So, we have had an exciting week. On Wednesday we went and spent a wonderful day in Jerusalem. We woke up early and took a bus to the bus to Jerusalem. We started driving (it was 9am) and we were out of the bus station by 10 minutes and we were stuck in completely stopped traffic! Now, I thought, "well, this isn't good", but I assumed that it would only be part of the way to Jerusalem. Boy, was I wrong. There was terrible traffic the ENTIRE way. I'm not a fan of bus travel to begin with--but this was torture. We finally got there, and we had to be at the Kotel for our tour of the Tunnels at 10:35. We arrived at the bus station at 10:20, hopped into a cab and we made it to the Kotel in time. The tour was really interesting--both Yuval and I had done it before, but that didn't matter it was still great. The tour ends in the Muslim quarter, so we walked back with 2 guards, and I was happy to be back in the Kotel plaza. After this, we were hungry and looked for something to eat. We ended up in the Cardo, had some terrible pizza, and terrible falafel. Really the worst of both we have had in Israel. I did have a good ice cream though. We then made our way through the cardo and a shuk to the Jaffa gate where Midgal David (the tower of david) stands. It was a fort built in the 2nd century BCE. Inside there is a museum which explains the history of Jerusalem from biblical times to today. The museum is very well done and the citadel itself, impressive. We spent about 2.5 hours exploring the museum and then we went to meet my friend Hollie, from genesis. She is studying at a Yeshiva in a neighborhood called Katamon in Jerusalem, we took a cab to meet her. It was so much fun to talk with her after not seeing each other for a long time. After some more delicious ice cream, we took a cab back to Migdal David for the highlight of the night. We stopped for a little dinner, only Yuval ate, I was stuffed from my meals of ice cream..and then we went to Migdal David for an amazing light and sound show. They project a movie type thing onto the walls of the citadel, and the technology is amazing. It is difficult to explain, but if you have the chance to go, go! After the show, we were exhausted and went back to the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem to catch a bus back to Tel Aviv. This time it took barely 40 minutes.
We then spent the rest of the week in Tel Aviv, going to school, etc. Unfortunately, Yuval caught a cold, and has been fighting it, so we have been taking it easy. We went to Haifa for Shabbat, because it was Netta's birthday, and then after Shabbat was the event Yuval has been waiting for. The Israel-Greece World Cup Qualifying game. We had gotten tickets the previous week, bought Israel team jerseys and were ready to go to Ramat Gan to watch the game. After figuring out exactly how to get to the stadium on Shabbat when the buses do not run, we were there 2 hours early. Part of the reason we got there so early was that many cabs didn't want to drive us there because they thought it would be so congested. When we finally found a cab to take us, it was a mere 10 minute drive from the train station, no traffic at all. The best part of the game for me was the beginning when everyone was singing and cheering. After that, the game was pretty boring. The hardest part about Israel for me is dealing with the people here. It just seems like rudeness/meanness is the default behavior. At the game, the people in our section spent most of the time screaming at each other to sit down. Now, in my mind, these people paid money to go to a sporting event, which is supposed to be a fun activity, but they chose to spend it red in the face screaming at the people around them. It is hard for me to understand.
This weekend Yuval developed a cold, but he is getting better. We are beyond excited to come home, and will try to be better at blogging more often.
Love,
Sarah
Monday, March 30, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
רק בישראל
A lot has happened since my last post. I finally recovered completely from the worst ear infection EVER. A warning: try never to get an ear infection as an adult. It sucks. Now, that I am better, we have been venturing out of the house to do a little more Tel Aviv exploring. This past weekend was the first weekend we have stayed in Tel Aviv, and we had a visitor! Yuval's first cousin Ian! Ian is here on the Schecter Neshama program, and he came to us for his first free weekend. Now, Ian got here last Thursday around 5pm, Yuval had class so I went to pick him up at the train station. I took the bus there--because that is how we get around and waited. Yuval had spoken to one of the counselors in Hebrew a few days earlier, and the main rule seemed to be "don't take him to crowded places." Now, we were unsure how to interpret this rule, especially regarding taking the bus. So, I went to pick Ian up unclear on how we would get home. I got there early and waited until he called, at first I was running around the parking lot trying to find where they were, and after 10 minutes of looking like a crazy American, I found him. He was with a group of Schecter kids, and a counselor who looked about my age. She looked at me and handed me a paper which was completely in hebrew and told me to give it to my parents! She then told me she had to watch us get into a cab and drive away, and that is what we did. I showed Ian around our neighborhood--we walked along the tayelet, and met Yuval for dinner, at a cafe around the corner from our apartment that has the best hamburgers ever.
