Dear readers,

Today was a day that will live in our hearts forever. Today was the day we met Haimi Naftali. Who is this man? Well, we’re so glad you asked. Haimi is a renaissance man - he is a painter, a singer, he owns the flower shop on Emek Refayim, and was allegedly a contestant on Kochav Nolad, the Israeli version of American Idol. We swear, we were just looking for a notary, but here’s what went down:

1a. Being approached at the municipality by a random Israeli (Haimi) trying to help us find what we need (a notary) and rejecting their help

1b. 10 minutes later being approached by the same Israeli after our failed attempt at getting our student discount - he had connections, we were going to get our notarized letters making our discount achievement possible.

2. Being led to an Israeli environmental lawyer’s apartment to get a notarized letter proving we were students with no money.

3. Being fed watermelon at said lawyer’s apartment and serenaded by Haimi while waiting for our letters

4. Dropping the ‘R’ bomb (“rabbis”) on secular Israelis and getting into a discussion about the validity of women becoming rabbis.

5. Traveling to the Society for the Protection of the Environment to use their printer (and paper).

All this for 100 shekels!

Lesson Learned:  When you need something done in Israel, look really confused until someone offers to help and won’t leave you alone until the job is done. We are now the proud recipients of TWO notarized letters. Thank you, Valentina!