Good news! I got the results of the first test, the one I thought I screwed up, and I got a 75 in the test itself and an 81 as the course's final grade. That's excellent, considering the fact that I didn't finish one of the four questions in the test. All the other tests went well, and although I don't have their grades yet I think they'll all be higher than this one. I need as good an average as possible to get into a masters (graduate) program. This is only my first year of three, but every grade counts.

Yesterday's test went well. The first question was excellent, and the second one was so-so, but the professor wasn't present at the test, contrary to university regulations, so maybe he'll be lighter on us when grading and he'll have the good impression left over from the first question, where I wrote 3 pages as opposed to just one in the second.

By the way, it was my parents' 32nd anniversary last Friday. I didn't get them anything (bad bad son) but we had a mini-party, and we made whipped cream and put it on a cake we bought, and added chocolate chips. Sounds like something 10 year olds would do, I know, but we're all over 20, all college students (my sisters are graduate students even) - but we have a good excuse. We didn't have much time because of tests.

I just added a new feature - comments. So, if for some reason you've found this blog, feel free to comment.

Anyway, I have a test tomorrow, and I feel well prepared.

This morning I had this semester's 3rd test and it went very well. I have a feeling I might end up with more than 90 in this course. I studied with Naomi, both at my house and at her apartment. It was good studying with her. I think it was more effective than studying alone. My next test is on Sunday.

My nephew came over today. I had a good time playing with him. He's doing well, he's very cute.

It's the weekend! But I'll be studying all weekend, at least this test is easier and with less stuff to study.

I had the second test today. Unlike the first one, this time it went very well. It was a semiotics test, which is a field somewhere between linguistics and communications, but closer to the latter. By the way, communication is my minor (academics here are different from the States - most Israeli students study just one subject without minors, but sometimes combinations can be made in social sciences, so I study political science with a minor in communication).

There was a test in another course called "Uses of the Internet in Political Science" today, but because I have two tests scheduled for the same day I'll take the test in July instead. I heard from a friend of mine that one of the questions was "What is a blog?" - I don't know what other questions there were, but if they were as easy as this one I could have gone straight from the semiotics test to the internet test. I know how to answer the blog question even without studying for the test as a blog-owner myself, though not a world renowned blog like Salam Pax of Baghdad or Dave Barry (who, well, didn't exactly get his fame from the blog, but vice-versa).

It's exactly one month before I leave for the US. I'll be there two weeks (too short) after I haven't been there 3 years (too long). I'll be in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Vermont, and among other things I'll attend my cousin's wedding. It should be interesting to see if American weddings are like they look in the movies. One thing is certain, it'll be totally different from Israeli weddings. I have to wear a suit - which I don't do in Israeli weddings.

I got a phone call from someone who studies with me. She wanted to work on a home-test with me, but I didn't want to. I have a feeling she's not too uptodate about the course, and I'd do all the work, and she'd just put her name on it.

I also have this odd feeling about her... She keeps striking up conversations with me despite the fact that we aren't friends. I know I've been wrong recently about stuff like this, but this time I really do hope I'm wrong about her being interested in me. She looks like she's about 30 (I'll be 21 next month). She isn't attractive, doesn't seem too intelligent either.

Anyway, my next test is in two days, then there's another test 3 days later which I'm going to study for with Naomi. Last time we studied in her apartment. Now we'll study in my house. It'll be the first time she gets to a part of the city that's not in close proximity to the university. How rediculous is it to live in a city a whole year and not see anything of it outside a certain area? For some reason they put the University in the crappiest part of town (probably to make the neighborhood better, but it didn't really work), so most students who aren't from this city think it's all the same crap. So, I've decided it's my personal mission, as a local, to bring as many friends of mine to my part of the city to show them that this city isn't a hell-hole like its stereotype.

I had the test yesterday and it didn't go too well. I have a feeling I'll have to do a make-up test (the way it goes, every student gets two chances). My next test in on Monday.