The next day we took Ian to the shuk and the artists fair on Nachalat Binyamin, and I got a pair of earrings that I have been pining over for the last 3 weeks. March Madness began that night, so we spent the evening watching the basketball and having a n extremely mediocre shabbat dinner. We are going to have to practice a little more working with our little toaster/convection oven.
Saturday was a BEAUTIFUL day, so we went to the beach. We met up with two kids from Yuval's school, (ben from brandeis and david from canada), we had a really nice time. The beach was beautiful, the weather was beautiful, it was a great day.
Sunday morning, we got into a cab to take Ian back to his group, and me to Ulpan. This was the first Ulpan class that I was bored in. Sometimes in classes, activities work and sometimes they don't, this time the activities the teacher prepared just didn't work. As I continue with the ulpan there are things that are very frustrating. The first is that there are a number of people in the class who seem to not care at all. This is confusing to me, because they are all paying out of pocket for this class, and if they don't want to be there, then what are they doing?? The other issue is that there are numerous Russian women in the class, who have been in Israel for a number of years, and they also seem afraid to participate. Now, this wouldn't be a problem if most of the class didn't revolve around group work. But, it does. So, its frustrating when I do the work and then the people I am paired up with expect me to do their work also.
Yesterday was a very interesting day. We woke up and went out to buy tickets to the Israel-Greece Soccer game this weekend. Yuval is extremely excited about this...I'm sure it will be fun. We then had to go fix Yuval's phone. Now, Yuval thought he knew where it was. He didn't. We ended up walking 439457469843740 miles until finally finding it. I was cranky from that.
Anyway, this was much longer than I expected. We are very very very very excited to be coming home next week!!
Love,
Sarah
ps. I wanted to tell everyone how grateful I am to Yuval for cleaning the floors in our apartment for me whenever I ask.
The next day we took Ian to the shuk and the artists fair on Nachalat Binyamin, and I got a pair of earrings that I have been pining over for the last 3 weeks. March Madness began that night, so we spent the evening watching the basketball and having a n extremely mediocre shabbat dinner. We are going to have to practice a little more working with our little toaster/convection oven.
Saturday was a BEAUTIFUL day, so we went to the beach. We met up with two kids from Yuval's school, (ben from brandeis and david from canada), we had a really nice time. The beach was beautiful, the weather was beautiful, it was a great day.
Sunday morning, we got into a cab to take Ian back to his group, and me to Ulpan. This was the first Ulpan class that I was bored in. Sometimes in classes, activities work and sometimes they don't, this time the activities the teacher prepared just didn't work. As I continue with the ulpan there are things that are very frustrating. The first is that there are a number of people in the class who seem to not care at all. This is confusing to me, because they are all paying out of pocket for this class, and if they don't want to be there, then what are they doing?? The other issue is that there are numerous Russian women in the class, who have been in Israel for a number of years, and they also seem afraid to participate. Now, this wouldn't be a problem if most of the class didn't revolve around group work. But, it does. So, its frustrating when I do the work and then the people I am paired up with expect me to do their work also.
Yesterday was a very interesting day. We woke up and went out to buy tickets to the Israel-Greece Soccer game this weekend. Yuval is extremely excited about this...I'm sure it will be fun. We then had to go fix Yuval's phone. Now, Yuval thought he knew where it was. He didn't. We ended up walking 439457469843740 miles until finally finding it. I was cranky from that.
Anyway, this was much longer than I expected. We are very very very very excited to be coming home next week!!
Love,
Sarah
ps. I wanted to tell everyone how grateful I am to Yuval for cleaning the floors in our apartment for me whenever I ask.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Going to the bank, and other fun information
So, it has been a while since my last post. The good news, is that I am still in 1st place in our NBA fantasy basketball. Secondly, it is great to report that Sarah is in the 99th percentile in her fantasy basketball March Madness college basketball bracket.
So, let's get down to business and talk about the high tech in dustry of personal banking. Let me tell you, when your grandmother said that it was better to put all your money under your matress, she was right. Especially, if your grandmother lives/lived in Israel.
