Aliyah! Step-by-Step: Making a Life in Israel

Ya la la la, Happy 60th, Israel!!!

8 05 2008

I’ve just gotten home from two free concerts celebrating the 60th anniversary of our country. I had such the dilemma tonight as to what to do –there was so much to choose from! One option was to stay at home alone and do nothing. Seriously, this was very tempting after attending the memorial tekes in Rabin Square last night with Daniella and Limor (and missing Tif and Idan who were still working at that late hour since it has become something of a tradition to meet up there for it these past three years and so. after hanging out at Limor’s place for awhile, not getting home until the wee hours and then getting up very early to work and work myself.

My two more tempting options for the night were going to see free movies (sorry Sarah) or going to hear a free concert –which turned into two free concerts. Somehow it seemed more fitting to do something active (bop around) than passive to celebrate. Besides, I needed to colour my hair so that I would not look as (prematurely) old as my country and that was going to take me beyond the 8pm start of the flicks.

So I met up with Yuval, Adi and Limor at 11:30 to hear Dana International play in Park Hayarkon. We had fireworks there and further down the park in both directions fireworks displays were set off and we could hear the beat from other free concerts. Dana International, however, rocked. S/he was really fantastic. The opening act, and I don’t know who it was sadly as we arrived at the last two songs, also seemed really good.

Oh, here is yet another reason to make aliyah –you will dance exactly like everyone else and not feel bad about it. Yeah, there seems to be something in the Jewish genes that predestines us all to do the “jump up and down, occasionally wave a raised arm or two in the air, and generally look uncoordinated” kinda dance. Awesome. Finally, I’m surrounded by hordes of other people who dance just exactly like I do. Then we motored down the park and caught another concert. I think it was HaGivatron but I’m not sure –it was certainly hoppity.

I’ve retrieved my heavy hebrew computer from work (I actually did this on Sunday) and so am somewhat connected again. The tech people came out and replaced the wireless modem on Monday but I am still downloading at approximately 14kbs per second which is seriously not on. It is better than before but not a heck of a lot better. Theoretically, my speed should be 54 mpbs per second which is what I am theoretically connected at. Obviously there is a problem outside of my poor broken ibm and my modem.

My Ema tells me via email (to which I have not as yet replied –you are in the queue!) that I should charge a Mac on my visa and I won’t regret it. I am seriously thinking about it. I’m not a Mac kinda girl, always preferring the pc, but I’m thinking about switching my computer orientation. The Macs are now pretty darn kewl and from what I’ve been reading are pretty compatible with switching files from a non-Mac to the Mac — a seriously important consideration.

There is so much to celebrate — our 60th anniversary, being connected online again, no class to teach tomorrow, I’ve washed the gray outta my hair, and simply being here in our national homeland. That last is something to celebrate every day, despite all the headaches that go with it. Truly, there is no place like home.

If you’ve emailed me lately, please be patient. I’ve finished with the “in cardiac arrest” emails and am now moving on to those that only need “life-support” with the “minor injuries” still down the queue!

Comments : 1 Comment »
Categories : Uncategorized

oh noooo maybe it is the motherboard of the computer

4 05 2008

I rebooted my laptop and very bad things happened. Much worse than a non-existent Internet connection. No normal start up, no normal screen. Instead, just changing coloured bands filling the screen. It could maybe be the motherboard. It could maybe be the video card. Whatever it is, the computer is, in essence, dead as a doornail at the moment. My beautiful little IBM Bro, I hope you are reading and can tell me what to do about it! I’ll be at school tomorrow and able to do a brief check of email then between meetings. Help

And many thanks to Gidon, my lovely neighbor, who has let me come in and borrow his computer in exchange for cat food for his very cute little cat. I’m so glad he forgot to buy it and came knocking at my door at 2 a.m. so I can say BRO help please !!!!

Comments : 5 Comments »
Categories : Uncategorized

technical woes

2 05 2008

Hi guys, Ema, everyone. Sorry for the long silence but the home ‘net connection is again on the fritz. It started last week during Pesach holidays getting slower and slower and then really slooooowwwwww. We’re talking taking 15-20 minutes to load a page if it would load one at all. I’ve got a technician coming out on Monday to hopefully fix it. It is undoubtedly another case of “dead modem syndrome” caused by the faulty wiring in the apartment.

