Texas
My Video 1.mp4“It was like living on another planet... [The Americans] didn’t know how to eat us… how to understand us, and they were very cautious… we had to [make] the first move."
Adjusting to Life in a New Country
The world that my mother met in Lubbock was alien to her. It took years for her to find her place in Texas.
My mother did not know any English yet. On top of that, finding familiar ingredients to feel closer to home was impossible, while the nearest fast food restaurant was always a minute's drive away. Even two-day weekends were a surprise, though a pleasant one for sure (only Saturdays are off in Israel). Above all, we were all alone and might as well have been the only Israelis for hundreds of miles.
To make friends, my parents would invite people (such as neighbors and coworkers) to our backyard for barbecues. There, they would cook Israeli food, and tell them about their background.
Similarly, for our birthday parties, my mom would invite everybody from our class to the backyard—both children and parents. Initially, she was very worried about what the guests would think of her and of the backyard party, or if they would even show up in the first place. To her relief, kids came, and their parents actually stayed.
Eventually, my mother was able to mesh Israeli and American life together. In the picture to the right, she went to a Superbowl party (a very American tradition), where two other wives were Israeli and another had an Israeli husband.
My sister's 8th birthday party, 2010
2014 Superbowl party
Life in Texas
My mother admired the size of Texas. Compared to Israel, there were massive highways, no traffic jams, and no parking problems. Texans are also much more laid-back, while Israelis always seem to be in a rush. Moreover, people in Israel stay very late at work; back in Israel, my father would get home at 9 PM on a good night, but here he was always able to come home on time for dinner. Finally, the moms in Texas did not work—they were stay-at-home moms.
Because you can only drive a couple hours in Israel before reaching a border (a border that was naturally with an enemy nation that was unsafe or outright illegal for Israelis to enter), we took advantage of the vastness of the United States. We would travel to New Mexico, Arizona, Southern California, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and many cities in Texas. When we were still new immigrants, we went on a road trip to San Antonio (a city in Texas that was about 6 hours from Lubbock). According to my mother, I asked “Are we still in the United States?” We were still in Texas.
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, 2010.
Preparing to Move
By 2014, the company my dad originally moved for had sold to private equity. Although my parents had come to enjoy life in Texas, they decided to move to Needham, Massachusetts. The hope was that relatives from Israel would be more inclined to visit if the flight was shorter and had no connection flight. My mother was very excited for the strong Israeli presence in the Greater Boston Area.
Picture taken on our last day in Texas in front of our house, November 2014.