Stephanie, if it's affordable, hospital rentals kick ass. I had trouble with a hand pump but the hospital job I rented was painless and helpful, even when I was having the extreme nursing issues whitefonted above. Also, they are SPEEDY!

Hey there. Wow, LOTS of Buffista motherhood these days. The prospect of all these wee Buffistalets is definitely heart-warming.

Both prefacing and ending a discussion of "Why you shouldn't hate Jews" with "Why Israel is really bad" (as you just did in that post) seems somewhat irrelevant, at best, and counterproductive at worst.

Not really, assuming you were addressing that to me. I'm living and operating in a context in which 99.9% of people do understand Jewish to mean Israeli. Rather than having a default setting of Jewish = victims, everyone here has a default setting of Jewish = aggressors. In addressing the whole 'Jews are cruel' thing (and my post was basically regurgitating what I'd said to them, more from the pov of venting than informing anyone here of something they didn't already know) there was absolutely no point in pretending that they weren't working from that Jewish=Israeli starting point. And I'm not a fan of Israel, which needed stating because they were firmly of the assumption that I'm coming from a 'Yay Israel' pov, and were judging my teaching on the basis of these assumptions about my politics.

I very much don't think that condemning Holocaust is the same as excusing Israel's abuse of Palestinians. But a lot of Westerners DO give Israel a free pass on the basis of the injustices suffered by Jews in the past. And that's certainly what most Muslims I've spoken to see us doing - turning a blind eye to atrocities committed against Muslims by Jews.

You should also understand that I've seen big murals showing maps of Egypt and the surrounding area, with a view to being all 'Yay Scuba Diving! Look at the Red Sea' type of thing, in which all the surrounding countries are named other than Israel. The whole illegal occupation of Palestinian lands thing? Not getting overlooked any time soon over here. And in other parts of the Middle East you aren't allowed to make any reference to the existence of Israel in school - in fact I don't think we're really supposed to do it here, but we don't have any frigging text books for the government to have approved or objected to, so it was a moot point this time.

People here really, really, really don't like Israel. They see it as pretty much on a par with Hitler's Germany, and for most of the same reasons.

Er. And I'm States The Obvious Girl.

One of my colleagues (she's left now, did a bunk pretending to go home to the US to visit her sick father because our school is SO shit that it was the best way to get out of her situation) was an American Jew married to an Egyptian Muslim. They were raising their son Muslim, and since his father is Muslim, that makes him a Muslim by right. But of course his Mum's (not particularly religious, not practicing) Jewish, so technically that should make him Jewish by right too, shouldn't it? Hell of an interesting heritage he's got. Nice kid. We miss him - he was in my class, bouncy wee scone, very lively indeed. Cute.

Fay stick to your guns both ways. The same teaching that gets you accused of "Pro-Israel" propaganda in Egypt could get you accused of "anti-semitism" (or in my case being a "self-hating Jew") in the U.S.

Self-hating Jew. Yeah, I've been accused of that. Which is fairly entertaining, since I'm agnostic with a default setting of Protestant - but my grandfather was called Levi, and my father's side of the family look damned Jewish, and my Mum pretty much reckons it's all some big hush hush thing. Or something. Which is mad, because anti-semitism just isn't much of an issue in the UK. (I mean, I honestly didn't even know it existed as a concept until I was in my 20s. I remember reading an interview with Mel Brooks and thinking 'what the hell are you TALKING about?' in response to some ramble about anti-Jewish sentiment. It was a bit of a world-shifter. I mean, racism I'd heard about, but getting your knickers in a twist about religion? Well, we're a pretty secular nation these days. It seemed extraordinary.) But, yeah, probably (continued...)

( continues...) kind of Jewish here. Or something. It seems more interesting than just being Anglo Saxon.

You may joke about writing answers on the baby's diaper, but I'll bet people have tried crazier things.

What Fred Pete said. And also, the baby won't walk up to you on her own and say, "hey mom, time for a feed" -- your mother will have to hand her over, and I can understand why the bar would have a problem with an examinee talking to another adult during the test.

I wish they were being more flexible for the sake of you and the Peaberry, but I also understand why they would feel they can't be.

Robin, the last time I went to my doctor, she said that if you get a period at least every three months, you're probably fine. But I don't know if that applies at your age, or if she just meant for me specifically.

Also, hi!

Fay! I have a question frm my husband- he apparantly had a friend years ago who went off to Egypt and brought back a fantastic sesame-Halva tasting spreadable on toast thing, that he is craving. Do you know of anything like that in those there parts?

Yes, yes. Sesame and egg white and sugar, I think, from the taste of it. I've never put it on toast, but it's a very nice thing. You can get it plain, or with almonds or pistachios in it, or with sultanas, or even chocolate flavoured. It's nummy.

Dude. I think it's incredibly unreasonable to not allow you to breastfeed the baby during the exam. I mean, not IN the exam room, but...dude. Just not right!! I guess I can see not wanting a crying baby around, but...if you're taking it out to a bathroom or something, hell, there could be a crying baby that ISN"T yours, for some reason!

(Crap, AND they're not allowing extra time? FIGHT 'EM!!! You will have what is essentially a physical disability that you simply need a tiny bit of extra time to take care of. If you had a colostomy bag you had to empty, would they let you do THAT? Jesus. FIGHT! FIGHT!)

If you have ADD, you can get extra time.

DUDE. You aren't asking for extra time to take the test--just only as much time as it takes you to pump!! That's totally fair!!!

I was also envisioning writing notes all over the baby for cheating. Tiny writing in blue ballpoint. Hee.

And if they want to have a proctor there when Grandma hands the baby over, check the baby for notes, and then let you have the nursing time, that would seem reasonable...and not allow you to get any cheating in.

That seems like quite the elaborate way to cheat. Find yourself a husband (or willing partner), get knocked up, make sure the due date is scheduled so baby will be feeding when you take the test, to the whole labor thing and pay for all the baby stuff so you can have some bullet points written on the kid's ass?

Prolly would've been easier (and cheaper) to just study.

On the other hand, not everyone who cheats hasn't studied -- they're just looking to leverage more sources of help. Unless it's a really big baby, you can't fit a law degree in its nappies.

Unless it's a really big baby, you can't fit a law degree in its nappies.

That's why I said bullet points! No seriously, there has got to be an easier way to cheat than popping a living human out of your body. There just has to.