Now I'm Famous

A-Plus: 6 Days

First order of business: I'm famous! Go to the following website and you can find an article about San Francisco olim, with some comments by yours truly, and my family:

Click HERE

Autoraph signing will be limited to appointment only.

I wanted to get started on my apartment search last night, but could not for the life of me connect to the internet from my cousin Rafi's computer. I worked for hours, plugging and unpligging connections, rebooting, but nothing worked. Then, I went to sleep, and when I woke up, I noticed an "Internet On/Off" switch had been set to off. It's sort of like having a "broken/running" switch on your car's engine. Like, why? Anwyay, back up and running now, trying to blog before Rafi gets home and has to use the computer for work.



Yesterday morning, I explored Pisgat Ze'ev and went to the new mall. I spoke with several cellular phone providers and reviewed the various packages, all in my pidgin Heberew, but I'm not sure if I understood exactly what they were telling me.

Later in the day I decided it is important to go check out the neighborhoods I've heard about, where I will be looking for an apartment. I hitched a ride downtown with cousin Galila and hiked through Kfar David, where the King David Hotel and YMCA are located. Walked on Jabotinsky street, and Emek Refaim. It looked lik a great area to live, with all sorts of things happening on the main street but nice and quiet further in the neighborhood. I then caught a bus out to Kiryat Mosheh, a National Religious (knit kippah-wearing) neighborhood. It looks nice and quiet, but based on the posters and banners hanging from everyone's balconies, it also looked to be of one mind politically. I'm leaning towards Emek Refaim, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to afford it. Rafi wants me to live out here in the Jerusalem satellite suburb/settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev with all the family (it's less expensive and cleaner too) but it's 2o minutes from the city center by bus, and it tends to be more 4-or-more child families than singles.

Today Nefesh B'Nefesh is having an aliyah fair where they will distribute my Teudat Zehut (Israeli identity card) which will allow me to open a bank account, fill out a cel phone contract, etc. Our financial aid packages will also be distributed there. Representatives from health funds, cellular phone companie, and banks, will be present so hopefully I will be able to backcheck the facts I collected at the Pisgat Ze'ev mall yesterday and see how good my understanding really was.