Catching up
Okay, lots of stuff to talk about because I've been busy, and haven't been posting. So, I'll start with some of the leftovers. The international dinner in Sede Boqer is one of the biggest events for the students, and it's great. It's combined with the official opening of the year at the Blaustein Institute, though the semester actually started several weeks ago. All of the students bring a dish that is typical of their home country. Great stuff. In fact everything I ate was fantastic. We had foods from several African nations, India, Pakistan, Nepal, much of Europe, China, much of South America, and a couple of North American countries. I had a bit of a hard time figuring out what to take as typical American food, without going to McDonalds, but I settled on a pecan pie. Of course, I've never made pecan pie - I prefer to eat them instead. I called up Jane who makes great pecan pies, and got a recipe. It was a bit of a challenge finding all of the ingredients, and even all of the utensils. I couldn't find a pie pan, so ended up with some sort of rectangular baking tin; I used a tea cup for a rolling pin, and a measuring cup; I used a soup spoon and tea spoon for Tablespoons and teaspoons; and had to use an old hummus container as a mixing bowl. The toaster oven worked reasonably well, though I'm not sure the thermostat is at all close. That led to the worst part of the pie experience - the pie never set, so it was really pecan soup in a pie crust. Right now, I'm baking another pies (had some pecans left over) for a Thanksgiving dinner potluck with the North Americans. Good fun.
So, there has been a lot of talk around here about what's going to happen now that Yassir Arafat is dead. The feelings are definitely mixed - people are nervous about the power vacuum, but are very optimistic about the Palestinians having elections soon. Most people seem to think that there is a real opportunity for significant progress, as long as extremists don't step into power. All in all, seems good.
The news about the Australian Research Council (ARC) grant is great in a lot of ways. First, it means I definitely have a salary through 2007, regardless of how my job applications go. That's a relief. It also puts us in a great position to apply to NSF (USA) for additional funds to expand the project. This is great because ARC slashed our budget by about a third, which will make things very tight. But having my salary on the ARC grant puts us in a great position for NSF because the additional research costs (equipment, supplies, travel, student help, etc.) are much lower than the cost of a postdoc salary. And we can clearly show that the funding will be shared between the two governments. Great! Finally, the grant will look great on my job applications - means I've got a demonstrated ability to bring in grant dollars, which will be big for the positions I'm looking at.
Well, winter hit here last week also. It has been cloudy and cold lately, with occasional rains. Today was miserable - very stron winds, cold, and rain. Really awful. The change in weather have brought out the inadequacies of the new apartments I'm living in. The most serious is the reliance on passive solar heat, when it's cold and cloudy. I'm not sure how these places are supposed to warm up when there is no sun. I've been freezing for the last week (even though the temperatures are actually still above freezing). Another issue is the fact that none of the windows actually seal out cold (or hot) air. The high winds have made this quite obvious. I'm sure a helium baloon would roam around the house quite continuously, floating on the currents caused by the drafts. This is also a disadvantage of living on the edge of the community. Someday, when the new houses across the street are done, maybe the winds will be more tolerable in this apartment, but right now, it's brutal. Another poor execution issue is the ceiling ventilator. Each apartment has a big fan ventilator in the ceiling for the summer. It is supposed to suck the hot air from the ceiling and blow it outside, making the place pleasant. Unfortunately, the louvres to the outside are not hinged down at all, so when the wind blows, they flap open and closed constantly. Sounds like there is a snare drum line in my place whenever it's windy, which is often, since I'm at the edge of the neighborhood.
The good news about the Australian grant was quickly followed by typical bureaucratic news from the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv about my visa. It has been quite an adventure trying to get another visa to go there. First, I assembled my application packet, and gave it to a friend, who was going to Tel Aviv herself to get a visa to the UK. She's from Russia (Siberia, actually), so the bureaucracy is in overdrive for her applications. Anyway, the embassies are close, so she offered to drop off my application at the embassy to save me the anxiety of mailing my passport.
