We Tour Holon

So today was the day to go to Holon and visit the Misrad HaRishui (Licensing office) to get the approval to take driving lessons to get our license.  Lost yet?  no?  Wait, you will be.

In order to get a license in Israel, you have to:

1. Get an eye exam at an optician's office after which you get a form to carry around with you for days until you can do step 2 which is....
2. Get a physical exam by a doctor
3. [BUT WAIT - in order to do #2 you have to be part of a health plan - go back and you lose one turn]
4. Go to the Licensing Office but FIRST make sure you know their hours and days of operation and WHICH office you can go to - you find this out by going on the internet, writing to the community list serve, asking around, and then just guessing and hoping for the best.
5. Find out you have to go to Holon to do this.
6. Find out how to get to Holon.
7. Find out that your Israeli GPS which you paid lots of money for does not recognize the street name you put in for the office in Holon.
8. Decide to use Google maps directions instead.
9. Drive to Holon.
10. Park 10 blocks away from the right building.
11. Walk 10 blocks
12. Get in!
13. Wait in line to get a number!
14. Now you're number 1 in line!
15. Walk up to the window practicing the Hebrew sentence you've memorized to tell the man what you need.
16. And? And?
17. He says, yes, this is the correct office (YAY)
18. He says, yes, you have the correct day and time to come (YAY)
19. He says but....
20. You start to wish you were one of those guys who carries a rifle around
21. He says but THIS WEEK we are not doing driving licenses.
22. So come back next week.
23. You stare at him in disbelief.
24. You walk the 10 blocks back to your car and drive away

So, my darling Gila, feeling badly for us, says, "Hey, let's get your cellphones today!  Let's go to the Orange office in Yishpru and we shall have success!"

So we meet her there and wait for over an hour.  Then the nice (and adorable - are you seeing a pattern here - many Israeli men are swarthy and handsome) man explains the various plans to us and Gila translates for us (I did understand 'smartphone' in Hebrew though because it sounds like 'smartphone.')

When we get all of the information, we call Donny who tells us WAIT WAIT we MAY have a better option!

So we walk out.

Now tomorrow we have an appoitnment with the nice lady in the Misrad HaKlita (Absorption Office, and no I don't mean paper towels) to give her our bank account information so that the Israeli government can give us money all year.  Let's hope for success.

Oh, and on the apartment front we found the very handsome Nachum (again with the handsome) yesterday, he of kablan fame, who we hope will help hurry along the process so we can get our &*(&*(* keys and get into our ^&*(^(*&(* apartment already.  Not that we aren't having fun living with our kids.  It is actually kind of nice - I mean they are cooking for us and we are using their internet bandwidth and they are entertaining us.  But really, we all need our own space.  Soon, soon.