Stick a Fork in Me, I'm Insured

As many of you probably know, I have been struggling to settle my health insurance situation here for some time. Because I am a returning minor, Israel has all sorts of silly laws designed specifically to make my life more difficult. For instance, there is an non-negotiable 3 month waiting period before I can be insured. An even more annoying rule is that returning minors automatically belong to the HMO to which they belonged before they left the country. You can always switch, but in Israel you are only aloud to switch HMOs at two points during the year. In my case this meant that I couldn't join the HMO that I decided best suited my needs until next July. My Crohn's disease only exacerbates the problem as I need to begin a long term relationship with an HMO in case it takes a while to get my medications approved.

The good news is, that after filling out many forms and having countless conversations with the national insurance agency, I am insured and belong to the HMO of my choice. I even met with a doctor the other day. In terms of my health, things are going quite well. I have been off of Remicade (my infusions) since mid-August and things are still looking good. I am on a new medicine called Pentasa which seems to be getting the job done. So far so good.

Now My People Can Call Your People

As I was perusing my most recent phone bill I came to a shocking conclusion. From the land line in my room it costs me more to call a cellphone in Israel than it does to call the states. I still can't go willy nilly with the phone calls, but it does mean that I don't have to feel nearly as guilty for keeping in touch vocally. Of course, everyone is still more than welcome to call me (which is even more financially viable for me) but I understand if you don't. I just take it as a sign that our love has waned and you've left me for someone else. Someone else who my army buddies will soon hunt down and kill.

The Real Details

I know that everybody is waiting with bated breath to hear about my television interview....so....here goes:

The whole thing started when the television people contacted the Israel iscouts, who sponsor the Garin, to request an interview with a couple members of the Garin. The woman in charge of the scouts sent over profiles of about ten different people, and from the list they selected me and one other guy, Royi, to come in for an interview.

The night before the interview I had a "pre-interview" of sorts with someone from the show. We spoke for about a half hour about a range of topics ranging from why my family moved to and from Israel 11 years ago, to why I am here now, to what I studied in school, to my Crohn's disease. We also talked about what I like most about Israel and what I miss from the States. Later that night I drove with Royi to Tel-Aviv as a cab was picking us up to take us to the studio at 6:30 the next morning.

The reason we had to arrive to the studio so early was because they wanted to use some video clips that we brought with us and needed time to edit them appropriately. While the editing was taking place, Royi and I had a chance to have makeup put on and see the other celebrities that were being interviewed on the program. These celebrities included the guy who sings the song "v'eich sh'lo," which is very popular in the Garin, and Ronnie Superstar (Israel's Britney Spears). We went on the show at about 8:40. The show was on a commercial break, so we had a chance to chat a little bit with the hosts before we actually went on the air. The set was nice, with a couple of cushy chairs for the hosts and an adjacent couch for the guests. There was a flat screen TV in the corner between the chairs and the couch for showing clips in the background. Pretty simple, but all you need for a morning talk show program. There were two cameras on the set. One with a teleprompter aimed at the hosts and another shooting at our direction. I admit it was a little difficult not to steal glances at the cameras, but the hosts did a good job of engaging us in conversation. The actual interview was relatively short - about 5 minutes. We touched on only a tiny fraction of what we had discussed the previous night, and the hosts kept us pretty on subject - Zionism, the difference between Israel and America, and the army. Interestingly though, it turns out that the male host is a huge sports fan, so we also spoke about how the Red Sox finally won the world series when I wasn't able to be there for it. Towards the beginning of the interview I suffered a microphone malfunction and had to be passed a new mic from offset. I coolly and calmly attached the new mic to my collar while the camera was on the hosts. I'm slick like that.

All in all the interview was a very cool experience. I got to be on TV and see the inner workings of a talk show, so I'm happy. The program got some good publicity, so the sponsors and administrators are happy. And now that I'm famous and have to beat women off with a stick, so my mom is happy. It would have been nice if we had been given more time to talk about the Garin and thank various people and organizations, buy hey, what can you do? Maybe next time I'm interviewed on TV they will cut me a little more slack.