Opening an account. This takes a little over a week (or 168 hours). I don't mean to get the cards, and for the account to be active. I mean to open an account. Well, actually it only takes 144 hours (6 days, 24 hours a day) because just like God, the banks don't work on Saturday. Well, truth be told, it really only takes
because the bank is only open 29 hours per week (see schedule below).
Sunday: 8:30 - 2:00
Monday: 8:30 - 1:45 and 4:00 - 5:00
Tuesday: 8:30 - 2:00
Wednesday: 8:30 - 2:00
Thursday: 8:30 - 1:45 and 4:00 - 5:00
Friday: Closed
Saturday: Closed
Please notice that if you have a full-time job (Sunday-Thursday), you can't have a bank account. You might not want one anyway, because the bank charges you for everything.
So, we started the process of opening an account. I think we wrote a little about this earlier. You have to sign about 2,000 peices of paper. After that, the lady says, "so you will have one card". We then said, that we would need two cards. The bank charges you per debit card which you need. Then we neede to transfer money into the bank account. In case you didn't see it coming, they charge you for the wiring INTO a non-interest bearing savings account. But 5 days later, we had debit cards with our Hebrew names on them.
However, I had cash which I wanted to deposit into my account. Every time that you use the teller, they charge you 6 Shekels($1.50). If you use the ATM, they charge you 1.3 Shekel ($.35). So, to deposit my own money into my account, they charged me. This is not even the fun part yet.
The money that was wired into the account was in dollars. However, I needed to have it in Shekels. So, one day while walking around the city, we went into another branch of our bank and asked to withdraw dollars. They said that we had to go to OUR ORIGINAL bank in order to sign a paper which would allow us to withdraw from our foreign currency account. I went to our branch, and they said that there was no such form. So, I asked to take out dollars. They said that I could do so, but that they did not have dollars at this branch. So I took the bus to another branch to withdraw dollars. As I spoke to the teller, I realized that I was going to be charged for using him. However, I did not think that I was going to be charged for taking out dollars (money which was wired into the account for a fee). Why would I pay a fee twice? Wow! Am I naive!?! Then I had to take that money to a change place and exchange it for Shekels and then deposit it at my bank (at the machine for a charge of only 1.3 Shekels. The nice lady who originally sent me on this mission which took 3.5 hours, helped me deposit at the ATM. As we were doing so, she asked "So, what are you doing here in Israel"? "I am a student" I said. She then told me that I should show them my student ID so that I don't have any transaction fees. Trying very hard not to punch her, I just smiled and said thank you.
As PopPop says "To make a long story short", DO put all your eggs in one basket, and keep the basket away from the bank.
Getting a student bank account.
So I showed them my student ID. It has a student ID number on it which is supposed to correspond to my teudat zehut (Israeli ID number). Of course, when I sent in my paperwork to Tel Aviv University, they decided to disregard the Israeli passport with my real ISraeli ID number. So, they randomly assigned me a number, which is not good, because the two ID's don't match and cannot be used to create a "student" account at the bank.
I emailed the program leader, and she said she would have my number changed. She didn't tell me which number she would change it to, or the corresponding password. The password is important, becasue you use the same ID number to log into the Tel Aviv University website, where the professors load all the readings. Too bad I can't currently do them.
I can't remember if I wrote about the professors:
Professor 1, Class 1) He told us he was lonely and didn't like grading papers. Oh yeah, he is lonely because he is single.
Professor 2, Class 1) Showed up 15 minutes late and said "how come you are all sitting here so early? Doesn't this class start at 5:30?" He also started off by telling us that it was the first class he had ever taught. Also, can't really speak English well. The class is about strategy. He interchanges vision, goal and strategy. Oops!
Professor 3, Class 1) He is professional and very knowledgeable. I love him!
Professor 1, Class 2) His phone goes off in the middle of class, and instead of just muting it, he checks to see who is calling.
So far, we are 1 for 3 in classes. However, the Mergers and Acquisitions class is truly one of the best I have taken in my two years at IBS.
Since this is a long one, I will follow it up with some more information about Ian's visit and other things tomorrow or int he next few days.
So, let's get down to business and talk about the high tech in dustry of personal banking. Let me tell you, when your grandmother said that it was better to put all your money under your matress, she was right. Especially, if your grandmother lives/lived in Israel.
