Tel Aviv Impressions 2004

Sterotypes, Fantasies and the Metropolis. Here are my impressions as a 24-year old who's about to leave to the US....

So I was riding the bus back home, and looking outside the window. I was in love with what I saw. I saw beautiful women and interesting people. People walking, smiling, laughing, talking on their phone, bumping into one another. Walking fast, walking casually. soldier-girls in uniforms, girls in minimal clothes in pink and yellow, Philippino's talking Hebrew on thier cellular phone, people with dogs, old people, security guards in uniform, a Ethiopian bus driver who made me laugh, and skater boys in baggies.
Tel-Aviv!
I remember how, like some of my friends, I used to hate it -
the dirt, the density of people, the beggars, the filthy facades of the aapt. buildings which look as though they will fall apart any minute now. The bad smells. The dirty stray cats who squeal meow. The honking and no parking, the double parking, and reports, and traffic jams, the one-way roads and no U-turns which make so many drivers hate this city.

But in recent years, the more I spent my time here, I just love it more-
The diversity of people,
the fact that everyone is here all the time,
the multi-culturalism,
the lesbians and gays in the supermarket,
the cool record shops,
the middle-eastern markets of food and clothes.
the soap stores, and second-hand stores, and antique stores,
and juice-shops, and cafes and bars which are allways open,
and the falaffel- Israeli style, and the pizzas and sushis. the scooters,
and street-cats, and dogs.
the open-cars with loud music and the small european used-cars.
the cinemas with foreign films,
the kiosks with peanuts and cigaretts and alcohol with TV broadcasts which are open to the street.
the constant flux and movement.
the parties and alcohol and punks and brit-pops and tattoes and piercing
and skaters and 'arsim' and 'frechot' [loud people dressed in loud extravagantly cheap clothes who are all about partying and noise].
the students, the junkies, the models, the old fashionable ladies, the aunties,
the casually dressed with a faded tank top and bathing-suit boxkers and sandles men,
the rastaman, the braided heads, the blackers, the russians, the whores and sex-shops,
the tourists, the ethiopians, the soldiers.

I felt my heart filled up, my eyes devouring all I saw. the colors, thier movement, the sounds.
And I was thinking of this world, this specific social world I live in. And why the hell would I want to leave it?!
Surrounded by friends, whom I approach as "brother" ['achi'] and "sister" ['achoti'] as they approach me, and "honey" ['motek'] and "babe" ['booba']. Surrounded by family, who keeps in close touch with me and with many holidays and dinners and trips we have together as well as discussing most intimate and personal issues.

Surrounded by people who I can have heart-to-heart talks and discussions on any social issue of our choice, with arguments and examples, going into depth, people with awarness and the willingness to discuss issues. People who love art, who are music junkies, who watch European and Eastern movies, who have been to the East for a year, or to South America, who play musical instruments, who dream to become painters or musicians or writers. People in hi-tech works who know about the cutting edge technology, and play computer games. people who have alot of sex, people who smoke alot of grass, who go out to dance, who invite to parties, people who meet up spontaeuosly all the time, who read books, who watch tv shows with a critical eye, and discuss the political situation after hearing the news on the radio and in the newspapers. who go to local shows and support the local bands, who are not stuck up, but people you can easily approach and speak with, who have a good attitude. People who love to challange previous ideas, who are not afraid to think differently, who are born rebels.

This is what i see. And what I love.