07 January 2007

PS: One of the other rules I forgot to mention in the previous post was that I am also forbidden to get involved with any one named Tiffany, Brittany, and Brandy.

The strike last Wednesday really did happen: The gates to the university were closed, covered in posters and locked with thick chains. The main gates for cars and buses were blocked. There was a gate open for campus staff only, which I begrudgingly entered. Anyone who showed a student ID to the security guard would be heckled by an intimidating member of the Student Union, wedged into the entrance.
After a 2-hour meeting which was uneventful, to put it mildly, I ran out of the building to get off of campus. Members of the Student Union were blowing whistles at any student they saw, despite the fact that the overseas and pre-college prep students were not affected by the strike. While they stated in an email/communiqué that due to the upcoming finals period, they will wait to wage a protracted strike until next semester, I am nonetheless impressed with how well the protest went, even though pictures from the protest showed them burning tires. As if Jerusalem wasn't polluted enough.

Regardless of the strike, I was in a hurry to get off of campus to see my mom. She was asked to co-staff a 2-week trip for DC area college students, many of whom I know as birthright israel past participants. Although I have lots of friends in Israel, and plenty of work to keep me busy, it's a whole other experience to have a family member be here. Despite keeping a very busy schedule, we managed to see each other several times in the course of her program, including coming over for lunch this past Saturday.
On top of my mom's visit, I have lots of friends visiting from the States now. Friday night dinner saw the reunion of several friends from DC, all of us managing to resort to our once-usual conversations on politics, Israel and Jewish identity. I've definitely missed those meals, as they fed my native Washingtonian soul. This week sees no less than ten people from various walks of my life passing through Israel, and with the semester for overseas students over, I can actually go out during the week to see them, and even invite them over to my recently-cleaned apartment.

This past weekend saw one of the most vicious storms in recent memory. The rain began Friday afternoon with buckets of rain pouring down on a friend & me, as we bought food for Shabbat dinner. The rain never let up, eventually escalating into hail, and then very dramatic bouts of thunder & lightning, eerily bright and booming. In Israel, it's not very common to have long thunderstorms with thunder that rattles the windows. Those of us from DC who were at dinner are used to this kind of weather, albeit not normally in the winter. I couldn't help but think about the native-born Israelis in Jerusalem, who are not only unaccustomed to such weather, but don't have the happiest of connotations with bright flashes of light and crashing noises. On the plus side, the Kinneret/Sea of Galilee, Israel's main freshwater reserve, rose by 5cm this past weekend.