Opening an account. This takes a little over a week (or 168 hours). I don't mean to get the cards, and for the account to be active. I mean to open an account. Well, actually it only takes 144 hours (6 days, 24 hours a day) because just like God, the banks don't work on Saturday. Well, truth be told, it really only takes
because the bank is only open 29 hours per week (see schedule below).
Sunday: 8:30 - 2:00
Monday: 8:30 - 1:45 and 4:00 - 5:00
Tuesday: 8:30 - 2:00
Wednesday: 8:30 - 2:00
Thursday: 8:30 - 1:45 and 4:00 - 5:00
Friday: Closed
Saturday: Closed
Please notice that if you have a full-time job (Sunday-Thursday), you can't have a bank account. You might not want one anyway, because the bank charges you for everything.
So, we started the process of opening an account. I think we wrote a little about this earlier. You have to sign about 2,000 peices of paper. After that, the lady says, "so you will have one card". We then said, that we would need two cards. The bank charges you per debit card which you need. Then we neede to transfer money into the bank account. In case you didn't see it coming, they charge you for the wiring INTO a non-interest bearing savings account. But 5 days later, we had debit cards with our Hebrew names on them.
However, I had cash which I wanted to deposit into my account. Every time that you use the teller, they charge you 6 Shekels($1.50). If you use the ATM, they charge you 1.3 Shekel ($.35). So, to deposit my own money into my account, they charged me. This is not even the fun part yet.
The money that was wired into the account was in dollars. However, I needed to have it in Shekels. So, one day while walking around the city, we went into another branch of our bank and asked to withdraw dollars. They said that we had to go to OUR ORIGINAL bank in order to sign a paper which would allow us to withdraw from our foreign currency account. I went to our branch, and they said that there was no such form. So, I asked to take out dollars. They said that I could do so, but that they did not have dollars at this branch. So I took the bus to another branch to withdraw dollars. As I spoke to the teller, I realized that I was going to be charged for using him. However, I did not think that I was going to be charged for taking out dollars (money which was wired into the account for a fee). Why would I pay a fee twice? Wow! Am I naive!?! Then I had to take that money to a change place and exchange it for Shekels and then deposit it at my bank (at the machine for a charge of only 1.3 Shekels. The nice lady who originally sent me on this mission which took 3.5 hours, helped me deposit at the ATM. As we were doing so, she asked "So, what are you doing here in Israel"? "I am a student" I said. She then told me that I should show them my student ID so that I don't have any transaction fees. Trying very hard not to punch her, I just smiled and said thank you.
As PopPop says "To make a long story short", DO put all your eggs in one basket, and keep the basket away from the bank.
Getting a student bank account.
So I showed them my student ID. It has a student ID number on it which is supposed to correspond to my teudat zehut (Israeli ID number). Of course, when I sent in my paperwork to Tel Aviv University, they decided to disregard the Israeli passport with my real ISraeli ID number. So, they randomly assigned me a number, which is not good, because the two ID's don't match and cannot be used to create a "student" account at the bank.
I emailed the program leader, and she said she would have my number changed. She didn't tell me which number she would change it to, or the corresponding password. The password is important, becasue you use the same ID number to log into the Tel Aviv University website, where the professors load all the readings. Too bad I can't currently do them.
I can't remember if I wrote about the professors:
Professor 1, Class 1) He told us he was lonely and didn't like grading papers. Oh yeah, he is lonely because he is single.
Professor 2, Class 1) Showed up 15 minutes late and said "how come you are all sitting here so early? Doesn't this class start at 5:30?" He also started off by telling us that it was the first class he had ever taught. Also, can't really speak English well. The class is about strategy. He interchanges vision, goal and strategy. Oops!
Professor 3, Class 1) He is professional and very knowledgeable. I love him!
Professor 1, Class 2) His phone goes off in the middle of class, and instead of just muting it, he checks to see who is calling.
So far, we are 1 for 3 in classes. However, the Mergers and Acquisitions class is truly one of the best I have taken in my two years at IBS.
Since this is a long one, I will follow it up with some more information about Ian's visit and other things tomorrow or int he next few days.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Hopefully the end of the ear infection
So, it has been a week since we went to the doctor and my ear infection proceeded to get worse, not better. My dad made some calls and found us a private ear, nose and throat doctor we could go to here. Since healthcare is universal here, it is difficult to get care if we do not have Israeli insurance. And as we found out later, the clinic that we went to last week usually does more harm than good.
