Making the Connection

Walking back from the makolet (corner market) with a shining new bottle of soap, my pelephone (cel phone) started buzzing on my hip.
"Hi, this is Roni from Bezek. I'm at your apartment to install the connection. Where are you?"
They're three hours early.
"I'll be there in five minutes."
"Five minutes. If you're not here I'm leaving."
I sprinted the half mile between the makolet and my new apartment in four minutes, arrived sweat-soaked and panting. I need internet NOW to do my job.
"What? Why did you run?" he asked me, "I would have waited."

We entered the apartment, he looked around, and announced, "No. Impossible. I can't install your connection."

I called my landlord and he pulled up minutes later. After what most people would consider an argument, and Israelis would consider a conversation, we all agreed that it was impossible. There simply wasn't a physical connection between the phone system on the street and the apartment, which makes internet access impossible. The landlord immediately apologized and offered to nullify my contract. No way! We then remembered that Sagi, the previous tenant, had internet, so we went down to take a look. Turns out there is a connection for HOT, Bezek's competitor, to provide internet via cable. Excellent. So we called HOT, registered with them, called Bezek, went through like three layers of the company, and managed to cancel my other account. Problem solved. So now a HOT technician is coming to my apartment on Thursday, I will have fast internet, and I will be able to work from my very own apartment, finally! Though given the amount of struggle it has taken to get this far, I'll believe it when I see it.

In the mean time, my landlord is busy putting a new coat of paint into the apartment and cleaning the floors. I've moved all my stuff into the front yard here at Rafi's house in order to be able to move the stuff into the car and over to my new place just as soon as I can find someone with a car to help me, and I'm still working from Rafi's office and living on his hide-a-bed.

But I'm getting closer.