Zion gate, scarred with bullet marks. As I was seriously reflecting the history and thinking how remarkable it was that I could come to a unified Jerusalem, something funny and not so serious happened!
Just as Jewish quarter changed after the Israeli army went in this gate in 1967, my life changed after coming here…… (just kidding)
Then my skinny brother found a fat cat by Zion Gate. We were simply looking at this cat for 10 seconds, then… an Orthodox Jew came to us!
From what I heard from locals and from the internet, Orthodox Jews don’t go to normal schools, they don’t work and don’t serve in IDF. But this Orthodox Jew came to us! I was surprised and thrilled. Nervous too.
He opened his mouth, and spoke to us in English!
In Israel…
I thought he was going to introduce his country to us. But how interesting that he said,
Cat no eat.
Hmmmm. So Israeli cats don’t eat? But this cat is pretty chubby. Or did he mean that we shouldn’t feed stray cats? I asked him, still in a friendly and innocent tone.
But his face was serious, and he left us with these words,
No eat!
And….. 10 seconds later…..
Whaaaaat? 😱😱😱
Did he seriously think that my brother and I were going to eat this cat? Is it because we are Chinese (by blood)? Oh well! Whatever!
I get that Israel is an expensive place to live. I get that people know Chinese eat dogs and all sorts of weird animals. But we are nice tourists in Israel, we aren’t here to eat any cat! Did he have bad experience spotting Asians eating cats, I wonder? 😂
I told my Israeli friend (secular Jew) about this experience. His first experience was…
He could speak English? 😯
I guess we all have stereotypes on people!
