THE SUMMER VACATION

Every summer we celebrate the fact that school is over. Most of the summer vacation we stay at my grandparents from my father side. His house was an open home from all to gather together every once in a while. Most of our relatives lived in towns twenty kilometers far from my grandparents home. Distance seems close but it does take an hour travel. The trip starts by a walk or a taxi to the bus station, the bus takes lot longer because the frequentl stops to pick up passengers and drop others on the way. My grandmother used to prepare and bake bread in a nighbouring land. She made homemade bread frequently; I use to love it. I loved her homemade cottage cheese, which were seasoned with olive oil. The home had always a worm barely smell that meant welcome anytime.

Pepsi was very popular till this day; we use to take an empty glass bottle to the store. The bottle itself cost money and pepsi used to recycle them. Till this day soda is cheaper in price than any concentrate juice, milk or even herbal beverage like tea.

When I was eight years of age, my father came back from the United States one summer, and the beginning of outdoor camping lifestyle began. My grandfather had a small land in the village far from the city, it had a Hangar which was billed by a corporate who rented the place and abandon it. It was a place where an opportunity for exploration without limits. This is where I first had hands on cooking. It is where my father, who was a profishional cook, trained me how to fry an egg. Since that day, my breakfast usualy contains an egg sunny side up. I will always remember the best meal I ever ate in my life, and which I ate once and every day I looking forward to taste it again. It was simply an egg sunny side up. We visited a farm with a pomegranate garden. This farm had chickens raised feeding on the fallen rip pomegranates, this was in the late 80’s and everything mostly was organic and uncontaminated. The best meal I ate in my life was an egg from this farm which came from chickens who feed all summer on pomegranates. The yolk of the egg was extremely orange closer to red in color. And the taste is not something I can’t describe in words.

We also had a huge raspberry tree at the side of summer grandfather house that belonged to our nighbours. All the neighborhood kids would come during the summer days and eat off the tree. We would climb the tree, and everyone has a section that was a personal territory on that tree. Sometimes we would shake the tree, or jump on a branch rapidly making the berries fall which we were to collect them. There were many rotten berries on the ground, so we use to throw them at each other. This tree was an organic tree that needs no one to take care of, it was well rooted and well spread, and it didn’t need water from an outside source. This tree was a large tree that produced huge amount of fruit. Years past, and the neighbors decided to cut off the tree for privacy purposes. Strangers used to come and eat from this tree. Although It had enough fruit to feed us all in the summer time, but I guess they sacrificed its fruits for the price of privacy. It was sad for us as children who didn’t understand, but such dicision was done to protect the children.

I was taught not to buy from an ice cream truck; we tried to ignore the music when it came. Our mother at the time could not afford the ice-cream, but this changed when my father came back. We loved to buy ice cream in a cone rather than on a stick. We use to bite the bottom of the cone and suck the ice cream out. Those were great on hot, summer days. In the winter days the ice cream service stops. This is where I made homemade Ice-cream, well not exactly ice cream. I learned that freezing sweet milk with a spoon for a handle, was not as good as ice cream or popsicle, but not bad as there were no other options.In the Middle East, we rarely see snow, but when we do. We would collect as much clean pure snow and make slush drinks and smoothies out of them. My favorite was snow with lemon and sugar. My father’s favorite was snow with date syrup. When it snows going to school is a crime, even the principal use to go outside sliding, it’s a rare occasion which we should be thankful for such blessing.