I should back up a bit. While assembling my application, I was referred to the embassy web page for Israel. This is a lovely page, with a welcome letter from the ambassador, and lots of links to the web pages of Australia's embassies around the world. Unfortunately, there aren't any links to anything that has information about Israel, how to apply for a visa while in Israel, where the embassy is, etc. None. Not one link to anything useful for people actually in Israel. turns out that all of the pages you'd expect are there, you just have to guess at the address (they won't even give information over the phone about how to access more than the main web page!). So, with a bit of luck, and a lot of web searching, I managed to find a page with the fees for applying for a subclass 419 visa (visiting academic, temporary resident) - 560 new Israeli shekels (NIS), payable by bank cheque or money order only. So, I got on the bus to Beer Sheva and went to the bank. Trying to describe a bank check in a foreign language doesn't work. Eventually, I communicated to the teller that I needed the bank to write a check to the Australian embassy, and that this type of check must be different from my own personal checks. Fine, NIS 17, please. The unhelpful website, as well as the application itself, said that I could lodge my application either by mail, or in person at the embassy, so I sent Rimma with my whole packet. They told her to go away. Not possible to drop off an application in person. Has to be by mail or travel agent. Go see the website for information.
So, I shelled out NIS 36 for postage (and return postage) via registered mail. This week, I got my packet back from the embassy. "Your application for a Subclass 419 temporary residence visa is not a valid application under Australian migration law. The requirements for making a valid visa application are set out in Australia migration law. One of the requirements when applying for subclass 419 visa is that you must pay NIS580. You attached a fee of NIS560 to your application. The fee must be paid with a bank or postal check payable to the Australian Embassy, Tel Aviv. Personal checks and credit cards are not acceptable. No cash please. Although there is no time limit for you to make this payment, your application cannot be considered until you make the payment. Also, visa application charges and visa requirements change from time to time and your application will be considered against the visa requirements that apply when you provide the correct payment and all other requirements for making a valid application have been met..." My interpretation of this goes something like this, "We will change our requirements and fees whenever we feel like it, without letting you know in any way. Your application will be returned (at your expense) until you figure out what our current requirements are by trial and error." So, now I will have to go back to the bank (NIS40 for bus fare round trip), and pay an additional NIS17 for a NIS20 bank check, re-post the application with registered mail (NIS36 for return postage) and hope that they haven't raised the fees again in the last two weeks. In contrast, when I applied for my first visa, while still in the US, the embassy phoned me, said that the fees had gone up, and took a credit card number over the phone. Problem solved. Aargh.
On Monday, I'm supposed to give a lecture in Berry's Physiological Ecology class. He's been good at giving me all sorts of things to talk about by sending e-mail invitations describing my lecture to the graduate student body - before I've figured out what subjects I'm going to cover! Apparently, I'll be talking about nutritional ecology (???), with an emphasis on terrestrial reptiles. For 3 hours. Who gives 3 hour lectures? Aargh.
Well, the weather change has brought on a good cold, so I'm going to go find a warm drink to combat the gale force drafts in my apartment. I'm sure my insurance covers repatriating my body if I freeze into a block this week.
So, there has been a lot of talk around here about what's going to happen now that Yassir Arafat is dead. The feelings are definitely mixed - people are nervous about the power vacuum, but are very optimistic about the Palestinians having elections soon. Most people seem to think that there is a real opportunity for significant progress, as long as extremists don't step into power. All in all, seems good.
The news about the Australian Research Council (ARC) grant is great in a lot of ways. First, it means I definitely have a salary through 2007, regardless of how my job applications go. That's a relief. It also puts us in a great position to apply to NSF (USA) for additional funds to expand the project. This is great because ARC slashed our budget by about a third, which will make things very tight. But having my salary on the ARC grant puts us in a great position for NSF because the additional research costs (equipment, supplies, travel, student help, etc.) are much lower than the cost of a postdoc salary. And we can clearly show that the funding will be shared between the two governments. Great! Finally, the grant will look great on my job applications - means I've got a demonstrated ability to bring in grant dollars, which will be big for the positions I'm looking at.
