Tel Aviv Diary February 25-27, 2006 - Karen Alkalay-Gut

Tel Aviv Diary - February 25, 2006 - Karen Alkalay-Gut

February 25, 2006

That's it - i'm going on vacation. I can't get my internet connections to work, i can't figure out basic directions. i need a break. i'm leaving monday.

if you want to stay in touch with someone who actually has a life, try: Lisa.

Okay,so i'm a drama queen. i do have a life and it IS in tel aviv, no matter how pathetic my recent restaurant experience has been.

I'm getting very much into the 'concept' of my poetry as we're working on it for presentation in the next few months - the idea of alienation, developing a sense of identity, and learning dialogue. It's particularly interesting subject particularly with the background of such failed political dialogue around us. We really have to learn how to talk from the ground up. My scaffolding has always been philosophical - Buber - but the underpinnings have long been political.

Tonight on "Parashat hashavua" that weekly soap opera type series that not only tries to interpret the moral issues underlying daily life, but also makes fun of every element of local society, I kept hearing the phrase 'second generation' used to explain away the bitchiness of local women. It seemed like a mantra suddenly - and i mentioned this to ronen who reminded me that in some ways i am actually not second but first generation. That's what happens when you're born on the cusp.

February 26, 2006

(To finish the point...) But the idea that people would be identified - and their neuroses associated with - a historical event - is unique, I think, to the middle-east. Naqba is also a point of reference and identity.

I actually AM taking of tomorrow for parts unknown. It seems to be a middle-class necessity around here. While my daughter basks in Guatemala, my son is scheduled to go skiing in France, and most of my best friends have spent at least part of this month in places as remote as Patagonia and as near as the Dead Sea, I have sat home and complained (second/first generation). So when a last minute opportunity arises, I take my laptop and leave. Of course, as I confess to my intimate friends, I try to make sure my will is in order before I endanger myself in a journey. Anything that involves a passport, and/or where I will have to show an identity card, does it for me.

February 27, 2006

What, still here?

Not for long.

And with the grey sky hanging over Tel Aviv, I can ignore the heat wave forcasted for tomorrow, and put on my winter coat and shawl, grab my umbrella and take off for parts unknown.

Actually no. Because I'm accompanying my working husband, his office makes the reservations. And they forgot. So i'm home until mid night. The fourteen hour delay actually gives me time to pack and finish up on commitments, but it reminds me of what they say about the difference between jews and christians - that christians go without saying goodbye and jews say goodbye and don't go.

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