Where we are

As promised, a description of our apartment and living arrangements

We (all 13 of us) live in an apartment on Alzahara St. in East Jerusalem, about a 10 minute walk from the Old City walls. Alice and I had the pleasant experience of wandering and getting slightly lost in the Old City this morning, but those adventures will wait until a later entry. Anyhow, some photos of our street, looking right from the apartment:


and looking left:

Finally, looking across the street:

Ranger is our best friend. They have provided us (unbeknownst to them) with our wireless internet until we get ours up and running. We're waiting on DSL installation, and Bezeq (the phone service company) has a monopoly and thus is notoriously slow on service. Imagine 13 instructors, all used to MIT's blazing fast service, all working on projects requiring internet, and receiving a slow/non-functioning connection. It's not a happy situation.

Anyhow, our apartment itself has a gate and then stairs up to the entrance.

It's a very large and spacious setting, with very high ceilings. Someone remarked on the first day that it was like living in a castle. There are 5 sleeping rooms and 3 bathrooms. When we arrived (at 6 am on Sunday) our beds were already selected, with named folders on each. Us 3 girls get our own room and bathroom. My bed:


The bathroom has all the amenities (shower, toilet, bath, sink, even a shower curtain!) and sometimes there's even hot water for showers! We've got a nice common area with couches:

Also, a "dining" area (currently used as a working area) with a table. We had to go appropriate chairs from the MEET office to have enough seating for all.

When we arrived, the kitchen was stocked with some food. However, grocery shopping had better happen soon. We've been out of hummus since the end of Day 1, and there may be a riot soon if the situation isn't remedied.

The neighborhood we are in is a predominately Palestinian area. Most signs are in Arabic. A few times per day, we can hear the Muslim call to prayer emanating from inside the Old City. It's a beautiful sound. The people in the neighboorhood speak Arabic, and some speak a little bit of English. Humberto and I went to lunch at a schwarma place yesterday, and we managed to order food and pay for our meal, mainly by pointing at things on the English menu. For 32 shekels each, we consumed delicious schwarma.

Much of our time here thus far has consisted of working. After all, we're here to work and to teach these kids Java! Sunday consisted of a large group meeting, establishing some rules and laying out a framework for our prep week. We then took a walk around our neighborhood and got to see our first glimpse of the Old City walls.

We went to dinner at Azadinya along with some of the MEET staff (Asaaf, Anat, and Noa). (Thanks to Sally for the photo!)

Monday was more work. Partway through the day, we decided that the lack of internet was severely unproductive, and we walked to the MEET office. This is about a 20 minute walk away, but it's in West Jerusalem (the Jewish side of the city) and it almost feels like an entirely different city. Because we'd appropriated chairs for our apartment, there was a lack, but there was plenty of internet for everyone, so we made do:

And Max made everyone happy with "Smiles" (which are impossible for me to pronounce in Hebrew).

Next post: Hebrew University, Adventures in the Old City, and coping with the lack of chairs.