Easter and buses

Greetings from Vancouver. After a long, but uneventful trip (which included a great ride in the Nesher sherut to the airport: great because the Nesher driver was polite, didn't smoke and didn't scream at anyone!) I arrived in Vancouver.  So far it's been nonstop visiting -- catching up with friends and family and eating all my favourite Vannie foods (xiao long bao topping the list), not to mention Easter turkey.  I'm having a great time. (The sun and cherry blossoms are also amazing!)

On Thursday I was riding the bus and train to midtown to meet friends for coffee and lunch.  Events on the bus gave me a chance to compare life here and there.  In Jerusalem the buses are frequently packed. And, I mean packed: there is no space left for anyone to squish anywhere. Here are a couple of examples:

On the bus to Mt Scopus (No. 19)

On the bus (No 19)

 
And, here's how you get on:

Loading the bus from Mt. Scopus

Israelis don't line up for the bus, at least not in the way your average Anglo-Saxon mannered North American would. The queue isn't long and skinny, it's short and fat and functions more like a funnel. You learn that coming in at the side of the line works as well as, or better than, going to the back of the line. And, you learn to take up space, subtly, but solidly so as to secure your entry to the bus. (I learned this  last October by missing 2 buses in a row and finally 'winging' my way into the 3rd.)

Anyway, none of these new manners are really necessary in Vancouver. People mostly queue in the long skinny sense. But, more importantly, and more comically to me on Thursday, the bus won't ever be filled to its physical capacity (as distinguished from its assigned capacity) in Vancouver.  The driver announced that if anyone couldn't get behind the red line they'd have to get off the bus! The red line marks off the space of the front of the bus that gives the driver clear sight lines. In Jerusalem, the driver often pulls away from the stop when 3 or 4 people are standing in the door (you have to squeeze in to be sure to not get caught in the closing doors) and proceeds to process payment (you can still get change on the bus in Jerusalem) while he drives down the road navigating traffic.

Pesach

Preparing for Passover in Israel is not for the faint of heart or work.  Passover celebrates the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt; it commemorates the story of Exodus. The Jews left Egypt so quickly, so the narrative goes, that they didn't wait for dough to rise. So, matzo (think dry soda crackers you choke down when you have the flu) is eaten for the week of Passover in lieu of bread. Admittedly, matza ball soup is another story (and apparently it's really good fried).

The only way to eat leavened products this week in Jerusalem is if you have made provision by stuffing your freezer or if you head to the Arab side of town and buy pita...um, and beer. Otherwise, forget about it. There were few pastries to be found in the city centre yesterday.  At the shuk there were loads of Passover cookies -- made with coconut and peanuts.  We sampled a kilo of these last week and they weren't really my thing. I'd rather eat the donuts at Hanukkah, and, obviously, the regular pastries.

Passover cookies!

Today at my local grocer, the shelves looked like this:

I don't know what's in there. But it is obviously hametz (not to be eaten on Passover)

Matza Bonanza! Normally this shelf is full of yummy leavened bread

This one too!

Hametz is food you aren't supposed to eat during Passover.  You have to clean your house (especially your kitchen) of every crumb (may be liberally interpreted, but seems to result in a bit of a frenzy as it is spring and who doesn't want to give their house a good cleaning come spring?). There is a ritual of burning all hametz. Last night there were a number of hametz bonfires raging along the route of my walk home (often this is done the morning of the Seder (today) after all the cleaning is done, but maybe some people are more serious). Or, there was a fellow at the shuk yesterday offering to broker deals to sell hametz (the different communities in Jerusalem can be symbiotic!).

Next -- I'm off to a Seder. I've been invited to a Seder with an American Israeli friend (my pottery instructor). From the Seder I'm going to the airport...it promises to be a long night and day and night. I'm hoping the obligatory 4 cups of wine will help ease my journey of three flights and 24 hours!

Hag Sameach! Happy Passover!

When POTUS comes to town

When POTUS comes to town getting around your city gets tricky.

On Thursday the university was very quiet. Someone suggested that it was the ghosts of W's visit 7 years ago when the city was gridlocked for a week. No one could get around and everyone who'd lived through it feared it would be the same with Obama. They were right!!

I had intended to leave early, and in any event by 4pm so I could be home before Obama's speech started. But, I ended up in a meeting and I didn't leave campus until nearly 5pm. About a third of the way toward the Old City from campus the bus came to a halt.  Traffic was being diverted. A few of us got off the bus and walked to the train station. I rode to the City Hall thinking I'd walk down King David St... retracing my steps from this morning.

WRONG.

One of the busiest intersections in town at Mamilla Mall  (King David St is the hill ahead) - blocked.

As it happens, when POTUS is out giving a speech, security protocol is to blockade off a route between the speech site (Convention Centre) and POTUS's accommodation (King David Hotel). Blockade -- no vehicular traffic and no pedestrians -- from when he leaves his hotel until he returns. (Somehow the train passed through.)

In a burst of naivete I headed for home (the German Colony) taking the long way around Fortress King David, passing by the Hebron Road and coming up at the Cinematheque, thinking I'd have walked far enough to skirt the security blocks. 

Flowers on the side of the road -- sighted on my long walk

the security blimp hovering over Fortress King David, there was a helicopter too

NO. FULL STOP.

It was impossible to access the Colony. I guess POTUS was stopping in at the King David and then heading somewhere else? While I was stuck this road block I asked how long? (I needed to find a loo if it was going to be too long.) No one had any idea how long.  

