My new schedule may kill me, if I don’t learn to go to sleep earlier. This semester, I have to be somewhere by 8.30am every day of the week. Two of those days, I need to be in class, which is only a short walk away, so I can get up at a leisurely 7.15am. Otherwise, I need to be up before 7am in order to get to work on time. I haven’t been able to sleep earlier than 2am, and I no longer think it’s because of jetlag, but because my days end later now too, soI feel like I need a few hours to myself every night, even if only to study, or read, or write in some blog!
Tonight was the second night in my new ulpan. I like it, as in I like the the teacher, the pace, and the students are quick, but as usual, some of them are just too loud, while the rest can’t get a word in. There is one girl in particular who reminds me of an Arab version of Peg Bundy. Her face, makeup, big hair (although not red), tight clothes and bountiful bosom.. and I don’t know, something, else. She seems nice, but wow, the mouth on this girl, both literally and figuratively. When the teacher asks a question, and not necessarily one tough enough to impress her with a good answer, she screams out her answer above the others. One time she even caught herself and covered her mouth and looked around, giggling. Really people, it’s not all that impressive that you know that tricky “smihut.” There are other loud people too, but they aren’t as consistent as her. As for the others.. There is one Russian girl who talks only to other Russians. The students are pretty average- young, for the most part. One girl took a bus back to campus here, so she may live in the dorms. One normally quiet guy talked about going to the West Bank tomorrow to work with the Red Crescent. Another rather Jappy girl interjects “like” into her Hebrew regularly. The rest are nice.
The main issue with my ulpan is that the two days I attend, I am completely exhausted by 5.30pm, and the class goes on until 8.30. I have no break during the day whatsoever. The second session is on Thursdays, the end of my week, and I am wiped out. Maybe it will take a bit of time to work myself into my new schedule. Either that, or I’ll quit everything and dance all day on Ben Yehuda with those crazy religious people.
I know the US recently had its Daylight Savings Time. I remembered it happened at a different time here back in September, and when I asked my Orthodox boss when it will here this spring, she said she wasn’t sure, but added, “Did you know that because of the religious lobby, we have DST right before Yom Kippur so there is one less daylight hour for fasting?” She gave this “Can you believe it!” look, but she’s religious, so I wasn’t sure how to react. A usual response would have been an eyeroll, or a sarcastic “What a surprise,” but instead I just raised my eyebrows and said, “Well, huh, can you believe that!” “I know, right?!” she said, or insinuated by body language, I can’t remember. Very strange. Anyway, I looked up a bit of information on DST in Israel, and can you believe it, there is controversy- enough that Israel has its own time (IST).
According to the Wikipedia, until the 2005 rule stipulating when DST begins and ends, “the minister of the interior had the authority to decide on the start and end dates of Israel Summer Time. The length of summer time depended largely on the political affiliation of the minister in charge. Religious ministers often opted for an earlier switch back to standard time in autumn, claiming that summer time causes hardship for religious observers at this time of year.”
Another entry says, “Until 2005, the start and end of DST each year was established in an ad hoc fashion as the result of haggling between political parties representing various sectors of Israeli society. Parties representing religious groups wanted the start delayed till after Passover and the end to precede Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, while the secular parties would argue for starting it earlier and ending it later.”
Ah, “ad hoc fashion,” “haggling” – these descriptions of how things are done here can’t even stay out of Wikipedia entries! Not surprisingly, the religious groups won, and my DST will be on March 27.
And to end this topic, “At present, as a sign of independence from Israeli rule, the Palestinian National Authority uses a different schedule for Daylight Saving Time than Israel.”
And speaking of the insanity of the region where I live, my good friend from New York, whom I saw the night before I left, posted on Facebook that an American activist friend of hers was hit in the face with a new, high speed tear gas projectile by the IDF while protesting the wall the the West Bank. He’s currently in the hospital, unconscious, with severe brain and eye damage. Protests (by other activists, of course) have been held for him in a few cities. He seems he is pulling through, but this is insane.
The religious folks sure do exhibit alot of say and control over their environment for people who believe that ALL is in the hands of god… hypocrites!!!! As far as your schedule goes… GET TO BED EARLY!!!! :^J