Be female: You know how you are always taught that staring is rude? Here, staring is constant. Sometimes accompanied by honks, lewd gestures and shouts.
Be female and from America: More of a problem for blonde, blue-eyed white women. People here do not seem to know what to think of me. They all seem to know I have some kind of African heritage (as I have been told this on several occasions. Although here it does not feel insulting.) But I still stand out.
Be female and go running: Because that is what I have been doing since I was 12, so why should I not do it here (oops, where is my anthropologist mentality????). I have found that having my iPod playing helps. It allows to me ignore any comments made and to run almost blissfully.
Be female and go running in purple shorts and a sports jersey: In the US, these shorts are considered "basketball shorts" meaning that they are long and baggy. Much longer than what most women wear to run around a park. Here, they are very, VERY short.
Be female, go running in odd clothes, and do it all on Shabbat: When everyone is decked out in their Shabbat finest, its super fun to cruise around them, sweating and panting like a mad woman.
Do all of the above and then sit down: When I did this, because sitting down is always part of my runs, a man stopped to chat with me. Now, I am generally pretty friendly, so I chatted back. He offered me some chocolate-filled Bomba (basically peanut butter cheetos), talked to me about my running shoes, told me how much he runs, made me guess his age (58), guessed mine, told me about his time as a soldier fighting in the Yom Kippur War, began crying as he explained that 25 soldiers in his unit (?) died, told me that Gilad Shalit's return was only temporary, talked to quite a few people passing by, explained to me that they thought I was his girlfriend, asked about my family history, told me he had seen Roots (in order to relate to my Dad being African American), told me about his family from Kurdistan, told me all Kurds are very strong, invited me to a Kurdistan party in the park tomorrow if I was still in town. He then got distracted when a girl from France came up and asked us for help with her credit card. It really was quite a fun conversation, although I didn't understand half of it as the man was switching back and forth from Hebrew to English quite liberally while crying and conversing with people who walked by. It didn't feel as creepy as it sounds, it was more like talking to an old family friend. A bit strange, but interesting!
Do all of the above and walk: When you are running, no one bothers you because, by the time they have thought about it, you are gone. But, if you start walking, people tend to talk to you. Like a Muslim high school girl who stopped me and asked me questions in Arabic while I wore my stupid American "HELP" face and begged "Anglit, anglit?" over and over again. I was obviously the butt of a joke.
So, all this begs the question: do I continue to run? Do I keep some habits that are more normal when you are NOT in Jerusalem, surrounded by very devout people? Do I stop running? I'm not really sure.
Dear not sure,
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could ask that question to someone trusted at school. Or, maybe there is a gym? (or is that a stupid question.)You know the old saying when in Rome... but sometimes people need a new perspective, but are you the one respected enough to share it? ann landers aka answering questions with questions lenore