The good: The people are good. I have met some very nice people who are eager to help me adjust to life in Israel. I attended Friday and Saturday services at a very nice synagogue with very nice people, one of whom invited me home for lunch after Saturday service. Lily is a nice dog who has not snarled or growled at me once. While the people are nice, I miss y'all so please email or call my skype number. If you ask me in an email, I will give you the skype number.
The bad: The internet service is bad. I have been trying unsuccessfully for two or three days now to upload video of my last day in the US and my first day in Israel. I give up. I am using the internet connection of the lady with whom I am staying in the Hadar area of Haifa. I am not sure if her internet service is typical, and I am not sure if the fact that she has been downloading several items has had an impact on my ability to upload, or indeed, even use other functions, but I am not having a good online experience.
Besides not being able to upload video, I also have to wait a long time for any page to load/open. This slowness has been consistent for the whole time I have been here. A new internet problem is that my Google chat has been disabled, with a message telling me to check with the network administrator.
So it is not that I have not wanted to keep in touch with people in the states, it is just that going online is very frustrating and sometimes fruitless.
The ugly: I am ugly (and smelly). Face and hair, wet with perspiration, is not attractive! I have been very exhausted and am not handling the heat well at all. It is surprisingly humid here - worse than Florida. There is no A.C. where I am staying so I am going to have to adjust. I do not mind walking, but I am finding walking in Haifa to be very difficult due to the fact it is built on a mountain. I am getting short of breath and having a bit of chest pain when walking long distances - and they are all long distances. It takes me about 70 minutes, moving as fast as I can, to walk to synagogue, and then I am exhausted and covered in perspiration.
This week: My tasks for this week are: get ID card, sign up for health plan, open a bank account, sign up for the government financial assistance, and try to register for Ulpan. I do not know yet, but I have heard there is a possibility that I will not be able to start Ulpan until September. If I understand correctly, I get 5 months or 500 hours (whichever comes first) for free.
After this week: Julia still does not know when she will get to go for her treatment. She will have three weeks of treatment, during which time I will have two jobs: take care of Lily and find a place to live.
L'hitraot (see you later)
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