Last night I slept better than I had in a LONG time, thanks to the new medicine (Arcoxia) that the doctor gave me. I was still a little tired in the morning, but that's just because I still have some catching up to do on sleep, I think.
I taught 4 units of Berlitz today: 10:00-11:30 and 12:00-1:30. I had the afternoon off because my availability on the eve of a holiday is the same as on a Friday.
We ate lunch at home because all the restaurants were closed today for Yom HaZikaron (Israeli Memorial Day). In the afternoon, we took a nice drive around the short loop. We stopped for a while by the road that goes to the Red Canyon trail head and just got out of the car and enjoyed the warm sun, the cool breeze, and the still beauty of the desert. We were less than 100 meters, I think, for the Egyptian border, and there was a tall hill just the other side of it. I took a few pictures, but I haven't uploaded them from my camera yet.
I took the final exam this evening for my Introduction to Music Production class. We were allowed to take it twice, with only our highest score counted toward our grade. The first time, I missed a couple of questions, so I took it again and got a perfect score. The questions were NOT the same the second time, so it obviously picks the questions again for each attempt.
We (well, actually I) watched the ceremony on Har Herzl on TV this evening. This is a tradition of ours that we actually had missed last year. It was nice to get back into it. It's always quite an impressive event, with great choreography and music, marking the transformation for the solemnity of Yom HaZikaron to the joyful celebration of Yom HaAtzma'ut (Independence Day).
The speaker of the Knesset gave a speech (in Hebrew, of course), and I think I understood about 40% of it. He was born in the Soviet Union, and he said that he never even dreamed of something like this when he was a boy.
Each year, 12 torches are lit as part of the program, but various people representing different aspects of Israeli society. Most are lit by just one person, but 2 or 3 of them were lit by two people together. Before lighting the torch, each person (or pair) gives a very short speech about whom or what they wish to honor. All the speeches start the people saying who they are and giving their parents' names, then saying how honored they are to take part in the ceremony marking 65 years of the State of Israel, and after their speech ending with the words ולתפארת מדינת ישראל ultiferet m'dinat yisrael ("and for the glory of the State of Israel"). I picked up a fair amount of what they said. There are also Hebrew subtitles, which occasionally help me a bit, but mostly I can't read them fast enough.
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