“The soles of your shoes are all warn down…”
As I began writing this blog post, I was sitting in an apartment in Tzfat, a holy city in Israel and the home of Kabbalah. I was typing on my friend Emma’s computer while it snowed/rained outside. Our power was out. It was freezing cold. Rebekah and Emma were sitting behind me reading Captain Underpants in Hebrew. It was a bizarre end to a surreal week.
Most of this week was relatively uneventful. I did a couple of things in Haifa, but nothing truly noteworthy. As the week drew to a close I had to study for my Ulpan final, clean my room out, and pack my backpack for the adventure ahead of me. With an eviction notice from the university on my door and Ulpan behind me, I felt like a true wanderer. It was hard to say goodbye to the place I had begun to love and the people who made it special. Despite that, what I said in last week’s post remains true. I want to move on and explore. I want to use my Hebrew in more real world situations. It is possible that I failed my final but I still do think I have learned a significant amount since being here. So, with a fair share of sadness and even more excitement, I spent Thursday afternoon and evening moving out. It felt a bit strange but I knew it had be done.
In the afternoon, Emma and Rebekah came over to keep me company while I tried to finish the task of packing my room. Emma offered to run Applejack, a program to clear up issues with Apple computers, on Walter Jr., my computer. There were a couple of kinks with him. They were nothing major but she thought Applejack could help. When she went to restart Walter Jr., he would not boot. The apple would come up and the thinking dial would spin. The fan would begin to run and he would promptly shut down. Panic ensued. Using her international phone Emma called the Helpdesk at the Main Library of Brandeis University, where she works. They could not help. She then called Applecare. They said that, because my computer is past warranty, they would charge fifty dollars to do troubleshooting. They told Emma if it did not work the troubleshooting would be free. We decided to eat dinner and try to fix it ourselves before making any decisions. When that did not work, she called back. The new Applecare specialist was not as helpful. She said the troubleshooting would cost fifty dollars no matter what and would not tell us if she thought it would help. We asked her to explain to us where we can get help with my computer in Israel only to find out that there are no Apple stores here. (Fun fact: There are Apple stores in the United Arab Emirates but not in Israel.) My situation seem hopeless. Emma asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor did the troubleshooting with us for free but it did not work; however, we did learn that the problem was either the Operating System (OS) or the hard drive. I was desperately hoping that it was just the OS. If that is the case, all you have to do is reload it with the disk. Unfortunately, my OS Panther, is so old that you cannot download it online. We decided to call our counselors from the university to find out where we could find somebody that can fix Apple computers. They told us that instead of Apple there is an Apple retailer called iDigital. There is a iDigital in the Grand Canyon mall in Haifa.
On Friday morning, we woke up and grabbed all of our stuff for our trip to Tzfat. After two bus rides we arrived at the mall. Once awkwardly going through the security check with all of our stuff (yes, malls in Israel have security gates), we made our way to the iDigital. Oriel, an “Expert” (in America they are called “Geniuses”), tried to help me with his broken English. A lot of the details of our conversation were in Hebrew because he could not easily explain the technicalities in English. At first, he told me that I had to send my computer to some lab due to the fact that it is a foreign computer. I was not excited to hear that. It sounded expensive and I had reason to believe that all I needed was the OS. With some persuasion from me, he booted it with Snow Leopard, the upgraded OS for my computer, on an external hard drive. He said that they could try to restore my computer and upgrade it but that I had to leave it for them to work on. It was Friday and, therefore, I would not be able to get my computer until Sunday. Later that day, as we waited for our bus to Tzfat, I got a call from Oriel. My computer was fixed! I picked up my computer and payed 434NES (approximately 120 dollars) but the information was all lost. It was silly of me to never have backed it up. Oh, well. At least I have a computer.
I was in Tzfat from Friday to Sunday. It was raining and snowing (!) most of the time. Saturday morning we had hoped to go to services at some of the famous synagogues here. The rain and our sleep deprived bodies prevented us from making on time. We still had the pleasure of seeing beautiful views from Mount Meron and the old city empty with the exception of people going to and from synagogue. Actually, the largest group of people we came upon was a cluster of men dancing in the rain outside of HaAri Synagogue. The rest of the day we relaxed. To our misfortune, the power went out in our cold little guesthouse. After Shabbat and a couple tries, the owner fixed it. That night, we went out for dinner at a nice dairy restaurant and went on a walk. That walk involved a lot of snow. Too bad we did not pack winter wear for Israel. Our shoes, particularly the soles of Emma's fashion boots, payed the price. The next morning, we hit all the major sites of Tzfat, ate delicious Yemenite food, and got a bus back to Haifa.
As I finish this post it is Monday morning and I am staying in Emma's room at the University of Haifa. Today I am taking a day trip to Akko. Tomorrow morning I will make the move to Jerusalem. I have some really fun plans for my time there. It also appears that I will have internet but I have not decided if I will be bringing my laptop...I would hate to see it break again.
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