Freeze and reflect

I’ve come back to Sweden after 3 months in Israel and most people ask me “How was Israel? Did you see any…?” Then there is always a strange pause. A trail of unsaid words after “Did you see any…”. In the beginning I automatically filled in the unsaidness with the word “trouble” and would answer accordingly. “No, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, no suicide bombers, no horrific wall, no poor Palestinians being abused by nasty Jewish people” but now I am so fed up with the preconceived picture of Israel and Israelis that I just answer “Did I see any…what? Blue monkeys?”

It saddens me that no one seems interested in knowing what Israel is like. As soon as I’ve made them unsatisfied with my answer lacking juicy tragic details of the Middle East I’ve lost their attention. However if a person does against all odds listen to me out of politeness they look bored and sceptical and end up telling me “ Well yes, it seems like you’ve been lucky to meet nice people with good views”

So now, whether or not you want to know what I thought of Israel I am going to tell you.

In Israel I met a large number of amazing people, very warm, generous and open-minded. The Israelis that I’ve met are the most positive and funny people I’ve met. Nothing is a problem, but if it is, it will be solved in an instant. And if you don’t laugh till you nearly wet your pants at least once a day something is wrong or else you’re not hanging out with an Israeli.

It was a surprise to me that the countryside of Israel reminded me so much of South Australia. Sometimes, it felt like I was in the Barossa valley. The reason for this was because one of the most common trees is the Eucalyptus tree, stringybarks and ironbarks everywhere. Imported once to help dry out the swamps and get rid of Malaria. Also in Amiqam where I lived there where orchards and vineyards everywhere just like Oz.

But it is a pity that the wine culture is nearly non existent. If you go to the country yourselves, don’t be surprised if the only wine you get is when the host on the Friday Shabbat meal opens a bottle of red wine and shares it between 14 guests. If you are unlucky the wine might have stood opened for two or three weeks in the fridge.

I liked the fact that all road signs are written in Hebrew, English and Arabic; but I think it is sad that it is not compulsory to learn Arabic in school, in a country where 20% of the population are Arabic. But 15% of the population is now Russian and growing so maybe the next compulsory language in school will be Russian.

I loved the architecture in Tel Aviv or the White City as it is also called. Tel Aviv has the largest concentration of Bauhaus style buildings in any one city. It is a modernistic style, clean-cut and gives me goose bumps of pleasure. However I hate that the buildings are so run down and dirty. What could have been the prettiest city in the world is...not. Someone should get seriously tortured for letting it get so rundown.

Oh and I've never felt so cold in winter in any country.

In other words I saw a lot of things I liked and a few things I liked less.

And the people are amazing.