In a Flash
on 22/8/09
Almost everyone who reads this blog knows that I was in New York for about a week and a half. I was pleasantly surprised that a few of you asked me why I hadn't updated my blog in so long. I've noticed that people have still been checking into the blog despite my inactivity. I've even picked up a reader from Ghana. Hopefully I can work it back into the routine.
It was great to be back home. While it was a busy but productive trip for work, I also managed to squeeze in at least two visits with many of friends and family I hoped to see. I wasn't able to connect with a few of you, but I'll be back in December. My flight is on December 16. I don't have a return flight yet but I'm hoping to stay until around New Year's Day.
A lot of people asked me these two questions: what do I like most about living in Israel, and what do I miss the most about New York or the States. Let's start with what I miss from New York.
What I miss most about New York: Rachel McAdams. She happens to look great in person (I saw her walking out of the Today Show one day before work, as our client's offices are at Rockefeller Plaza), but of course the real point here isn't that you see a lot of celebrities in New York. Rather, it's that extraordinary things are always within reach. You can see a celebrity walking by on the street, [IRENA DON'T READ THIS NEXT PART] find yourself chatting up a a semi-famous model about funny experiences in the dentist's chair, see your favorite band on tour once a year, or get the opportunity to organize and participate in a panel discussion with an author you greatly admire. And in discussing how so many things are "within reach", I haven't even touched on how convenient New York is. You can get great cuisine from about 10 different parts of the world within a few blocks of your apartment, and if you need something, anything - a hammer, a block of cheese, a cup of coffee - it's always around the corner.
Having everything you want "within reach" is a quality somewhat unique to New York, and while I think that this is a little more true of the States than Israel, it's also possible that my lesser familiarity with Tel Aviv/Israel and lack of Hebrew makes me think that things in Israel are less accessible than they really are. After all, I just missed seeing Bar Rafaeli at one of my favorite clubs in Tel Aviv (she was there the night before).
What I do love about Israel is the lifestyle: it's relatively affordable (very much so compared to New York), the people are uncommonly beautiful, the food is great, the beach is never too far away, and everything is very casual. I can't emphasize the casualness enough, as I've always tended toward casualness of attire and demeanor (in spite of my neuroses that become very apparent once you get to know me, quite a few people have mistaken me for being a "laid-back" Californian). While in Tel Aviv I can wear a t-shirt and sandals almost everywhere I go. It's rare that I wear a button-down shirt or shoes other than sandals or sneakers, and it's even rarer that I put my napkin on my lap. While eating dinner in a restaurant, it's not necessary to ask the person across the table if they "would mind" if you try a bite. You can reach across and grab. And if it's something eaten with pita, you can swipe your pita across their plate. I love that.
There's another big difference between life in the States and Israel, with the advantage going to Israel. Within only a few minutes of arriving in New York, while making my way through the airport, I was reminded of how oversized and grandiose everything is in the States. The buildings, the people (they are literally greater in size), and the advertisements - each one is seemingly bigger than the last. I know this is a terribly cliche observation, the kind you'd expect a recent immigrant to New York to relay back to his family back home, but it was impossible for me to ignore. Don't get me wrong - some of this grandiosity is precisely aligned with the things I want to achieve in life (which is to say that some of my goals are actually oversized and grandiose themselves) - but I do appreciate the current respite.
What's the conclusion? Nothing really. Maybe only that I'm even more keen to live out in California for a while, to combine some of the qualities from Israel (beach, sun, fresh produce) with the things I miss from the States. Or that when I'm back in New York, whenever that is, I'll bring with me some additional quality of life.