A friend of mine said this to me as we were walking home along the streets of Tel-Aviv last night, me taking him home from his art class in exchange for some free corn schnitzel and laughs.
Am I A City Person? Or a Country Person?
I love the lay-out of streets, endless shops to pause into, when trees seem special because they're surrounded by forests of sidewalk, and being able to glance at thousands of people a day. I love the energy of this city, I don't like the pushing and the shoving and the fact that some clerks assume that they're stuck in the 15th century and thus can't be 21st century efficient. But, I love this little town by the sea--where you can see the strangest person doing the strangest things alongside overly casual businessmen on telephones yelling at this secretaries. Today I was sitting in the Mediterranean, not exactly swimming, and I looked up at a line of hotels along the Tel-Aviv shore. I was reminded of a picture that I saw in my art history class today, in 1909 Tel-Aviv was nothing more than a big sand-dune. It was crowded with hopes and dreams of a new Jewish, Hebrew city, camels and donkeys and the occassional sheep (they used to run down the roads here until the 1960s from Jaffa). Today, Tel-Aviv is built on concrete, but is still a youthful, playful, livable city. I read a quote by Israeli artist, Reuven Rubins, who fled to Tel-Aviv after a bad experience in Jerusalem. (Can anyone really experience Jerusalem without having a bad trip down this or that lane?) Anyways, Rubins said:
"I felt that I too should stay in Tel-Aviv, for I fell in love with the youthful character of the city, and the sea had always held an attraction for me."
Or do I like the country better?
This weekend, I was in the North with the Overseas program. We stayed in the Galilee, the middle, but hiked on Mount Meron, in the Golan, and in the lower Galilee. The hikes were gorgeous, and I actually enjoyed them--they weren't too intense, had some beautiful views, and we got to see some adorable horses, majestic oak trees, and fields the color of my friend Sarah's icy blonde hair. It reminded me how much I love being in nature, I haven't been in it since Amirim, and how tiny and big it makes me feel at the same time. I keep forgetting how greenery opens up my soul, it makes me feel free and wild and playful and joyful again. There's nothing I love more than walking in a city at night--except making walking under the stars in the country. I saw my first shooting star in the countryside of Israel, in Amirim, and will never forget it or what I wished for.
In the north visited a sulfur-smelling hot-spring (that made me feel a tad itchy), a winery where it seemed all the girls lapped up this white wine called "Muscat" that was sweet and yummy.
I roomed with four girls, Sarrah (she's basically my Sarah-Billian replacement in Israel, from Queens), and a girl from Georgia and a girl from China. Both incredibly sweet, but for four girls one bathroom is NOT enough by far. Sarrah played a prank on me with Jacques, the resident snob from England/South Africa, and I got to know another South African a bit.
I also noticed that I'm happier than I used to be, I'm singing LOUDLY in the shower now, humming as I walk down the street, and kind of skipping along after I go for work-outs at the gym. (I almost fell over and sprained my ankle today as a result.. but that's another story.)
