Standing Ovation

Everyone has an "only in Israel" story. Here's Kayla's:

"My first real Israeli experience got me a standing ovation at the licensing office!"

I had made Aliyah and ventured to Ramle with a friend early morning to convert our driver's licenses- two 20-year-old girls, speaking broken Hebrew.

As we entered the office, the security guard gave us a number to wait in line and told us to share our number (and assured us it was ok after we made sure). After an hour of waiting, our number was called- but the office workers wouldn't let us both use one number, and told us that one of us must wait in line all over again!

We called the security guard over to explain the situation, and to our surprise, he denied the whole thing!

At that point, we began making a scene. My friend and I started speaking loudly, accusing him, and trying to explain to the workers what had happened. People around us (mostly other olim coming to convert their own licenses) jumped in and tried helping us. A few people even took out their phones to record the whole fiasco!

Eventually, the guard admitted what he had done, and the workers allowed both of us to use one number without waiting another few hours.

As we walked out of the office, the people waiting began clapping, cheering us on for sticking up for ourselves!