Not Being Homeless in Jerusalem...Priceless

A couple of days ago, Matt and I were visiting my dad in the hospital and we started to discuss what was left on our To Do list. My dad asked us, "What is at the very top of the list?" Matt and I looked at each other and were obviously both mentally searching our list. What was at the top? Well, it wasn't making a binder of information for my parents or purchasing hair gel and black shoes. Nor was it making the last drop off of library books and picking up all our dry cleaning. At the same time, we both realized it was most definitely the fact that we had no place to live from the day we arrive in Israel to August 1.

This might sound strange, but up until that moment, we weren't stressed about this fact. However, with only six days until we were leaving, it donned on us that we had better get on this immediately...the hair gel could wait.

We had back-up plans. Our co-worker who lives in Israel, Lisa, was nice enough to offer us a place to stay for a few days once we arrived. Jean, who seems very nice and who is also going to CY this summer and found us through our blog, also offered to let us crash at her place until we found somewhere. And, of course, we considered staying at a hotel, which would have no kitchen and would be very expensive.

With back-up plans to ease the stress a bit, Matt and I scoured the Flathunting listserv all week. I emailed about a dozen people about apartments in Rehavia. Surprisingly, I only heard back from a few. The two I heard back from immediately were both $4,500 for the five weeks, which was just way out of our price range.

The only other one that emailed us back has a wonderful two-bedroom place, close to the CY, and with a somewhat more reasonable price. We took it.

Now we can worry about the shoes and library books :)