I’ve also managed to break my washing machine –also during the Pesach holidays. I know what is likely wrong with it too. I washed “the rug” you see. It was an act of desperation. I’m so paying for it now. It is the same rug that caused the filter to clog and thus the water to refuse to drain before. I’ve spent fruitless hours trying to figure out where exactly the filter might be and how I might get to it to clear the problem myself, because I’ve also spent fruitless hours searching for the papers letting me know who my machine fixer people are along with the 3-year insurance I bought (so useful that, if only I could find it) to cover it being fixed. Tomorrow I will be spending about 6 hours at the local laundromat.

This week has been crazy with work, as expected, but I am also experiencing some severely delicious relief from all I got done during the Pesach break. I worked all during it like a dog getting far more than I ever expected (but still not as much as was on my wish-list) done. Two articles I’d been panicking about got completely done and sent off, I graded mid-term exams and final exams. I graded a thesis and started on two more. Being in hebrew those puppies take me forever to slog through especially as they are an insane length of 60 pages minimum (communications people have this strange idea that more is better. They need to get with the feng shui approach like we have in psych where 60 pages is dissertation length and a thesis is maybe 30 with refs).

I’m desperately seeking a home for little Batya still. I might go out of my tiny mind if I do not find a good one for her soon. She is precious, wants to be on me all the time and follows me everywhere, but 11 cats is absolutely too many. Buffy is seriously stressed out and thus yakking and er, yeah (see rug that needed to be washed immediately). The younger ones are rediscovering their kittenhood around her and thus causing havoc in the household. Anything I clean is completely uncleaned almost immediately. Anything organized sent into flying disarray. Every morning now I awake and check to see what has been knocked over/broken/spread-through-the-apartment. There is always something. And without a washing machine my tolerance is at very low ebb.

But good night, any and all of my problems now and in the past seem utterly inconsequential after what I read today. Did you guys read about the absolutely monstrous guy in Austria who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years in a windowless, sound-proofed basement along with 3 of the children he incestuously forced her to bear –taking 3 others upstairs and disposing of the body of a 7th who died because he did not get it medical care?! I am still just reeling in shock after having read about it. I cannot even begin to imagine what that poor child’s life has been like. The bastard is about to be up on murder charges as well, it seems, as the doctors of the 19 year old daughter/grand-daughter say that she is not going to survive. And can someone tell me how it is that the police never looked at this pervert when his daughter disappeared given that he’d already been imprisoned on rape charges back in the 60s or how they allowed him to adopt the 3 “abandoned” children? This heinous guy can only get a maximum of 15 years in prison as well, it seems for having imprisoned his kids for 24 years. Right, that is 9 years less than what he sentenced his oldest daughter to and she had committed no crime. Something is seriously wrong with that picture. I’m not a proponent for the death penalty in general but in this case I say —get a rope!

Comments : 2 Comments »
Categories : Uncategorized

Unexpected benefits of meeting new immigrants

17 04 2008

There are all kinds of rewards associated with meeting new immigrants (and visitors to the country who read your blog) and so forth. First of all you get the pleasure of their company, second you potentially become really good friends, third you get to feel good about being helpful and supportive and doing your part to help with their klita and all kinds of good things like that.

But lately there has been an unexpected bonus: the hebrew ego boost. Because you see, you walk around every day (I walk around every day) feeling like you are a walking hebrew-speaking disaster. Your hebrew is dreadful. You feel dreadful about it. Every mistake you make stands out as a sharp and clear screaming neon sign that you should maybe get your tachat back to Ulpan and sign up for kita aleph …and you know, you just know, that even if you did so it wouldn’t do you any good. You can never say what it is exactly that you really want to say. You do all these funky running around the bush ways of explaining things or asking for things so often because you simply do not have the word that would get you right to the point like a normal person. You have those days where you can’t seem to find any words to even get you around the bush.

And then along comes a bright, enthusiastic and fresh-faced new immigrant who is a month or two or three into ulpan and they go “wow your hebrew is awesome!”

No, no, you protest truthfully because you know very well that this is not true. Your hebrew sucks rocks. In fact, with every passing day it becomes more and more clear just how much it does suck.

