Oh Israel, how funny you are

There should be a manual for people who move to Jerusalem. The first page should say, "DON'T GET TOO COMFORTABLE. SOMETHING WILL BREAK/NOT WORK/FRUSTRATE YOU/ CAUSE YOU TO SPEND HOURS ON THE PHONE LISTENING TO A HEBREW AUTOMATED MENU.

Sorry for the rant, its been a couple of rough days.

Sunday: Lauren and I begin to cook dinner for our amazing friends David and Julia. We begin to boil water for pasta when we realize that we are out of cooking gas. We then walk to Joe & Neil's apartment where we cook dinner and run back to our apartment with a hot pot of pasta. The pasta got rave reviews.

Monday: Come home from class to see a blinking red light on our cable modem. We can't connect to the internet no matter how many times we unpluged/repluged everything in or shut down and restarted our computers. It wouldn't work. We call the above mentioned computer-guru and general awesome SO (significant other of a student) David to try and help us. He helps us reconfigure our router. Nothing changes.

Later Monday night (11pm) Lauren and I get home and call Netvision, our internet provider. It turns out that the reason our internet wouldn't work was because we had an outstanding bill which we did not know about. We pay the bill- 284 shekels (>$50) and they promise to turn the internet back on in 30 minutes. We find out later that the account is still in the name of the girl who lived here 2 years ago. For a small fee of 50 shekels, they'll change the name on the account. We tell them that when we have intenet we'll be willing to think about giving them more money.

30 minutes later: No internet. Cranky and tired we go to bed.

Tuesday (Today): We wake up, still no internet. However, the flashing red light is now green. Yet, no connection, no email, no world news, nothing. Before class I call Netvision again (8:15am) to figure out the problem. They can't help. They suggest that they call me back at 4pm. I go to class annoyed.

Tuesday afternoon: Get back from class, mess with the computer for a while. Call David, and he makes it work! Finally! Blessed email, itunes music store and NYTimes.com

Tuesday afternoon (later): Netvision calls to find out "if I can surf"- this is how Israeli's talk about internet connections- I tell them that I have been surfing for an hour.

Tuesday night: Lauren calls "SuperGas" to find out about getting more gas delivered before the large Shabbat dinner we are having on Friday night. She calls again. She calls again. She finally gets through only to be told to call back at 8am tomorrow morning.

Tuesday night (now): Lauren and I complain about the fact that our Vonage, which we ordered almost three weeks ago still isn't installed.

Thus, the last 3 days of my life. Sorry if I've been MIA, I'm back now.

Hebrew test tomorrow, tiyul tomorrow night, tiyual all day Thursday.

Jess comes Thursday night through Sunday afternoon. Can't wait to see her!

For laughs, here is a picture of me with a mullet from David and Matt's party on Monday night. Laila Tov (Goodnight) and Love to all who are reading...