Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Slow but Steady Progress

A-Plus: 1 Week

BTW cousin Rafi may come in here at any second to use the computer so I have to type fast.

Well, in another hour I will have been here a week now. I wish I could say I'd gotten more on my list done, but I feel I'm doing okay.

Yesterday, I went to the Nefesh B'Nefesh center downtown and got my Teudat Zehut (Israeli identity papers), as well as my financial aid check.

My main priorities are cel phone, apartment, and bank account. I'm kina in a catch 22 (or 33 as it is.) To find an apartment, I need a cel phone. That way I can go downtown with an address in hand witout getting lost, and that way potential landlords can get a hold of me. Walking around in Israel without a cel phone is like walking around naked. People look at you with upturned eyebrows and tisk in disapproval if you can't give them an 05 (cellular) area code phone number. To get a cel phone, I need a bank account because they need somewhere from which to deduct the weekly charges, and no, they won't accept my American credit card. To get a bank account, I need an apartment, since in Israel you have to do all of your banking at one branch, and can't transfer from branch to branch, it's important to have an account next to your apartment, and since I don't know where I'll be living, I'm in a conundrum.

My buddy Moshe is coming over today so we'll see what we can figure out.

3 comments:

Baleboosteh said...

I can't believe you have been there for a week already!
Don't worry too much, I'm sure everything will get sorted out with the cel phone/bank account/appartment thing.

Yaakova said...

Why don't you just open a bank account by where you are staying now, and close it once you find an apartment?

Ephraim said...

Yes, the week has passed quickly. I still can't believe it myself. I'm actually pretty far along considering.

Yaakova,

The banks in Israel are world-renowned as being among the worst in the world. It's just one of those things.

The problem is that to close the account can cost you like thousands of shekels. But I solved the problems (see next post.)