Aug 16, 1999
15:51
Staring out of the plane window, a tan cloud of dust became visible
as we descended through the clouds. We were coming in for a landing
soon, and still no landscape made itself visible-- just a monochromatic
landscape of beige. Suddenly, the orange sun reflected off what
looked like a metal building in the distance.
As we approached the Tel Aviv rapidly, gleams of these metal buildings,
gold and silver in color, became more common. It was a terrifically
beautiful scene, nothing like an American city-- yet, I could only
think to myself, as a twelve year old on her first time abroad,
that this place seemed disappointing. Expecting a foreign city to
be like an illustration from a storybook-- a rich, luxurious place--
reality showed no such evidence of this preconception.
From the sky, this city seemed quite tiny... and there was nothing
around the city but desert to make up for it. The sky was a very
light blue, almost white, and the warm colored landscape and city
appeared dry. I wondered, of what asthetic good is a city covered
in a beige dust, in the middle of a desert? Nevertheless. I was
not about to prejudge Israel. I had waited forever to travel, and
I was going to savor this opportunity. I would have to prove to
myself how great the small country could be over the next two weeks
I'd be staying there. |
