Buses

Today I told someone, "Half the reason I take the bus is to meet people." Well.. that's not exactly true, there aren't so many other transportation options here because I left my helicopter in America and since I have the agility of someone in a body cast a motorcycle is out of the question. I can, and have, walked the length of Tel-Aviv, but it is just too sweaty in this climate to do so regularly. The public transportation here is excellent (with the exception of Shabbat), but I also come from a place with almost no public transportation. (I'm talking about my hometown here, the Valley has good public transportation.) 

 

The craziest things happen to me while I wait for and am on the bus. I usually have to ask people questions about where it's going, where something is, and we end up in a conversation about where I'm from, if I'm Jewish, if I'm religious, if my parents are religious, what country my grandparents are from, and it just takes off from there. It happens about 3/5 times I ride the bus, and sometimes I even make a friend. (I was hugged by a beautiful music student from Herziliya the other day when I was riding the bus to meet a friend in the 7-Stars mall.) 

It's so common to take the bus in Israel that it doesn't seem to have socioeconomic stimga the way it does in the United States, because it really is the easiest way to get around and there are fewer cars (one source told me that cars are 150% more expensive than in the United States). You don't have to think about directions, and get to glide through most of Israel for what amounts to less than $7 (from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, about the same price from T.A.-Haifa.) 

I had my first experience on a semi-kosher bus when coming back from Sulha. I got on and discovered that no women were sitting next to men (even husband-wife teams weren't.) Fortunately, I wasn't Rosa-Parked (on real kosher buses women have to sit in the back, men sit in the front), and the aisles were mixed. I'm fairly certain my oversized backpack (which is gender-free) accidentally whacked a few people (it usually does--it's pretty hostile..) A part of me wonders what all this would be like in the United States, if mainstream society actually thought anything about sitting next to someone of the opposite gender. These are the little phenomena that keep reminding me, Toto, we're not in western Massachusetts anymore! 

I'm slowly starting to learn which bus goes where in Tel-Aviv, and love Arlozorov station (which the train station part in the bottom calls "Savidor.") The new central bus (or the n.c.b.s.) in sketchy south Tel-Aviv, has an interesting design to say the least. In the words of someone I met there the other day, it  "is a fucking labryinth which only makes sense of you've been dropping acid since you were 12 years old." As much as I love the idea of understanding the n.c.b.s' layout better, dropping acid remains unattractive.