Just imagine the look on my face a week ago tonight when I went to prepare myself an actual Shabbat dinner, took the chicken out of the fridge and was met with a stink to high heaven! For ten minutes, I tried to convince myself that I was imagining it and that the chicken was just fine...but eventually I checked the date and even the day we bought it, it was expired - the date read May 4th!

After 11 months and 27 days of relentless struggle in a very difficult language, an even more challenging culture, a bureaucratic system that makes little sense even to those born here - all in the most expensive country on the planet - a young guy who lives in my building decided not to charge me the 150 shekels ($50) we'd agreed on to go and get me a clothes dryer from across town and carry it into my apartment.