Deus Ex Machina

deus ex machina
noun: a person or thing (as in fiction or drama) that appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty

Our bank referred us to a website maintained by Visa that lists all the ATMs where our debit cards should work, but we had tried a couple of these last week without success. After talking with Adena’s parents, we realized that maybe some but not all ATMs would work at the specified locations. On Monday Bev tried taking shekels out of ATMs at two different banks in two parts of the city—and they both worked!

Apparently you have to not just find an available ATM, it also needs to have the ₪ and $ symbols at the top too. The debit card has a one-percent foreign transaction fee, but pretty soon we will only need to use these to withdraw cash (rent, preschool tuition, babysitter, etc.) because the no fee credit cards finally arrived and are in Jerusalem with Uncle Paul and Aunt Laura. We haven’t checked to see what the fees are for wiring money yet.

Bev managed to mostly fix the damage to the car mirror. It is bent a little at the edge, but it seems secure and you can still use the electric switch to move it—just not as smoothly as before.

On Sunday, Adena and Aviva visited the Haifa police department only to learn that Bev needed to be there too. So they made the most of being “downtown” and visited the train museum.

After the false start on Sunday, on Monday Adena, Bev, and Aviva successfully filed the police report downtown.

The police officer was extremely calm and stoic. We appreciated his “all business” bureaucratic tone and were done in fifteen minutes or so.

The bus ride home was more eventful, but Bev was still able to make the last hour of ulpan.

Ruti (shown above) is one of the best teachers he has ever had and he is learning a lot very quickly. He was even able celebrate these wins with a bag of the “American peanuts” he loves from the downstairs vending machine.

Next up, is switching the health insurance and extending our travel visas. We will keep you posted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gplia9D6rcY