Are you getting the picture? If not, I'll tell you about my day. I received a notice that the post office has a registered letter for me. The notice said that the letter would be returned two weeks after the date on the notice which was more than two weeks ago. I figured I still better try to pick it up. The designated post office was not the one near my home but on the other side of the city. I traveled by bus for thirty minutes and waited for my turn. However, impending bomb alerts went off and the manager kicked us out of the office and told us to go to the bomb shelter. We listened to explosions in the sky and returned to the office where I waited for another twenty minutes when another alert came in. Outside I went where an Iranian bomb exploded a few hundred yards away and nearly knocked me over. Next came sirens, and soldiers, and police and ambulances and mayhem. I went back to the post office, but they closed it for the day as the power was out. Turns out the bomb fell near my office and blew out all the windows. The office is covered in glass and metal from the window frames.
After surveying the area and the mayhem and the crying people and wounded, I tried to head home but there were no buses. I walked two miles.
Next day I traveled again across town to the post office and waited for my turn. It came finally but an angry shouting man cut in front of me. After twenty minutes the clerk let me hand him a paper with the registered mail instructions. He was a decent guy actually and spoke English, which was nice. Turns out the letter was from the water company for the prior tenant. In Israel, you can't get the water bill in your name unless you have a lease with the owner. This is because many people never pay their bills. It also turns out it's difficult for a new owner to get registered with the city, so our owner has never done it and our water bill is in the name of the prior tenant. We tried 100x to change this. We pay our bill when it comes but seems that the mailman has been sending it back to the water company, so we didn't get the bill, and didn't notice, and this was a threat to turn off the water.
So we have here a typical day in Israel, bureaucratic nightmares and bombs falling on your head. Nine people who live on the street where I work every day were killed. Still want to make aliyah?
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