I'm...Brazilian?

Sorry, no pictures today folks. Just fun stories!!

My flight from JFK to Tel Aviv took off 5 hours and 45 minutes late. I've been scared before to fly for mechanical reasons, but given how much work they were putting into this plane, I don't think I had been more scared before. I know I wasn't the only one thinking that. But I met a bunch of interesting people around me, including a couple of loose Oregon connections and two girls sitting behind me, one of which is studying law abroad also in Haifa.

Here's an ethical question: I was sitting in my original seat (an aisle seat) when I got on the plane and a few minutes later, a mother with four or so young children asked to switch with me so she could sit next to her kids (her kids were supposed to sit next to me in the middle section and she was supposed to sit in the middle seat in the right section of the same row). Without a moments hesitation, I said yes. When I went to my new seat, the people on both sides of me said that they were impressed that I made that decision, to give up an aisle seat for a middle one. Other family and friends had made the same remark. Really? Is it that heroic of me to give up that seat so the mother could with and take care of her children? It really shouldn't be. Switching seats should be the obvious answer and I'm surprised people would think twice about it. I didn't do anything special – I did what any decent person should and would do.

Since I arrived Thursday afternoon, my cell phone hasn't worked (well over 48 hours now). I'm very distraught.

My favorite story so far:

The relatives I'm staying with are from Brazil and every Friday night, they go to one of their son's houses for dinner and a family get together, sometimes up to 20 relatives or so. I went along and was meeting everyone, a little unsure of how everyone would react, confused about the order of the evening, etc. While I was introducing myself to one person, we should hands and she said something I could not understand at all. I replied “Amitai, na'im m'od” (nice to meet you). She looked at me with a puzzled look until someone else came over to explain that I'm American but speak Hebrew. She laughed and said that she was sure I was from Brazil because I have that “look” so she started speaking to me in Portuguese. I've been called many things, but Brazilian is a first.

The main cultural difference I noticed was that everybody kisses each other on the right cheek then the left, but they knew that as an American, I'm not familiar with that custom.

Here are some observations I've made since I arrived:

1. I went to a nearby mall Thursday night to see if the cell phone kiosk there could help me. The mall reminded me a lot of Washington Square Mall in Beaverton, a very nice, modern mall with brand name shops like Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger. I shouldn't be surprised that such a beautiful mall existed in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, but I guess it caught me off guard.

2. When walking towards another person or group of people, nobody knows whether to walk on the right side or the left. It's really annoying.

3. Not only is there a small Blockbuster store in the strip mall at the bottom of the apartment complex I'm currently staying in, 100 feet away is an automatic Blockbuster kiosk, kind of like the Red Box in the US, only a lot bigger. I thought Blockbuster was going belly up? Not in Israel!

4. On Friday, when I finally woke up, I had the lovely music of a birthday party at the kindergarten below to serenade me, playing the Macarena and all.

5. Israelis LOVE footb...I mean, soccer. My relatives are from Brazil and they were very sad when their team lost. I'm told “football” has religious status there.

I don't know when I will be able to write next but it will be after I move to Haifa.

-AZ

NYC

I am still days away from my first class at the University of Haifa, yet I have learned so much already and I'm not even in Israel yet. Spending time in New York has been awesome: seeing and catching up with friends (ones I had seen recently as well as from the past) and family, going to some of the tourist attractions I had hoped to see, etc. But here are the two main things I learned during my time in the Big Apple:

1. America is known as the “melting pot” and that term is still prevalent in all of it's bizarre glory in New York City. The three best examples are when I arrived at JFK International Airport, the subway system, and a brief encounter outside of Ground Zero. At the first two locations, I was amazed to see so many different types of languages, ethnicities, religions, social classes, personal fashion statements, and yes, IQ level converge in rapid succession. The diversity, though it should be totally expected, still caught me off guard. Maybe it's because I'm still in a Eugene mindset, expecting everyone to look at me funny for wearing a kippah (Jewish head covering) or assuming everyone would be mostly white, English speaking, and often polite (though there is still probably a large portion of Eugene with a low IQ, in my experience). The third example, outside Ground Zero, was another one of these experiences I don't see too often in Eugene – people signing on the street. I took American Sign Language for two years and I don't see people signing often so when I saw two women signing, it was just one more reminder of how diverse the City really is.

2. The other main thing I learned is that people don't know where, or better yet, what the State of Oregon is. I'll admit that I didn't know too much before I moved there in 2006, but I was at a loss of words when I tried to explain to people what's in Oregon, what it's famous for, etc. It's easy to do that with California (beautiful beaches, perfect weather, theme parks, Hollywood, etc), but what do people have to say about Oregon that those unfamiliar could relate to? I started off with that Portland was the largest city, it's known for rain, a lot of breweries, and tried briefly explaining Lewis and Clark and the Oregon Trail. I'm not sure how, but that prompted the couple from Chile I was sharing a van with to not only ask me where Oregon is, but then proceeded to tell me about the two staples of Seattle: coffee and Boeing. I said that while Oregon still has a lot of coffee, Seattle is better known for it. Looks like I'll have my work cut out for me representing “the Forgotten State” in Haifa.

I did a lot in the two days I was in Manhattan, I stayed with Shaun, a fraternity brother who I hadn't seen in over a year; my friend Molly who has an internship in NY this summer; my friend Stephanie, her younger sister and her mom came down from Connecticut; and I got to hang out with my cousin Tal, his wife Evelyn, and their very cute daughter Sarah. I saw Times Square (someone saw my Oregon hat and shouted a hearty “Go Ducks!” to which I replied with another hearty “Go Ducks!”), Battery Park (and a tiny Statue of Liberty in the distance), Ground Zero, The Village, NYU, the outskirts of Central Park at night, and I got to play in a fountain at Washington Square Park. Not bad in two days. To the right are a couple of pictures from those busy days, including me throwing up “O”s at Times Square and the infamous Bleecker Street from the Simon and Garfunkel.

I Think that's it for now. I'll try to post again within a few days.

-AZ