Herding Cats

My loves, forgive my absence.  What happened was not death (Gram and Gramps, like the Jasmine I am in bloom), but the beginning of the fall semester at Hebrew University.

Which meant the end (or temporary postponement) of exciting, thrilling, wonderful, romantic adventure and the beginning of a period of homesickness, frustration, paperwork, legion expenses, etc.  In other words, the end of the honeymoon and the beginning of life in a city, and at a university.

The first few days of the semester were pretty rotten because of internal bureaucracy.  Unlike in Scotland where a postdoc is considered faculty, here I am considered a "student".  While this made the whole visa process infinitely easier, it means that the administration (few of whom speak English and even fewer of whom care for my charm and humor but instead could use a long night of sleep in a dark and cool place.  Being an administrator at a huge international university at the beginning of a school year must be a job with the level of stress and thanklessness reserved for airline front-desk workers and high school football referees.) -- it means that the admin considers me on a par with the swarms of 17-yr-old, first-time-away-from-home little fresh-faced big-eyed bushy-tailed kiddos running around in the sunshine all over both of the main campuses.  While I do love college kids -- I wanna spend my life working with them-- I have a couple of letters after my name and a note from the Dean of my college here saying I am actually faculty, and that means someone, somewhere, should try to help me get in the system.  But instead I was treated like one of the cat herd, and bumped from campus to campus, from building to building until I starting losing it yesterday in the office of a feisty little woman named Orit, who decided to variate from the norm and try to help me.  Bless you, Orit, may the hordes of undergrads treat you kindly in recompense.

But, today things are on the mend.  I am making headway -- I have food, shampoo, an office with internet I can access... I can actually begin my work! Hurray! I smiled as I walked to the cafe for lunch a while ago, but my cool, calm demeanor  (new look for me this week!) was shattered pretty suddenly when I accidentally stepped on a kitten.

Remember how I said I was surprised to see dirty scraggly cats all over the old city?  Well, they aren't just in the old city-- they are everywhere.  I mean it, people: imagine that instead of sea gulls in Aberdeen or pigeons in New York or...Cubs fans in Chicago, there are cats everywhere. EVERY WHERE.  At first I wanted to pet and cuddle them all, but then I made the aforementioned SAT-like realization that

cats: Jerusalem :: pigeons: New York City

and of course pigeons in New York City = winged rats.  With the small difference that I do see baby cats all over in Jerusalem but you never really see baby pigeons in NYC. I leave this enigma to posterity for solving.

Here at the Givat Ram campus there is a lovely green space where people sit in the sun or in the shade of a very old tree with their friends, good food...and a herd of cats.  Today I counted 15 cats and 2 kittens swarming the lunch-goers on the lawn, just in the short space between my office building and the cafe.  It's nuts-o I tell you.  Nuts-o.  They even wander into the buildings sometimes.  I sort of hope that a few come to my lecture next week.

Anywho, that's it for now.  Tonight I am going to Tel Aviv (again!) because my new roommate M knows the family of a young concert pianist who is playing there.  The mother is actually giving me a ride to and from her son's concert! Her son is Jewish, and he and a very good friend and co-concert pianist who is Palestinian joined forces to become a concert piano duo.  They are awesome.  I can't wait.  Expect pictures soon!