kibalti et ha teudat zehut sheli etmol!!! (i received my official identity card yesterday!!!) oh man, it is so cool. i didn't realize how exciting it would be to finally have this thing.. it is so weird to look at this card and see that i am an israeli citizen. and the interesting thing is that i got it exactly a month, to the day, after i arrived in the country -- i made aliyah on october 10, 2003, and became a citizen on november 10, 2003. cosmic, huh?
anyway, everyone was amazed that i managed to get into the misrad ha'pnim for an appointment when the strike is still on.. apparently i have friends in high places (in hebrew, the saying is "friends in high windows"). :) i had an 8:00am appointment, so once again, i hauled my ass out of bed early and went over there.. i don't know how it happened but i ended up being 15 minutes early. so i knocked on the door and the security guard opened it A CRACK and asked what i wanted. i could barely get out a word before he slammed the door in my face. i hadn't been sure up until that point whether the strike was still on or not, but i got my answer -- then i saw the huge signs on the door announcing, "SAGOOR" (closed). i waited 5 minutes and then knocked again. in my broken hebrew, a little desperate-sounding, "i have an appointment!" he answered, "no appointments anymore, it's a strike." "i got my appointment just yesterday!" i yelled back through the closed door.. difficult in hebrew, given that i couldn't remember the word for "appointment."...
...
oh man, i'm too tired to continue.. the foster dog kept me up all last night.. i will finish this tomorrow, i swear... :)
...
here's another infamous set of question-and-response from Janglo.. in light of the article i just wrote, i was thinking you would enjoy seeing the kind of information i tend to get back..
From:
Alison
Golub
Sent:
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 6:30 PM
Subject:
kerosene heater - how do i not die?
hi
janglo-ers!
ok,
i'm a new olah and just moved into an apartment in nachlaot.. it has kerosene
heating, which everyone says is really cheap but potentially problematic for a
variety of reasons. some people have told me the fumes will be potent,
others have told me i'll die of asphyxiation if i don't keep a window
totally open, others have said just crack a window anywhere in the house, still
others said don't bother with it and just buy some other heaters. i'm
particularly worried about my small dog, who will die way before me if it comes
to that. i have a carbon monoxide detector from the states but i have no
idea if it will work. my landlord keeps assuring me it's fine and he'll
show me how it works "when it gets cold." well, it's definitely
getting there, at least today, and i need to figure this out! any
information you have will be very helpful.. i want to make sure to stay alive
during my aliyah process!!! thanks so much,
alison
and
again, my favorite response:
From:
"-" <dude5857@yahoo.com>
To:
<alison_golub@hotmail.com>
Sent:
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 9:28 PM
Subject:
Re: kerosene heater - how do i not die?
>
Dear Alison....
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> You're fucked.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Very sincerely yours,
>
> Your friends,
>
> Greg and Yonatan.
hee hee, this was actually from two of my friends here in jerusalem.. it was a shock at first, but then very funny. they actually took bets on how long it would take me to respond.. i won, with a phone call roughly 2.5 seconds after receiving the email. :)