well, a good phone call and a good night's sleep is sometimes all you need to feel better.
after talking to my dad, joual called me up (though he was still on guard duty) and really cheered me up and made me laugh and smile. i was down and he made me better. a lot better. i didn't cry. i almost did but then he called and so i didn't cry. but he just made me feel really good. we talked about a lot of things and i went to sleep soundly after we said goodnight and hung up the phone. sometimes, you just need to hear that person's voice before you go to sleep to know that everything will be okay.
he's damn good like that.
and yea, i'm a pretty lucky individual
never have i been more in love.
my dad is going to come in on sunday to go w/ me to the bank. he won't be able to get to herzliya from maale adumim until much before 11 so i will have to email my boss and tell him i will be late. i will just tell him i have an appointment at 11 which is relatively true. i know i am 26 and i should be able to do things on my own and blah blah blah but he knows how to talk to these people better than me (and his hebrew is a bit better than mine) and it also prevents me from doing something relatively stupid - like jumping over the desk and strangling the banker. b/c i would. that and it's also just backup that i need b/c i have a feeling if i go in alone, i could screw things up and make things worse off for myself. plus, my dad isn't a pushover. usually, i am not either, but him more so and i know he will help me make an arrangement w/ these guys that won't completely screw me over.
note to israelies - bank mizrachi sucks.
i guess i should explain a bit into why i am in a situation of owing a bank a lot of money. when you make aliyah to israel, you get free money from the gov't your first 8 months. it isn't a lot but whatever, free money is free money no matter how you swing it. in order to get said free money, you need to open up a bank account. well, i was stuck in petach tikvah upon moving here (i was supposed to go to live w/ distant distant cousins in tel aviv but the day after i arrive - i was already at the place in PT saying hi b/c they are family friends - they tell me i can't live w/ them. so i was going to be homeless for 6 months. what a welcoming to the country. so was was in PT which can be compared to the 6th 0r 7th ring of hell in my book and no one speaks english. i went to the absorption office there and they had people there that spoke just about every language BUT english. anyway, so, i need to go to a bank to get money, so i have to go to the bank in PT. the one closest is mizrachi. i go. no one speaks a damn word of english. i ended up signing papers, i have no clue but i am pretty sure the devil now owns my first born and my organs will go on the black market. things like that. this is where the problems started. let's move ahead in time to when i moved to herzliya. i have to switch my bank to the herzliya branch. (one of the many ass-backwards things about the banking system. in the US, if you belong to bank X and signed up for X at town A and then move eventually to town B, you can still use the bank X there for all it's functions. in israel, if you are at bank X in town A and move to town B, you have to move your entire account over or the only thing you can do at bank X in town B is deposit checks). apparently, i owed money to the PT branch and have no clue. apparently, in order to deal w/ the owed money, i took out a loan. do i really remember this, no, as the people in the herzliya branch ALSO had no english speakers. so now i have one loan over my head i was confused about b/c i didn't understand the system. eventually, i went in and took out another loan on my own accord (i thought the other one was done being paid for...apparently not...some woman's bad english mixed w/ my bad hebrew led me to this thought bubble) and knew about that, but again, didn't know about repayment and blah blah blah. eventually, i just left the bank thinking all was taken care of. apparently, not so much. and at one point, i got a letter and wrote a nasty response in english basically telling them that the reason for the mess is b/c no one explained anything EVER to me at that bank and that unless i got an english speaker there, nothing was going to get done b/c i am not signing papers w/out people there to translate it for me word-for-fucking-word. at bank leumi, where i am at now, they gave me a copy of the contract in english for me to look over, there is ALWAYS an english speaker to explain things to me and therefore my account hasn't been negative since january (that was part of my new years resolution, the other part was to start saving...yea, haven't gotten there yet but so far, so good) b/c i understand how shit works there. my friend said bank hapoalim for her is the same. there are minimal problems and if there is, i know i have some one to speak to. the english speakers at the herzliya branch love me b/c they can practice their english.
