Well, no, the Beatles aren't coming to Israel but more than 5,000 UK citizens are coming! In fact, some of the newspapers in this country are estimating that thousands of soccer fans will be flying into the country today and tomorrow morning to watch the Israel vs. England match tomorrow night. And, of course, they will ALL be here in Tel Aviv! I wish Jules were here, she would have a field day with all the Brits. Good thing I'm getting outta town for Shabbos. Jerusalem, here I come!
I had such a productive day yesterday. First, I had a call with an absorportion person at Nefesh B'Nefesh who told me that, surprise, but when I went to get that Teudat Zehut the banks all forced me to get, I offiicially made Aliyah! OK, so how come I've been spending 450 shekel a month on health insurance? I have to make an appointment now with the Misrad HaKlitah to make everything official and then I should start getting rights as an Olah. It's a pretty big mess and once I get back to the States in a few days, I'm going to have to cobble together proof that I spent the past 10 years living in the States. I got in touch with my former employers from 1997-2000 and asked them to write me a letter. They told me to just e-mail me the letter and they will put it on official letterhead and send it to me. So, at least I have 4 out of the 10 years accounted for. Now I have to get in touch with ANOTHER employer and then I should be able to supplement the rest with my back tax returns.
It's such a pain to do all of this! But, oh well, it has to be done and if I want to be able to buy a new car without paying taxes on it, this is the way it has to go.
So, this conversation got me a bit hyped up, especially since I want to make aliyah officially with Nefesh B'Nefesh because I was hoping for the financial assistance next year. Now they tell me that, since I accidentally made Aliyah in August, I'm probably not eligible for financial assistance (they don't do retroactive assistance). I'm not pleased about this, not pleased about this at all.
Which lead me to the gym at 2:00 p.m. yesterday. I stayed there for an hour and a half, doing 30 minutes on the treadmill, hitting the weight area, and then finishing off with 15 minutes on the bike. I walked home and went to visit Boris and Miriam to buy some fruit and vegetables for dinner.
Check out what they sell in this country! I've never seen these before in my entire life:
These are squat little zucchini's! Since I'm in full-on Pesach mode, I've been trying to use up what I already have in my house. I had some left over vegetables from Shabbos, so I made a red onion, portobello mushroom, yellow pepper, garlic and zucchini stir fry as a side dish for dinner last night. Sprinkled with some kosher salt and a bit of pepper, it was really, really yummy!
But, that left about 8 hours before I went to sleep and I had no idea what to do with myself! I'm pretty ahead of the game in terms of wedding plans and, quite frankly, I really needed a night off from wedding planning. I had already caught up on all of my TV shows for the week and began another short story for my thesis collection. People, I was really, really good and bored. Buggy was back in Jerusalem studying and doing some more homework. I haven't seen him since I left Jerusalem on Sunday night, and this weekends visit is going to be super short (tonight until tomorrow night, I return to Tel Aviv right after Shabbat so he can study for his big exam on Sunday morning).
And then, Jeff called and asked if I wanted to meet for coffee. Now, I was still in my stinking gym gear and I don't drink coffee, so I said no. Since he's giving me a ride into Jerusalem though, he somehow managed to twist my arm to go to the movies with him. Now, I'm not going to reveal the name of the movie that Jeff is dying to see, but I was super bored and really needed to get out of the house, so I agreed to see it. Since I was at home and he was walking back from the gym, I went to the Seret website to check out where and when the movie was playing. We managed to find a showtime at the end of Dizingoff street (near the Namal) playing at 10:00. We met on the corner of Arlozorof and Ben Yehuda and got onto the #4 bus, which left us a few blocks from the theatre. And, when we got to the theatre, we discovered that the movie wasn't playing at all that night!
Now, I know that I can sometimes be off when reading Hebrew, but I'm telling you that it said Alef-Heh and no Alef-Daled on the website! Once we got to the theatre though, we saw the sign that said Alef-Daled. I think Jeff was a bit annoyed with me, especially since he showered and got dressed and was excited about the movie, only to be disappointed. Well, since we were both out at that point, we just decided to walk back together and that was nice. We walked straight down Dizengof street, past the famous Chumus restaurant and the Kosher Blintzies place, until I got back to my apartment.
At which point, I realized how absolutely exhausted I was. I called my sister and then somehow fell asleep within the 15 minutes it took her to get back to me. Sorry!
I woke up this morning to gray skies and a wonderful message from my friend Shulamit and her husband Paul. They welcomed a baby girl late last night, and she weighed in at a whopping 9 pounds! WOW!
MAZAL TOV! I can't wait to find out her name :)
Since I'm on wedding lent, and have given up quick a few foods such as french fries (haven't had one french fry since I left New York in February!) and popcorn (recent addition to my wedding lent), I need to hit the supermarket and pick up some breakfast for myself.
Song of the day is Baby Fratelli by The Fratellis. Hey, maybe they're in town for the game too!
Shabbat Shalom!
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