Tuesday 24 February 2009

The lightless midget.






I don’t recall if I wrote about it, but in my last apartment we had a few minor electrical issues. Starting off small with shorting of our circuit and having to switch the power back on a few times a week, to a few times a night quickly escalated to a small electrical fire in Marcy’s room, and then to the electrocution of me as our dude shemesh (water heater) blew and exploded in my face and proceeded to melt off the wall. .. Classic Israel. Our new place started off not too different with short circuiting from our first days there. We called our landlord and insisted they come do something, so here begins another Israeli adventure. Ricka, our new landlady informs me that she will let me know when the electrician can come. The day flies by, no call. At about 4:30 in the afternoon, I receive a call, “I hope you are home, my husband is on his way.” Well, lucky for her, I was home… not quite in the way I would like my landlord’s husband to show up on me, but home none-the-less. I scramble to get things OK for him, and within minutes, hes over. He comes in, plays with the switches, and proceeds to tell me that we need an electrician. Thanks guy, I didn’t try switching the circuit back on myself, I’m glad I waited all day for YOU to come tell me I am not an idiot, and we needed additional help. He informs me that he will call an electrician and he will be over shortly. After about 30 minutes (the sun is now down, its kind of cold, and definitely dark) I receive a call from the electrician. He obviously doesn’t know a word of English, and asks me to explain what happened (as if I could in English, let alone knowing words in Hebrew for circuit breakers, switches, wires, and electrical outlets, etc.) The guy finally shows up, there’s a knock at the door. I go to the door, and look out the gate (very movie-esque) look out, and don’t see anyone. I open the door, and there he is; our electrician, a midget!! He walks into our apartment, pitch black, and takes a chair, climbs up, and is still a solid foot or two away from our electrical box. He has no ladder, and no flashlight. Its night and he’s a midget electrician. Only in Israel. After having me walk from door to door in our area asking my neighbors for a ladder and having no luck, the ‘lil guy paces around until he finally calls someone else, and tells me someone else will be there within an hour and a half. Cool. Luckily Goldberg was over and babysat me while all these creepy men were in and out of the apartment at night, I ran downstairs to the shuk and picked up some fresh coals and tobacco and candles to keep us occupied in the dark. The next guy shows up and is taller. He still has no ladder or light. I don’t know about anyone else, but I think those might be two basic things every electrician should have, especially at night. If I am calling because I have no power… and its night… you might want a light of some kind. So this taller guy climbs up on the chair- able to reach the box.. And whips out his cellphone for light as he searches through wires and bags of things.. Efficient. He replaces a circuit and peaces. Within ten minutes, the power is blown again. Apparently, we are really spoiled at home. Imagine your landlord in the states telling you its your fault that your power keeps blowing, obviously you can't have the heat and the laundry going simultaneously.. idiot. So, we are back at stage one. Yesterday another guy came over (with a ladder! –things are starting to shape up) and he said he would split our circuit into two to decrease the power on our one circuit. He comes into the apartment, drills all kinds of crazy holes, wires all over, plaster still covers our floors in all the rooms, and he peaces out. His ladder is still there, there is plaster all over, and a huge hole in my beautiful wall. Israelis are nuts. I assume he’ll be back soon for his ladder.

Tuesday 17 February 2009

Peace.Love.68Agripas.






So, two weeks down, and I live IN the shuk. Every morning when I wake up, I rise to the sound of men screaming and crazy trucks beeping as they back out of the market where they just unloaded pounds of fresh veggies, fruits, fish, and halves of cows (mmm). [Note: Weaving in and out of truckbeds filled with hanging full cows really gets your day going quickly at 8 in the morning] Every time I open my door, I get a new whiff of something, and it’s usually something delicious. Shuk life thus far is pretty exciting. Nachlaot (the name of the neighborhood) is known for being home to all sorts of crazy people. My neighbors are all silly crazy Israelis, an older woman I made pals with who I cross paths with often in the stairway, some crazy guys who came knocking on our kitchen window the SECOND shabbos was out begging my friend for cigarettes, and cat ladies- who create “cat communities” and feed and set up mini beds outside for all of the stray cats in my hood. Nachlaot is the capital of crazies on Jerusalem if you ask me.. so I suppose its only right that I get some time living here.
The move went pretty well, no complaints. We rented a car (a sweet florescent green little Israeli style auto) and it took us about 4 trips back and forth to get all of our stuff over to the new place. Driving around Jerusalem was pretty exciting (and scary I suppose), but mostly quality adventure time. We had a few mess ups, once when we blocked in a bunch of people in our new lot, and then couldn’t start the car because you have to punch in some code and then turn the key and I messed it all up and the car had to wait 10-20 minutes to “re-set” (seems kind of ridiculous to me) --we had three cars all screaming and honking until one guy came to “help” by putting us in neutral and moving our car out of the way so he could get by. Classic move number two might have been when we tied my mattress down to the roof of the car and then realized we forgot to open the doors before tying it, and had to climb through the windows to get into the car.
Overall however, the move was good, Gina and I love our new place, and it really couldn’t be in a better location. Work is going well, I think I’ll learn a lot, I already have (not so into spending long days at my computer researching) but its pretty good experience, I like the people I work with, and it’s a step in the right direction. Last week a friend of ours got married, the wedding was really nice. Israeli weddings are NOTHING like at home... very simple, people come dressed from ball gown to jeans- literally, and everyone goes nuts. Pretty cool experience and our friend looked beautiful.
Right now my aunt, uncle and cousin are in town for a bar-mitzvah, so I have been meeting up with them the past few days which is pretty nice, and I’ll see them tonight for one last time.
(This post is now outdated about two weeks, but when I get home and can grab some photos Of the new place, I'll post it.)

Peace & Love.

Tuesday 3 February 2009

Ain't nothing gonna break my stride ...





"...'nobody gonna slow me down, oh no- I got to keep on moving.."
Where to begin..
This past week got a bit lost somewhere between looking for new apartments and getting extremely sick for a solid 48 hours. The week ended with finding a new place, signing the lease, then celebrating in tel aviv for one night-back to Jerusalem in the morning-then travel to a little city called Lod for shabbos... run on sentence, run on week.
My current lease is up on the 21, so it was time to relocate. Apartment searching in Israel is not something I would wish upon anyone... but simultaneously, looking back, it was a pretty hysterical experience I am proud to say I have conquered. Apartments here are everywhere, behind dodgy allys, in what looks to be a bomb shelter, in the backs of people's homes, and behind the black curtains of an old shwarma joint... yes, some little asian woman showed us an "apartment" that was basically just a few metal twin beds and a make-shift bathroom placed in an old storefront with black curtains...needless to say, it was a funny journey.
A week from today I move into my new place.. my apartment in the shuk. The balcony looks into the center of what is the busiest open air food market in Jerusalem; Machane Yehuda. Gina and I are pumped, the place is cute and funky, and our new landlord Ricah has filled the big shoes of pappa Nachum, our current landlord who doesn't seem to like us much anymore (most likely a combination of the fact that we never accepted his invitation for shabbos, had a small electrical fire, melted our water heater off the wall.. broke a desk, bed, and changed our minds to not extend the lease with him a few times).
The job is going well so far, it seems like it might be interesting.. Pretty busy otherwise just cleaning and packing. Next week from Nachlaot!

Peace & Love