I am currently studying for the most boring of all courses I've had to take this year. It's so boring I keep feeling like doing something else (writing a new blog entry, for example). I'm studying alone now, but tomorrow I'll start studying for this with friends, so at least when I'll be with them it's going to be more of a studying environment. Besides, studying alone beforehand will make me more able to contribute to the collective studying.

The only good thing about the test I'm studying for now, is that after I'm done with it I won't have to hear the horrible professor anymore...

I had a good time at the party. I danced a lot. I have a feeling I dance like a stiff, but that's better than sitting like a stiff. It was fun. Two guys who never met Naomi hit on her. Apparently she has that effect on a lot of guys, not just me. I still feel silly for grossly misinterpretting her (either that, or she was just practicing on me, thinking I wouldn't have the guts to ask her out, so she can later more effectively hit on somebody she really is interested in - which is probably her roommate). Anyway, we're planning to study together, part of the time just the two of us and some of the time with a third friend of ours, fake-named Daniel. Again, it's all platonic. Even if I were interested in her (and I'm not) I wouldn't stand a chance. I didn't realize until yesterday that a lot of guys are interested in her. I guess I didn't realize that since I never was interested in her myself before what I described to you in a previous post.

Anat liked the present we got her and the present I helped Naomi pick. She didn't notice the odd wrapping. Nice party. Lots of people came. Came home at 2 am. At least this morning I started classes only at 12, so I had a good night's sleep. Today was the last day of the semester. Now finals start.

Oh, and I got my new US passport in the mail today (I'm a dual citizen of Israel and the United States of America), so now the road is set for a trip to the States this summer.

It's official. I was very very wrong when I thought my friend (let's call her Naomi) was interested in me. Apparently she has a crush on her roommate. I don't know if there's anything actually going on between the two of them, but I can forget about something going on between Naomi and me. I'm fine with that (really, I am. I have no reason to lie - you don't know who the hell I am and I've already written secrets here that most of those who know me should not know).

Anyway, Anat, one of my other platonic friends (not that I currently have any non-platonic friends) is having a birthday party today. I bought her a book, together with a friend fake-named Ron (I should remember which fake names I give to every person so I'll use the same name all the time - because remember, I don't write fake stuff other than changing people's names). I hope she'll like it. I helped Naomi and a friend of hers pick a present (platonicly, I was NOT hitting on her or anything like that). The problem is that I think Anat will like the present I helped them choose more than she'll like the present I myself bought her. And you should see how awful Ron and I wrapped the present. It looks like one of those space ships from Star Trek, with those huge engines (or whatever they are) on either side. Anyway, it's not the wrapping that counts, but the present itself. Though I hope she'll like it, she can always replace it with something she likes better.

I have a headache, so I think I'll go to sleep for a while and get refueled for tonight's party.

I had a good weekend. I got a lot of school work done and played a lot with my nephew. He's adorable. We jumped around and sang songs. As cute and smart as he is, it takes lots of energy to be with him.

He's 2 and a half years old and he's autistic. He isn't what you'd expect of an autistic child. He's what the professionals call a high-performance autistic case. He's very communicative, and he has a huge vocabulary. His main problems are with changes in routine, eye contact, and he doesn't always answer questions , sometimes repeating the question, other times just saying something that has nothing to do with the question. The professionals say there's a chance that with the right treatment he might totally recover and be a normal kid by the time he's six years old. For that reason, we're not telling people yet, not to stygmatize him. Only a few close friends and relatives have been told about this.

Right now my sister is trying two things simultaneously - a Gluten-free diet for my nephew and a special school that uses the A.B.A method (I don't remember what the initials stand for, but it seems to be working wonderfully).

This week has been quite a week. I started it thinking this female friend of mine was interested in me, and as the days went by I became more convinced she was interested. But by the end of the week, when I had so much confidence that I was reading her correctly, I was shot down like those ducks in the old Atari game.

