My first day of work, I decided to walk instead of take the bus. This was for two reasons: 1) I like to walk since it gives me a little exercise and fresh air and I get to know my surroundings better and 2) I don’t have to rely on a bus system I don’t know yet and I know for sure that I will get to wherever I’m going on time. Solid logic right? Wrong.
It was 1000 degrees and the humidity was also 1000% (not typos), so I was sweating bad after five minutes. I also got lost, naturally! Google Maps doesn’t work well on my phone, so I always check the route on my computer first and either write it down or make a mental note. This time I had made a mental note. Not real smart when you’ve only been in the country and city for a couple days and you need to get somewhere on time.
Anyways…I did my usual ask people how to get to where I’m going as I walk. I think this is something I must have learned from my Dad and really mastered in Colombia. Most of the people I talked to spoke some English and could help point me in the right direction. At one point, one person said “Oh that’s really far”, where it was only a 15-20 minute walk. That reminded me of Colombianos (who 95% of the time would tell me, “oohh está muy lejos…te toca ir en taxi” regardless of how far anything was) and I laughed inside.
After thinking for a little bit, eventually the guy said I could just take Spinoza. Awesome. What the heck is Spinoza? I remember actually liking that word since it sounded English and not too Hebrewey. So my immediate target was Spinoza, whatever it was. Finally I found it, and it was just one of Haifa’s 5000 hidden stairway shortcuts. It reminded me of the board game Chutes and Ladders where you can cut across multiple levels, in this case streets, via ladders.
Chutes and Ladders (I always loved #28)
Yesterday I went for a run and came across that cool stairway again with a picture of a guy on it. I made note of the Stairway name (the main stairs all have names) so I could tell others later on. It was Spinoza! Who is this Spinoza??
So this morning I showed a picture of the stairway to one of the guys in my department and told him to look for Spinoza stairs. He said Spinoza was the name of a famous philosopher, along the likes of Aristotle and Socrates. I said, huh? How famous could he be if I’d never heard of him. Then again I’m an American and not as cultured as the rest of the world, so what do I know?
When we got to work he called me over and said the picture was actually of the guy himself, Spinoza, who was apparently a famous Jewish philosopher in the 1600s! Pretty cool. There are a bunch of other streets here named after people too. I wonder what their stories are.
Mr. Spinoza
Viva el Falafel 