6th Months as Israelis

Can you believe it!  We've been here for half a year already.  That means I'm halfway to my goal of "blogging" once a week for our first year as Israelis.  Also an impressive feat.  

After I sent the last update, I realized I forgot to include one of the funniest Purim-related anecdotes.  So here is a little post script to the "Purim as Israelis" post:

Just like in America before Halloween, in the month leading up to Purim random costume shops seem to pop up on every street corner and there are numerous full-page adds in the newspaper with all the "hottest" costumes of the season.  For many young children (and some adults too) picking the perfect Purim costume can be an all-consuming and stressful time - to be a police man or super hero?  It's always a tough decision.  To complicate the matter, in addition to having to choose between familiar super heroes like Superman and Spiderman, in Israel there is also (my new favorite super hero)... Tomato Man!  

We have come a long way in these first six months.  We are fully settled into our apartment, set in our weekly routines and employed.  We have made friends - some Hebrew speaking, some English - gotten to know our neighbors, the local butcher and hummus guy by name and have yelled - in Hebrew! - at the phone company (yelling in a foreign language is more impressive than it sounds).  The main obstacle that we weren't able to overcome in these first six months was how to hang the shower curtain in our oddly shaped bathtub.  So be it if that's the worst thing, and anyway we have learned how to shower without a shower curtain causing minimal splash-age.  Add that to the accomplishment list.  

Even after living in Israel for as long as we have (about 4+ years total) there are still certain things that leave me saying: "I'm not in American anymore..."  Not too long ago my computer power cord up and died.  This was no so surprising as I think I was on cord number 3 or 4 anyway.  After a few days of a computer "black out" I decided it was time to bite the bullet and buy a new one.  My first realization was that I couldn't just go on to Amazaon and buy a cheap cord - the shipping alone cost 4 times the price of the cord.  After failing to think of anyone I knew who might be coming to Israel from the States that could bring the cord to me, I started to consider my options here in Haifa.  The next day I found myself at a small computer repair shop around the corner from my Ulpan.  To my great relief they had the exact cord I needed and, truth be told, it was even better than my old one because it had an Israeli plug on it - no more little plug converter things for me!  The big drawback, however, was the price.  Still feeling the sticker shock, I called Matt and asked him to check if the computer store on campus had the right cord for cheaper.  He agreed, but couldn't check until the next day.  Before purchasing the power cord I asked the cashier if I don't end up using the cord, could I return it?  She assured me that I could, so I handed her my credit card.  And there was my mistake.  

Matt ended up getting me the cord for 2/3 of the price I paid, so early the next week I returned to the repair shop to get my money back for what I had bought.  I happened to be going with a friend who was dropping off her laptop for repair.  I told the cashier, the same one who sold me the cord, that I would like to return it.  She looked at the cord, she looked at me, she looked at my receipt, she looked back at me.  "Do you want to buy something else or do you want store credit?" she asked.  I told her, "Neither, I just want my money back."  Then she said: "But you paid with a credit card."  I said: "I know."  And she responded: "I don't know how to do that... do you?"  After a long back and forth about how she could possibly not know how to credit someones credit card, she came up with a solution: "Your friend owes us 250 shekel for her repair, we owe you 220 shekel for the cord you are returning. If your friend pays you 220 shek, we will only charge her 30 shek and then we're all even!"  As absurd as this sounded, it was the best we were going to get, so we agreed, but we would have to wait until her computer was fixed for the transaction to go down.

To make a long story short, we visited the shop two or three more times in the following week, each time leaving as we came: me with my cord, my friend without her computer and 220 shekel looming over our heads.  In the end, the computer could not be fixed, my friend would not be charged and we were back to square one.  This time I refused to leave with the cord / without my 220 shekel.  After many many phone calls (all in Arabic, so I couldn't even follow what was happening), we were still solution-less.  How hard can it be to reverse a charge?!  All of the sudden, without explanation, the technician and the cashier left me alone in the store.  When they came back, they brought the owner of the small-appliance shop next door back with them.  In a total of 30 seconds he had successfully credited my card and printed out my refunded receipt.  Why didn't they think of that before.  We're definitively not in America anymore. 

Last, but certainly not least, this week also contained my Hebrew birthday, thus officially starting "birthday season", also known as "chol ha-moed birthday" which will continue until my secular birthday in three weeks.  One of the exciting things about making aliyah and getting your teduat zehut, Israeli ID card, is that is not only contains your Gregorian calendar birthday, but also your Hebrew birthday.  Unfortunately for me, the Israeli government didn't check with me about when I was born, 8:20pm, so they converted March 21, 1984 into the 17th of Adar.  Sadly, my birthday is the 18th of Adar (the Jewish calendar day changes at sunset instead of midnight).  When I brought this up with Misrad HaKlita, the Ministry of Absorption  they told me no to worry about it, leaving me forever with an incorrect birthday on my ID.  A very special thank you to my dear husband who sang me an original birthday song (on my correct birthday) entitled: "Teudat Zehut, Tah-oot" ("ID card, Mistake" - it rhymes better in Hebrew).  I think this will become a new tradition.

Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend,

Stef and Matt