But it begins to sink in, after they make comments like “you actually understood what they just said!” that yeah, your hebrew sucks, but it really sucks a whole lot less than it used to. You remember back to when you were a month into ulpan and you’d go to the grocery store and hear the clerk telling you that your purchases came to “&^**(JUI&^%” and you’d ask them to repeat it and then lean over and try to get a glimpse of the screen showing the total because you were beyond clueless. You remember when giving someone directions was no where in the realm of possibility. In fact, you couldn’t understand that that is what they wanted. You remember when you had to find a way of saying anything and everything you needed to say in the present tense only, your frustration when ok, great so I can tell them what I am doing and what a I did but what I need to tell them is what I will do and I have no idea about that funky future tense stuff!

you realize that your frustration now is not getting the essence of the thing across but getting it across in the way that you want to get it across. You are frustrated that you have no idea of how to get the nuance across –at least the correct nuance. You want a nice, rich description and you are left with saying it is nice or pretty or fun with maybe a little more detail but not like, like the fully monty.

And so you realize that your standards have changed. What seemed like the epitomy of “awesome hebrew” you also so desired to have, back when you were a month, 6 months, a year into the country are all milestones that you’ve passed unnoticed only to discover that yo, the road you were on has now branched out before you into a valley with hillocks and ravines –and you have no idea how to go over them to the other side where “awesome hebrew” awaits you.

And those who are just starting out along the straight road leading to this point you are at give you a little boost to your ego and renew your enthusiasm and determination to tramp across that intricate valley before you, learning as you go how to describe the lacy flowers nestled in among the sinewy, climbing vines that lightly scent the air until you’ve reached really awesome hebrew. And perhaps there you will stop, take a breather, and then plunge forward into what is undoubtedly another horrible, nasty valley that will be blocking your way to “really and truly awesome hebrew.”

Comments : 3 Comments »
Categories : Uncategorized

f**k you, Abbas

16 04 2008

Until today I’ve repeated a tired mantra to myself and to anyone else who would listen: Abbas is a man of peace. Abu Mazen is a moderate who really wants change and really wants to promote peace, though I thought too weak politically to achieve anything. No longer do I think that.

Abbas, the man of “peace” and Abbas alone has the say in selecting to whom to give the Al Quds Mark of Honor, the PLO’s highest award. Did he choose someone who was working for the betterment of the Palestinian people? No. Did he choose someone, perhaps, who was working to improve education or the economy or city planning or any of a host of other things? No. Did he perhaps choose one of the brave officers who rescued the now many Israelis or clueless tourists mistaken for Israelis who mistakenly made their way into Ramallah or other parts of the West Bank and were nearly lynched –certainly something that would have caused a break-down in the peace talks? No. Did he choose someone who used to be a violent terrorist and now is using non-violent means to promote the Palestinian cause, like the previous-terrorist-turned-theatrical director? No.

Abbas chose the woman who drove the suicide bomber to the Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem filled with children and families and helped to commit murder –killing 15 people, 7 of them children. And what a score, they managed to wipe out five members of one family. 130 people were injured in that bombing in addition to those who lost their lives and you just have to go over and read Gila’s blog, My Shrapnel, to understand what injured means, to understand that injured is physically injured and mentally injured for life. This woman Abbas has singled out for the highest mark of honor and praise is serving a life sentence in an Israeli jail and she will rot there until the day she diies if there is any justice in the world and if our justice system works as it should.

Who else did Abbas choose? He honored Amra Muna, who seduced Ophir Rahum, a lonely 16 year old boy, over the Internet and then lured him to Ramallah. This lonely child thought he was going to meet a nice girl, a good friend, and he didn’t care that she was Palestinian, what mattered to him was that she was a person and he thought she was a friend. But she wasn’t a friend, nor was she deserving of the title human being. She was working with several other terrorists and they lured him to Ramallah where he was brutally murdered.

These are the people Abbas has chosen for highest honors.

