Chill Out!

No, I'm not speaking about the weather. Most definitely not, as we are experiencing a mini summer here in Yerushalayim. The weather has been stunning- no coats, frolicking outside in the sun, but the downside of that is no rain during the last little bit of the rainy season. The Kinneret still has 4 meters to go! (Hopefully we will get some rain this Thursday though, at least according to predictions.)

What I'm really referring to is a habit typical of the Israeli professionals that I've met. From the army to the science labs, Israelis do not dress formally. It's like casual Fridays taken to a whole new level. High ranking doctors walk around in jeans and Crocs. Army officers request that their soldiers call them by their first name. Formality? Gone. Thrown out the window. Scraping and bowing? Gone. The top professors in a college almost expect their students to treat them in a casual manner. In any other country, it would be chutzpadik. To the Israelis, that's normal.

It's endearing in a way. After all, that provides the young ones with the chance to speak up, to let their ideas be heard, instead of always deferring to the elder in the group. That may be why Israeli teenagers are so ingenuitive, creative, and otherwise street smart. They have a chance to speak their mind, to change the system, and to make their positions and ideas known. In a way, it's a bad thing- leading to disrespect of the older generation, and a lack of regard for authority.

All I know is that my mouth dropped open, when my new director walked in and said, "Please refer to me by my first name. Thanks."

Misrad HaPnim- Ministry of the Interior

Okay, I admit it- there is one thing that will drive me off the wall in Israel- the Misrad HaPnim- Ministry of the Interior.

I can't imagine that American bureaucracy is as hard to access, hard to get in, and hard to deal with.

I had to renew my visa to stay here in Israel- and it took me four days of staying on the single phone number, with single operator, in order to get an appointment for a month away.

New Olim that go there have been told to come back 6 months later for their first Teudat Zehut, (Israeli identity card), and the number system there never seems to call your number, only the number 100 digits away.

Enough griping though- this is supposed to be positive- so here goes. During my last two experiences at the Misrad HaPnim, I actually did not have such a soul-wrenching time.

I went to get a visa for me and my husband- and I only had a copy of my marriage certificate, not the real thing.
But they let me get one anyway!

I then tried to make a visa appointment for someone else- and I actually got through after 8 rings on the telephone line!

So- there is hope in the darkness!

Pnim means interior- the inside workings of the government. I think that how you handle yourself in the Misrad HaPnim tells a lot about the 'inside' of the person. Are you going to scream at all the employees there when you're told that because you're missing a document you have to come back in 3 months- or are you going to choose to accept, or quietly argue, without causing a scene?

It's a test of character- one I hope to pass!