Timing

Signs here tend to be in military time. Which is fantastic, as far as I'm concerned, because I love military time. It's more elegent then "am" and "pm" and I enjoy being able to switch back and forth in my head. Both the digital readout on all of my watches and my computer have been set in military time for at least three years now. The only thing that has seriously confused me was when I was at the bank. The bank opens pretty early, then closes for around three hours in the middle of the day (siesta, as far as I'm concerned, but most places seem to not take them here anymore. In Argentina, everywhere except Buenos Aires SHUTS DOWN during siesta.) and then the post office reopens. Anyway, the times were written left-to-right, but arranged right-to-left. I didn't realize it, and spent a good three minutes, staring at that sign, trying to figure out why the post office had the absolute wierdest hours ever. (I won't be writing in military time here, mostly, because most people reading this are American. I am starting to use it when writing notes to myself.)

Now, time difference is a whole 'nother ball game. Frustrating at absolute best. The East coast of America is normally a 7-hour time difference. I have one of those world-time options on my watch, and it's perpetually set to New York. I also got pretty good at counting back seven hours in the first few days of seminary. Ah, but then it all changed. The clocks here change right before Yom Kippur, so that the fast ends waaaaaay early. (This is also a political issue, involving the government, and the rabbinate, and the public complaints. But that's the basic expliantion.) Anyway, now the East coast is only six hours away. It means I don't call in the morning anymore, because I don't wake up that early, but I can call earlier in the afternoon. It also means I haven't spoken to Zvi in a while, because I'm normally in class before he's heading to school and I'm going to bed when he's coming back, roughly. Also, my roommate is from Seattle, so her time difference is also a whole different set of problems, and is also more frustrating for her. She sometimes does wake up early to call her friends, as they're all still up.

And then there's Sundays. Sundays here are just another work day. Much less of Christian influence then America, you see. It took a bit getting used to. Scratch that, I'm still not used to it. Saturday nights were the party night, and now I have class at 9:15 Sunday morning, so I'm more careful with then. Thursday night is that party night now, as there are no classes on Friday. But partying can't start until after Bkiut class, which ends at 10, or Mishmar (which is optional, but normally full) which ends at 11. And curfew is still 12:30, if you're planning on sleeping in the dorm. So...we watch movies, mostly. Good movies, bad movies, chick flicks, etc. Someone is normally wandering down the hall, knocking on people's doors and asking if they have any DVD's. (That happens every night, though, not just Thursday. Talia, a friend of mine at another seminary, came to visit one Wednesday night (I don't kn0w why either) and we found out she'd never seen Dirty Dancing. Needless to say, I was really really tired the next day during morning shiur.) Then whoever is in the room (I normally watch in Michal's room, because I'm friends with the room and it's right next door to mine.) votes on a movie, and there we go! The only problem is if you want to do things on Friday, you have to get up earlier to have time before you start heading to your hosts for Shabbos. So...not so much sleep Thursday night. I've ditched the movie a couple of times, because by Thursday night I am crashing. I don't get a lot of sleep during the week.
But our lack of free Sundays has resulted in me calling America around 7 in the morning on Sundays a few time, because I'm wide awake and chipper because it's lunch time for me, and I forget that there's no work on Sundays in America. It's a normal work day for me, after all. I laugh about it every time, because I find it amusing. I'm not sure anyone sleeping in my house Sunday morning would be inclined to agree.