Well, winter hit here last week also. It has been cloudy and cold lately, with occasional rains. Today was miserable - very stron winds, cold, and rain. Really awful. The change in weather have brought out the inadequacies of the new apartments I'm living in. The most serious is the reliance on passive solar heat, when it's cold and cloudy. I'm not sure how these places are supposed to warm up when there is no sun. I've been freezing for the last week (even though the temperatures are actually still above freezing). Another issue is the fact that none of the windows actually seal out cold (or hot) air. The high winds have made this quite obvious. I'm sure a helium baloon would roam around the house quite continuously, floating on the currents caused by the drafts. This is also a disadvantage of living on the edge of the community. Someday, when the new houses across the street are done, maybe the winds will be more tolerable in this apartment, but right now, it's brutal. Another poor execution issue is the ceiling ventilator. Each apartment has a big fan ventilator in the ceiling for the summer. It is supposed to suck the hot air from the ceiling and blow it outside, making the place pleasant. Unfortunately, the louvres to the outside are not hinged down at all, so when the wind blows, they flap open and closed constantly. Sounds like there is a snare drum line in my place whenever it's windy, which is often, since I'm at the edge of the neighborhood.
The good news about the Australian grant was quickly followed by typical bureaucratic news from the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv about my visa. It has been quite an adventure trying to get another visa to go there. First, I assembled my application packet, and gave it to a friend, who was going to Tel Aviv herself to get a visa to the UK. She's from Russia (Siberia, actually), so the bureaucracy is in overdrive for her applications. Anyway, the embassies are close, so she offered to drop off my application at the embassy to save me the anxiety of mailing my passport.
I should back up a bit. While assembling my application, I was referred to the embassy web page for Israel. This is a lovely page, with a welcome letter from the ambassador, and lots of links to the web pages of Australia's embassies around the world. Unfortunately, there aren't any links to anything that has information about Israel, how to apply for a visa while in Israel, where the embassy is, etc. None. Not one link to anything useful for people actually in Israel. turns out that all of the pages you'd expect are there, you just have to guess at the address (they won't even give information over the phone about how to access more than the main web page!). So, with a bit of luck, and a lot of web searching, I managed to find a page with the fees for applying for a subclass 419 visa (visiting academic, temporary resident) - 560 new Israeli shekels (NIS), payable by bank cheque or money order only. So, I got on the bus to Beer Sheva and went to the bank. Trying to describe a bank check in a foreign language doesn't work. Eventually, I communicated to the teller that I needed the bank to write a check to the Australian embassy, and that this type of check must be different from my own personal checks. Fine, NIS 17, please. The unhelpful website, as well as the application itself, said that I could lodge my application either by mail, or in person at the embassy, so I sent Rimma with my whole packet. They told her to go away. Not possible to drop off an application in person. Has to be by mail or travel agent. Go see the website for information.
So, I shelled out NIS 36 for postage (and return postage) via registered mail. This week, I got my packet back from the embassy. "Your application for a Subclass 419 temporary residence visa is not a valid application under Australian migration law. The requirements for making a valid visa application are set out in Australia migration law. One of the requirements when applying for subclass 419 visa is that you must pay NIS580. You attached a fee of NIS560 to your application. The fee must be paid with a bank or postal check payable to the Australian Embassy, Tel Aviv. Personal checks and credit cards are not acceptable. No cash please. Although there is no time limit for you to make this payment, your application cannot be considered until you make the payment. Also, visa application charges and visa requirements change from time to time and your application will be considered against the visa requirements that apply when you provide the correct payment and all other requirements for making a valid application have been met..." My interpretation of this goes something like this, "We will change our requirements and fees whenever we feel like it, without letting you know in any way. Your application will be returned (at your expense) until you figure out what our current requirements are by trial and error." So, now I will have to go back to the bank (NIS40 for bus fare round trip), and pay an additional NIS17 for a NIS20 bank check, re-post the application with registered mail (NIS36 for return postage) and hope that they haven't raised the fees again in the last two weeks. In contrast, when I applied for my first visa, while still in the US, the embassy phoned me, said that the fees had gone up, and took a credit card number over the phone. Problem solved. Aargh.
On Monday, I'm supposed to give a lecture in Berry's Physiological Ecology class. He's been good at giving me all sorts of things to talk about by sending e-mail invitations describing my lecture to the graduate student body - before I've figured out what subjects I'm going to cover! Apparently, I'll be talking about nutritional ecology (???), with an emphasis on terrestrial reptiles. For 3 hours. Who gives 3 hour lectures? Aargh.
Well, the weather change has brought on a good cold, so I'm going to go find a warm drink to combat the gale force drafts in my apartment. I'm sure my insurance covers repatriating my body if I freeze into a block this week.
