This past weekend, we did a little traveling to one of our favorite places - Jerusalem! It was one of those times where we combined a lot of peoples' invitations into one trip. This always thrills me! Save gas + extend fellowship = good memories! We were housed by a dear friend who is visiting from the States. She is renting a nice home in the German Colony, which is a district/section of Jerusalem. On Thursday night, we hosted a small events for other young people who have made aliyah. I loved hearing everyones' stories in such a relaxed atmosphere. Truly each story is unique and it's fun to see how God works out the details! On Friday morning, we picked up 3 friends who were also going to the wedding, which was in Beit Shemesh - about 30 minutes outside of Jerusalem heading in the direction of Tel Aviv. Again, we were having a great time and I was happy that we could help others travel to this somewhat inconvenient location - don't get me wrong, the location was beautiful, but not easy to get to if you don't have a car.
As we were coming up one of the Jerusalem hills, I felt the car pulling. It was like it was trying to accelerate and couldn't. I thought of the Flintstones cartoon...maybe we needed to pedal with our feet to make it up the acsent :-) Things seem to return to normal, as we leveled out, but not for long. The closer we got to Beit Shemesh, the more our engine started to shake. Before long, those in the back were asking if something is wrong with the car...this is always a bad sign! Thank God, there was a gas station near by, so we turned in and again Thank God there was a mechanic available. He looked at the car and said it was probably a spark plug, but that we should visit his friend up the street who works at a proper car shop. So, we gently made our way to this shop to look for Jabal.
Again, we found the shop relatively easily and Jabal was able to look at the car right away. Remember, at this point, we are all in our wedding attire, so I'm sure we looked a little funny pulling into this oil spot. Most of the group went into the air conditioning waiting room where there was free Internet, water and coffee. I wanted to stay in there, but my curiosity was climbing and I thought maybe a "pretty face" would encourage someone to help us. I can't help but still try to bat my eyelashes in a desperate situation. To make a long story short, we heard the famous words, "it's your engine. It needs to be replaced." Okay, to me, this is like saying, "it's the heart. It needs to be replaced."
Yonatan and I tried not to panic. You have to understand, it's almost noon on Friday (everything closes around 2 due to Shabbat) in a town that is almost 3 hours from home. What to do...we decide to leave the car, get a rental and go to the wedding. This is a decision we felt good about considering the circumstances. So, we tell the group our decision and try to work things out with the car shop. I am very proud to report that I said in Hebrew to the car shop guys that we were on our way to a wedding. This one sentence helped us receive a discount on the car rental and obtain more compassion from everyone because in Israel, weddings, babies and births are a HUGE ordeal. Yea for me! This is the one time I'll toot my own horn.
So, we made lemon juice out of lemons (inside joke) and enjoyed the rest of our weekend. The wedding was GREAT and our times with friends was wonderful. We also walked around different parts of Jerusalem and picked up a beautiful piece of art that a friend had bought for us.
The last part of this blog will explore some irony.
It is ironic that a week before this trip, we took the car in for a tune-up. The mechanic here replaced our back breaks and refilled all the fluids. So, why did our engine break a week later? Was it the fault of our mechanic here or just timing? I don't know. Another one of our friends' cars also broke on the way to a wedding in Jerusalem about a month ago. Again, are weddings in Jerusalem bad luck or just timing? I think the answer is obvious :-) And lastly, was it worth us buying a whole new engine or should we have just bought another car? No irony in this one. We felt it was worth it to replace the engine in this car. It was more financially savvy for us rather then invest in a new car.
Last thing I was to share. If there is one thing I have learned from this whole experience is that people love to share their opinions. We've had more people tell us "what we should have done" and honestly it's annoying. Yonatan and I made a decision that we felt comfortable with and that's the end of the story. I wish people would not offer up their advice unless asked to because it's not that helpful once the action has taken place.
Good news - the car shop called today and our car is ready for pick-up! Yonatan is going tomorrow, so our baby - Shoshi - will be home by the evening!
End of story. :-)
As we were coming up one of the Jerusalem hills, I felt the car pulling. It was like it was trying to accelerate and couldn't. I thought of the Flintstones cartoon...maybe we needed to pedal with our feet to make it up the acsent :-) Things seem to return to normal, as we leveled out, but not for long. The closer we got to Beit Shemesh, the more our engine started to shake. Before long, those in the back were asking if something is wrong with the car...this is always a bad sign! Thank God, there was a gas station near by, so we turned in and again Thank God there was a mechanic available. He looked at the car and said it was probably a spark plug, but that we should visit his friend up the street who works at a proper car shop. So, we gently made our way to this shop to look for Jabal.
Again, we found the shop relatively easily and Jabal was able to look at the car right away. Remember, at this point, we are all in our wedding attire, so I'm sure we looked a little funny pulling into this oil spot. Most of the group went into the air conditioning waiting room where there was free Internet, water and coffee. I wanted to stay in there, but my curiosity was climbing and I thought maybe a "pretty face" would encourage someone to help us. I can't help but still try to bat my eyelashes in a desperate situation. To make a long story short, we heard the famous words, "it's your engine. It needs to be replaced." Okay, to me, this is like saying, "it's the heart. It needs to be replaced."
Yonatan and I tried not to panic. You have to understand, it's almost noon on Friday (everything closes around 2 due to Shabbat) in a town that is almost 3 hours from home. What to do...we decide to leave the car, get a rental and go to the wedding. This is a decision we felt good about considering the circumstances. So, we tell the group our decision and try to work things out with the car shop. I am very proud to report that I said in Hebrew to the car shop guys that we were on our way to a wedding. This one sentence helped us receive a discount on the car rental and obtain more compassion from everyone because in Israel, weddings, babies and births are a HUGE ordeal. Yea for me! This is the one time I'll toot my own horn.
So, we made lemon juice out of lemons (inside joke) and enjoyed the rest of our weekend. The wedding was GREAT and our times with friends was wonderful. We also walked around different parts of Jerusalem and picked up a beautiful piece of art that a friend had bought for us.
The last part of this blog will explore some irony.
It is ironic that a week before this trip, we took the car in for a tune-up. The mechanic here replaced our back breaks and refilled all the fluids. So, why did our engine break a week later? Was it the fault of our mechanic here or just timing? I don't know. Another one of our friends' cars also broke on the way to a wedding in Jerusalem about a month ago. Again, are weddings in Jerusalem bad luck or just timing? I think the answer is obvious :-) And lastly, was it worth us buying a whole new engine or should we have just bought another car? No irony in this one. We felt it was worth it to replace the engine in this car. It was more financially savvy for us rather then invest in a new car.
Last thing I was to share. If there is one thing I have learned from this whole experience is that people love to share their opinions. We've had more people tell us "what we should have done" and honestly it's annoying. Yonatan and I made a decision that we felt comfortable with and that's the end of the story. I wish people would not offer up their advice unless asked to because it's not that helpful once the action has taken place.
Good news - the car shop called today and our car is ready for pick-up! Yonatan is going tomorrow, so our baby - Shoshi - will be home by the evening!
End of story. :-)
