The Senior Lecturer’s Strike, which lasted for 90 days finally ended this Sunday and classes in the University have gone back to normal (almost). The repercussions on the students are insane (ex: I order to fill in all of the material for an entire year in essentially 1 semester, studies are going to run straight through all vacations, excluding religious holidays. The next expected vacation is exactly a year from now. Sick. ) It’s a whole big balagan (i.e. mess) and as angry and annoyed as everyone is they are just happy to finally be learning.
On the selfish side, I along with my fellow Overseas School students have had the entire campus almost completely to ourselves. It doesn’t really make a difference once we get to our classes in our own building, but it makes a HUGE difference in the commute to school as well as waiting for services once we get to school. The bus rides this week have been absolutely unbelievable. I was on my way back to school on Sunday and the bus was much fuller than usual. As we got closer and closer to campus the bus became PACKED beyond packed. (luckily I get on far enough away from campus to get a seat) I would have sworn over my first 3 children that the driver wouldn’t possibly stop at any more stops (Its common practice for drivers to bypass stops when they are just too full to take on more passengers) but he did. And he continued to. It was slightly amusing and a bit worrying to watch students force themselves through the back door into the already tippy-toes room only bus. It took the driver a few tries each stop to close the doors because somebody’s limbs or bags were stuck outside!! I was afraid the bus would weigh too much and the bus would break down and then NONE of us would get to school….but then again I’m a worrier by nature.
The second problem that this creates is once we reach school. At Hebrew U, everyone wishing to enter the campus has to pass through security: first an ID check and then a bag check/metal detector. While there is a strike the whole process takes no more than 2 minutes. When the entire university shows up for class at the exact same times it can take 10 minutes! It’s freezing outside in the bus tunnel and the security personnel who are terse on a good day are downright pissed that they have to actually work so hard. It’s not the end of the world but it’s a pretty shitty was to start your day: being yelled at by disgruntled kids my age who hate their jobs.
The next big shock came when I reached the campus. It was full. I mean really full. People were sitting on the grass and someone was smoking every 3 steps and there were just a lot of people. I’d been used to the University being a depressing ghost town. I couldn’t wait for the strike to be over and the place to come alive again…now I just feel like an outsider like a quasi-student since my Hebrew isn’t perfect and I’m not really in university anyway.
On a more positive note and to help explain my prolonged (again) absence I recently finished writing an 8 PAGE PAPER IN HEBREW. Yes, you read correctly. 8 pages. In Hebrew. To top off the whole experience and to make all of the late nights and nervous breakdowns worth it I got a 100. Clearly they weren’t dissecting our use of grammar and word choice rather our ability to do a research paper…but still. It was in Hebrew. I succeeded. As far an I’m concerned this year is a success. Even if I fail every other class (which would be really hard considering my high school classes were much harder than this) I wouldn’t care because I have proven to myself that not only can I survive in Hebrew but I can succeed as well.
Also, completely unrelated, my cousin Alan was here on birthright the last few weeks so not only did I get to see him but he also got to meet David! It was really exciting for my since very few of my family members have had the opportunity to meet him yet. It’s also very exciting for me that my family is coming to spend time here….hopefully they’ll all come to visit more often ☺!!!
Next up is finals which start this Friday. I have a week and a half and only 4 finals spread out which will be really nice and relaxing ☺. Mom comes on February 8 to help with a blitzkrieg 6-day wedding planning extravaganza. I can’t wait to see her and it will be nice to get started on a lot of the things that I still need to work out before the wedding! Other than that I am on a 3-week vacation where I plan to attempt to get an Israeli drivers license and maybe do some hiking! Hope all is well with all of you. Happy Tu B’Shvat!
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