Comments : 14 Comments »
Categories : Uncategorized

Now I know why I’m getting fat

15 04 2008

I’ve just popped back from my doctors and have the joy of having more blood tests scheduled. Seems my THS is officially really high which means my thyroid activity is really low and this in turn means that you gain weight when you so much as look at food. It also explains why my normally normal skin has gone so very dry. I’m scheduled now to have a “thyroid panel” done which measures Free T4, Free T3, and thyroid antibodies. Not sure what all that means but I’m sure Dr. Ben-Dav will tell me. She is really awesome as far as explaining everything. After this round of bloodtests I’ve also got to start taking B12 because my B12 levels are somewhere around sub-zero. They’ve been around subzero for the past 20 years but I’ve never had a doctor that thought it necessary to do anything about it. Now I’ve got happy little B12 pills sitting in my cupboard waiting until after the bloodwork (just so you know, taking B12 vitamins or as part of a multi-vitamin does nothing for you as the levels they contain aren’t high enough to actually affect anything). My good news is that for the first time in my life, I’m not anemic Nope, I’m now borderline which is a big advance All other functions are happy and healthy.

Comments : 4 Comments »
Categories : Uncategorized

Baby Batya Pictures

14 04 2008

Right, got a “card reader” dealie thing that supposedly is better for your camera than connecting it directly to your computer. Finally, then, I am able to do photos again. And here are some pictures of little Batya, who desperately needs a loving family:

She really likes the camera….

At rest..

At run…

Walk like an Egyptian…

I really really need someone to love and care for me:

Comments : 8 Comments »
Categories : Uncategorized

Opening the door for Batya

11 04 2008

In just a few days we’ll all be opening the doors to our homes in the hopes that Elijah will come in and be welcomed at the seat we’ve reserved for him at our tables. I’m hoping that someone will also be willing to open the door to their home to welcome in little Batya to their home.

Yesterday, after a very long and frustrating day, I was on my way across the campus at Ben-Gurion University on my way to the train station and finally home. I sat down on a low wall for a moment to adjust the straps on my extremely heavy backpack. In that short moment of sitting, something extremely light clamored up my backpack and attempted to nestle into my hair at the base of my neck. After nearly having a conniption and jumping a good 4 feet in the air at this startling occurrence, I discovered that what was trying to nestle and nurse was a little approximately 4 month old kitten. It was instantly obvious as well that this was not a “street kitten” born on the streets or on the university grounds but rather a kitten that had belonged to someone and been dumped, callously abandoned, on the campus. It was not just the incredible more than friendliness she showed, her desperation for human contact, but also the state she was in clearly indicated that she had no “street sense” and, unlike the feral kittens, had no idea how to go about foraging for food in the garbage cans. She was terribly thin and frightened and clung to me like a little Reasus monkey does to a cloth mother, purring madly.

Well obviously I knew that I couldn’t keep her or take her home with me. Equally obviously I was going to miss my train because the least I could do was to get her some milk. She was obviously starved. So back I went to the student union building, not needing to carry her because she had firmly attached herself on my chest and shoulder, making little cries and purrs and shoving her head under my chin. I bought her a cup of milk and brought her back outside. I put her and the milk down and watched as she started to drink, so hungry that she was literally burying her face into the milk and not just lapping. Then I shook my head and started away, back toward the train. Behind me was a series of loud and terrified little cries and I turned to see the kitten running desperately after me. When she reached me she attempted to climb up my leg, crying frantically. A girl was passing by and stopped, glaring at me, and yelled that I better not be trying to abandon my cat here. Oy. I lost my hebrew in my attempt to explain that it wasn’t mine and someone had already abandoned her, I’d only given her some milk. I don’t think she believed me. Looking down at the frantic little thing swaying on my jeans just above my knee, it was hard to believe it myself. I leaned down to detach her and she immediately scrambled back up to under my chin and began her very unique purr. Dear g-d. With all my dealings with cats and rescues, I’d never experienced anything like this.

Even if I wanted to bring her home, I couldn’t imagine how I would get her all the way from Beer Sheva to Tel Aviv. I brought her back to the milk, waited until she started eating and then tried to sneak away. Again the frantic cries behind me. This time when she reached me, I picked her up. I carried her back into the student union and went down to the student store. I selected a nice large backpack from the rack, carried it and her to the counter and paid for it. Then I put her inside it, zipped her in, and decided that if she would stay docilely in there so I could transport her, I’d take her back and see if I could find her a home. Off we went, me with a heavy backpack on my back and a nearly empty backpack carried gingerly in front of me. All went well until I was nearly to the train station and then she began frantically trying to get out the top, prying at the zippers and shoving her face up. Yikes, I realized that the vinyl sidings inside the backpack was not allowing it to “breathe” I let her poke her head out but I was really terrified that she might jump out and off the bridge into the traffic or that she would panic when the train arrived and jump and possibly be killed. All kinds of nightmare scenarios were going through my mind.

