>>>BTW, that's Central European. We were neither east nor west. The water in my city is a bit yellowish because of all the iron - it was washing down from that curtain that was bobbing above our heads.
>>>
>>>Central -- noted. My mistake.
>>
>>Also a matter of physical POV. We call Near East what you call Middle East; but we call the same thing Far East (anything between Malaysia, Mongolia and Bering straits) even though it's farthest edges are in your immediate neighborhood... on the west.
>>
>>But what do you call our Middle East - which would be India, Sri Lanka and middle Russia. Is that Far East too?
>
>It stops me every time when I see your tag line saying Natalie Portman is an Asian American. I think to most Americans Israel is in the Middle East, even though it's not a continent.

Of course Israel is in the Middle East. It just happens that the Middle East is in Asia.