We were able to get an appointment with the doctor on Friday afternoon (which is rare in Israel, since the weekend is Friday and Saturday). Her office was in an apartment building and when we got there, we realized that her office WAS her apartment. She took us into a room with a desk, a doctors bed, and some kind of machine that was covered with a sheet. I told her what the other doctor said and did, and told her that I had gotten worse, and I thought that I had a sinus infection. She then whipped the sheet off the machine in the room and it was a large stainless steel suction machine! On top, she had many glass bottles, which was reminded me of an apothecary from the middle ages. She then looked into my ear, and said she couldn't see, so she started to suction out my ear. I thought she was suctioning out my brain! She then said I had a definite ear infection and that the doctor who I saw last week probably made the infection worse. She then put a piece of cotton on a stainless steel skewer and put it into my sinus! She then let go of the metal and it stayed there, like sticking straight out of my nose! We wish we would have taken a camera to the doctor. Anyway, she said I didn't have a sinus infection, but very bad allergies, which is not surprising because the dust here is unbearable. As much as I try to sweep and mop and clean, the dust is everywhere. The doctor gave me an antibiotic, more ear drops and an antihistamine. So far, 24 hours later, nothing has changed, but I'm hoping tomorrow morning I will wake up better! I hope this is the last post about our adventures with the Israeli medical system.
Sarah
ps. Oze is beginning his hike from Eilat all the way up to the north of the country tomorrow, GO OZE!!
We were able to get an appointment with the doctor on Friday afternoon (which is rare in Israel, since the weekend is Friday and Saturday). Her office was in an apartment building and when we got there, we realized that her office WAS her apartment. She took us into a room with a desk, a doctors bed, and some kind of machine that was covered with a sheet. I told her what the other doctor said and did, and told her that I had gotten worse, and I thought that I had a sinus infection. She then whipped the sheet off the machine in the room and it was a large stainless steel suction machine! On top, she had many glass bottles, which was reminded me of an apothecary from the middle ages. She then looked into my ear, and said she couldn't see, so she started to suction out my ear. I thought she was suctioning out my brain! She then said I had a definite ear infection and that the doctor who I saw last week probably made the infection worse. She then put a piece of cotton on a stainless steel skewer and put it into my sinus! She then let go of the metal and it stayed there, like sticking straight out of my nose! We wish we would have taken a camera to the doctor. Anyway, she said I didn't have a sinus infection, but very bad allergies, which is not surprising because the dust here is unbearable. As much as I try to sweep and mop and clean, the dust is everywhere. The doctor gave me an antibiotic, more ear drops and an antihistamine. So far, 24 hours later, nothing has changed, but I'm hoping tomorrow morning I will wake up better! I hope this is the last post about our adventures with the Israeli medical system.
Sarah
ps. Oze is beginning his hike from Eilat all the way up to the north of the country tomorrow, GO OZE!!
Monday, March 9, 2009
An ear infection and a burn
This weekend, the weather was much nicer, so we ventured to Haifa again. We were hoping this time that we would be able to leave the house! We did, we went to a lovely Shabbat dinner at Savta's house and acquired some purim costumes. The next day we went on a hike with Niva and Savta. I (Sarah) had been having some pain in my ears, and one of them was pretty much clogged. As we were hiking, my ears started to get worse, and I started to feel sick. We went home, and tried to figure out how to go to the doctor without an Israeli ID number, and israeli insurance. In Tel Aviv (and all around the country) they have these clinics that are open only at night and on Shabbat, when regular doctors are not open (and it isn't an emergency). So, we came back on the train from Haifa and went straight to the doctor's office.
I'm finding that there seem to be things in this country that are difficult just for the sake of being difficult. This seemed like an odd strategy in a doctor's office. Anyway, we were told to go to room number 1. So, we walked back to the area where the rooms were and we see, Nurses room, room 2, 3, 4. Now, we don't want to look like stupid Americans but, there was no room number 1! We go into the nurse, and she takes my temperature, and Yuval asks if we could speak in English. The nurse says of course, and goes to write down stuff. She looks up at Yuval and barks, "Why would you think I didn't speak english?" She was offended at the question. Now, my thinking is, well we asked to speak in English because that is not the language that most people speak in this country...but she was offended by the request. She did speak to us in English though.
