様々な分野でグローバルに活躍する「普通の人々」が体験を語り、次世代の普通の人々のお役に立てればと思っているサイトです。

日本在住歴約40年のRon McFarlandと外資系勤務が長い齋藤信幸が、それぞれの海外体験を語ります。

Ron McFarlandのPersonal Journey(9) - 初めての長期海外旅行、イスラエルとヨーロッパへ。ヒッピー?

2021-06-15 17:06:41 | Ron's Life Story
しばらく私の雑談が続いたのでRonさんのPersonal Journeyに戻ります。

さて、今回からは、Ronさんのメキシコを除く、初めての長期海外旅行。当時のRonさんはヒッピー的な思考だったのかもしれません。

当時、日本人にも小田実の『なんでも見てやろう』に触発されて、世界一周を試みた人が沢山いました。
『なんでも見てやろう』は、フルブライト留学生であった小田が、帰国時に1枚の航空券と200ドルを手に、世界一周した旅行記。
日本人のグローバル化の第2陣いや第3陣ですかね。言い過ぎ!?無銭旅行の人も多く、現地で働きながら旅を進めた人もいたようです。
今より、衛生状態が悪く、不便な中、よく行ったものです。

Shortly after returning from Mexico, I traveled to Israel and Europe for the first time. Those were the days when college students would hitchhike from country to country with a pack on their back. So, I borrowed a pack, bought a discount air ticket and a 1-month Euro-pass train ticket, and I was ready to go.

米国人が英語を学ぶ?!
First, I flew to London and spent four days with Jimmy Chan whom I mentioned in Chapter #2. He was at the London School of Economics at that time working on a PhD in Mathematics. I remember taking a bath in the smallest bath I’ve ever seen in my life in his apartment in London. Also, he gave me good directions on what to see and how to get around on the “Tube” or “Underground” as they say. For us, it’s a subway. In those days my international English usage vocabulary was improving too. I learned what a “WC” was. I learned that “being pissed,” means being drunk not angry and many other important terms.





In London with Jimmy Chan, a lifelong friend

From London I flew to Israel to visit my sister, Bonnie. When I was studying in San Jose, Bonnie decided to save up her money and live on a Kibbutz in Israel to learn more about the Jewish religion and Hebrew. She went to work on a Kibbutz that specializes in teaching the religion. Kibbutz is Israel’s way of setting up protective communes. The Kibbutz’s set up businesses (mostly agricultural and manufacturing operations), have schools, dormitories, cafeterias, medical clinics, and a wide range of recreational facilities. There are sports teams, social activities and a wide range of studies. Depending on the type of business they are in, there are rich Kibbutz and poor Kibbutz. The one thing common among all of them is that the pay is very low, but you have all the necessities of life. Some Israelis love that type of life, some hate it. This concept has even been exported with Israelis going overseas, setting up businesses and asking their home Kibbutz to lend them contract workers. Here again, the overseas operation takes care of everything, but the pay is very low, quite often below minimum wage. The Chinese have done similar types of activities to get cheap labor in their restaurants in many countries outside of China.

On my sister’s Kibbutz, they produced grapefruit for export to Europe, milk (They had a dairy farm.), and grindstone. My sister worked in the clothing and seamstress section. She made towels and mended work clothes. Years later, I had seen them at exhibitions around the world as their grindstone operation has expanded into a wide range of grinding tool accessories.

Bonnie met her husband (Julian) there on that Kibbutz. He was from South Africa and worked in the dairy. So, Julian would wake up at 03:00 AM to go milk the cows.

私が見たハイテク軍事産業に支えられたイスラエルとは異なる側面
I was a month in Israel, about two weeks in the Kibbutz and the rest of the time traveling around the country. I had no idea at that time that I would have the chance to make repeated trips to the country for work. I saw the Golan Heights in the north and all the way down to Sharma Shek in the south. I found the country fascinating.





Sharma Shek and Jerusalem, Israel

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