"It's shesh besh," said Manuel, a shop owner in the Jaffa Market in Tel Aviv.
"Say it again," I requested.
"Shesh besh," he said as he rolled the dice.
"It's looks like backgammon."
"It's shesh besh."
Manuel proceeded to explain the rules to me in broken-but-clear English. Roll the dice. Move the pieces.
"We call that backgammon in the States," I said.
The States. Many Israelis I met had a "the States" story. Manuel told me about a two-month trip he made there a few years ago.
"We go from New York to Miami to Vegas," he said. "Fly across whole country."
His favorite stop was Seattle. The scenery was nice, but he liked it the most, because he got to drive a car there.
"The roads were wide and fast."
