Hey there.
Lol i hope you appreciate the irony of that title.
My time here is winding down; I got about 2 months left. It makes me feel pretty reflective; i mean, I've spent the better part of a year here. I've been wondering a lot about what it'll be like to return home, after a year of being away, and how strange it'll be to re-adapt to a culture that I'm very familiar with but feel disconnected from. I've experienced it once before, after living in China for 8 months, and it was quite uncomfortable, so I'm trying to brace myself for how weird it might be. Then again, I know more of what to expect this time around, so it might not be as bad.
Something I'm cognizant about, regarding all the stories i share here, is compassion fatigue, cuz man, there's only so many times you can read a story about something terrible happening and still care. It's easier to unplug. That's the wild part about living here; it's honestly just relentless, so oftentimes it's what you want to talk about. The disconnect between that and the daily life in Canada is gonna be strange.
Recently, I've been focusing much more on self-reflection and getting less involved in things, which, if you know me, know is pretty strange lol; I essentially live off of my interactions with others. But since I've been here I've travelled a lot and been involved with as much as I can be, so recently have been prioritizing more solo time and unplugging a bit more. Coming up i might do some solo backpacking in Jordan, which feels exciting and would give me a break from the small-town living I've been doing here, so I might write about that soon.
Though things have felt more calm and reflective for me, there is something that happened about a month or so ago that I'm probably gonna clickbait you with in the title of this journal entry, which was kinda bananas.
I was on my way to Tel Aviv with 2 Palestinian friends; they get a holiday permit once a year that allows them to enter Israel for a month and see the sea. We were passing through the train station when a young Israeli guard pulled my Palestinian friends into a stairwell. I tried to join them and the guards told me to leave; when I asked what was going on they told me to leave more firmly. I stood outside the stairwell and they asked me to sit across the room. I've heard about these situations getting out of hand, so obviously I was worried about my friends. About 10 minutes later they let us walk down to the train station, only to run after us and bring us all the way back up to the same stairwell.
If we asked them what this was about, they would get angry, so we stopped trying to talk to them. All they would tell us was that the police were on their way. We sat in the stairwell for 2 hours, guarded by an armed guard who wouldn't let my Palestinian friends stand or walk around. Eventually, the guard said that they called the police to see if my friends had the right permits; my friends insisted they did (they had entered Israel successfully with them several times before) and tried to show the guard, but the guard wouldn't check them.
I was quite angry during all of this and, though I didn't say anything, I think it showed on my face (one of the guards would say things like "cheer up" and "why don't you smile?") but my Palestinian friends remained polite and cooperative throughout the whole thing, which, I couldn't imagine how that would feel.
The police never showed up, but after 2 hours they let us go; essentially it felt like they just wanted to waste 2 hours of my friends' holiday. It was 6pm when we got out, and we had to work the next day, so i asked them if they still wanted to go, and they said "absolutely". We got to the beach at about 9pm, and it still was worth it.
I told my friends how unreal it was that they remained kind and polite throughout the entire thing, and one of them told me "they can't think we're terrorists. We need to show them the nature of our people". Which, I can't imagine being shouldered with that kind of responsibility. I also can't imagine being at the whim of any young guard who wants to waste your time, or worse (I've heard worse), when trying to enjoy a vacation, so this absolutely served to increase my respect for what my friends go through here.
Man, idk who still finishes these blogs lol. If you did, here you go, here's some money 💰. You've earned it.
Live long and prosper.
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