the visa the robot and the shopping

VISA-
So, I finally finalised everything with my working visa today. I have the sticker thing now in my passport and it gives me multiple entry into the country, and I can work for 6 months and then extend it. Whilst I was at the office I also opened a file as a prospective aliyah maker. Everything will be dated back from today. Whatever that means. The visa office was predominantly full of Phillipinos, Thais and Russians. However, the few Israelis twho were there managed to make the biggest scenes. So much arm flailing in the air and voice raising and tongue clicking in frustration... Israelis are just drama queens. That's all there is to it.


ROBOT-
So, on my walk back from the visa office, I encountered a crazy experience indeed.
Police cars appeared seemingly out of nowhere and all of a sudden sirens were going off everywhere and cars were tooting and it chaos descended within seconds. As I approached a certain street light, I realised all the action was taking place on this particular corner... so no one was allowed to cross the road and all the traffic ad pedestrians were stopped and kept back by police.

In the middle of this mayhem where the streets had been cleared- there was apparently "a suspicios item" and Israelis don't take to 'suspicious items' lightly. So there was a security van in the middle of the intersection, with its back doors open so I could see all the screens inside. After a long time of seemingly nothing happening, out of the van appeared this little robot thing to go check out the suspicious object. It was so cute! It was like something off The Jetsons, or something you'd expect to land on mars. I think there's something like it in Star Wars. Or Star Trek. I never watched either of them, so my recollections are vague. Anyway, the van was making lots of beeping noises and everyone's attention was fixed on the man in the van looking at the screen, and the robot slowly making its way to the object. After a while, the robot began to look like some kind of dinosaur. It ran on tracks, like a mini tank. But it had a gun which was manouverable, like a neck. The robot cautiously got the suspicious item and brought it into the middle of the road so all the soldiers and stuff could see what it was. It was a backpack. A backpack that had been left inside a garbage bin.

After a lot of standing around (I was now in a crowd of about 100 curious and frustrated bystanders and everyone kept asking me what was happening cos I was at the front and people assumed I knew what the hell was going on... Like I've seen something like this ever in my life?? The whole scene was incredibly trippy. Then all of a sudden there was a lot of shooting by the robot at the bag. After the shooting, this guy in a space suit thing (which protects him against chemicals) appeared, walking with his legs spread widely apart, as if he too was walking on the moon, and he came to the robot to look at the bag... and he emptied it out really slowly- It was at this point everyone's necks were craned, and eyes strained, aching to see what the wait had been all about... The bag's contents contained: a pair of socks; a sheet; an empty bottle of water; a t-shirt and some other crap. It was just someone's chucked out bag. It was an anti climax. But everyone cheered. And life continued.

I love it how in Israel, whenever something happens, everyone becomes an instant expert on the matter. After the Netanya bomb a few days ago, Eli and I went for a walk at night to Sheinkin street (had some excellent kubbe soup...mmmmmm kubbe) and we heard these 2 guys arguing about, if they were there, and they were the security guard, one of them would have "shot for the legs", and the other guy was like- "legs?? What are you talking about? The head! I'd shoot for the head and then maybe the legs".. and same with today... as I continued walking down the street, after I crossed the intersection, I could hear snippets of conversation where, mainly men, would be arguing about what they would have done differently.

Anyway, never a dull moment in Israel.

Oh! That reminds me- when I was walking to the ministers office, there was a construction site with loads of people standing around, some taking photos... so I stopped to look too. I thought it was some kind of April Fools joke- you know, where someone stops to look at something up in the sky and other people stop to look at what that person is looking at... Or like, when someone stands facing the wrong way in a lift and others supposedly do the same thing.. well anyway, I felt like I was stuck in exactly one of those situations. Then I reasoned- one of the people on the inside of this construction site must be famous. Hence the photos being taken.... then I asked someone what was going on- and they told me simply "they're going to move the house". I must have been blank-faced because he elaborated a little further for me. "The house is here. They're going to move it over there. In 20 minutes from now" and he looked at his watch, excited. Perhaps these were architecture students or something? Or perhaps there's something wrong with me, but moving a house is not something I would ever consider worthy of 30 people gathering on a narrow footpath for to watch, and to count down towards! I guess in retrospect, it was semi-impressive. Like, they'd excavated the whole block of land surrounding this old house, then they'd dug upwards, from underneath the house, and affixed its foundations to this structure thing which looked like you could just slide the house over and rails.. like it belonged to some studio set...

anyway.
SHOPPING-
I bought my first things today in Israel, yay!! By things, I mean, I spent money on something which was not transport or food or drink... I bought sneakers which were 100 shmekel ($30!) which are really funky and cool... like, the 80's style ones which go up at the ankle and have laces + velcro.. yeah.. they're black and pink and white. I've had my navy and red adidas ones for 5 years now.. I thought it was high time for a change. haha, high time. Pun. Anyway, I also bought 2 tops for work. I'm getting a little nervous about work now. I didn't really bring an office/ nice/ work wardrobe with me here. I didn't really think I'd be teaching English full time. I thought I'd end up waitressing, maybe doing some secretarial job... but my boss at Wall Street even stressed to me that at work they dress very smart. No jeans etc.

I have exactly 6 work tops. That will get me through the week. Great.