Friends Fo’ Real
Heya!
Everyone knows that one of the first things you do when you temporarily relocate to another country is…buy a cell phone (that’s ‘mobile’ for you non-American folk). Way back in July, when I arrived here, I sought to get the cheapest phone and cheapest pay-as-you-go plan. Luckily, I have a good friend who lives here in Melbourne (who was the biggest helper and supporter in planning my trip, btw) and she said she had an old phone lying around that I could borrow for the five months I intend to stay in this hemisphere. Great! I was happy to spare the cost and was warmly touched by her generosity. Internet relationships can only go so far. When you finally meet someone that you feel you know, but are now able to actually be on the receiving end of practical favors, it’s a whole new experience.
So I’ve been using this phone that has all her contacts stored in it and whenever I’ve added my contacts to it, I first put an “L” so that my contact list is alphabetized under L,(ie. LDana LJodi LSara etc). Also, I didn’t delete any of her contacts since I will be returning the phone. This leads me to the mildly humorous fact that when she calls me, it’s under “home” and when she called me from her mom’s once, it came up as “mom.”
We’re good friends here and it’s so great to be living in the same city with her. I’ve gone to her house for shabbat dinner, and I occasionally babysit her kids (which helps fund my ‘tourist tuesdays’).
In fact, as I type up this blog post, I’m keeping a half an ear out to hear if her son cries, since I am babysitting for her right now. Before she and her husband left, I heard him saying that his phone was not charged and they were discussing what to do. I chimed in and said, “you could take my/your phone.” I don’t need it for the next few hours and if you need to call me, just call your house phone!” Isn’t it funny how things work out. Their kindness and generosity ended up boomeranging right back to them, because now they have a phone with which to communicate.
So, I’ll go back to the easiest job in the world= sitting on someone else’s couch on my laptop, while getting paid for it and leave you with a picture of the beloved Melbourne sky.
Smiles,
Lilach