That was it, there I was. Somewhere to be, but nowhere to go. Standing with a growing crowd of people. Stranded just blocks from home. And, we were just one intersection. The Convention Centre is at least 5 km from the King David Hotel -- thousands of people must have been stuck. Meanwhile the blimp and helicopters circled overhead and secret service staff walked or drove the route.

Police cars in the motorcade

The tail end of the motorcade includes ambulances (Ramez at Emek Refaim)

Finally, about half and hour after I arrived at the final blockade, the motorcade blasted through the intersection. Before the police could open the roads, people were crawling over or under barricades to get on their way again. And, instantly the roads began to clog as traffic that had been held back
flowed into key intersections.

Gridlock at Derech Beit Lehem and Emek Refaim

Friday at about noon, I was walking back from brunch at the Cinematheque with my friend Christina and we got stuck at the same intersection for about an hour. The motorcade went by about 15 mins after we got there. Obama had been in Bethlehem to see the Church of the Nativity and his next stop was Amman, Jordan. But, with the sandstorm blowing a gale, Obama couldn't travel by helicopter to Amman: he would have to go to Ben Gurion at Lod and get a jet. So, the road block had to stay until the team was ready to go.

Looking up Keren HaYesod

An interesting thing started to happen. Impatience became palpable. I heard some Ashkenazim call to the police: "Nu?" ("Nu" is Yiddish for lots of things, but in this case likely "So, now what? Yallah!) Certain people, especially if they had children in tow, were being escorted across the street. Other people, with buckets of chutzpah, would just walk across the street in defiance of the blockade. But, if you asked to cross the street, you were told to wait. This shows something about Israeli society. It's very egalitarian, rules are advisory, and it's critical that an Israeli not play the fool.  Also, since nearly everyone serves in the army, there is no mystique or special respect for police or army officers. I mean, everyone knows they are doing their job and appreciates them for it, but no one cowers to them or their "authority". So, when a person decides to walk across the street that has been barricaded and has 4 police officers guarding it, there's frequently little response. Watching this, I finally decided that I would join the next group that crossed. I did. And nothing happened.

A long line of buses on Emek

Certain people cross the street

Standing around in the dust storm

I heard from my housemate Yarden that the road was still blocked two hours later.  I wondered: Does POTUS have any idea how much people are put out when he comes to town? The public's lives must bend to his schedule.  If you were unlucky you could get stranded and be late for work, to pick up your children, or just be stuck standing uncomfortably in a raging sandstorm. Of course, the threat of assassination is real and terrifying and POTUS needs to be protected. But, I couldn't help feeling that something in this balance was wrong. 

Fortress King David

True to predictions, the city is in lock down. I walked to the train station at City Hall today rather than try to take a bus. The roads were snarled at 730am. I'm sure it was faster to walk. And, I got to go down King David and check out the preparations for Obama's arrival.

King David was closed to all vehicular traffic -- except for Obama's entourage. 

King David St at Karen HaYesod St

King David St looking at the YMCA clock tower

The sidewalk on King David St -- view of the roadway is blocked

I was on campus all day so I missed the arrival of Obama. Apparently all the rooftops along the route between Bibi's house and the King David are crowned with snipers. It's security like I've certainly never seen.

We have a visiting scholar this week and I spent the afternoon showing her around the market, the shopping district, and the Old City, testing my Jerusalem tour guide skills.  (I'm definitely making progress on wayfinding in the Old City.) Anyway, I missed all of Barack's remarks and most of B&B's press conference.  As of right now, I really don't know what's going on...but I will get caught up, just as soon as I get some sleep! 

But, before I hit the hay, a little bit of awesome...

Yesterday, riding in the bus down the same street (the Greenline) I ride down nearly every day from Mt Scopus (Har Hatzofim), we were stopped in traffic and I saw this:

Yep, "Engineering Corps St". I'm not sure if the sentiment is the same in Hebrew or Arabic. But, it makes sense; many of the streets in Jerusalem (and Israel more generally) are named for people who were critical to building the country. Why wouldn't the engineering corps get a street?

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 ;)

Just in time...

Obviously!

Israel has a new governing coalition. It's made up of four parties -- Likud-Beytenu, Yesh Atid, Jewish Home, and Hatnua. It was a fight to the finish with portfolios hotly contested and endless manouevering. But, here we are. No Haredim in the coalition. Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett really pushed Bibi into a corner and weakened him. What will come of it? The new government will be sworn in tomorrow. Before the hard work begins we have a special visitor...

Bus stop signage near the President's house (Beit HaNassi) on Jabotinsky St

Obama is coming. On Wednesday. And, Jerusalem is ready! The Stars and Stripes are flying everywhere. All around Gan Sacher and the Knesset the major boulevard lightposts are festooned with one Stars and Stripes for every two Stars of David. Welcome Barack!

Some pundits suggest this visit could be really meaningful. Obama is at the start of his second term and wants to advance the peace agenda within Israel-Palestine and in the region. The Knesset has a new coalition. But Bibi intends (it's suggested) to focus on Iran and its nuclear threat. But, maybe he'll surprise us all. More waiting and seeing...

And for those of you who were wondering: St Patrick's Day in Israel is a non event. 

Another week

Eeek, it's been a week since my last post! What have I been up to? Well, to be honest not much besides work. I'm flying to North America in just over two weeks and my to do list seems to be growing as the days count down.

We still don't know the final details of the coalition, but it's hardball this week so we should know soon.

The weather continues to be something to talk about. We're expecting a heat wave to 30C for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Sunday it should be about 10C with rain (snow in the mountains in the North). Meanwhile, the flowers continue to bloom.

And...there are swarms of locusts crossing from Egypt into Israel. Just in time for Passover! NPR has a fun story -- are locusts kosher?