In between all the shopping, we did other important things like open a bank account and get mobile phones. I mention the two together because they are the begging and (hopefully) the end of a lesson we learned about credit that made us think that maybe the by-line of this blog should have been "The adventures of two Israelis trying to establish credit in the land of plenty". While in the bank, I discussed with the manager getting a credit card. This was after he told us that we would each receive a debit card. Uri, confused, said "If we have the debit card, I don't understand why we need a credit card too".
I replied that we need to start establishing credit. He nodded, but when we were back in the car, he said to me, "I still don't really get it".
From the bank we headed to Verizon, the preferred mobile phone company in the Ithaca area (they have the best reception). After looking around, we wanted to buy numbers and phones. Not as easy as you might think. It turns out that to do that, they run a credit check on you, and if you don't have credit (meaning: you've proved that your an honest person, meaning: that you have money, meaning: that you pay your credit card bills on time) they don't sell you a phone without a very hefty deposit. Seriously? Yes! So... Lesson learned.
Paris Hilton once again popped into my mind - Obviously, Paris does not need to buy using credit. So I wonder - Does she buy things using a credit card instead of a debit card simply to establish credit history? If not, then did she too have to put a deposit down when she got her mobile phone?
And now for something completely different:
To get used to the fact that the week here starts on Monday and ends on Sunday, we had the other MBA Israelis over for Sabbath Tchulent for lunch on Sunday (Uri insists, so I’m adding: Chamin).
It was excellent. US adjustments were made: There was Kogel instead of Kishke, and no Shmaltz was used, but it hit the spot anyway. The day was even a bit gloomy, just to get the atmosphere going. For dessert I made rustic tarts with pastry cream and fresh summer fruit (4 (!) different kinds of berries). Just to make clear - "rustic" because I have no electrical kitchen gear or a rolling pin, so the pastry crust was rather rough looking.
Kogel:
2.5 cups of flour
1 cup oil
1 large onion, sauteed
1 egg
¼ teaspoon mustard powder
Salt and pepper, to taste
Mix all the ingredients together and pot in a cooking bag, place in the stew pot.
It's a food slideshow this time. You can click on the little speech bubble icon to see my comment on each picture.
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