We then waited about 15 minutes and we went in to see the doctor. Again, we asked if we could speak in English. This time, he said no, only Russian. So, we stuck with Hebrew. The doctor looked into my ears and stuck a Q-tip pretty much all the way into my brain. It hurt like crazy. He told us that I had a viral infection in my ears and it maybe had something to do with something in my throat (we didn't really understand that part). He gave me some antibiotic/anti-inflammatory drops to put into my ears. It really hurts when we put in the drops. I am feeling a little better 2 days later.
Now, we come home after the adventure at the doctors and I pour myself a cup of tea. As I pick up the mug, it explodes in my hand and scalding hot water pours onto my feet. I was wearing socks and the hot water burned my foot through my socks. Now, my ears didn't hurt so much!
Yuval cleaned up the mess, but cream on my burn and we went to sleep. It was an eventful day.
Now, we are back in Tel Aviv, looking forward to going to a Purim parade in Holon tomorrow.
We love and miss you!
Sarah
I'm finding that there seem to be things in this country that are difficult just for the sake of being difficult. This seemed like an odd strategy in a doctor's office. Anyway, we were told to go to room number 1. So, we walked back to the area where the rooms were and we see, Nurses room, room 2, 3, 4. Now, we don't want to look like stupid Americans but, there was no room number 1! We go into the nurse, and she takes my temperature, and Yuval asks if we could speak in English. The nurse says of course, and goes to write down stuff. She looks up at Yuval and barks, "Why would you think I didn't speak english?" She was offended at the question. Now, my thinking is, well we asked to speak in English because that is not the language that most people speak in this country...but she was offended by the request. She did speak to us in English though.
We then waited about 15 minutes and we went in to see the doctor. Again, we asked if we could speak in English. This time, he said no, only Russian. So, we stuck with Hebrew. The doctor looked into my ears and stuck a Q-tip pretty much all the way into my brain. It hurt like crazy. He told us that I had a viral infection in my ears and it maybe had something to do with something in my throat (we didn't really understand that part). He gave me some antibiotic/anti-inflammatory drops to put into my ears. It really hurts when we put in the drops. I am feeling a little better 2 days later.
Now, we come home after the adventure at the doctors and I pour myself a cup of tea. As I pick up the mug, it explodes in my hand and scalding hot water pours onto my feet. I was wearing socks and the hot water burned my foot through my socks. Now, my ears didn't hurt so much!
Yuval cleaned up the mess, but cream on my burn and we went to sleep. It was an eventful day.
Now, we are back in Tel Aviv, looking forward to going to a Purim parade in Holon tomorrow.
We love and miss you!
Sarah
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Ulpan starts, and some other surprises
Sarah’s first day of ulpan
So, she went and could not pay, because everything in Israel takes forever, and we still don’t have a bank account. However, we do have some charges to the account, but since Israel’s high tech banking system has not learned to have an online banking website in English…We hope to figure this out in the next two days. Also, banks close at 2:00. We found this out when we got to the bank at 2:03 today. But Sarah has a great teacher, probably because Safta called to inquire about the teacher. Also, she has made two friends there as well. More on this topic to follow.
Friendly remarks from the dean
We met the dean of our faculty. He has about as much personality as driftwood. He looked as full of happiness addressing us as Sarah looks after I drink this amazing Israeli chocolate milk. He said things like “it is great to have you here” and “we are so excited to have you in our country”, but he looked like Pat Riley coaching the Knicks during his postgame interviews with reporters.
We now have clean floors
In terms of the floors, everything is under control. We are now cleaning experts, and Sarah has cleared the stones out of our water heater.
Thunder and lightning and rain
As god promised to Noah, never to again flood the Earth. She lied. God has been causing rain throughout this country for an endless period (which finally ended today). I actually had to buy an umbrella a few days ago, because it was pouring. In Haifa, we had to stay indoors the whole weekend because of the Mabul (flood from Noah’s time). We hope that this weekend will be much sunnier. We want to go folk-dancing. However, I did show Niva how to use the Cutco knives. Wa-wa-wee-wa! She exclaimed. Safta sent us home with food as usual, and we have yet to cook hot food for ourselves.
