The Post Office

Two of my packages (of five) arrived yesterday.  Shlomo had been nice enough to pick up the first package in December with preceded my arrival (thankfully).  The next two are my personal files for some manuscript work that I hope to finish and an assortment box of absolutely necessary stuff.  Asked Shlomo what do when I got to the post office - he shrugged and said to get your packages.  Could it be that easy?  Of course not.

I wandered around for a minute, and then realized that there is a formal queue, which is handled beautifully by a very cool, high-tech system.  There's a kiosk right by the door where you get a number in line for the right catagory.  There was an English option, and in perusing the choices, I chose "general services."  I was #225 and if you can see in the photo, that was at #136.  I found a seat and people-watched.  It's amazing seeing the collision of cultures and technology, like Bedouin women with cell phones.  The queue was moving along slowly, had gotten to about 190, and then the computer crashed.  It went "old school."  Now it suddenly looked and sounded like the floor in the New York Stock Exchange.  Everyone had a number, but no one knew who was up.  Luckily, the computer rebooted, and we were back in order soon.  My number came up (after 1+ hour total), I went to the window, and she told me I was in the wrong line!  Of course I was.  So I went back to the kiosk, and tried again.  I still didn't find a category that fit, but a nice woman found it for me (in Hebrew).  Now, to another line, which moved very quickly (about 10 min).  The woman didn't collect my queue number and I saved the paper so that maybe I can sift through the queue choices better when packages #4 and #5 show up.  The packages appeared, I signed for them, hefted them up and headed out to the bus stop in from of the post office.  I originally thought about getting them one at a time for the sake of propriety and ease, but I now had them both.  A manageable weight, not too much volume, but I'm sure I looked a sight with the grey hair and these boxes.  The book box is a little worse for wear, but nothing fell out.

I got a bus pass at the obscure building in the bus station, but it has no shekels on it yet.  All the cash transactions happen on the bus, so that is how I will load (and reload) the card, but I was too chicken to do it because it was too crowded.  Next time.

And someone of you are asking for more photos.  Here are two photos taken looking west from my apartment building entrance.  There are cranes and construction everywhere in Beer Sheva.  It's great (Isaiah 11:12).

The two buildings in the background are Soroka Medical Center.  Ben Gurion University's medical school is part of that.  And it looks like the left is soon to be in construction, too.  Don't worry, my apartment has no view to lose - it looks south at the next building.