Arnona

I'm in a good mood today, so rejoice, O ye peoples of the world! Why might that be? you ask. Because today I battled Israeli bureaucracy and it wasn't entirely useless and incompetent, hurrah!

Je m'explique (apparently I slip into French when I'm happy, that's interesting). Israel has this tax called arnona, which basically translates as council tax (pour les grenouilles, ça se traduit par taxe d'habitation). It's not much, about £40 a month, but godsdammit I don't care. There's a student rate, but that only applies if you're Israeli. If you are foreign (for once this applies to both Jews and non-Jews!), you need to get a letter from your university saying you are a student there, another one saying you have paid all your fees and the Israeli government isn't giving you money, and another one from the university lawyer with a declaration that you don't work in Israel. Great, except a) it says on the student visa where you're studying, b) as a government office, they have access to information on whether or not you're getting money from the state, and c) it also says on the student visa that you're not permitted to work. Do you really think, if I were working illegally, that I would tell the lawyer that?

Did I mention it takes a long time to get all this shit?

So finally today we got all the documents, went to the Iriya (City Hall), and sat there for an hour Heebing the Brew with the, admittedly nice, girl behind the desk, who had us filling in forms, writing letters, and a whole host of other paraphernalia. In the end, not only did I get her to concede that the whole thing was a load of balls, but she also gave us an 80% discount on the arnona without any fuss, which was lovely.

In other news, Michael is leaving us at the end of the month (pause for a collective moment of utter despair). He's renting out his room for August to a nice Russian fellow named Vladimir (no, really), who speaks English perfectly, studies at St. Andrew's in Scotland, likes tea, and has a boyfriend coming to stay soon. We need to rent my room out for a month too, as I will be back in the UK on the 12th of August! Put it in your diaries. Although I will be buggering off to Llandudno with the Sean for a week upon my arrival, so you'll have to wait, you clawing bastards. As a side note, ask Sean to pronounce Llandudno at some point. Or Llanelli. It's hilarious.

When I get back mid-September, we will be moving in to a lovely flat with our Australian friend Judd in the Florentine area of Tel Aviv (just the name, it has nothing to do with the Italian city), where I shall be writing my thesis, awaiting such a time as the Misrad haPanim should so deign to call me forth and interview me for the privilege of remaining in this... place. People who want to come visit in September/October are more than welcome. The weather isn't ridiculously hot at that time of year, and I will be all yours.


Alright, enough wittering, back to the grindstone. Love you all.