Wheels! and My First Israeli Protest

Today was a big day - I traveled to Herzliya this morning to pick up our new car. 

Here's some historical dialogue (you wives out there will enjoy this one) which took place in Baltimore sometime around last November:

Me: Listen, we are going to need a car as soon as possible after we make aliyah.
Husband: We can't afford it.
Me: Well, how are we going to do all of the things we need to do right away?
Husband: Our kids will drive us around.
Me: Are you kidding me?  They have carpools, shopping, they can't be shlepping us around.
Husband: We can't afford a car.
Me: So we should rent a car at least for a few weeks until we get everything done.
Husband:  Fine.
Me: And we should try to buy a car as soon as possible.
Husband: We can't affrord it.

Well, I am happy to say that said Husband finally agreed with me that we needed a car as soon as possible. I mean, living where we do, there are no local grocery stores - you are basically living in the suburbs and need to drive to anything. Whew.

This is why we pushed so hard to get our licenses before the Husband left to go back to the States for Tax Season.

So we went through getting the Green document (Tofes Yarok) which you get from the optometrist, the doctor appointment, the visit to Jerusalem, the driving lessons, the driving test, the car shopping, the money gathering, the money transferring, the insurance buying, and finally, folks, today was Car Pickup Day!

So my son in law Donny took me with him to Herzliya this mroning (he works there) and there was our little car waiting for us!

The salesman showed me the basics (the key goes here, this is the spare tire, etc.) and away I drove!  Now I only had to find my way back to Modiin. 

For some reason, I am terrified of driving where I have never driven before.  I mean terrified.  I am afraid I'm going to get lost and never find my way home. I know, it makes no sense.  But there it is. So I prepare.  I check Google maps so I have a picture of the route in my head, I have a GPS, I print out Google directions.  And I still panic.

So there I was driving out of Herzliya and - yay!!!! - I found the right road and was happily driving my new car on the Ayalon highway south toward Modiin.

And then....the traffic stops.

OK, I think, it's an accident or just heavy traffic. No problem.

I keep driving slowly and ahead of me two cars have their flashers on.  OK, this must be the accident scene.  Then I look to my right and left - in all four lanes of traffic AND the shoulders there are cars with their flashers going - and they are in a line.  And they are stopping traffic from moving forward.
AND they all have signs in their back windows - something about taxes.

I start laughing hysterically (see yesterday's blog).  Here I was panicking about losing my way and I do so well and then these protesters stop me in my tracks.  I was actually enjoying it because at least I wasn't lost!

Eventually people started snaking their way through the barricade, me among them.

And I made it home.  With my new little car.  Which I LOVE. 

And I called the car rental people to pick up the rental car, which I patted with love and said goodbye to.  I mean that little Dahiatsu got us through a lot of tough things, and performed very well.  But our new Hyundai is so much prettier and cooler. 

And as you know, we are all about being cool.