The security guys who check all your things didn’t check my other bags very well, I must say. They were too busy holding the kitten and worrying that she shouldn’t be in the backpack for the very reason I’d already discovered. I, of course, tried to convince them that one of them should adopt her. She and I had nearly an hour to wait for the next train and I took her to the front “smoking” section that is completely separated from the train platform so that she wouldn’t panic with passing trains and lots of people. No one uses it unless the weather is bad and they don’t want to stand and smoke on the platform in the rain. We had it to ourselves all the way up to when the train arrived and she spent the whole time in my lap, trying to snuggle under my chin and into my hair, purring and trying to nurse. She went back into the bag only long enough for us to get on the train when it arrived and then was in my lap for most of the long journey to Tel Aviv. She did spend a considerable amount of time being held and cuddled and passed around among the young soldiers sitting around me, who all wanted a turn at holding her, boys and girls alike. Even those who initially declared that they hated cats and made faces decided they wanted to hold her too after they watched her with the others and saying they’d never seen anything like her and should maybe revise their opinion of cats.

She is a striking little thing. Mostly white with calico markings on her head, tail, and a bit on her paws, she looks like she is wearing exotic designer eyeliner around her large eyes. The girl next to me was a student and nearly took her but she has four rescues from the university already, including two with only one eye, having lost the other from having bad cases of kitten flu. Little Batya is also sick with kitten flu but old enough that her eyes are not in danger.

From the train station I grabbed a cab rather than going for the bus and had the driver take us immediately and directly to my old vet who I knew was open for only another 10 minutes. We got there right in time to be seen. He tested her for diseases (she is free of them), gave her an antibiotic shot for the kitten cold (as well as antibiotics I am giving her by mouth for the next week), dewormed her and gave her kitten shots, marveling that even while he was taking her blood she was purring and trying to lick and nuzzle his hand. When he asked her name for the records I said, quite sarcastically, “mispar echad esray” (Number Eleven). He paused for a moment and said he refused to let her be called that and so I sighed and said, “ok, Batya.” And so Batya she is.

And little Batya desperately needs a home. She so desperately wants to have people that she can love. Will someone open the door for Batya?

levitra prices levitra online buy cialis viagra online viagra soft tabs buy viagra generic cialis online cialis soft tabs online generic viagra online cialis free shipping cheap cialis order cialis professional cheap viagra soft tabs viagra discount cheap viagra professional

Comments : 9 Comments »
Categories : Uncategorized

wow a windfall! major matana!

9 04 2008

Sorry that I haven’t blogged this week so far, I am simply trying to make it to Saturday. I gave out mid-term exams last week and also this week and tomorrow I’m giving out finals for other classes. I have just 2 more days to get through and then I can get more than a couple hours of sleep a night. I am so looking forward to maybe like 24 hours of sleep on Saturday I’m about to fall over currently. But while I’m sleep deprived, I’ve had a different kind of windfall that is really nice to rejoice over.

First thing was when I popped into the secretaries office and she encouraged me to “check your mail, check your mail, there’s a matana (present) in there”–and WOW so there was. There in my box was a nice little envelope from the university and inside the envelope was what looked kind of like monopoly money. Lots and lots of “bills” that proclaimed they were worth 50 shekels each, totally 500 sheks!! 500!! They are 50 shek coupons that can be used at a particular grocery store (gotta find one of those) or at places like Castro and Fox just like real money. Khag sameach indeed! My colleagues and I were absolutely astounded because, trust me, universities don’t usually give out holiday gifts like this to their professors in Israel or in the States or anywhere else that I know of. I was seriously thrilled. The IDC rocks

