Dears,

I even did not notice when the first month of my stay here, in Jerusalem, passed by. I was a little bit sick (common cold, I guess), and I was also busy with very uninteresting organizing my lilfe here. I did not remember how many things one has to take care of when one moves to a new place, even if the move is temporary. Most important for me was getting internet connection which should be easy but it was not. Then getting health insurance here. Then this and then that. And this is how I wasted some of my time.
(The pictures are clickable.)

Getting organized

I got acquainted with all my flatmates, including   .  I also got an extra piece of furniture from my landlords - a nice table   .  I have put this table in my bedroom (which is the largest room in the apartment). It serves me well there:

in time for tea and poppy seed cake (the tea must be from Wissotzky, of course)
and in time for coffee and baklava)

As a matter of fact, my bedroom is also my living room. I found out that it is very comfortable to sit on my bed, think about stuff and stare at my large window   .   Especially if it is sunny outside     The sunny part is very important since if it rains     I prefer to work/sit in my study.

I am working in my study (pictures taken using a timer)
and I am just passing by (pictures taken using a mirror)

Anyway, I think I am done with arranging my life here. I even got a semi-ID     and my name was added to the label on the door of my office    . (Before it read Mathematics. Shelah's Archive. Now it reads Mathematics. Shelah's Archive. Prof. A. Roslanowski.) Now I should be able to work.

Northern part of Jerusalem

Of course, even if I work very hard I have to let my subconsciousness work too. And then I may walk around and do some sightseeing... My apartment is located in the northern part of town, exactly here. Very close to my place there is a junction    and one of the roads there leads to Ma'ale Adumim. I mention this, because we used to live there. I liked the place very much and especially the view that we had there: when looking towards Jerusalem one saw three towers on tops of three hills. (City is not visible from there.) More about the towers will be written below.

The farthest buildings on the pics are in Ma'ale Adumim:

The road going in the opposite direction (on the above mentioned intersection    ) leads to the City Center     and Old City. It is not far, maybe 20 minutes walk. Going south on this street

one passes by three new hotels: Olive Tree, Grand Court i Novotel
and soon after that there is the Old City I plan that one of my future reports will be on the Old City, so we may leave it at the moment.

The third direction (on the above mentioned intersection   )   is determined by a street entering a neighbourhood called French Hill. From there it is just 10 minutes walk to Mount Scopus, the main campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

   

Mount Scopus is a hill and there is a number of places there with great panorama of Jerusalem

       

There is a new tunnel under Mt Scopus with a highway going to Ma'ale Adumim, I think    . So now it is time to tell you about the three towers that I mentioned when I wrote about Ma'ale Adumim above. The first of those towers (the most northwestern) is the university tower (on the top of Mt Scopus):

   

The second tower (the middle one) is the tower of the church that is a part of the Augusta Victoria complex. The tower is open to the public and one may enjoy the bells and the view.

The third (the most southeastern) tower marks the Mount of Olives,   .

Mount of Olives deserves to be a topic of a separate report - there is a number of very interesting objects there
For now just a few of pics from there towards the Old City and the Lion Gate (also known as St. Stephen's Gate):

Spring. As usual in January.

I understand that most of the Eastern Europe suffered real cold. I guess it is not too warm in Omaha either. But here, in Israel, January means early Spring actually. Just look at these pictures taken on one January day on Givat Ram campus, just arount the Institute of Mathematics:

You know, those plants are very agressive here - if they only get water, they try to conquer every place:

they get inside through open windows
and through closed windows
as well as from above

Notes to myself - what I achieved in January:

To make sure that I work and do not spend too much time on enjoying Jerusalem, I decided to keep track of what I accomplished each month. In January that was not much, still: I am starting to work on [RoSh:890].

A longer Polish version of this report is available here. The next report may (but does not have to) be posted on March 5th, 2006...

Yours,
Andrzej


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Last modified: Tue Jan 31 23:19:25 IST 2006