Friday, December 18, 2009

Living in a small country... or just a small city?

It still amazes me how small of a world we really live in... and how if we take time to just listen to others around us, we can find so many connections. In an Israeli small world moment, I discovered that the son of one of my ulpan teachers is best friends with two of my husbands cousins.
My ulpan class, as I have said before, is all russians... a couple weeks ago one told me that she has an American friend I should meet. The American is my grandparents age, but my ulpan classmate said that we just HAD to meet. So the three of us got together for tea this morning... and what a small world it became.
Turns out that this American (lets call her R) came to Israel in the 1950's from NY, married a Moroccan and settled down here in KG. In 1967, as the war broke out, she gave birth to a son... and decided that war-torn Israel was no place to raise kids... so she moved to the San Francisco bay area. She lived in SF, then later taught at USC. Now that her son has moved back to Israel she and her husband decided to come back... to lovely KG. We had much to talk about, from classes and atmosphere at USC, to the beauty that is the bay area. We discussed the pros and cons of living in Israel vs California, and the different outlooks of our generations. We argued about the role of religion in the government and debated about the reality of the American dream. Even though we have nearly 60 years between us, it was great to be able to discuss there things. We even discussed putting together our own KG version of an American club.

In not too long I will be heading back to the states to visit my family. I am looking forward to it, besides the ever constant fear of flying. It will be a nice (and much need) break).

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