It’s so hard being a new immigrant

Even after 5 1/2 years, it’s still so hard!

This morning I spent over two hours on the phone with technicians because my internet was not working. And it still has not been fixed…

I tried to take care of two problems simultaneously, which was probably my first mistake.

When I realized my internet was down, I didn’t know who to call.

Back up: Over a year ago, I hired Dalia, my personal secretary/angel. Dalia came recommended by my accountant as someone who could help me with my bills and learn how to keep my business and personal banking separate, amongst other things. She has saved us money over and over again, finding places where we have been charged double or for paying our neighbors bills, for example. She comes every other week or so and goes through my bills and mail with me, helps me to file and even better – makes the phone calls in Hebrew for me.

Recently we have started trying to figure out a budget – what’s going out and coming in – as I had NO IDEA, and have found several places where we were paying double.

For instance for our Internet service. There are several companies here. When we moved into our new home over 2 years ago, we changed services and Ari canceled our old service.

When Dalia and I were going through our credit card bills last week, we saw that we were paying for two services. Ari thought maybe there was a reason. When I checked with Simon, our local computer geek who set up our service in the house – he clarified that we were only using one.

Which meant, upsettingly, that we have been paying for an Internet service that we are not using for 2 years and didn’t know it. All because the system here is so much harder for me to understand and numbers or money in general are not easy for me to manage. (Ari did this all in the States. Why I am doing it now is for another post!)

Today:
When trying to log on this morning to see what comments were left on the pictures I posted on Facebook last night, the internet was not working. After getting Ely off to school and going for my morning walk, I decided it was time to try to deal with this on my own – without Dalia.

BIG MISTAKE!!

I called the not-using-but-still-paying-for service and tried to explain the problem, in Hebrew, as they did not have anyone who spoke English. My explanation wasn’t so bad, it seems, because the service rep understood my problem. Except when he tried to explain to me what they were going to do, in Hebrew and as many times as he could slowly, I just couldn’t get it. I apologized for being an oleh chadash (new immigrant) and started to cry. Which of course, he could not deal with and asked me to hold on…
By the time he came back on, I had recomposed myself and he told me someone would be calling me to explain what the situation is in English.

No one has called me back yet…

And I still don’t have internet. Both problems unsolved.

So I am frustrated and humiliated.

Not being able to express myself is horrible for me. And not being able to take care of a simple issue of canceling an internet service is even worse.

I USED TO BE SUCH AN INTELLIGENT and CAPABLE WOMAN!!

I love Dalia, and I appreciate all her help. I just wish I didn’t have to pay someone to help me save money!!

It’s really so hard!!

UPDATE: Simon, G-d bless him, came by, pressed the reset button and VOILA, we have internet!! Now to get our money back from the last two years...