August 2003

Hello friends,

This week my parents and sister came to visit me and we are touring. One thing I can tell you is that living in a place and touring the same place is not the same thing. As a tourist, you observe places that the local people never bother going to see, and as a local (although not native) I saw many places not listed in any tour guide. As a tourist you see how many tourists are getting around in the city. As a local, you just ignore that massive population that travels on fixed routes. Locals meet locals, and tourists meet tourists. Most visitors here are from Canada and the U.S. (not foreigners), so they are less noticeable than tourists in Israel are.
The tourist's way of thinking is that the city has many attractions for the locals, and the tourist comes to peek at what the city offers to its residents. This is true only in part. Tourists forget that the local residents are actually living in the city, and that the city (not the attractions) was actually built for these people and by these people to spend their lives there. Local residents are busy with their businesses, and they won't go to see the attractions and festivals more than twice, so these things are made mainly for visitors from out of town. The same thing happened when I lived in Jerusalem. For example, I didn't go to the old city more than before or after I lived there.
To get the feeling of what tourists think of Toronto, I took the opportunity and invited a promising young guest writer from Israel, my sister Noa, to write (with a little help) about her impressions of the city.

This month I'm taking Ady's place and writing as a guest writer. My parents and I arrived to Toronto four days ago to visit Ady whom we didn't meet for nine months. Since the very first moment that we met Ady we are touring Toronto by foot and exploring its marvels. The great thing is that Ady lives right in the center of town, and we can walk anywhere. His neighborhood is close to the university and composed of beautiful private houses with colorful gardens at the front. It was a Jewish area a long time ago (we've already ran into two old synagogues) and is very close to Toronto's China Town.

The most noticeable thing is the enormous diversity: the people here are from all over the globe, with all their languages, colors, costumes and food (there is even falafel and shawarma). It seems that everybody is happy here and there is no xenophobia. It's a heaven of tolerance. I think the reason is that Canada is rich and large enough to contain all these immigrants and share its wealth. Another thing that is apparent is the blend of new and old - old buildings with crawling ivy besides modern buildings (they still like the bare concrete style). In some places they kept the old facades of old houses and built skyscrapers from metal and glass on top of the facade. The combination looks funny. I wondered what the original architect would say about these conservation transformations.

On my first moments in Canada I couldn't tell the differences between Canada and the U.S. After only four days, I can see there is a difference. First, the people are in regular size and are extremely polite. There are less homeless people around and the subway is shining clean. Everything is written in at least two languages, English and French, and sometimes they append Chinese or Portuguese. Canada has a European flavor, with its numerous cafe's, pubs, and elegantly dressed people. I wish my brother would learn to dress as they do.


Ady and Noa.