A New Game
Who says it’s not fun to be an Israeli abroad? This guy’s got a new way of amusing himself on home visits.
I’m sitting at gate E16 of the Dallas-Fort Worth airport as I await my flight back to NY. I spent the last week working out of the NY office of my company and then came to Dallas for the weekend in order to attend the wedding of a good friend of mine. I stayed at the home of another good friend whose wife is now pregnant with their second child. I’ll refrain from the old cliche of bemoaning the fact that *everyone* I know is married, getting married or already having multiple kids. Instead, this post is about my experience as “an Israeli” in Dallas.
The groom – who is not Jewish – and I spent years working together in NY so when people ask how we know each other, where I’m from or what my story is, its easy enough to say New York. However, if people ask in just the right way, or if they’re particularly curious about me, it doesn’t take too long until the reality of my current residence comes out. Sometimes I said “Tel Aviv,” sometimes I said “Israel” and eventually I started saying “Tel Aviv, Israel.”
Each time, without fail, people had no clue how to respond. Some moved on quickly, others gave a half-hearted “wow” and some seemed to gloss over my response entirely (acting as if I said any random American city). Certainly no one expected to meet someone from Israel but still, their reactions puzzled me. It started to be a game for me, seeing how people respond when hearing I’m from Israel.
A Blogging Bride-To-Be
Danya Ruttenberg breaks the news with plenty of snark like a good blogger should. Mazel Tov, Danya!!
It’s the “cranky feminist” edition of joyous announcements!
1. I’m not changing my name.
2. He’s not changing his name.
3. I think I know how I want to deal with the kinyan problem, but no, I’m not saying yet.
4. But in any case, nobody’s getting bought.
5. There will be rings under the chuppah, but there is no engagement ring.
6. I’m thrilled to get hugs and mazel tovs but
7. Can we keep heterosexual privelige factor to a minimum?
8. (It’s the marriage, not the wedding, stupid.)
9. I dunno in which country we’re having it yet.
10. It’ll probably be pretty small and intimate, wherever it winds up being.
11. So please don’t be hurt re: guest list stuff. It’s so not personal. We’re not inviting hardly anybody, except, you know, my grandma.
12. And there’s no registry.
13. Yes, we’re going to be back in the U.S. next year so that I can finish (God willing) rabbinical school.
14. No, I don’t know what happens after that.
15. Even if I might not sound like it in this list, I’m actually really thrilled
16. and am SO going to paint my toenails sparkley silver for the occasion.
Maybe you didn’t even know that I was with somebody? Even though I’m the type that blogs about the silly mundania of my life, I’m still a fairly private person, in my way. Anyway, his name is Nir, we’ve been together for two-ish years now and he’s wonderful, silly, loving, kind, brilliant, funny, and better to me than I probably deserve. I’m deeply smitten and extremely happy, which is all a girl could ask for.
There probably isn’t going to be a lot about him on the blog to come, but now maybe occasionally I’ll use first person plural instead of first person singular if I’m talking about, I dunno, something relevant.
A Moment of Tranquillity
Idan went on a weekend trip to the Gilboa nature reserve, about 1.5 hours north of Tel Aviv. From the photo he shared above, the place knows how to do a sunset.
Everyone Wants a Nice Zune
Ever since this product was launch, the techy Hebrew-speaking world has been giggling and whispering about this gadget like a bunch of seventh-graders. Ouriel lets everyone in on the joke.
Microsoft Zune sounds really bad in Hebrew
I am sure that Israeli marketing team of Microsoft was not involved in the selection of their new mp3 player “Zune”.
Indeed in Hebrew “Zune” , pronounced, Zi-oun, means the F*** word. The blogosphere already talks about it (valleywag call it a motherzuner mp3 player ) and we can expect more noise in israel very soon
But still i am sure it will be a F***ing good mp3 player
Remember the War?
There WAS a war, remember…This past summer….in Lebanon. It is so rarely mentioned these days, people forget. But not people in northern Israel, like Traintalk at the Rock of Galilee blog. They remember what happened and worry about what is yet to come:
It is starting to come out that the IDF wasn’t going all out even in the air because of the potential threat of a wider war with Syria. Beyond that, it is clear now that even had the airforce gone all out, the results would not have justified it. Turns out they knew that after the second day. This is tiring. Could it be after Israeli knowhow and hardware from the battlefield was sold profitably for so many years that our militarty capability has flattened out and become commoditized?
Our bird, Mad Max, who was a cheerful and chirpy 5 year older before the war, died a while back apparently pushed too far or fatally traumatized by the noise table of incoming and outcoming coupled with the absense of his companions, us, and being fed and watered only once a week. The garden flowers in plastic containers outside, still blooming and giving color and depth and meaning to me at least – are still alive and even though winter rains have started, they remind me of the effort I made for their survival and i would do it again.
At the same time – during the war – I admit to attempting to build a parallel work life and I believe this was the correct strategy at the time and I would continue to investigate this thread even now if it develops . Our reality was so shaken, all the symptoms are there: those that deny anything has changed, those ill or limping somewhat physically or emotionally and others worse off. It reminds me of that catastrophic weather movie the day after tomorrow – but we are still waiting for the tomorrow no weatherman has told us about. The real jolt has not hit yet and it seems we are sitting ducks. A jerusalem post political commentator has repeatedly claimed that we have become tired enough as a nation that we are prepared to give it away. We can only hope that those not so tired are developing secrets for a new day and are young and serious enough to keep them secret.
The visitors scored a couple runs but we’re the home team.
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