Sleeping With A Smile

To say that things have been easy the past 10 days would be a lie...to say that things have been incredible the past 4 days would be the truth!

Number of times I cried the first 6 days = 7
Number of times I cried the last 4 days = 0!

I tried doing things with translators.  Tom and his Aunt Ilana took me around town to all the important meetings I had and I found it to be very difficult.  They would speak in Hebrew and then would translate back for me.  The problem with this is that although I knew they were not withholding any information from me, I felt like I wasn't in the know and was out of the loop as far as the steps I needed to take to get done what I needed to get done.  So last Wednesday I chose to venture on my own.  I went to the bank and dealt with everything I needed to by myself.  They had no choice but to speak English to me and we communicated just fine.  Their English is better then my Hebrew (for now) so we had to make it work.

I felt amazing on Wednesday because I had done it on my own and everything went smoothly.  I also got my cell phone which made me feel like I actually lived here.  I linked my old 818 number to my Israeli phone so all of you can call me whenever you want.  Please keep in my mind the time difference and don't call me at 1:15am (my parents already made that mistake).

On Thursday I had the best day yet.  We had plans that night to go to a steak dinner in Tel Aviv with Tom's friend Shmulik who said he had a groupon to use.  Side Note: I signed up for groupon in Tel Aviv, but I can't read the Hebrew and can only look at the pictures and see if it's something I think I might want...I haven't bought one yet.

So earlier in the day I decided I would go to Tel Aviv in the morning and attempt to get my teudat zehut, Israeli ID, even though I didn't have everything I needed.  I only had a copy of my birth certificate and not the original, it's on the lift somewhere between San Francisco and China (story for another day).  I was feeling very uneasy, but wanted to attempt this feat on my own and I had nothing to lose.  I got to the Misrad Hapnim (ministry of the interior) and got my number, 036...they were on 976.  So I waited 2 hours, but made an American friend so the time passed quickly.  I ended up with the nicest lady in the whole office (people were walking away from some of the clerks crying and throwing papers).  She issued me everything I needed even though I was missing some documents, and I walked out of there with an Israeli ID.

Ok, I lied, I did cry this day (one of the past 4 days) because I was so overjoyed, but I don't think it should count towards the crying tally because they were happy tears.  After feeling incredibly autonomous, I decided to continue making moves and see what else I could accomplish now that I had my ID.  I went to the Misrad Haklita (ministry of immigration absoprtion) and was able to get my Ulpan voucher (I'm taking my Hebrew placement test this evening), see an apartment, eat frozen yogurt, and find the bus back home to Kfar Saba.  I was looking forward to dinner and showing off my ID to Tom's friends.  We got picked up at 8 from the house for our groupon meal.  Shmulik told us it was a new restaurant in Hayarkon Park, and after wondering around the park for 10 minutes, we walked up to a group of people and they yelled, "SURPRISE!"

Tom's friends had successfully thrown us a welcome surprise party!  We sat in the park for an hour drinking endless bottles of champagne and gin because we were told we had to drink up, the surprise was not over yet.  Around the corner awaited our party bus!  We boarded and partied all night long, it was unreal.  We were in shock and glowing the whole night!  I woke up the next morning early (we had an appointment to see an apartment at 9am) and Tom said, "you slept with a smile."  It was the first time since we arrived that I felt at home, that I belonged, and I was utterly confident that I had made the right decision.



Pictures from the surprise party!