Absorption into Israeli Society . . . Step #3,569

After two years of renting, today I finally bought a washing machine! Slowly but surely, the appliances are adding up.

It's a Blomberg 1220. Holds 6 kilos of laundry, automatically weighs the clothes and uses water accordingly, and has all sorts of fancy-shmancy settings, including a time delay (ie, I can put my clothes in and then "tell" the machine to wait a certain number of hours before starting. Don't know when I'll use that, but whatever.) Three year warranty. Front-loading. Um, it's white.

Got it at "Best Buy" in Talpiot for 3390 NIS (about $750), after spending a few hours calling various stores and doing price and model comparisons (and convincing some sales people to lower their prices in order to beat the other guys . . . I'm ruthless that way). I don't know much about Blomberg, but since I do laundry only for myself, and therefore don't use the machine that much, I'm not so worried about it. Besides, though the Germans have their flaws (cough, cough), they happen to make very good washing machines in general.

Please do not tell me how much less washing machines cost in the United States, or how much less I would have paid if I'd called the store near your house. I don't want to know!

By the way, this is yet another example of why it was never worth it for me to pay too much attention to what my "rights" are as an immigrant, at least vis-a-vis appliances. Yeah, I'd get a break on customs if I imported an American washing machine . . . but if I am willing to pay for shipping, I may as well buy a machine here, especially since I don't need a mega-humongous American washer.

And, yeah, I'd get a break on buying a washing machine here, if I bought an Israeli washing machine . . . if Israel made washing machines . . .

So, the fact that in theory there is some sort of tax break on appliances for new immigrants, once again, does not apply to the specific needs and circumstances of Chayyei Sarah.

But anyhow . . . yay! I own a washing machine! And I'm paying for it like a real Israeli: in 24 installments on my credit card!

Next step, in, like, another two years: A dryer!