anyway, the point is that this whole mess started b/c no one ever explained to me A) how the banking system works (the account itself, credit cards, bank branches and so on) and B) no one ever explained that the fuck it was that i ever signed leading me to believe that my body is now going to be auctioned off for science or aliens have permission to abduct me.
but it will be taken care of now b/c A) it has to be and B) i am tired of them bothering me and i just want it to be done. that would be nice.
on the plus side, i woke up this morning on my own accord, and granted it was an hour earlier than i set my alarm, it was on my own so i feel pretty refreshed. and apparently i spent a lot less (like 600nis less) on my credit card than i thought which is extra money for JB...score.
[in israel, you don't pay credit cards back bit by bit, it's like a monthly debit card - you have a limit and everything and in the beginning of the month, they take out everything you used the credit card on from the previous month. it is actually decent for me b/c then i don't spend too much on my card b/c i know it gets taken out in one big lump sum........oh yea, this was another problem i ran into b/c no one had explained that little tidbit of information to me (when you hear "credit card" you think US-style w/ paying back in payments)....or that i could change the date that the money could be taken out not leaving me negative for a few days b/c the time they took the money out and my payday...which would force me to incur a lot of wrath from some banker]
my dad just called me and i relayed how i feel stupid for being 26 and needing some one to come w/ me. he said, no matter the age, sometimes we just need a bit of backup, some one there to make sure we don't beat the crap out of the person we are talking to and signing things/making agreements on things that will do more harm than good. yes, this time it will be my dad, but i am sure if joual was home, i could have asked him and he would come w/ me to the bank and help me not make another stupid mistake.
so yea, that's my story.
i'm still in an ehh mood but whatever.
i am going to shower, watch the latest episode of lost and then find an article somehow dealing w/ the international political economy and write a 600-800 word op-ed on it. doesn't sound tough at all really. i just don't know what kind of article to find. i will probably just search the economist online for something quick and simple.
well, that's all i got for now.
enjoy your weekends
xoox
-JB
after talking to my dad, joual called me up (though he was still on guard duty) and really cheered me up and made me laugh and smile. i was down and he made me better. a lot better. i didn't cry. i almost did but then he called and so i didn't cry. but he just made me feel really good. we talked about a lot of things and i went to sleep soundly after we said goodnight and hung up the phone. sometimes, you just need to hear that person's voice before you go to sleep to know that everything will be okay.
he's damn good like that.
and yea, i'm a pretty lucky individual
never have i been more in love.
my dad is going to come in on sunday to go w/ me to the bank. he won't be able to get to herzliya from maale adumim until much before 11 so i will have to email my boss and tell him i will be late. i will just tell him i have an appointment at 11 which is relatively true. i know i am 26 and i should be able to do things on my own and blah blah blah but he knows how to talk to these people better than me (and his hebrew is a bit better than mine) and it also prevents me from doing something relatively stupid - like jumping over the desk and strangling the banker. b/c i would. that and it's also just backup that i need b/c i have a feeling if i go in alone, i could screw things up and make things worse off for myself. plus, my dad isn't a pushover. usually, i am not either, but him more so and i know he will help me make an arrangement w/ these guys that won't completely screw me over.
note to israelies - bank mizrachi sucks.
