First day of School!

So yesterday was the first day of school, I started out with a 3 hour Macroeconomics lecture, followed by a study session for Econometrics. This quarter is going to be very tough, especially the econometrics... There is no doubt in my mind that BA schooling outside the US is much more intensive and advanced that what they teach in the States. This first month is going to be a lot of catch up work.
The fun thing about the first week is that the entire campus is packed with students, and there are all sorts of organizations and things going on. Below is a photo of the main quad, you can see all the students, the little shops on the left. I also went up to the top corner of the Gilman Humanities building (in the top right corner of the photo above) to get this birds eye view of the center quad, below. The big brown building behind the two tents is the main library (Sourasky). The tall building in the far background is the Sackler Medical school. The tents are various organizations, the Student's Union, various banks, cell phone companies, blah blah blah. It's exactly the same as the first week of school at any university in the US (or anywhere else I imagine). The photo was taken in Prof. Asher Susser's corner office. He is Director of the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv U. (that's his official title). I was up on the top floor looking for an open window and his office was the only one open, so I knocked on the door and asked him if I could take a photo of the quad for my parents, he agreed!
Then, to top off all the crazyness of the first day, Jacob's parents were in town and took me lunch at Giraffe Noodle Bar in Tel Aviv. They are in town for a wedding so we met up. We had a great time and the food was good. Then we walked around and I showed them the neighborhood. This was my favorite part of the conversation:
Me: Jacob isn't dating that girl anymore
Jacob's Father: Jacob was dating someone?? He never tells us anything
Jacob's Mother: Forget who he's dating, I don't even know if he has health insurance.

(Jacob: If you get a bunch of telephones from your parents asking about who you are dating and why you aren't married yet, then I apologize. I didn't tell them anything, I promise).