One of my most vivid childhood memory was my first day at school. It was back in 1980, and I was wearing a short denim skirt, a light blue school uniform shirt, and a schoolbag that was almost bigger than I was. For some reason I have a memory of a mother of a friend of mine straightening my uniform shirt. I don’t know why. I mostly remember confusion and excitement.

Twenty eight years later, and another first day at school. The days of orientation and preparation I went through in the past couple of weeks meant that I knew exactly what to expect today and I already met the people around me in class. I was even prepared to hear about how busy I am expected to be in the coming quarter. Still, there’s nothing like a long list of exams and assignments for giving me a serious scare. I was given a good advice today about how to organize my time to include dedicated time-frames for each course. I think I’ll give that a shot and try to include some spare time in it as well.

I wonder what I will remember about today twenty eight years from now.

Today has not been my worst birthday ever. This despicable title is still reserved for my 20th birthday, in which I found out that my father has never remembered my birthday, and that everyone I know was so busy with my brother’s wedding that my birthday was completely ignored. However, today will not be remembered as one of my best birthdays either.

First of all, everything I am saying must include a very important disclaimer. During today, E. has been doing the best he could to make sure this is as happy a birthday as I can get. I was treated to a lovely Indian dinner, followed by a trip to the Zinzinnati Oktoberfest in which I got to enjoy a nice German beer and music played by bands of old men in lederhosen and even got a souvenir green plastic beer cup. If it wasn’t for E. and for the wonderful call from Biking Geek, who even stayed up very late at night in order to call me, I don’t think I would have been able to type these words now.

However, the day was shadowed by the fact that I am homesick, and today more than any other day I wanted nothing more than to talk with my family and friends back home. I had to spend most of the day in class, which meant I was not available for people who did try to call me and I could not take the time to talk to people on Skype while it was still a sensible thing to do during daytime in Israel.

Furthermore, the week and a bit we have spent in Cincinnati so far have been pressured to say the least. This was not helped by the power outage that delayed all the tasks that we are facing in order to finally settle down here and the fact that I have been overloaded with orientation days and preparation courses. I am tired of living out of a suitcase and I am looking forward to moving into our own apartment next week. I know that we will not be able to fully arrange our new place soon, as we cannot afford much furniture at the moment, but at least it will be permanent and it will be our home.

Yes, this year I do feel a year older.

As we drove home a short time ago we noticed the Sheraton’s building across the road is lit in blue. A couple of hundred meters further the traffic lights were working for the first time in more than two days. Our excitement grew as we got nearer and saw the street lights on and another traffic light restored. Then we saw that our hotel’s sign was also on. We have lights!

We were in darkness for approximately 54 hours, and it made us realize how much we are dependent on electricity.

I am looking forward to a HOT shower.

We have been without electricity for over 33 hours now. I am still optimistic enough to think that the power will come back during the night. After all, the lights have come back to an area just a few blocks away and I would expect the electricity provider to be working around the clock in an effort to reconnect the entire grid as soon as possible. E thinks it will take much longer.

The flashlights we bought at the university store proved to be a major upgrade to our life. This evening we were able to read until it was time to go out for dinner (we still can’t cook here), and we were able to see what we were doing around the room. Still, the thought that the shower may be cold again in the morning is not comforting.

Everyone around seems to take the blackout as if it was an expected part of life. People at the university were discussing it as if it was an adventure they get to go through. Yet, the place was almost empty today as schools were out and people were staying at home with their children. This is probably what happened at the hotel as well, because the place has been abandoned by both guests and employees. There are only a few more rooms occupied other than our own, and we have not seen anyone at the office since yesterday morning. We expected at least someone to be there to answer some questions and check guests out or maybe even a sign on the door apologizing for the inconvenience, but even that proved to be too much to ask for. Just as we thought service in Israel was horrible, we found out that there can be worse.

Update, September 16 2008, 14:38: E. was right.

The good news is that there is power at the university. We are plugged in, charging our laptops, and enjoying every proton and electron we can find.

The bad news is that the stupid American bureaucracy has only got more stupid when it lost power, which means that our checklist is not advancing anywhere today. The main problem is that this is probably the only day this week in which I will have time to work on these things. I only get more stressed out by it, of course.

Other good news is that we found some flashlights at the university’s bookshop. I do hope we won’t have to use them when we get back to the hotel. However, news reports are not very optimistic, and the outage map does not seem to be updated….

We woke up to darkness. The alarm went off to start what is expected to be a very busy week. The sun has not come out yet, and the power has not come back.

Yesterday’s winds subsided not long after we returned from our drive. We took advantage of the sunlight and tried to read and pass the time while waiting for the lights to come up and the telly to crack into life. It didn’t take long for us to get bored again. We decided to take a drive into town. As we advanced south we found some pockets of light, but not much more. In Hyde Park Square the shops all had signs informing that they are closed due to the power outage. In the little pockets of electricity the garages had long queues and the restaurants had people waiting for hours for a table. We couldn’t find a flashlight anywhere.

As we drove back in the darken roads we ran into many fallen trees and power lines that forced us to detour. By the time we got back to the hotel we were exhausted. The only thing we could do was go to bed.

The remnants of Ike are riding through Cincinnati and give us the feeling that a disaster is around the corner. Obviously this is not half as bad as it could have been if we were in other areas of the country that were hit directly, it is just very inconvenient. Saying that, it is still quite scary to see all the trees bending over and the traffic lights dangling.

The strong winds have caused a major power outage in the area. I don’t know how far it goes, but hoping that the outage area is not too wide, we tried to drive out to the cinema and avoid the total boredom of a powerless hotel room. Sadly, we found out that even many miles away there is no sign of electricity, and the cinemas all had to close down. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I had my flashlight with me, but unfortunately I managed to misplace it a day before we left for the US.

There is nothing to do until the power comes back. Let’s just hope that it will happen before my battery runs out.

One of the things I feared before our relocation was the local brew. As long as the best coffee around is made by Starbucks, there is no chance for a good shot of caffeine for the heavily addicted. Unfortunately, for the moment that fear has come true. Today the combination of caffeine withdrawal, remnants of a jet lag, lack of sleep, hot and sticky weather and too much stress have finally hit. From lunch onward I’ve just been feeling a need to sleep enough for a week.

I do hope that in time I’ll find the secret location of good coffee in Cincinnati, but in the meantime I enjoy the fact that I found a box of PG Tips in the World Food isle in one of the supermarkets. At least I will have some sort of quality caffeine to fall back to in the form of a proper cuppa.

Today we got some more essential toys. Now we can even be contacted while offline. If you would like me to send you the contact details, let me know.

Once again I am up at a ridiculous hour in the morning, though today it is not as bad as it was yesterday. I believe that within a day or two I will get over my jet lag completely. This will be just in time for school and when I will need to start concentrating on things.

Yesterday we continued our journey towards Cincinnati and got as far as Columbus. We got quite excited when we saw the “Welcome to Ohio” sign, after all, it is going to be our home state for the next few years.

So far we made three important purchases along the way:

1. A pillow – now I can sit up at the driver seat and enjoy our little rented hybrid
2. A GPS device – so far it prevented us from getting lost in Columbus. We’ll see how it handles Cincinnati
3. Last but not least – I have a new laptop! I am typing these lines on my very own new laptop while E. is busy playing around with his. Oh the joy of freedom!