Survival

Whenever something goes really wrong with a reservation or service, it is frequently too easy to shrug it off and say “Well, it is Israel…” For example when Anne’s family, like my family, had complications with the car rental agency, Anne’s natural response to her parents was, “Well, now you have seen the real Israel.”

Similarly, when something really strange happens, or we see someone doing something really strange, we also attribute the occurrence to the fact that we are in Israel. For better or for worse, it helps me take things with a grain of salt when I put it on Israel’s tab.

Example? Last Saturday I was reading on the beach with Lauren and Anne when a French film crew set up shop merely a few meters from us down the beach to conduct and interview with someone seemingly important. That in itself is not so strange. A few moments later a man with long curly hair sat beside us who’s entrance was a line asking us if we have ever seen the Israeli Survivor TV show. After we told him that, indeed, we have never seen an episode he proceeded to tell us that he was the first contender eliminated but the show was “fixed”.

…Of course he would have won the competition had there been no politics involved because he was the most fit for the competition blah blah blah. Of course. He then turned to Anne and asked her, quite sincerely and with a thick Israeli accent, “Anne, can I survival you?” I don’t think he realized the grammatical mistake he made, but everything about this exchange made me burst into laughter. And it continues…

Moments later one of the many people who walk up and down the beach with a cooler strapped to their chest yelling “Vanilla, chocolate, limone…” to sell their delicious ice cream loot they carry all day comes and sits with the three of us plus The Survivor. What? We don’t know him. Finally Lauren sits up, looks around, and asks the question running through all of our minds: Are we on TV right now? What is going on? Of course I bust into more raging cackling laughter, we pack up our bags and call it a day. Only in Tel Aviv.