I have a new roommate. Haven't met him, don't know his name or even his face, and yet he is my new favorite roommate. He brought us a new toaster oven! It's brand new and it works beautifully and it is sitting in our kitchen opposite the counter! Honestly, this is definitely another one of those instances where you are forced to get used to being without. I haven't had an oven or a microwave all semester, and I had basically stopped pining for either. What a sucker I was. I used it for the first time this afternoon. Nothing really complicated, I just broiled some chicken sausages I had in the freezer. Even so, it was magic!
Today may be my most significant day of the semester to date. I have two presentations scheduled for today, in Hebrew and in Terrorism and Responses. I already delivered my Hebrew presentation this morning, while Terrorism and Responses isn't for another few hours. I can only hope that project goes as well as the one this morning did. As you may recall, my topic is the relationships between Hebrew and Arabic (היחסים בין עברית לערבהית.) I chose this topic under the assumption that linguistics would bore my classmates and they would ignore my presentation, thus undermining their ability to ask additional questions at the end. I was dead wrong, and I'm glad I was. They were paying rapt attention the entire time, asking questions throughout. With the formal Q & A section after the presentation, I spoke for about 40 minutes. I definitely aced the project, and I had fun while doing it too.
I would prefer to keep this page relatively apolitical, for everyone's sake. However, I am compelled to say something political today. I read in the newspaper this morning that the continuing faculty strike in the University sector is about to complete its fifth week. The Universities are about to cancel the break between semesters and may need to dip into the summer break as well in order to make up for the lost time. The students are already in an awkward position because their professors are on strike, but adjunct instructors are still teaching, meaning that University students have those classes taught by a TA, but do not have those classes taught by a senior faculty member. This has led to serious crowding issus in the classes that do exist, and because adjunct instructors need permission from a professor to give an exam, some classes may not even have their midterms.
Meanwhile the secondary school strike reached its 36th day this morning, with no real progress to speak of. There was a massive protest at Kikar Rabin in Tel Aviv over the weekend in favor of the teachers, but it looks to have accomplished nothing. What does this all mean? Education in this country is not a priority. The government is sitting on its hands with both the high school teachers and the university professors, and that is indefensible. The government keeps trotting out the same line about money and working conditions (including class size and teaching hours) but is totally unwilling to come to the table and compromise. Education should be a priority always, especially here in Israel. If the government can't pony up the cash to pay their instructors a fair wage, then perhaps it is time to reexamine where their money is going.
100,000 protesters couldn't convince this shitty government to act.
On a lighter note.... We had a thunderstorm that raged all night last night, and we've had intermittent rain all day. It's cold, wet and generally unpleasant outside today. What this means of course is that everyone back home who is praying for rain in the holy land is doing a bang up job! I wish I could thank you all personally for this miserable day. I bought an umbrella from the university store so as not to melt on my walk to class. Enough for now, I've got to go practice for my presentation this afternoon. I hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving breaks.
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