Details

So here is the skinny: Tomorrow morning I will be interviewed on Israel channel two on the "Good Morning Israel" show. The program starts at 6:00 AM and the interview takes place sometime between then and whenever the program ends. And yes, if need be, I expect you to watch the entire program.

I'm Famous

Wednesday morning (Israel time) another member of the Garin and I will be interviewed on "Good Morning Israel," Israel's most popular morning show. I don't know exactly what time yet (or even what station) but stay tuned and I'll post another update as soon as I have more info.

No Fair

It seems that even in death Arafat is able to screw me. This weekend, the Garin was supposed to take a trip to Jerusalem. We were supposed to stay in a religious army house in the Jewish quarter of the Old City. Unfortunately, because of Arafat's death and funeral, the army decided that the Old City probably wasn't the safest place to be and cancelled the trip. They might be right...but it still stinks. Stupid Arafat.

Score!

Every Friday, before Shabbat, I play soccer with a bunch of people who live on the Kibbutz. The players range in age from 17 to mid- 30's, and we play on a beautiful grass soccer field (but use smaller 6 on 6 style goals). The skill level is pretty high, and while most of the Kibbutz players have little formal training as a team, they have excellent ball skills. They can also be pretty physical. So far I've played pretty well, and I improve each week as I become more confidant in my skills and more comfortable with the Kibbutzniks. Last Friday, for the first time ever in Kibbutz play, I scored a goal. It wasn't a picturesque 20 yard laser beam strike, but it was a good effort goal where I beat the goal keeper to the ball, and kindly deposited it behind him. I am now apart of some large Kibbutz "boys club" where the better only the better soccer players are aloud. I would elaborate about my induction - which involved several beautiful Kibbutz women, and bottle of scotch, some paper clips, and a glue gun - but this is a family blog.

Hamat Gader

Last night I took a little trip with a couple other people from the Garin to Hamat Gader - a naturally hot sulfur bath resort. The resort is about 15 minutes down the road from Kibbutz, and on Monday night there is a special discount for residents of the area. The last time I had been there was about five years ago, and while the Roman ruins remained essentially unchanged, the hot baths received a major face-lift. The entire area was redone with the square pools replaced by a large lagoon shaped one with special massage jets and waterfall areas. Where a lone snack bar stood years ago, there are now a slew of restaurants and massage rooms. The only negative is that to make the pools more tourist friendly, the management apparently tempered the temperature of the pools. Fortunately, the one holdover pool from the "old" Hamat Gader is still quite boiling and I am happy to report that after bathing in it all of my muscles had turned into jelly.

The Waiting Game

As I have noted in previous posts I am basically waiting for the army to get things settled with me. Unfortunately, I have no news to report on this front. I am still waiting for the army to give me a date for a medical hearing, and until that happens everything else is essentially on hold. Currently, I am still in ulpan and working out as if I was going to enter the army soon. On that note, I may not be entering the army as soon as I may have thought. Recently a new possibility has arisen whereby I could have a potentially more interesting job in the army, but I would have to wait until March to start. On the flip side, if the job turns out to be not so fun, I would have given up a reasonably good job with the diplomatic corps and waited until March (instead of the beginning of December) for nothing. In the next few days I will attempt to collect a little more information about the potential March job in order to make a more educated decision.

In the meantime, lets take a little poll. Given that I don't know exactly which job I would be getting in March, should I take the safer job in the diplomatic corps, or try for the potentially more interesting job be waiting? Also, this poll will reveal who is actually reading my blog.

Ah-Ra-Zat Garin

This past Thursday we had our ahrazat garin. Basically this entails a big performance of the garin in front of most of the kibbutz, representatives from various agencies which help support the program (including the army), and a member of Kenneset. The show itself was loosely modeled after a news exclusive on the garin. There were skits about ulpan and gadna. I was given the role of one of the news anchors (serving primarily as comic relief) and also sang several songs during the show. The highlight was a performance of the Leonard Cohen song "Hellelujah" with my Kibbutz brother Assaf and my roommate Jason. We rocked the audience's socks off.