It started last week with little things that made me think she might be interested, but I wasn't sure. For instance, she'd poke me in the ribs if I was standing with my back to her, said stuff like "I should always have you around as my guard". Of course, that alone didn't mean much.

Than, this week she suggested we go eat lunch together and started asking me a million questions. I thought she was probing to see if there's a chance for a relationship there. She made references, jokingly, to the two of us going on a trip abroad together. Then, when a friend of ours came by and asked her if she's got anything going on in her love life she said "No, I'm not thinking in that direction now. Neither is Emmanuel". I wasn't sure what to read into that. Was she just trying to repell the friend from asking questions, while making it clear to me that she didn't really mean it, by putting me and her in the same situation? Or was she trying to tell me we're just friends? But then, why would she have to add that I'm not thinking in that direction either? It's like telling me, "You're either with me or with nobody".

There were other things she said that seemed like blunt hints to me. I was walking with her and another friend of ours, and the friend and I were talking, and she said to him jokingly "Hey, Danny, don't steal my boyfriend." Than she quickly added, maybe to cover for her slip of the tongue, "I don't have so many friends as it is". Later, she said we should make plans for the next day to go out somewhere. I thought she meant just the two of us.

The next day, she mentioned the fact that she was wearing the same thing a few others were wearing. "Who looks best?" She asked me. "Wait, don't answer that. You're biased because of -" and she pointed at me and herself. Now, I interpretted that as saying "There's something starting between us, and it's clear to the both of us, and that's why you're biased towards me." Or did she simply mean I was biased because we were good friends?

Two hours later, when we next saw each other, I said "Let's go out tonight".
"Okay, do you know where Anat is going?"
"I don't know", I answered, "I didn't ask her."
"Why not?"
"I want to go out with you, just the two of us, without our other friends." You should have seen her face. She really seemed like she didn't have a clue this was coming (and had I interpretted her signals correctly, she wouldn't be that surprised, maybe just surprised I had the guts to ask her that early).
"Just the two of us as friends, right? Because I don't date classmates."
I should have said, "No, I mean like a real date. But if you aren't interested that's fine." Instead, I said "Yes, just as friends. You're a better friend than the others. That's why I wanted to go out just with you, platonicly."

Lame. She probably understood I just said that to save face. At least I would have left a better impression without that lame "Oh no, of course as friends" line.

A few minutes later a mutual female friend of ours hugged her, and she joked, "Leave me alone, I like Emmanuel better." By then, I stopped trying to interpret her. I guess it's just the way she talks.

What bothers me about this is how I don't understand women. I mean, I'm not in love with her. I wasn't even interested in her till I started thinking she was interested in me. But seems I was way off in reading her signs, which it turns out, were probably not really signs. Maybe the only real sign was when she said it wasn't a good time for her in the romance departmemt. That's the only sign I should have listened to and layed off.

So anyway, no harm done. At least I asked her out and got rejected, instead of me still thinking she was interested and wasting more of my time around her.

I won't ignore her now. No reason to be ashamed of asking her out and being rejected. I'll just go back to normal friends mode. I'll hang out with her the same way I hung out with her before I thought we had a mutual interest in each other. If she changes her mind, she'll have to come to me. I won't play hard to get or anything like that, but I won't give her more attention than I give my other friends.

This is my first on-line blog. I have a real diary, but I rarely use it. At the end of fifth grade, in June 1993, our teacher gave all her students diaries. My entries are so infrequent that I still have that same diary ten years later, still with three quarters of its pages blank.

Just to demonstare how rarely I used it, here's an amusing story. At the end of 8th grade, about a year and a half after my previous entry, I wrote that at this rate my next entry would be written when I'm released from the army. A few years later, as I was moving stuff around because of renovations, I found my diary. It was two weeks before the end of my army service. I guess I'm prophetic.

Anyway, I hope I'll use this blog more frequently than I used my diary (where the last entry is dated November 2002).