Flirting Gone Awry

Today was a glorious day, weather-wise, in Israel.  Noa and I decided to head to Tel Aviv one final time.  Clearly, we were not the only folks in Jerusalem with this idea.  The Bus Station was as crowded as we had ever seen it.  Egged puts on extra buses for Passover to try to handle the crowds.  We got on a bus to Tel Aviv that was already pretty full.  I found Noa a seat near the front and headed for the back.  Usual bus etiquette is that one asks if a seat is free....some folks try to occupy two seats....and there is usually no problem.  Today, I approached a high school age boy, asked if the seat were free, and he clearly was reluctant to let me sit with him.  In fact, he left to go sit with another friend of his.  I called Noa back to me figuring we could sit together.....Big mistake.....Now, before I continue, I need to remind readers that Noa has fairly negative feelings towards Arab boys, ages 10-18, who have been more than menacing when she and Pam have walked through Arab neighborhoods and the Old City.  These children have threatened to spit at them, an interesting cultural characteristic.....Ok, back to the bus ride.....As we were entering the freeway, Noa and I felt sunflower seed shells hitting the back of our heads.  I turned around and glared at the high school age children behind us.  We were in the middle of a group of about 12 sophomores (my guess), maybe freshmen.  We thought they were spitting at the high schoolers in front of us.  When the second batch hit us, I turned around and asked the young people to stop saying that enough was enough.  The kids grew raucous, mimicked us, but at least they stopped spitting at us and resumed spitting on the floor.  A couple of the girls in the group also yelled at the boys to stop...which they sort of did.  Then a soldier sitting in the middle of the bus asked the kids if it were really necessary to be so loud and obnoxious.  They mocked him, too.  It must have dawned on a couple of the boys that they weren't getting Noa's attention, so they tried out a few English phrases on her, but she wasn't having any of it, so they began using their English to tease her.  This proved equally ineffective.  Then one of the boys decided to try smoking (all Egged buses are non-smoking.)  Again, the soldier in the middle asked what the heck was going on, the kids realized they had a problem, so they opened all the vents to try to clear the air and yelled at the smoker to knock it off which he thankfully did.  Once the boys realized that flirting with Noa was not going to happen , they went back to trying to impress the girls who were with them.  Now, I have taught high school kids in many countries, but I have never witnessed the hard slaps to the head that both boys and girls were dishing out.  These kids were way out of control.  Yes, it is Passover Break in Israel, and high school kids need to prove they are cool to their friends, but this group of children was not only disrespectful towards us, but towards all of the passengers and the Egged driver who was going to have to clean up their mess.  Clearly new to bus travel, many of the boys in the group tried to get off at the security checkpoint just outside the bus terminal.  The security guard sternly told them to stay on the bus.  Enjoying a moment of quiet after they exited, Noa and I made our way to the front, thanked the driver for his patience, and proceeded to have a fabulous day in Tel Aviv!

We walked up to Benedict, Noa's favorite breakfast joint, sat at the bar and enjoyed the world's best chocolate pancakes (Noa) and Matzohbrei (me)  Fresh orange juice and perfect coffee rounded out the meal.  Then, we walked the boardwalk.  It looked like a typical beach scene at the height of summer.  After a day in the sun, we returned to Jerusalem on a bus with no children, a great driver, and a bit of peace and quiet.