a balloontwister’s aliya saga

Today was the first installment of car shopping..
The first thing you have to know is not to freak out when you see car prices…
“200,000 shekel holy shabbos…”
As a Oleh chadash you get a big discount… so its not THAT bad..
The second thing you have to know is The dealers do not bargain with you… Its the price and Thats it.
The best they can do is throw in extras… alarm (which is a must in Israel), a discount if you pay all of it up front…etc.
The next thing is to ask your neighbors what THEY have and guage if they are happy.. how many can fit in the car… How much does each fill up cost.. how often do you fill up…
We have narrowed the search down to two cars: a Mazda MPV or a mitsubish glendis or alentis? Or something.
The misubishi is longer than a minivan, but not as high up… but can fit 7 people. THe MPV is a minivan can seat 8 I think.
The misubishi is cheaper, so we may go that way. It has as an extrra feature TWO seperate A/C controls. SO the kids can fight even more over something.
“YOni, I’m too cold”
“Michal, its 100 degrees in here”
“I made caki”
“Oh, Yudie”
“Hey, I didn’t say that, Tamar did”

Its gonna be great.

A few minutes ago I got a call from Jessy Slater, a voice from the island.
He’s in yeshiva and he invited himself for shabbos.
My cousin, Zanvy, who I called to invite is going to Jerusalem this shabbos. He said “My parents can’t stop talking about the BLog..” He said he is already getting into the learning and is excited about the upcoming year.
I almost pulled a George Costanza yesterday at the start of a staff meeting.
In an episode he makes a joke and walks out, to leave on a high.
In the meeting, we noticed the projector was missing.
I said “I think the company is trying to cut down on OVERHEAD costs.”
Got a good laugh.,, But I had to stay for the meeting.
This morning we asked a meter maid for directions as she was writing someone a ticket.. AS she finished the pulled out a digital camera to take a picture of the car parked ON THE SIDEWALK… that guy is not going to fight that ticket.
Tommorrow, Thursday, Penina has her driving lesson and then she goes for a test to take her license. So she has been to 1 ulpan class in 5 days.
I think Felafel is going to learn hebrew faster.
(Felafel is a huge dog owned by the neighbors who only barks at arab workers.)
Well, I gotta get back to work.
I came in at1pm after car shopping so I have to stay to around 8.
The last train from Bney brak station to Beit Shemesh is 8:24.. miss that… and its going to be a long night…
See YA!
Yudie