. The cheapest one they had was 200 shekels--a little more than $50. I told Eliana there was no way I was going to spend that much on a hair dryer. I'm pretty sure I paid about $5 for the one I have at home. Eliana spent the next 10 minutes asking just about everyone if they knew where we could get a cheap hairdryer and pointing at the silly American. "Hairdryers are so weird" she told me. Weird? I mean, they are everywhere in the US. You don't even have to take one with you when you go on vacation because hotels all have them. But most Israeli women can't be bothered with blowing out their hair and besides its usually too hot. Instead the prevailing custom is to shower and tight, roll your hair up in a bun and go to sleep with it wet. In the morning, you have nice waves that roll down your back. That doesn't work so well with chin-length half-aryan hair. So we went to the Mashbir (which I accented on the first syllable which made Eliana laugh because she said it reminded her of Sol Schimmel's makpid on time). The Mashbir is an Israeli department store. They had one for 100 shekels but they were all out of it. The next cheapest was 200 shekels. Given that I really feel like I need a hairdryer I bought it. Maybe hairdryers are weird, but Israelis seem to view them as a highly valued object--or at least one they can get a lot of money for.