Long Sunday

Shoko woke me up around 6:30 today to go for a run. He let me take it easy since my stomach still isn't 100% better. When we got back I actually made myself a cup of coffee, which is huge for me because I have refused to drink it for some 24 years now (a combination of hating the taste and not wanting to make my body reliant on a drug). But I figured that if I'm going to be waking up at 6:30, I might as well make sure that I'm awake enough to actually get something done and if I add enough sugar and milk, it doesn't take so terrible (though not great).

When I got to campus I went to the library to check out a copy of "Palestinian Identity," since Maura needs her's back for her own paper. But of course the only copy is reserved. Ugh.

I then went try and meet with a woman from one of the BGU offices who coordinates things for conferences on campus. I needed to talk to her about getting literature about the school for the conference. I was supposed to do it last week but that obviously didn't happen. She wasn't in her office and I couldn't reach her on her phone. Hopefully I can track her down tomorrow.

Nothing so crazy happened in Conflict Res today. We talked about mediation. Not the most exciting of topics.

Then my mini-course on Oil Politics started. It's taught by Robert Vitalis, a professor from UPenn. He seems really cool and we spent the first half of class talking about what we knew about Oil politics/culture and then he quietly explained to us why everything we "knew" and in fact what most people think they know, is just plain wrong. Example: there is lots of worry now in the West about Chinese oil exploration in new, untapped areas, with people saying that the Chinese are going to steal our oil. But oil is sold on the World Market so even if they find new oil sources, there is no reason to say that the oil would automatically go to China. If Western countries want it, they can just buy it. Even though they are state-run oil companies, they still have to take account of market and their ultimate goal is to make money. Plus, the reason why they are exploring in these new areas to begin with is because Western companies already control most oil sources.

Also, instead of a 15-20 page final paper, he said we should write a 10-12 page review of a topic we discuss in class that interests us. He suggested examining Israel's Oil Strategy (see if there is one) or, get this, examine the way the film "Syriana" portrays the oil industry (I told him I went to film school). I think I'm going to like this class.