Family Reunion

a family reunion. not mine. 

Living in Israel, lately, is really...intense. And I don't mean intense in a CNN way. I mean because whenever I am with my baby in public, I feel like I am at some sort of family reunion with relatives that don't know me at all, but feel comfortable enough to advise me on many subjects. Yes, it's endearing. But it's intense in the way that only family pressure can be. 

This is what it's like:

I was on the way to the Misrad Ha Panim* this week, on an unfamiliar busline. So in Hebrew, I asked the lady sitting across from me (square seating) where to get off. She answered me in Russian (I can fake it with Hebrew but definitely don't know Russian). Upon reading my puzzled expression, she got a middle-aged male passenger next to her to translate from Russian into Hebrew. He informed me that the bus goes somewhat close. He then added a few sentences that I pretended to understand, even though I couldn't hear him well.

Later, still sitting across from this lady and middle-aged man, I saw an off-duty bus driver standing in the aisle. So I asked him the same question, hoping to get a clearer answer. He said something about getting off at a certain area and waiting there for another bus.

Little did I realize that the Russian man heard every word of this secondary inquiry. Suddenly, I was yanked from my reveries by a shouting match taking place directly above my head. 

"WHY SHOULD SHE WALK WITH THE BABY THROUGH ALL THE CROWDS?? SHE SHOULD WAIT FOR THE BUS TO TAKE HER RIGHT THERE!!

"WHY SHOULD SHE WAIT THERE IN THE HEAT WITH THE BABY?? ITS A 5 MINUTE WALK!!"

"WHY SHOULD SHE GET OFF THERE AND WALK?? SHE HAS A BABY!! SHE SHOULD SWITCH TO THE 55 WHICH GOES TO THAT STOP!!" 

and so on and so on and so on.
I stared at the floor during this argument because I knew that if I looked at either of them, I would be showing partiality to their point of view. And the last thing I wanted to do at that point was to get caught in the crossfire. When the two men stopped fighting about my travel options and the off-duty bus driver walked to the other end of the bus, the Russian man leaned over and said "you should really just get off and walk, it's 5 minutes!"- just to get the last word in about the issue. I did end up taking his advice, but I tried to avoid the disapproving gaze of the off-duty bus driver as I did so. 

That's what I mean by intense. I lived in NYC for two years, and I never witnessed family dynamics between strangers over my travel plans, on the subway. 

*Misrad Ha Panim- Ministry of the Interior

p.s. I could write an entire blog just about my bus rides in this country. They are always pretty action packed!