אי שם מעבר לים

Or: In Credit we trust

Or: rrrrrrrrrrrrr

I am frustrated. An understatement. Where do I start? Hi everyone.. OK We can't do anything here because we don't have a "credit history". We can't get a credit card, we can't rent an apartment, we can't get a cell phone!!! Anything you want to do here, they run up your name through these super-credit data-bases (there’s a name for them) - like the "shabak of credit" - where there is a "score" assigned to you. To your credit. To your life.

So there are solutions to each of those problems: with the apartment we can have my brother co-sign the lease (he has good credit after years of struggling! actually, in some places it’s easier because they have a different process for international people..); with the credit card we have American Express which lets you make a "global transfer" of your account (i.e. they will give you an american American Express automatically); and with the cell phone, well… (that’s why I'm writing this post, Aviad thinks it will let all my anger out) - you pay $1,000 deposit!!! Yes, a thousand dollars. rrrrr!!! Because the cell company wants to make sure you pay each month (we wanted a plan for 2 years - there are pay-as-you-go-plans but that’s more expensive) - and because you have no "credit history" - you must pay a deposit. $500 for each line….. I was on the phone with AT&T for an hour and 15 minutes! Oh, and to top that, you get no interest on that money! (Verizon, another cell company, will pay you back the money with interest, that’s how it was with my brother, but with At&t they pay back w/interest only in a few states in the US, and Massachusetts ain't one of them).

Anyway, now that I got that off my chest.. No, wait, I'm still frustrated. I don't understand this place! It’s aflaya al reka credit! Could you imagine paying Orange 4,000 shekels as a deposit just until they see you pay your bill? Well, Aviad says that that’s why this place is a medina metukenet… I dunno. It’s not a very welcoming place..

Now that I got that off my chest! Apartments! It’s pretty much like the experience in Tel Aviv. Tiny undersized overpriced boxes (well, with the exception of hardwood floors..), with no parking. But I should be optimistic (?!, I'm not, but I was suggested I should be..). By the way, I thought after my applications to universities I was through with applications. So apparently, this country loves applications and paper work. We had to go through applications with Aviad’s visa (well, understandable), and now we see that even in order to sign a lease you have to fill out an application.. (remember? it’s for the credit history stuff, among other things).

It’s only 21:00 here but we get tired so early. So good night family and friends, we miss you and our lo-metukenet country (does anyone know how to translate metukenet? or is the concept itself unknown here because that’s the default state?!).

Sorry this post was a bit unorganized. Did I say I was frustrated?

 A special good night and thank you to our reader Tirza who’s religiously responding to our posts! It is muchly appreciated.  

Oh, another by the way: My friend Yifat just notified me that my thesis arrived at the library! So please, feel free to drop by TAU’s main library to read about a very interesting linguistic topic that was debated among medieval Arab linguists! (I know of at least one person who will take this offer seriously!).

Love,

Avigail