Everyday People

Believe it or not, we have settled into a routine and life feels a little more mundane now. In the best possible sense.

On a typical day, we drop Millie off at her daycamp outside the Dan Panorama Hotel on HaNassi, then Bev catches the bus to campus. From 8:30 to noon he has language immersion class with people who are about fifteen years younger and starting medical school. A few are starting graduate programs or are here with partners who are in school. Laura arrives at eleven, and between 7:30 and eleven, Adena and Aviva run errands, go to the park, and just hang out. Bev takes the 4:30 bus home and just misses Laura, who leaves at five. That’s okay though, because the girls are watching TV and he gets dinner ready while Adena wraps up her workday at six. After so much angst and drama, mundane feels nice.

We didn’t go to the beach last Saturday (Bev and the girls went Friday afternoon) and instead visited one of the few conservative synagogues in town. Turns out, the girls have trouble sitting quietly in the service here too.

On Tuesday, we got to try out our health insurance. The camp counselor called and suggested that we have a doctor look at a bug bite Millie had been scratching. Adena and Millie went to one of the three doctors “in the network” here and while it was certainly different, it was a good experience.

The bus ride was about thirty minutes and the (Russian?) doctor was helpful.

We have been trying to get an appointment at the Ministry of the Interior for about a week to apply for a visa extension. Our tourist visa (three months) expires September 10th, so it has been a little stressful. Bev tried using the web form to schedule an appointment, called the office several times, and even sent a fax. On Thursday morning, he took the bus down to the office.

That’s the approach to the Sail Building (where the office is located) with the harbor in the distance. We now have an appointment for the four of us on September 4th, but again, this was much harder than it should have been.

The staff person made it clear that she was doing me a favor and that we should have made this appointment as soon as we entered the country.

There is construction on HaYam Road, which runs parallel to our street and is one of the main routes down to the beach. The metal barriers shown below were placed there a few weeks back to clear the way for buses rerouted down our street, but they also took away already scarce parking spaces.

The bottom floor apartment in the building is apparently for sale, and we have seen lots of people coming to look at it over the past few days. Note the big banner below.

Our apartment is on the top of the building hidden behind the tree there. Here’s a video tour of our apartment.

We didn’t have time to straighten up, so please ignore the mess.