Six months, already?

I've been living in Jerusalem for six months now! In some ways it has started to feel familiar enough that it feels like home. Today I was walking home and someone asked me "Ehfo Beit HaNassi?" -- which I happened to know the answer to (much to my surprise)..."Where is the President's House?"...Just up the hill and turn left. I don't have Hebrew conversations, but I am getting the hang of the basics...which might just be because I'm asked for directions nearly every day.  In some ways Jerusalem is a city of lost people. It's not just tourists. It's people that are flummoxed by the one way streets that wind around the sides of hills and spit them out facing south east when all they really want is the highway to Tel Aviv (north west). Other folks are on foot looking for the short cut down to the main drag. (There are many pedestrian paths that connect neighbourhoods more directly that the streets.) Then there are the tourists...!

Tonight, Jerusalem, near my neighbourhood, is beginning to feel like a Spooks-MI5 episode. 

Entrance to street Bibi's house is on; Gaza St (it always looks like this, but you get the idea)

John Kerry arrived tonight (can he fill Hilary's shoes?) and Barack arrives tomorrow.  The security fences are up, entrances to buildings are tented over and I am hoping that my commute to campus tomorrow won't be a circus.

(I'll try for more pix, but photographing security installations is frowned upon.) Some 15,000 Israeli soldiers/police officers are assigned to security duty for this 3 day visit. Of course, the bulk of them may be assigned to putting up metal fences --- there are kilometres of the fences, well, this afternoon they weren't fences, they were stacked like dominoes along the sidewalks of the routes the American contingent will travel.

Normally, my bus to Hebrew U goes up King David St., which is fantastic because it skirts the city centre and thus about 75% of the traffic. But, with Barack staying in the King David Hotel (the hotel on the west side) which is in the middle of King David St (looking east over the Old City it has a majestic view), the street is expected to be in lock down...which means we'll likely have to go through the city centre...why do I not have a bike?!

Barack's public speech will be at the Jerusalem Convention Centre near the Central Bus Station in the west of the city. Apparently, there was a lottery for tix to his speech and they went in about 5 minutes. So, I won't get to see Obama in the flesh, unless I happen upon him in the street, but that's never gonna happen...or I find myself with an invitation to dinner at Bibi's. Sure, the conversation would be great, but really, I just want to try Bibi's ice cream ;)