I feel the earth move

As my bed shook, I thought perhaps I was dreaming, then I thought, if this gets any worse, maybe I will get out of bed and see if Ilana is ok, and then the shaking stopped, so I just rolled over and went back to sleep...
It being Shabbat, I was't quite sure how I was going to confirm whether or not there had been an earthquake, but considering there had been a previous one this week, (which I hadn't felt), I thought perhaps it was likely and another girl where I was staying confirmed that she also felt the earth move.
So I survived a 4.1 Richter scale earth shattering event, and it felt pretty good, life affirming even.

I am not sure if Olmert felt it...he may have been in Annapolis already, hob knobbing with the worlds leaders...he makes me feel Palestinian...that is...like a people whose leader doesn't give a shit about them or their welfare, and he is content to sit around sipping tea with politicians while the society falls apart.
Do you know that movie tickets are only 10 shek now for high school students, because due to the high school teachers strike, they don't want kids running around so their solution is...we will drop the price of movie ticket prices so they will sit in the cinemas? HOw about a better solution...sort out the strike...maybe that didn't occur to anyone...

Meanwhile, as the earth moves from under my feet, the sky comes falling down and I guess I am Chicken Licken...running around, being a bit overdramatic about it all, complaining and at the end of the day, realising I don't control any of it anyway, the movements of the earth or the movements of the people who inhabit it.

Sigh. Well at least there are doughnuts (sufganiyot),which are appearing in every shop window...It's beginning to feel a lot like Chanukah.

ok now it's not a joke

I may have understated my feelings previously so let me be clear as crystal now.
I am officially pissed off about the University professors striking.
Not only did they not ask my permission, but they didn't ask the permission of any student, and we are the ones that are being unfairly punished.
Will someone please do something.
We are all sitting here (earthquakes aside), waiting around, not having any idea if the semester is being cancelled, if we are going to ahve exams, if they are just going to pass us, if we are ever going to have the lectures to the subjects that we are enrolled for?
I sit here in Israel, in the midst of this Balagan, and as I prepare to vote in the Australian election this weekend, I was really effected by an add made by the Liberal party, on the radio:
'If you vote for labor there will be....transport strikes, nursing strikes and it seems ever other type of profession on strike....'.
Then I look around at my situation, and think, yeh strikes suck...I can relate to that.
I can't wait to vote.

Enough Already

Not sure how many of you know that tehre are two strikes going on in Israel at the moment.
One of High school teachers and the other of University professors.
I for one am being profoundly affected by the University professors strike.
I set this time aside to study as opposed to working full time, which means I am effectingly losing money. I wouldn't mind if I was studying, but half my classes are not taking place and no one know what is going on. This time that I have put aside is being wasted.
The semester could be cancelled and then held during the holidays.
They could just pass us all without actually studying the subject.
It's all a big mess.
The latest announcemnet is that they are threatening not to give the professors their full pay for the time they ahven't been teaching which I guess they won't be happy with....in other words, they aren't any where close to resolving this issue.
The high school teacher strike is affecting families, and students who waon't eb able to take their final exams.
For sure I am on the teachers side, I am sure they get paid like crap and are undervalued, btu there must be some better way to negotiate this because it's really just enough already.
I am feeling annoyed, frustrated and upset, and there is nothing that I can do about it, Except write it here.

That Kafka Feeling?

DO you know that kafka feeling?
Like you are the main character of 'The Trial", everyone around you seems on some sort of mission...like they know what's going on and you ahve no clue...
I had a few Kafka moments this week and they ahve been gnawing at me...
It all boils down to ulpan classes...A-FREAKIN-GAIN!
After like 14 years of Jewish education, 1 year off in Israel, multiple visits and a free ulpan upon making Aliyah, apparently I still don't have enough command of the language in order to study a Masters program and so I have to attend 6 hours a week of yet another ulpan in order to pass the Hebrew exemption exam at the end of my first year of study. Of course theses hours are at night, inconveniently located at Givat Ram, where the bus that stops right outside my house stops running from Givat Ram at 8pm and my class ends at 8:10pm.

Anyway on Monday night whilst I was trying to get a taxi, in the cold, of course no taxi is in site. I wait and wait and wait...eventually one taxi passes by, they ask where I am headed...I saw Emek Refaim, a busy aea where am sure they can get more business once they drop me off...and the taxi driver responds "I am not headed in that direction"....I slammed the door shut on him in a rage..."Why are you angry?" He ponders innocently...
"Because you are a TAXI SERVICE! I pay you to go in the direction that I want to go in!"
He laughs and drives off leaving me as a damsel in distress.

The next ulpan lesson is cancelled as the teacher is sick.
The next ulpan lesson I turn up to the teacher is still sick, however everyone in the class was notified not to attend except for me.
I walk into the classroom and there is no one there...no sound, no note on the board, nothing.
This is my kafka feeling of bewilderment and confusion.
I guess if it were a true kafka feeling, the classroom would have been filled with men looking at me ominously, telling me I am late and put on a chair at the frojnt to accuse me of a crime that neither I nor they are sure of....but I am taking the artistic liberty of expressing my frustration here and so I get to do whatever I want.

I am now going to have some chocolate. Benedick's mints to be precise.