You would not know it, but I am an Israeli-American and go back once in a while.

It became a crazy situation very quickly. A COVID-19 test is required less than 72 hours before the flight. I had a plan.

My first plan was to go to Walgreens. They have lots of stores and a plentiful supply of test kits.

I have a great plan. The flight leaves at 3:20 PM on Sunday I plan on being at the Walgreens at 4 PM Thursday to have the maximum time to get my test results back..

The problem is the flight leaves on Sunday and turnaround times are not guaranteed on the weekends.

Then I read the disclaimer.. Results not guaranteed.

That buzzing sound you just heard was they Walgreens being left off the list.

Time for a new plan..

Next I tried the airline website. I figured they want me to fly for obvious reasons.

That disclaimer comes up again. It reads like it’s written by a lawyer. I guess the lawyers get rich in a pandemic just like any other situation.

I get the light bulb over my head moment. I will use my health insurance plan. I verified that the results would be sent to the lab at the health plan hospital at 6 pm.

I can pressure the health plan provide the results.

I take the test and it was far less of a problem than I thought it would be.

Test taken.

The next morning I wonder how I am going to get the results in the airline app. Print it off the health plan web site.

This actually works after I invested an hour finding out if the results are going to be uploaded to the website.

Yay! I find out that the results would be probably a available by 1 pm. It’s already 12:46 pm Central. I probably will find out soon.

A few minutes after 1 pm I log into the health plan and my results are there.

I print them. Twice! Yay! the printer works!

I photographed and uploaded to the airline app travel readiness site.

I wonder how long it will be before it gets approved. What is this Ministry of Health form I need to fill out?

Uh oh. It must be less than 24 hours before the flight.

Nothing to obsess about. Right? I tried the site. Error 404. Not found.

This does not bode well.

Maybe they will fix it? Yeah right.

Due to cultural issues most of the people in the Israeli government tasked to write English are if I am being charitable are not native speakers. If I am truthful many of these people are not able to communicate in written English.

I am on alert and the first moment I have, I jump on the site .

Error code 404.. I tried a hundred times.

I tried to guess common misspellings and get nowhere.

I call the airline and report the issue. I have a lovey conversation with a lovely airline employee from Salt Lake City. We talked for some time. She is a good listener.

The conversation calms me but accomplished nothing.

The next morning I try the form. 404.

404

404.

The form has a phone number on it. I asked my wife to call the Ministry. You might as well tried calling the Ministry of magic.

My wife is hung up on.

Numerous times .

When she reached a person, she was advised to try harder. Be frequent. Persevere.

2 hours before the flight. I try uploading the COVID test results. Bzzzzzz!

Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

Two hours before the flight.

Panic sets in. The form comes up. I started filling it out.

What is my flight number? Can I view it with a task switch.

Buzzzzzzz! Thank You for playing try again.

It’s now 20 minutes before I need to go to the airport and I’m in a state of panic in desperation.I try again

This time I remembered everything. I memorize my ZIP Code for Arad and my flight number. After about 10 tries to get in the form. I start filling it out.

I get to the city field to pick my quarantine city upon arrival. I see the city names are in caps so I. press caps lock. I type A for ARAD. No not a single key works. I scroll.

I try to think of other ways to spell Arad in English and come up with nothing.

I get nothing ,no results. I need to leave for my flight and I still don’t have a form filled out.

At the point of desperation I said well let’s try lowercase letters because there are no capital letters in Hebrew.

So with lowercase letters the search works. I print the document I upload it to United airlines. Life is good. It only took about 12 hours of effort.

I laugh now but I was ready to give up on the trip.

I was so stressed out I had lay on the floor and breathe deeply in order to let my blood pressure below 400

Welcome to international travel Israeli style in the era of COVID-19.

Deep breath.

Now all I have to do is fly for 14 hours, take another Covid test and spend a week at home in quarantine.