oy.. i'm exhausted.  it's been a busy week or two.. and i also have a cold, probably from that little winter wedding! :)  i've been madly researching washers and dryers, and i think i've almost nailed down my top selection.  of course, the next obstacle is getting the damn things into my apartment.  as luck would have it, i have a huge bathroom (bigger than any i've seen in israel, actually), but the entrance to the bathroom is just shy of allowing anything of any real importance (except me and sava, and even then it's a squeeze) inside.  well, i'm exaggerating.. but bottom line, the doorway is 21 inches wide and any standard washing machine here is at least 24 inches wide.  gotta love this country.  who in the hell would make a bathroom so big but the doorway so damn small?  just one of those charming little eccentricities about israel, i guess. :)  anyway, apparently the window in the bathroom, which is about 6 feet up, is juuuuust wide enough but will probably entail a lot of hoisting, some scratching of my brand new appliances, and of course, a hefty tip for the schleppers.  but what can i do?  i gotta have clean clothes, don't i?  and believe me, i've been suffering with this problem for quite some time now. :)

what else.. oh, last week, sava got licensed and microchipped.  that was no fun for either of us.  to be honest, i've been against the whole microchip thing since i heard of it.. besides the pain factor, which i can tell you now is not minor, it seems just too "brave new world" for me.. i don't know.. i know it's safer and all that in case she ever gets lost, but man, i don't like the idea of her walking around with a piece of metal inside her.  apparently, they've begun testing this in humans in some country i don't want to know about.. it's only a matter of time, i guess.  anyway, the vet came to my house (isn't that amazing?  only 25 shekels for that.. it used to cost $30 just for the vet to look at her in RI, and that was including me having to drive her all the way over there!) and told me that israel requires me to license her, and in fact, i've been living illegally with her the past two months.. and then he said that the microchipping is required in order to license her, so i really didn't have much of a choice.  she also has to have a rabies shot once a year here, which is very different from the states.. there it's once every two or three years.  apparently rabies is not a small problem here.

so anyway, the vet pulled out this needle that made me white in the face.. i swear to god, you could stick a straw inside it!  i guess it has to be that big in order to get the big hunk of microchip into her.. aackk.  so he stuck her with it and she yelped like i've never heard before.. it broke my heart.. and there was no small amount of blood, either.  she wouldn't come near the vet after that, and wouldn't look at me for the next hour.  this from the same dog who returned to the vet two days after being spayed and licked the same technician who did the operation!  sava used to turn around and lick the vet WHILE the vet was expressing sava's anal glands, which if any of you know, is also not without pain (notice i refrained from using pronouns in this sentence -- seemed like that could cause some confusion, especially if you don't know what anal glands are!).  this is the most forgiving dog on the planet.. so i knew it must have hurt her for her to hold that kind of a grudge.  i felt terrible.. anyway, she seems fine now.. other than the fact that she will probably beep when going through a metal detector now. :)

what else.. oh, so i've been researching other hebrew instruction programs, because i'm starting to feel like my current ulpan isn't moving fast enough.  granted, i'm enjoying it and am definitely progressing, but i'm starting to get nervous about school.  i went to the student authority office last week and talked again with the guy in charge.. he told me that the age limit hasn't changed, which means that my master's degree will only be paid for by them if i am enrolled before the age of 27.  he already knows me, however, and he knows that i just made aliyah and am turning 27 in march.. so he has assured me that he will fight for me with some special committee and will probably be able to get them to pay for me, if i am accepted for this coming year.  this means that i have less than 10 months to advance enough in hebrew, do my applications, and get an actual acceptance letter.  now i think i'm semi-smart and generally capable, but this seems like a stretch even for me.  i'm going to try my hardest though.. i'd rather get close and have to wait another year, but still be very far along in hebrew, than stop trying now.  the real problem is the money, though.. because doing extra hebrew lessons now means lots of extra money output on my part.. which i think is worth it if it saves me from paying for my master's program.  but if i don't get in, then i've spent a lot of extra money and will still have to pay for school myself.  it's a real dilemma.. although the final result is that i will still advance much faster in hebrew.. which is important in lots of other aspects.  for instance, i will be able to work in a larger variety of fields, the faster i learn the language.  so i suppose it's worth it one way or the other.  either way, you can see why i'm starting to get nervous.

the other thing i did last week was that i had a meeting with the director of an organization here called "kids for kids," which is really an amazing place.  the website is www.kidsforkids.net, if you're interested.  they are committed to helping "young victims of terror," and have a number of different programs for them.  the one i was most interested in was aimed at "digital story-telling," whereby they have the kids create a 3-5 minute "story" on a computer program, with pictures and a voice-over narrative and music.. i saw a few of them and they were incredibly powerful.  one girl who talked about missing her brother who was killed in a pigua (bombing), and how she would never see him again.. it was very intense.  i would love to work with this org, but of course they have no money.  interestingly, they need someone to do some type of assessment of the program -- ie., is it working, are the kids recovering better, would it be useful to show these stories to kids outside of israel, etc.. they told me that if i can find a grant to fund me, they would love me to do the assessment for them.. so i'm going to do a little research and see if that's an option.  could be really cool.

in other work news, i'm still waiting to hear from zev, the guy who got married 1.5 weeks ago and who supposedly still wants me to work with him on his project studying the members of ZAKA.  given that he's been AWOL the past few months, i'm not counting on this, but it's still my best option and the most concrete offer i've had so far (scary, huh).  it would be fascinating work.  supposedly he's going to get started on the grant soon, and then the money should start rolllling in.. :)  meanwhile, i'm going to keep my eyes open for other things to do.. there's always babysitting, which i'm doing a bit of now, and i also want to keep looking for Holocaust survivors to interview.  my dream of dreams is to find 20 english speaking survivors here, do the exact same interview as i did in the states, and compare the responses.  that's my dissertation right there, and it would be fascinating.. i just need to do it in time, if you know what i mean.  so i'm pursuing this as well.

i guess i've explained why i'm exhausted, eh? :)  speaking of that, i'm going to go veg out on the couch now, and then maybe do a little hebrew homework.  i'll write more soon.. thanks for reading, y'all! :)