Found: An American barbecue in Israel
I can identify three smells. Sunscreen, for one. Slightly stronger than that, seawater, lingering on t-shirts and curling just-dried hair. Strongest of all, nearly overpowering the other smells, grilled hamburgers, smoky and so evocative that even the vegetarians can feel the meat stuck between their teeth.
Besides the hamburgers, there’s corn-on-the-cob, blackened just so and piled in a pyramid shape on a plastic plate. Watermelon, juicy and dripping down on everyone’s clothes. Country music plays in the background. A gust of wind blows down an empty beer can. It is the most quintessentially American Fourth of July I have every celebrated, and I’m on the ninth floor balcony of a university apartment in Tel Aviv, Israel.
I’ve celebrated the Fourth of July at home, of course. But I never liked the taste of beer, there. I never liked the rhythm of country music, there. Parking at the fireworks display was so impossible that I often just stayed at home, there. Sometimes I watched it on TV. I can’t even remember what I did last year. I think I napped.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Western Wall. The Arab Quarter. Mahane Yehuda. Shuk Carmelite. The Israel Museum. The Yemenite Quarter. Banana Beach. Charles Clove Park. Park Hayarkon. Idan Raichel in concert. Tel Aviv Port. Port Said. The Golan Heights. The Sea of Galilee. Haifa. A Bedouin village. A Druze village. Khachapuri. The Dead Sea. Gordon Beach. Yad Vashem. The Armenian Quarter. The Jordan River. Tzfat. Dizengoff Center. Rabin Square. The Hebrew Book Fair. The Tower of David. The City of David. Mahane Yehuda. The Jewish Quarter. Benedict. Meir Garden. The B’Hai Gardens. Mamilla Mall. London Beach. Masada. A goat farm. A vegetable farm. Allenby. Ben Yehuda. Ben Gurion. Florentin. Rothschild. Mount Scopus.
I have been to so, so many places since arriving here in Israel– that’s surely not even a full list, but I’d be here all night if I tried to name every place. I have done so many things and tasted so many foods and met so many people. I have spent countless hours walking and riding buses and getting lost and giving up and taking cabs.
And I’ve done all of these things because I know that I’m in one of the most exciting cities in the world and I only have a couple months here. Because it feels like any minute I’m not going somewhere new or doing something exciting I’m wasting an incredible opportunity. And really, it’s not so hard to get on the bus from my dorms or walk somewhere after work, even if I get lost a lot. I have neither the time nor the inclination to nap.
But I also live across the river from one of the most exciting cities in the world and I only have a few years there. And every minute I decide against going somewhere new or doing something exciting because it’s too hard to get on the bus from my dorm or walk somewhere after class. I’ve taken more naps than I can count, and I’ve never been lost in Boston (and if you know how often I get lost, you can guess just how many times I’ve been to Boston).
The MFA. The Fogg. Chinatown. Little Italy. The Boston Philharmonic. Newbury Street. Fenway Park. Boston Common. The Freedom Trail. The New England Aquarium. Boston Harbor Islands. Trinity Church. Isabella Steward Gardener Museum.
There are so, so many places I haven’t been in Boston– that’s not a full list because I’m not even aware of the interesting places to go. I haven’t done much of anything or tasted much food besides dining hall staples and cafe sandwiches, or met many people besides the other students at my school.
At first, I thought that I was celebrating the Fourth of July so much more enthusiastically here than at home because I missed America, because I felt more American surrounded by Israelis. But then I realized that I do everything more enthusiastically here, or rather I do things here, period.
So when I come home, I’ve decided that I’m going to do things. I’m going to go out to exotic restaurants and see historical sites and wander down famous streets. I’ll walk around with GoogleMaps in my own city and get mistaken or a tourist, and be totally proud of that.
Israel: Found 