Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Oy, such a shlep!

Friends and blogfans will already be familiar with my exceptional capacity for fake losing stuff. This week I had my first fake lose since arriving in Israel. As I mentioned in my last posting, I spent a few days in Eilat (the southern tip of Israel), at the very recommendable Beit Haarava hostel (Clean bathrooms, very friendly staff...). On Sunday morning, I was on the bus on my way back to Arad (via Be'er Sheva), only 30 minutes into a 3-4 hour bus trip, when I realised I didn't have my cellphone. Crisis!! But funnily enough, for some strange reason that morning I'd picked up one of the Hostel's card and put it in my pocket. So, putting on my most earnest please-help-me-I'm-from-New-Zealand expression, I borrowed a cellphone from a fellow passenger and called the Hostel. The manager found my phone at the table where I'd had breakfast and then we tried to work out what to do. Two of my WUJy friends were still at the Hostel so we agreed that when they woke up he'd give them the phone and I should call it to arrange a plan. Lucky that I actually knew my own phone number! So the rest of the bus ride I kept calling and calling until I could speak to one of the friends. The phone ended up with Melanie, who I spoke with just as she was boarding the bus to Haifa.

My original plan had been to spend the night in Arad, then go to Tel Aviv in the morning for a meeting regarding my PSJ internship, then to meet a bus at Ben Gurion Airport to be taken up to Kinneret for the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship Programme. But since I was phone-less (and hence practically paralysed) I altered my plans to include a train trip from Tel Aviv to Haifa to pick up the phone, then bussing and taxing to Teveria and Kinneret. So yesterday and the day before, I spent approximately: 8.5 hours on buses, 1 hour on a train, and 1 hour in taxis. I have travelled so much of Israel in two days!

From this experience I have learned several things. 1) Once again, Israel is SMALL! 2) The please-help-me-I'm-from-New-Zealand face really works 3) Things always work out OK, and 4)Of all the things you can fake-lose, a cellphone is perhaps not the most important (c.f. wallet, passport), but is certainly one of the most logistically inconvenient things to organise to get back! How do you even arrange a place to meet with someone when you don't have a phone?? And how on EARTH did people get by when travelling in the past??

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:35 PM

    I cannot imagine Rach without her mobile phone! I'm impressed that you managed to organise getting your mobile back WITHOUT a mobile phone! I guess every Israeli would have mobile phones which you could borrow. Don't fake lose your passport - we do actually want you to come back to NZ!

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  2. Anonymous1:37 AM

    Well Rachel I could think of one thing worse than losing your mobile phone in a foreign land. That would be losing your marbles!!! As they say here in Scotland "Dinnae do that hen".
    Regards
    Tracy Saunders

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  3. Tracy!!!!! Long time no see!! I hope Scotland is treating you well...r u still an ambo??

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  4. Anonymous9:01 AM

    Yep working for the Scottish Ambulance Service. Hard to believe I have been living here for 5 years (including 1 year doon in London). By the looks of it girl you get around. Love the Blogs and you have some great pics. Your mum said that they will be joining you in Israel in a couple of weeks. That will be great for you to catch up with them. In Britain for a wedding in November??? Dinnae tell me you are coming here for the weather!

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