Pot shower
Good news. Our shower is completely unclogged. Bad news is…This might have been the most exciting part of our trip so far. We arrived back from Haifa on Saturday night to find our hot water to be non-existent. I called David, our landlord who said he would check it out. By the next day, I was checking the gas tanks, which he said he would replace the following day. But after being replaced on Monday, that was not the problem. So Tuesday came around bringing more rain, and very oily hair. For me, it was not really a problem. I don’t have much hair. But for Sarah, it was. When she took her hairband out, her hair stayed in a ponytail. So we decided to shower anyway. We were inspired from Marisa telling of her travels to Africa. We had no hot water. We did have a koomkoom (hot water heater). So, here is how we showered. I ran to heat water in the koomkoom, then put it in a large pot in the bathroom. Ran back to fill the koomkoom up with more water. Ran back to the bathroom to add some cold water to the boiling water in the pot. Then I took a smaller pot, dipped it into the larger pot and put water in it, which I put on Sarah’s hair. Then as Sarah put shampoo in her hair, I ran to get the new hot water. Then I poured it into the larger pot and then added cold water, but not before running back to refill the koomkoom and start warming it. Then I added more cold water to the pot and then scooped some more up into the smaller pot in order to help get the shampoo out of her hair. It is as easy as cleaning the floor…(see second entry) .And this is how we showered that night The next day, the hot water was fixed just in time for Oze to arrive.
Oze comes to Israel
Oze here, excited about the opportunity to contribute to this blog, one of the greatest sites to hit the internet since Google. Meteorologist Bowen had predicted that my chances of flying out of JFK on Sunday night were about 50-50. Though the plane was late arriving because of the weather and icy stuff was coming down, Delta decided to board all the passengers and keep us there as hostages with no food for 4 hours. After 2 hours or so, 2 passengers started expressing their disappointment rather loudly and were politely asked to leave the plane by half a dozen security guards. They had the last laugh however, as when we were finally released from the plane and the flight was officially delayed at 3:15am, they greeted us warmly in the terminal with cups of duty-free whiskey in their hands.
So we slept Sunday “night” on the floor of JFK (“night” = 4:30-6am). Around 6am they made an announcement urged passengers to organize a minyan if they wanted, as we would be boarding shortly for our “7am” flight. The 7am flight was delayed to 7:30, then 8 then 8:30, then they made an announcement that they were waiting for one of the pilots who was an hour and a half away, then they announced that the airport would be closed until noon, then they said it was unlikely the weather would clear up before 6pm, then at 11am they told everyone to stand up and prepare for boarding. We boarded the plane around noon, spent 10 minutes rocking back and forth as the plane pusher truck tried to push us backwards but kept slipping in the snow, spent a half hour being sprayed with some chemical that was supposed to take all the ice off the plane, taxied into the incredibly long line waiting for the runway, taxied out of line because the pilot announced that we hadn’t yet received permission to enter the airspace of some of the countries we would be flying over, taxied back into line because there was a near mutiny on board with so many people cursing the airline company over its inability to not only provide food for any of its stranded passengers but also to fill out the simple paperwork needed to fly an international flight, and finally took off somewhere around 2:45 pm on Monday. Once we landed 10 hours later, the captain thanked us for flying Delta and hoped that they would see us again soon, to which several dozen people audibly replied “LO!” But all’s well that ends well. I made it to Yuval and Sarah’s, slept a good 13 hours last night and am starting to resemble a person again. They’re too good to me these two, I’d be in pretty bad shape without them.
Visiting in Haifa
It rained like Boston. Boston Sucks! Let’s go Yankees!
Laundry is delivered, like the Jewish people
Not much else to say about this. Only that like our people before us, laundry was delivered (no pun).
So, she went and could not pay, because everything in Israel takes forever, and we still don’t have a bank account. However, we do have some charges to the account, but since Israel’s high tech banking system has not learned to have an online banking website in English…We hope to figure this out in the next two days. Also, banks close at 2:00. We found this out when we got to the bank at 2:03 today. But Sarah has a great teacher, probably because Safta called to inquire about the teacher. Also, she has made two friends there as well. More on this topic to follow.
Friendly remarks from the dean
We met the dean of our faculty. He has about as much personality as driftwood. He looked as full of happiness addressing us as Sarah looks after I drink this amazing Israeli chocolate milk. He said things like “it is great to have you here” and “we are so excited to have you in our country”, but he looked like Pat Riley coaching the Knicks during his postgame interviews with reporters.
