Weird Happenings in Week 2
Husband here. So I would say the best word to describe transitioning from "vacation" mode to "living" mode is "weird". You learn a lot about a culture in how they handle the every day necessities of living life.
Some of the weirder things that have happened in the past 7 days:
1. We had to buy a new refrigerator when moving in, as the Israeli custom is that rented units come without appliances. No big deal, our concierge helped us get that all set up prior to our arrival. One thing I couldn't figure out though was how to put the fridge into shabbat mode so that the lights don't turn on when you open the door. Thinking that it was just a combination of buttons to push, I called the appliance company to have them instruct me as to what to do. Ends up I need a technician to come out and set it up, which meant we couldn't use our refrigerator last shabbat (not a big deal as we were invited out for all of our meals). Anyway, this past Tuesday the technician comes to (what I originally thought) setup the shabbat mode. [I still do a double take when I see religious people in blue collar jobs, something that was almost never the case back in the US.] The technician inspects the back and front of the fridge and then declares "you have no shabbat mode!" To which I respond, yes, that is why you are here. His reply to this was "no, I am here to show you how to use your fridge" and he literally proceeded to show me how to use the fridge. I guarantee you that the laws of physics and the general fundamentals of "using a refrigerator" are the same in this country as any other country you may come from, but ok.
2. One of the conditions of our lease/renter's insurance policy was that we need to install a security system. Whether or not you feel like they are effective or not, it is something we have to do. I mentioned this in my last post. Anyway, the alarm uses a landline to connect to the command center. We had been told that we were paying for a landline, so I was surprised when the alarm technician couldn't get a dial tone out of our house. "Did you sign up for outgoing calls?" asks the technician. "Ummmmmm. Come again?". "Yeah you need to pay extra to make outgoing calls". Weird. Just plain weird.
3. Then I had my first run in with the difference between 110V and 220V. I'm ok, and so are all of my electronics, BH. Just an FYI, those fancy new surge protectors from the states don't like 220V.
4. Our biometric teudot zehut (identification cards) came this week. Delivered by a non-descript, non-uniform wearing dude whose every other word was "meuleh" (awesome). I actually saw the same guy delivery guy in a completely different neighborhood the following day, so either he has a huge route, or he just delivers mail when he feels like it to wherever he happens to be. Anyway, a few days later we get a text from the misrad hapnim saying you need to activate your teudat zehut, respond 1 to activate or 0 to do it later. My wife and I each respond "1". Now in America, when you do something like this, a few seconds later you get some confirmation that you have signed up. Nope, our response came like 10 hours later. I really feel like there is a real person handling all of these requests. The cards themselves are actually pretty fancy, with a chip and a lot of anti-counterfeiting tech. The chip stores our pictures and also two o our fingerprints.
5. There is a restaurant in the mall here that only sells French Fries.
Some of the weirder things that have happened in the past 7 days:
1. We had to buy a new refrigerator when moving in, as the Israeli custom is that rented units come without appliances. No big deal, our concierge helped us get that all set up prior to our arrival. One thing I couldn't figure out though was how to put the fridge into shabbat mode so that the lights don't turn on when you open the door. Thinking that it was just a combination of buttons to push, I called the appliance company to have them instruct me as to what to do. Ends up I need a technician to come out and set it up, which meant we couldn't use our refrigerator last shabbat (not a big deal as we were invited out for all of our meals). Anyway, this past Tuesday the technician comes to (what I originally thought) setup the shabbat mode. [I still do a double take when I see religious people in blue collar jobs, something that was almost never the case back in the US.] The technician inspects the back and front of the fridge and then declares "you have no shabbat mode!" To which I respond, yes, that is why you are here. His reply to this was "no, I am here to show you how to use your fridge" and he literally proceeded to show me how to use the fridge. I guarantee you that the laws of physics and the general fundamentals of "using a refrigerator" are the same in this country as any other country you may come from, but ok.
2. One of the conditions of our lease/renter's insurance policy was that we need to install a security system. Whether or not you feel like they are effective or not, it is something we have to do. I mentioned this in my last post. Anyway, the alarm uses a landline to connect to the command center. We had been told that we were paying for a landline, so I was surprised when the alarm technician couldn't get a dial tone out of our house. "Did you sign up for outgoing calls?" asks the technician. "Ummmmmm. Come again?". "Yeah you need to pay extra to make outgoing calls". Weird. Just plain weird.
3. Then I had my first run in with the difference between 110V and 220V. I'm ok, and so are all of my electronics, BH. Just an FYI, those fancy new surge protectors from the states don't like 220V.
4. Our biometric teudot zehut (identification cards) came this week. Delivered by a non-descript, non-uniform wearing dude whose every other word was "meuleh" (awesome). I actually saw the same guy delivery guy in a completely different neighborhood the following day, so either he has a huge route, or he just delivers mail when he feels like it to wherever he happens to be. Anyway, a few days later we get a text from the misrad hapnim saying you need to activate your teudat zehut, respond 1 to activate or 0 to do it later. My wife and I each respond "1". Now in America, when you do something like this, a few seconds later you get some confirmation that you have signed up. Nope, our response came like 10 hours later. I really feel like there is a real person handling all of these requests. The cards themselves are actually pretty fancy, with a chip and a lot of anti-counterfeiting tech. The chip stores our pictures and also two o our fingerprints.
5. There is a restaurant in the mall here that only sells French Fries.
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