See, now that is a question I am always asking other people, or actually I am always asking Waze.
Before I go anywhere new, I not only put the location in Waze, but I look at it on Google Maps, just to see the route beforehand, look at the "street view" so I know what to look for when I get there, and consider alternate routes. I mean, I investigate thoroughly.
That is because I am MORTALLY TERRIFIED of being in the wrong location - um, with good reason.
Israel is not a country in which you have "fun" being lost. It's not an adventure, it's just plain scary.
So here I was, driving along minding my own business and there's a young woman who is stopped in the middle of the street in my neighborhood. While everyone else was honking and gesticulating around her for delaying their arrival at their destination for all of 20 seconds, I looked at her and she waved at me desperately.
So I pulled over and she asked me where a certain street was. In Hebrew. She was Israeli.
Hahahaha! SHE asked ME! And she expected me to explain! In Hebrew! Hahahaha!
So I knew exactly where she wanted to go, but when I started explaining, after the [Hebrew] expression, "First, turn around," my words did that same funny trick they always do - they start doing acrobatics as they are about to come out of my mouth.
I literally could not speak. So I decided, well that's not HER fault, and said, in English, "Follow me." She looked at me in shock, "Yesh lach zman?" [You have time?]. And instead of answering that taking ten minutes to show her is less embarrassing than trying to explain it with my acrobatic Hebrew, I nodded.
At one point, after about 5 minutes of driving, I gesticulated for her to pull up next to me and I asked her which direction on this road she was looking for. Then I explained IN HEBREW what she should do. She was very grateful and drove on.
On my way home, I repeated what I'd said to her about 100 times - was it correct? Did I tell her to turn left when I should have told her to turn right?
What if she ends up in Ramallah??? What did I do???
I will never know if she found the place.
My only consolation is that, if you try to enter Ramallah, the army stops you and maybe a soldier will tell her how to get where she was going.
I should have just told her how to install Waze on her phone.
Before I go anywhere new, I not only put the location in Waze, but I look at it on Google Maps, just to see the route beforehand, look at the "street view" so I know what to look for when I get there, and consider alternate routes. I mean, I investigate thoroughly.
That is because I am MORTALLY TERRIFIED of being in the wrong location - um, with good reason.
Israel is not a country in which you have "fun" being lost. It's not an adventure, it's just plain scary.
So here I was, driving along minding my own business and there's a young woman who is stopped in the middle of the street in my neighborhood. While everyone else was honking and gesticulating around her for delaying their arrival at their destination for all of 20 seconds, I looked at her and she waved at me desperately.
So I pulled over and she asked me where a certain street was. In Hebrew. She was Israeli.
Hahahaha! SHE asked ME! And she expected me to explain! In Hebrew! Hahahaha!
So I knew exactly where she wanted to go, but when I started explaining, after the [Hebrew] expression, "First, turn around," my words did that same funny trick they always do - they start doing acrobatics as they are about to come out of my mouth.
I literally could not speak. So I decided, well that's not HER fault, and said, in English, "Follow me." She looked at me in shock, "Yesh lach zman?" [You have time?]. And instead of answering that taking ten minutes to show her is less embarrassing than trying to explain it with my acrobatic Hebrew, I nodded.
At one point, after about 5 minutes of driving, I gesticulated for her to pull up next to me and I asked her which direction on this road she was looking for. Then I explained IN HEBREW what she should do. She was very grateful and drove on.
On my way home, I repeated what I'd said to her about 100 times - was it correct? Did I tell her to turn left when I should have told her to turn right?
What if she ends up in Ramallah??? What did I do???
I will never know if she found the place.
My only consolation is that, if you try to enter Ramallah, the army stops you and maybe a soldier will tell her how to get where she was going.
I should have just told her how to install Waze on her phone.
:)
ReplyDelete