i guess i should explain a bit into why i am in a situation of owing a bank a lot of money. when you make aliyah to israel, you get free money from the gov't your first 8 months. it isn't a lot but whatever, free money is free money no matter how you swing it. in order to get said free money, you need to open up a bank account. well, i was stuck in petach tikvah upon moving here (i was supposed to go to live w/ distant distant cousins in tel aviv but the day after i arrive - i was already at the place in PT saying hi b/c they are family friends - they tell me i can't live w/ them. so i was going to be homeless for 6 months. what a welcoming to the country. so was was in PT which can be compared to the 6th 0r 7th ring of hell in my book and no one speaks english. i went to the absorption office there and they had people there that spoke just about every language BUT english. anyway, so, i need to go to a bank to get money, so i have to go to the bank in PT. the one closest is mizrachi. i go. no one speaks a damn word of english. i ended up signing papers, i have no clue but i am pretty sure the devil now owns my first born and my organs will go on the black market. things like that. this is where the problems started. let's move ahead in time to when i moved to herzliya. i have to switch my bank to the herzliya branch. (one of the many ass-backwards things about the banking system. in the US, if you belong to bank X and signed up for X at town A and then move eventually to town B, you can still use the bank X there for all it's functions. in israel, if you are at bank X in town A and move to town B, you have to move your entire account over or the only thing you can do at bank X in town B is deposit checks). apparently, i owed money to the PT branch and have no clue. apparently, in order to deal w/ the owed money, i took out a loan. do i really remember this, no, as the people in the herzliya branch ALSO had no english speakers. so now i have one loan over my head i was confused about b/c i didn't understand the system. eventually, i went in and took out another loan on my own accord (i thought the other one was done being paid for...apparently not...some woman's bad english mixed w/ my bad hebrew led me to this thought bubble) and knew about that, but again, didn't know about repayment and blah blah blah. eventually, i just left the bank thinking all was taken care of. apparently, not so much. and at one point, i got a letter and wrote a nasty response in english basically telling them that the reason for the mess is b/c no one explained anything EVER to me at that bank and that unless i got an english speaker there, nothing was going to get done b/c i am not signing papers w/out people there to translate it for me word-for-fucking-word. at bank leumi, where i am at now, they gave me a copy of the contract in english for me to look over, there is ALWAYS an english speaker to explain things to me and therefore my account hasn't been negative since january (that was part of my new years resolution, the other part was to start saving...yea, haven't gotten there yet but so far, so good) b/c i understand how shit works there. my friend said bank hapoalim for her is the same. there are minimal problems and if there is, i know i have some one to speak to. the english speakers at the herzliya branch love me b/c they can practice their english.
anyway, the point is that this whole mess started b/c no one ever explained to me A) how the banking system works (the account itself, credit cards, bank branches and so on) and B) no one ever explained that the fuck it was that i ever signed leading me to believe that my body is now going to be auctioned off for science or aliens have permission to abduct me.
but it will be taken care of now b/c A) it has to be and B) i am tired of them bothering me and i just want it to be done. that would be nice.
on the plus side, i woke up this morning on my own accord, and granted it was an hour earlier than i set my alarm, it was on my own so i feel pretty refreshed. and apparently i spent a lot less (like 600nis less) on my credit card than i thought which is extra money for JB...score.
[in israel, you don't pay credit cards back bit by bit, it's like a monthly debit card - you have a limit and everything and in the beginning of the month, they take out everything you used the credit card on from the previous month. it is actually decent for me b/c then i don't spend too much on my card b/c i know it gets taken out in one big lump sum........oh yea, this was another problem i ran into b/c no one had explained that little tidbit of information to me (when you hear "credit card" you think US-style w/ paying back in payments)....or that i could change the date that the money could be taken out not leaving me negative for a few days b/c the time they took the money out and my payday...which would force me to incur a lot of wrath from some banker]
my dad just called me and i relayed how i feel stupid for being 26 and needing some one to come w/ me. he said, no matter the age, sometimes we just need a bit of backup, some one there to make sure we don't beat the crap out of the person we are talking to and signing things/making agreements on things that will do more harm than good. yes, this time it will be my dad, but i am sure if joual was home, i could have asked him and he would come w/ me to the bank and help me not make another stupid mistake.
so yea, that's my story.
i'm still in an ehh mood but whatever.
i am going to shower, watch the latest episode of lost and then find an article somehow dealing w/ the international political economy and write a 600-800 word op-ed on it. doesn't sound tough at all really. i just don't know what kind of article to find. i will probably just search the economist online for something quick and simple.
well, that's all i got for now.
enjoy your weekends
xoox
-JB
good luck w/ the paper