A week in my life

I will continue with my trip to Sderot tomorrow, but first, an Ephraim update:

Sunday: The car is here. I transferred the money to my account, but I haven't been able to check whether it has actually cleared or not yet. Don't want to write a check for 109,000 sheks without being 110% sure that the money is there. Unfortunately, my password still doesn't work so I can't check the amount online, and the bank is closed Sundays. Try again tomorrow.

Monday: Made it to the bank, only to realize that the bank closes at 12:30 PM Mondays. I had thought it closes at 2:00 PM, but that's only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. D'oh! Back tomorrow.

On King George Street: a protest for homeless children, camped out in the square to raise awareness and.. hey, wait a minute, is that what I think it is?

Yup, they've all got cell phones. Only in Israel, folks.

Tuesday: Made it to the bank first thing in the morning, while it was open. The money has arrived! Headed straight for the Mazda dealer. Sat down to purchase my car.
"I'm sorry, our computers are down."
"When will they be back up?"
"We don't know."
Walked across the street to the hiking and camping store to drool over binoculars.

Downtown graffiti. Achmedinewho?

Wednesday: Called Mazda, confirmed that their computers are up and running. Went in, filled out the paperwork, and wrote what is by far the largest check I've ever written in my life. Went across the street. The binoculars are 200 shekels. I just spent 109,000. What they heck, it's just a drop in the bucket at this point.

I shoved the binoculars over the lens of my digital camera and figured out I could use it as a 10X zoom!

Normal zoom. The red circle in the middle shows the area magnified by the binoculars below.

Hey, this is way cooler than a telephoto lens. Looks like you're peeking through a periscope too.

On the way back, met a lady at the bus stop. She struck up a conversation with me, and it took me a minute to realize that she's the type with a screw loose. She could still hold up a conversation, actually more of a weird kind of bus-person monologue.

Thursday: My driver's license arrived in the mail.


Friday: Went to the Kotel. I took a shot with my old camera, which seems to have developed some serious problems. My picture makes it look like Mr. Scott had some trouble beaming me down from the Enterprise.

Looking like a transporter accident.

The Kotel seemed empty, and I had a whole section to myself. Then I realized why: they were washing the floors with turpentine. Ugh. Still, it gave me a good buzz, helped me get in "the zone." Oh, yeah.

Put the camera on a timer and stuck it on a stack of chairs to get this shot.

On the way out: this is the thing they put suspicious objects in to blow them up.

Anyway, back to Sderot tomorrow.