My second windfall this week was the 316 sheks I didn’t have to pay. Ok, it wasn’t quite as good as getting 500 in the clear sheks because I’d actually already paid this 316 but didn’t realize it and thought I still had it to pay. I opened up the bill from the Iriyah and I’m used to it containing 2 sheets, one detailing the water bill and the other the apartment tax. I’ve got it set up so they get “tashlomimed” (automatically divided into 2 payments so half gets paid one month and half the next rather than everything in one big whack every 2 months when the bills go out, and coming right out of my account so I don’t have to remember to do anything about it and thus continue to have water every month

This time, however, the envelope contained only the water bill and not the tax bill. I glanced at it very quickly as I was semi-running up the street on my way to work and then shoved it into my backpack. Darn, I thought, there is a problem. I thought it said “not to be tashlomimed” next to the amount of the water bill –which was nearly twice as high as normal because Tinok has learned how to turn on the taps in the bathtub to get a nice flowing drink but, of course, doesn’t seem to know that she should turn them off when done (the bathroom door is now closed and barred to all cats to prevent this occurring again). Tinok is not a water-saving and environmentally conscious little cat.

So on Monday I sped over to our lovely government agency as soon as I got done work. I’ve mentioned before that this new office has arrived to the first world. It is clean, the clerks are polite and helpful, they have normal all day until 6 p.m. hours 5 days out of the week and they are efficient. When I arrived this time they had increased even more in efficiency. A girl was sitting next to the machine that greets you when you walk in and asked what I needed and how I intended to pay and jabbed all the (already easy to navigate for the customer) buttons to get it to spit out my slip of paper with my number-specifying-my-exact-need to be served, and then helpfully directed me to the exact spot I should go and wait. And lo and behold as I approached the seating area close to that particular counter, my own number was already flashing on the screen –yo babe, you are up! I went up immediately, dug out the teudat zehut and the bill and my bank card and explained that I needed to pay this whopping water bill and to find out why it couldn’t be tashlomimed. The very polite (astonishingly and jaw-droppingly polite) clerkette quickly pulled up my account from the number I rattled off to her and spontaneously noted that hrm, yes, my bill was much higher than normal –did I need them to send someone out to see if there was a leak? No, no, it is fine, I told her, not wanting to go into details about my non-environmentally-friendly and water wasteful little cat, but I do need to pay it so I can continue to waste it. But you’ve already paid it! she told me, it was on the card and tashlomimed into half that amount last month and half this…

I stared down at the bill in my hand closely for the first time and then grinned. Yeah, right. It said “not to be paid” and not “not to be tashlomimed.” I’d just not had to pay 316 sheks! Wow, that is like having a whole new 316 sheks coming my way for me because I'’d already mentally calculated on it being “gone pecan” as they say in the deep south!

From there I decided to stop by the place just upstairs in the mall with really good bras. (Hrm maybe this is not appropriate to blog about, sorry boys). My mother, when she visited, found this place for its really excellent strapless numbers that actually remain bras and do not decide, halfway through the day, that they’d really rather be belts. This is priceless. Sadly, they are no longer stocking these really excellent little things and I managed to get the very last one they had in size “are you sure you need this?” It was on sale and only 26 sheks, being the last of its kind, and I felt no guilt at my extravagance given that I’d just “saved” 316 sheks. Then I took myself and the computer I still had on me from work, in order to work some more, to the Coffee Bean and discovered that all the little holes had been punched in my “you’ve bought a coffee” card and that my delicious large latte was thus only 2 sheks and not 16. Matana again!

Other news this week, Ronen and I caught Tigress (the circus cat) who is not a boy after all but discovered to be a very pregnant girl –no longer, thanks to Ronen –and one of the boys last night at 2:30 in the morning (yes, neither of us got any sleep last night with me coming back to work and too afraid that if I slept I’d oversleep teaching at 8 a.m. and him having to neuter and spay when he got them back to his clinic). There is another 5 month old girl who is also pregnant that we were not able to catch but hopefully will early next week and before she gets really pregnant. We just released the two we caught. Ronen has 8 kittens in his apartment by the way, if anyone wants a kitten, –he is desperate to find homes for them. 4 are ready for adoption right now, the other 4 he is still bottle-feeding every 3 hours but should be ready to move into a nice new family in about 2 weeks….

Comments : 9 Comments »
Categories : Uncategorized