Living the Good Life

As expected, the woman from MDA did not call me on Sunday to inform me whether or not I had passed the test. I was pretty sure I had passed, but it's nice to have confirmation regardless. Since I didn't know the woman's name or have a working phone number for the Jerusalem office, I just proceeded as if I had passed the test and tried to call up the original number I had, for a 'Michal' at the central MDA course office. Again no answer. I tried again a few hours later. Obviously they work Israeli bank hours, which is whenever they feel like it. I'm convinced that the banks make up their own holidays and then spend the day in Eilat. Which, to be fair, is what I would do if people were giving me their money.

I tried again the next day and someone actually answered the phone. I was so surprised I almost dropped it. But I quickly recovered and told them I wanted to continue with the registration. They told me that not enough people had signed up for the course (or in other words had succeeded in getting someone to answer the damn phone!) and there was a good chance that they were going to push it off a few weeks. They told me to call back Sunday (suuuure) to check. The course was supposed to be starting that Monday and they wanted me to wait until the day before to check. I asked what time I should call on Sunday, and they said, “all day.”

Apparently though, they had a surprise holiday pop up because no one answered the phone on Sunday either. Surprise! I finally sent an email to the first person I'd been in touch with asking if the course had in fact been pushed off, and informing her that I had no idea whether I'd passed the Hebrew test or not. I left my phone number and said if she wanted me to sign up she should call me. That was me giving up on all the craziness that Magen David Adom had to offer. The ball's in your court now, inefficient and hopelessly incompetent people. Not sure I want to play with you though. I'm afraid you'd drop the ball and then trip over your own shoelaces.

This 'Michal' actually did email me back (albeit it a week later) to inform me that the course had been pushed off and that I had passed the test. She gave me the new dates and let me know that the course lasted half a year. Which would be nice if that didn't overlap with next semester. The original date had been perfect- the course would have ended in September, before the start of the semester. Alas, such is life when the world is run by fools.

So what have I been doing in my spare time? Good question. Working twice a week at the vets' office, going to the gym, lots of computer games and t.v. shows, going out to photograph every once in a while, and taking the occasional trip out of the Jerusalem area. In other words, doing all the things I wasn't able to do in my self-invoked library imprisonment. Life is good.