jacquesdemolay

Well, the 4th of July in Tel Aviv was quite an odd experience. I spent the day at work talking to British people on the phone, which was not without a certain amount of irony. Everybody at work was wishing me a happy 4th as though it was my birthday. When I got home the bar across the street had hung a huge American flag across the whole sidewalk. I'm not sure how I feel about that one. It made me a bit uneasy, which I think is probably because it's just a really sleezy place.

I went with my American roommate to a party at Mike's Place, the big American tourist bar, where we met up some more people. It was not what I had hoped for. I was hoping for some sort of strangeness. An American party in a distinctly nonAmerican place, but that wasn't it at all. It was just too American, like the time I found myself at a chain bar in suburban Phoenix. The only Israeli person I talked to all night was Sundae, and that includes all interactions with the staff. So we left, and went to the other American bar in the neighborhood. The ex-pat bar, rather than the tourist bar. That was fun, it was the kind of weird that I had been looking for. The bar is owned by an American guy who can't go back to the US because he's a fugitive, which always makes for an interesting night. I ran into a British coworker of mine there, and ended up hanging out with him for most of the night.

So I guess my advice for any Americans who find themselves in a foreign land on the 4th would be to avoid tourists at all costs. The ex-pats have ahve much more interesting world view.