Victories and Defeats

This picture is courtesy of Jerusalem Shots and it depicts the Malcha Technology Park at sunset. This is a gorgeous area right across the street from the Malcha Mall and apparently there is a Mehadrin kosher catering hall inside. Buggy is thinking that it would be a good place for my parents to host Sheva Brachot so we'll have to swing by and check it out the next time I'm in J-town.

Today was very productive and I experienced the sweet smell of victory while suffering a tremendous defeat. I woke up relatively late, which was nice as I am personally trying to celebrate Memorial Day here in Israel. After a quick breakfast and logging into the computer, I gathering all my papers and headed back to the Minhal Hastudentim to see if Michael would be able to work his magic. As he feared, there was information on my school print out that wouldn't allow him to give me any benefits. After a lengthy meeting with his boss, they were able to come to the conclusion that they will cover me!

Eureka!

I am now considered a Minhal Hastudentim student. This means that they will cover almost 13,000 shekel a year of my tuition. I have been assigned a Madricha, who would be able to explain additional perks of my coverage as well. I'm also entitled to free meetings with a social worker and a psychologist at an extremely reduced rate (25 shekel a session). After all this stress, I could use a session with a shrink. I have my "golden ticket" and hope that the Bar Ilan tuition office is open tomorrow so I can get the ball rolling! Woohoo!

Well, I was on a high from the success and decided to go and tackle Macabi. I got to the office and took a number. I sat until it was my turn and then took out all of my evidence. I handed the woman all of the papers I needed and explained my situation. She spent a long time on the computer and told me that she first needed to switch my private insurance to my public insurance. OK, I let her do then and print out a new card. Then she explained that I will now only pay Macabi 65 shekel a month as opposed to the 365 shekel a month I've been paying privately.

After that was taken care of, it was time to discuss compensation for the months that they have been ripping me off. According to her, however, having a Teudat Zehut DOES NOT mean that I've made Aliyah.

Really?

Well, how come every other agency told me otherwise. Also, she looked at the forms from both Misrad Haklita and Bituach Leumi and said that she won't reimburse me for the money I've paid privately because according to both papers I didn't make Aliyah or choose a Kupat Cholim until May.

Huh?

I don't get it. Why then did Bituach Leumi charge me for retroactive pay if I didn't have an official Kupah? How come I paid them an extra 1000 shekel in back payments if I wasn't covered? Well, she told me on the papers what the problems were - because both pages were marked with the date of May as opposed to just with the date of August - and that's why she won't give me back any of the money.

I asked her to give me a printout of all the money I've paid them since I've moved here. It was well over 3,000 shekel. I thanked her for her time and walked out of the office.

I'm tired of this fight and honestly, these government entities don't know their ass from their elbow. No one knows what they are talking about! Misrad Haklita say one thing, Bituach Leumi says another, and here comes Macabi and they say something COMPLETELY different.

I called Buggy and told him what happened and he said that now it's time to talk to the news agencies and the newspapers. I said that I'd rather write a letter first from a lawyer and then see what happenes, before I engage the media. The good news is that at least I've corrected the overpayment issue, so now I don't have to worry about another monthly payment of 365 shekel for June. I'm quite comfortable leaving the fight between Macabi/Bituah Leumi and Misrad HaKlita until after the wedding!

Well, I was okay spirits after this conversation and decided to walk all the way back to my apartment from 10 Balfour. I decided to take a new route and cut across Sheinken Street and made my way to King George. On King George, I saw a number of really nice pillow stores and thought that it would be a great place to come and pick up some decorative pillows for the couches in our new apartment. I also walked by the comic book store Buggy orders his comics from. I would have gone in and picked him up a couple of comics but I have no idea what he has/hasn't read and didn't want to pick something up he has already read or has no interest in reading.

I walked down Dizengoff and stopped into the new kosher bakery that El Jeffe told me about, which is right off of Bar Kochva street and right before Dizengoff Center. I asked them about Challah's for Shabbos and they told me that they have Challot on Thursday and Fridays and they also have some Parve baked goods. The bread selection was also incredible and they had plenty of whole wheat options. I picked up a small loaf of whole wheat bread to try and even made Tamara from my class a sandwhich for lunch tomorrow.

By the time I got back to my apartment, my dogs were barking and I was pretty dehydrated. I spent the rest of the day doing some wedding stuff, relaxing and reading my assignments for class tomorrow. I have a ton to read for class on Wednesday though and hope I'll have enough time tomorrow night to do that before my 7:00 a.m. Wednesday wake up call. That's gonna hurt!

I'm back in Jerusalem on Thursday though, to take care of some apartment stuff, and now that I've decided to entertain this Shabbos I also have to figure out the menu. Buggy's Aunt made this amazing Asian sesame spinach salad and I want to try to replicate it for first course on Friday night. As for the rest of the menu, I want to use up what I have in my house instead of buying new because I'm not sure how many more opportunities I'll have to entertain before the wedding. That means I'll probably be making a pie of some sort, cooking up the gfilta fish and maybe making something with the crushed pinapples (Hawaiian chicken perhaps?). Oh well, I have some time to deal with that until cooking commences on Thursday.

I can't wait for this semester to finally be over!