Random Job

So last week the secretary of the Econ Faculty called me in (I was freaking out because I thought it was about my Macro grade) and threw out this random offer for a random job. Every year the Ministry of Education conducts this full survey on higher education in Israel, and every year they choose different departments to do participate (suffer). This year it's Economics. So every single Economics faculty in every institute of higher learning in Israel basically has to do a self assessment based on internal surveys and such. Then the whole thing has to get written in to a report with responses and Excel charts and the works. Then the report gets reviewed by an outside committee and then the Ministry of Education gives a final statement.

Here is where I come in: They have to do the whole thing in English and they need a native speaker. Since my English is marginally better than those at the faculty, I am now officially given the title of Research Assistant to the head of the entire faculty, Dr. Yoram Weiss. I get paid a little bit, which is nice, and on top of that I get my own office! (shared, of course) with my own computer! It might be an interesting experience, so of course I said yes. It will be interesting to see the bureaucratic underbelly of the Israeli Educational system at work, as ugly as that may be.

2nd Semester

One of the more irritating things this school year has been that I really didn't have a semester break. Technically the semester ended Jan. 28th, and the 2nd Semester doesn't start until Feb 25th, but during the break is when they have finals, and on top of that I had a crazy last minute trip to the states to interview and see people.

What is worse is that I have no break between finals and the next semester. My Econometrics final is Thursday, then Sunday at 9am I am already starting up again. Check out the schedule for next semester: There are definite benefits to this semester over last. First, no Friday classes, and second, the classes later in the week start late, at noon. On the other hand last semester I had both Monday and Tuesday off, this semester I only have Tuesdays. Lastly, the Thursday evening class is going to be tough, end of the week, from 5 to 8pm... I would prefer to have it on Monday evening, but what can you do. In addition to this, I'm going to add a mini-course in Trade and FDI which I hope will be interesting. Mini courses are only worth one semester hour, meet once a week for 2 hours and last only 5 sessions. They are usually about really interesting topics, like last semester there was one in Economics of Religion.

big game

So about two weeks ago, right after my final, Pros got us tickets to the Israeli Basketball Championships Final between Jerusalem vs. and Bnei Hasharon. Jerusalem easily won the game, beating by about 18 points, and leading the whole way. Dalia Itzik, current sitting President of Israel (since the previous one was indited on rape charges) handed out the final trophy (photo below)What was fun about the game was that the fans were totally insane. They had no problem booing and cheering, and the crowd was about 80% Jerusalem fans in red. They would boo every time one of the Bnei HaSharon players had the ball. They booed when they announced the coach of the opposing team, the really booed when Dalia was called up. It was nuts. They were lighting small firecrackers in the stadium, singing, drums, the whole nine... Think a Boca Juniors soccer match in Buenos Aires.

The other interesting thing is that the league in Israeli is supposed to be one of the best non-american leagues. Maccabi Tel Aviv is usually the perennial champ, winning the title in 9 out of the 10 last years (Bnei Hasharon beat them this year in the semi's in a massive upset to advance to the finals). Maccabi Tel Aviv has even won the all Europe league championships twice in recent years. The team is interesting as well, allowing only 4 non-Israelis per team. Of which all 4 all usually large black men from NCAA Div. I teams in the states who play abroad for a few years then try their luck again with the NBA.
Prosnit and I were joking about this one player, this kid named Scott Greenman, who was captain of the Princeton Basketball team last year and was even on the All-Ivy team. He was the 6th man for the Bnei Sharon squad, and he stands at a whopping 5 foot 9 (only two inches taller than me). We were joking because the Israeli Basketball Authority recruited him and put him through the Aliyah (immigration process), technically freeing up another slot for a non-Israeli...

Pros, who knows much more about the teams and the players than I do, wrote about the game as well and has extra photos on his site here.


Back to studying now... Final on Thursday...

back

Just got back from the states. It was great seeing family and friends. I come back with some more sense of clarity of what I want to do with the MA, and how I want to form my class schedule for the coming 3 semesters. I also come back with an amazing summer job as one of the graduate interns for NERA (www.nera.com) in Manhattan!!! Anybody need a roomie?? Jacob? Joe? Jonny HK? Coco??

Jeffy, sorry I missed the baby, but I got the photo from your parents in law and it is up on my fridge!

more later, must sleep now, and I still have another final this week.

quick study break

Amid all of my studying for endless hours Prosnit was in Tel Aviv with his friend Sarah, we went out to dinner on Friday along with Osi (who was studying with me). Sarah snapped this photo of us being dumb on my tiny little porch.

Back to studying...

study study study

Just a quick post since I haven't written in a while. My first ever Masters final (in macroeconomics) is on Thursday, the 8th. I have actually been studying a lot over the last two weeks, and this coming week I will hopefully be wrapping up everything and studying with the people from my class. I rearranged the furniture in my apartment for the coming week, so that I can focus at home and not be tempted by silly things like Skype and TV and gchat. The table folds in half and is usually in the corner (to the left of the couch), and also has my speakers on it and such, but I cleared it off and put it in the middle of my living room so I have room for all the papers and such.

Also this week I had a pre-interview (more of a math test) for a summer internship in the economic consulting division of Tel Aviv Strategic Consultancy (www.tasc.co.il). I also had an informal informational interview with a woman from NERA (www.nera.com) also to be an intern for them this summer in the states. NERA would be fantastic, but who knows what will happen.