There's nothing quite like a long bike ride through the cool breeze at twilight as the unbearable valley heat ebbs and the sky streaks a deep auburn across the horizon into a lush golden lavender that beckons a deep blue balmy night. I pop my head phones in and a soundtrack accompanies my solitary ride through the smooth back roads of the neighborhood.
Cars whiz by, wistful couples stroll hand in hand, intrepid joggers weave through the mostly sparse foot-traffic, kids with scooters wearing colorful, goofy helmets haphazardly dodge other pedestrians as their exasperated parents chase after them dragging their overtired miniature dogs, and fellow bike riders switch on their blinking night lights as the neon sun expires beneath the cool blanket of night.
Most times I stick to this road that parallels the busy, honking mess that is Ventura Boulevard because it offers a mobile serenity much needed after a long, sticky day stuck on the 405 or the 101. Sometimes I bike through and to the park where I spent so many of those summer afternoons spread across the grassy knolls listening to the chorus of ducks and geese, gliding through the nostalgic haze of summer time barbecue smoke only to reappear on the other side onward past a somnolent golf course where I spent weekends of my youth lugging around my cumbersome clubs.
I've been a valley girl, if you will, for more than a decade now, and it's still a facet of my identity that surprises me despite the vehement pride I unhesitatingly express for the valley to the chagrin and mocking incredulity of other, "real" Angelenos.Having grown up in the heart of Hancock Park on the edge of Beverly Hills where I spent the formidable years of my childhood collecting leaves and roly polies with Tiffany in the backyard, my move to the valley some eleven years ago still seems just like yesterday. Much of highschool was spent at Blue Cafe, the drive-thru of In-N-Out and couches at friend's houses. I walked and ran with Polly every night for six of the past ten or so years, but I never ventured much further than my usual route, and if I did, it was only within a block radius of my house. It was only recently, during my short vacation bouts at home that I really started to explore my neighborhood.
Maybe it was my time spent abroad for a year, especially the time spent in Israel that has opened my eyes to the substantial presence of Israelis in my neighborhood, but whatever it was, I've noticed more than ever before, the Middle Eastern tang that permeates this stretch of Ventura between Winnetka and Hayvenhurst.
I'd always known there were many Persians in my neighborhood because most of my neighbors seemed to have these beautiful, exotic yet difficult to pronounce names. And I knew of the Jewish presence because of the Orthodox jews who would walk to the temple in front of my house every Saturday. However, I don't think I was aware of the extent of this Mid-Eastern presence in my neighborhood and on my daily life. Maybe all along it was subliminal messages that surrounded me for all those impressionable years of highschool that pushed me to learn Arabic as soon as I entered college and then find myself traveling through the Middle East. Mom, there's your explanation!
Having come back home after such an incredibly difficult and wonderful semester in Israel, nothing made me happier than having uncharacteristically taken the Ventura route one day on my bike to rediscover my neighborhood with the addition of Hebrew interspersed with Farsi along every block and at each corner Starbucks.
I spent a solid week biking up and down Ventura capturing the best and most typical scenes and images that represent what really is a taste of the Middle East in who knew?, the valley. Let me share with you these vignettes I so cherish into my neighborhood. And man, that's real LA when you can find a kosher sushi bar, and a random Korean girl can read the Arabic script on your Farsi signs and tell you she met your uncle, the one that drives a taxi, in Eilat last January.
I'd always known there were many Persians in my neighborhood because most of my neighbors seemed to have these beautiful, exotic yet difficult to pronounce names. And I knew of the Jewish presence because of the Orthodox jews who would walk to the temple in front of my house every Saturday. However, I don't think I was aware of the extent of this Mid-Eastern presence in my neighborhood and on my daily life. Maybe all along it was subliminal messages that surrounded me for all those impressionable years of highschool that pushed me to learn Arabic as soon as I entered college and then find myself traveling through the Middle East. Mom, there's your explanation!
Having come back home after such an incredibly difficult and wonderful semester in Israel, nothing made me happier than having uncharacteristically taken the Ventura route one day on my bike to rediscover my neighborhood with the addition of Hebrew interspersed with Farsi along every block and at each corner Starbucks.
I spent a solid week biking up and down Ventura capturing the best and most typical scenes and images that represent what really is a taste of the Middle East in who knew?, the valley. Let me share with you these vignettes I so cherish into my neighborhood. And man, that's real LA when you can find a kosher sushi bar, and a random Korean girl can read the Arabic script on your Farsi signs and tell you she met your uncle, the one that drives a taxi, in Eilat last January.
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