We now have clean floors
In terms of the floors, everything is under control. We are now cleaning experts, and Sarah has cleared the stones out of our water heater.
Thunder and lightning and rain
As god promised to Noah, never to again flood the Earth. She lied. God has been causing rain throughout this country for an endless period (which finally ended today). I actually had to buy an umbrella a few days ago, because it was pouring. In Haifa, we had to stay indoors the whole weekend because of the Mabul (flood from Noah’s time). We hope that this weekend will be much sunnier. We want to go folk-dancing. However, I did show Niva how to use the Cutco knives. Wa-wa-wee-wa! She exclaimed. Safta sent us home with food as usual, and we have yet to cook hot food for ourselves.
Pot shower
Good news. Our shower is completely unclogged. Bad news is…This might have been the most exciting part of our trip so far. We arrived back from Haifa on Saturday night to find our hot water to be non-existent. I called David, our landlord who said he would check it out. By the next day, I was checking the gas tanks, which he said he would replace the following day. But after being replaced on Monday, that was not the problem. So Tuesday came around bringing more rain, and very oily hair. For me, it was not really a problem. I don’t have much hair. But for Sarah, it was. When she took her hairband out, her hair stayed in a ponytail. So we decided to shower anyway. We were inspired from Marisa telling of her travels to Africa. We had no hot water. We did have a koomkoom (hot water heater). So, here is how we showered. I ran to heat water in the koomkoom, then put it in a large pot in the bathroom. Ran back to fill the koomkoom up with more water. Ran back to the bathroom to add some cold water to the boiling water in the pot. Then I took a smaller pot, dipped it into the larger pot and put water in it, which I put on Sarah’s hair. Then as Sarah put shampoo in her hair, I ran to get the new hot water. Then I poured it into the larger pot and then added cold water, but not before running back to refill the koomkoom and start warming it. Then I added more cold water to the pot and then scooped some more up into the smaller pot in order to help get the shampoo out of her hair. It is as easy as cleaning the floor…(see second entry) .And this is how we showered that night The next day, the hot water was fixed just in time for Oze to arrive.
Oze comes to Israel
Oze here, excited about the opportunity to contribute to this blog, one of the greatest sites to hit the internet since Google. Meteorologist Bowen had predicted that my chances of flying out of JFK on Sunday night were about 50-50. Though the plane was late arriving because of the weather and icy stuff was coming down, Delta decided to board all the passengers and keep us there as hostages with no food for 4 hours. After 2 hours or so, 2 passengers started expressing their disappointment rather loudly and were politely asked to leave the plane by half a dozen security guards. They had the last laugh however, as when we were finally released from the plane and the flight was officially delayed at 3:15am, they greeted us warmly in the terminal with cups of duty-free whiskey in their hands.
So we slept Sunday “night” on the floor of JFK (“night” = 4:30-6am). Around 6am they made an announcement urged passengers to organize a minyan if they wanted, as we would be boarding shortly for our “7am” flight. The 7am flight was delayed to 7:30, then 8 then 8:30, then they made an announcement that they were waiting for one of the pilots who was an hour and a half away, then they announced that the airport would be closed until noon, then they said it was unlikely the weather would clear up before 6pm, then at 11am they told everyone to stand up and prepare for boarding. We boarded the plane around noon, spent 10 minutes rocking back and forth as the plane pusher truck tried to push us backwards but kept slipping in the snow, spent a half hour being sprayed with some chemical that was supposed to take all the ice off the plane, taxied into the incredibly long line waiting for the runway, taxied out of line because the pilot announced that we hadn’t yet received permission to enter the airspace of some of the countries we would be flying over, taxied back into line because there was a near mutiny on board with so many people cursing the airline company over its inability to not only provide food for any of its stranded passengers but also to fill out the simple paperwork needed to fly an international flight, and finally took off somewhere around 2:45 pm on Monday. Once we landed 10 hours later, the captain thanked us for flying Delta and hoped that they would see us again soon, to which several dozen people audibly replied “LO!” But all’s well that ends well. I made it to Yuval and Sarah’s, slept a good 13 hours last night and am starting to resemble a person again. They’re too good to me these two, I’d be in pretty bad shape without them.
Visiting in Haifa
It rained like Boston. Boston Sucks! Let’s go Yankees!
Laundry is delivered, like the Jewish people
Not much else to say about this. Only that like our people before us, laundry was delivered (no pun).
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