Progress (Of A Sort) In Hebrew

We moved last November.

I did All The Right Things. I changed my teudat zehut (ok, it took a couple of months), but even before that, I went to the bank. I spoke to a bank officer and gave her the new address of our new condo given to us by the kablan.

Har Homa is a neighborhood of condominium buildings that each straddle two streets. The address the kablan gave us is NOT the address the Post Office uses -- the mailboxes are on the OTHER street. **

This, of course, entails another trip back to the bank. A very nice clerk assures me that I don't need to go stand in yet another line, she can change the address in her computer. So I give her the "correct" address of the alternate (front) street.

After a couple of months, we stopped getting bank statements. No problem. For 6.5 NIS, I can get one every month by (you guessed it) going to the bank AND getting it in English!!

More alarming, though, was the fact that our one credit card bill stopped coming. This was playing havoc with my sleep patterns, stress level and ability to figure out what I was spending every month.

I called the number on the credit card. Another nice person took our new address. Problem solved.

Another month went by -- no credit card statement.

I called again and got another nice person who told me I simply needed to go to the bank (since it is a bank-issued card) and tell the bank.

"But I did that already!" I wailed. After some further discussion, she clarified that doing a change of address for the bank statements didn't necessarily mean the change of address was done for the credit card.

I wanted to ask, "Why not?" but I was fairly sure it was a pointless question.

I went back to the bank. It seems that the nice woman on the phone was correct--the change of address for the bank statements does NOT change the address for the credit card statement.

And since I was there.....I asked why I stopped getting my bank statements?

The bank officer checked. It appeared that the clerk who changed my address did not change my incorrect new address to the correct new address....she changed it to our OLD rental address. I don't blame her, I blame my Hebrew.....

NOW it's all fixed. And today the credit card statement came! That's not what amazed me. What absolutely amazed me is that I opened it AND I COULD READ IT!

Now, my Hebrew is vastly in need of improvement but I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to read how much in debt I am despite my language impairment! I'm going through the bill line item by line item and it suddenly dawned on me --I'm reading this --and understanding this -- in HEBREW!!

That's progress, isn't it?

And from now on, we're paying cash for groceries. THAT's the biggest item on the bill!


** A factoid that is often either unknown or ignored in the frantic blatherings of the MSM and Left when they shriek about the Israeli government approving "300 more homes" etc....300 condominiums works out to roughly 20 high-density condo buildings, which is, let's see, oh yeah, this street. Ten buildings on each side. But these Know-Nothing-Nabobs manage to convey the impression that somehow 300 suburban villas are sprawling across the landscape.