Bureaucracy

Hello Everyone,This letter is Titled Bureaucracy. I see that my first task in life here to learn ispatience. I have learned over these years that mytasks in life come in blocks. 20's-30's was spent onanger awareness, 30's-40's I wanted to focus oncompassion and the 40's need to be spent on Patience,timing, and control. So here I am typing this letter from a car repairplace and waiting for the car my sister loaned me tobe fixed. Surprising to find a public Internet andchecking emails at a car repair garage here in thewaiting area for getting your tires changed. Our experience here has been very interesting andintense with little moments of "oh yeah, now Iremember why we did this". WE have been here less thana week and I feel like it has been a month. Most ofthe days have been spent in and with bureaucracy.Ministry of Absorption, Education, Interior, theMedical system, and most frustrating and confusing ofall is the banking. Usually during the experience I amon theverge of tears and then after wards I can laugh aboutit. I wish that the laughter would come during theexperience rather than only hours after. Although Iguess any laughter is good laughter. We are all very happy to be here. It still feels likehome in a strange kind of way because sometimes Ithink I want to go home (to Boulder?) and thenwonder....where is home? What does home feel like? Iguess for me home is a place that my soul feelsgrounded and calm. Who knows..thats a big one. My sister loaned us her old car, super great. Werealized after we have it for a day or so that thehorn didn't work. Besides gas, the horn here is themostimportant item of necessity while driving. So we takeit to the the repair place (after I got lost ofcourse) and the guy pushes the button where I wouldpush to make water come out of the windshield wiper.Lo and behold the horn honks. What the hell? The guylooks at me like I am a big dope and I am looking athim like I want to smash the car in frustrationbecause I spent my whole morning getting lost to getthere for a horn blowing windshield wiper mechanism.We practically crushed in the center of her steeringwheel to make the invisible non existent horn work.Pounding on it to no avail.OK, back to more serious matters. To enroll Zach inthe intensive language school here is what we had todo: Go to the court and get a "paper" for notary. Topay for the notary ($8.00)we had to go to the postoffice and buy special stamps. Then back to the courthouse to stamp the stamps. Take "paper" to Ministry ofEducation, then take "paper" from ministry ofeducation to middle school, then take "paper" to highschool, and finally bring the "paper" to the languageschool. I have so many friggin pieces of paper withgibberish on it I have to spend today straighteningout my papers. It took us 3 hours to open a checking account at thebank and then in the end we forgot to order thechecks. We were so jet lagged and pounding out hebrewall day long is tiring as well. Well, we need thechecks because we need to write 12 checks in advancefor our rent and hand the landlord the checks uponmoving in. No security deposits here, only bankguarantee notes. Don't ask. It is so confusing. Thelandlord did no credit check, did not ask us if wemake or have any money. It is so funny moving to a newplace and everything is different and upside down.Next task....Visa card. I think back to how we had tocall and cancel all the extra junk mail that we weregetting in relation to trying for us to open creditcards everywhere. Well to open a visa card here a with$5000 credit, you simply need to put $5000 in the visacard account. Sounds like a debit card to me but I wasassured over and over again that was how it is done. Iprobably did not use the right word to communicate andit is all confused. We wait everywhere and for everything. Big chunks oftime are spent waiting and yet all people quote tous..."money is time". We were told to pick up the car(that was sitting and ready) at 5:15 and now it is7:00 and obviously it is not.So much has happened so far. we are busy 24/7. I fight thoughts that I miss Boulder and the old ways as tokeep my brain straight and spirits strong.After getting lost 4 times yesterday going to eachplace I had to go I screamed so loud in the car thatmy throat was sore for a few hours. Not smart nor agood idea so I will have to find another way torelease frustration. I have to keep remembering that this is an adventureand we can see how it goes. Yes, we can always go backbut who wants to go backwards? I love the challengebut don't quote me when I am crying and frustrated orlost or the car breaks down. Ha!Israel is a very powerful place, the people are gruffon the outside and sugary sweet and caring on theinside. It is a no bullshit place. Not many frills,bells or whistles (although losts of horns). Thebeaches are gorgeous and have swamalmost every afternoon. 1 month a year the jelly fishcome in hoards so it is starting to happen now. wewill be taking a break from swimming.For sure the scariest thing for me is the driving,more people here are killed in car accidents than allthe wars and terrorist attacks combined. People aremaniacs on the road. I pray and pray while we drive. I miss you all and wish that you could be here to talkto while I stand in lines. Ha. I remember how timefocused I was in the U.S. It really has been a greatadventure so far full of tears and laughter and bestof all LIFE!Blessings until we talk againAdele