David In Israel . דוד בישראל . داوود في اسرائيل 

First - Moving: Omer and I decided to move a couple of months ago, but it wasn't official until we found a third roommate and we found the right apartment... it was a rollercoaster - up and down - and the most hectic part was that Omer had family vacation in Peru - SO - there I was packing up a bunch of stuff that wasn't even mine... oh well.  Anyway - the move preoccupied my time for the better part of 2 weeks, and basically I only now feel settled.  The funniest parts of the move: dropping a refrigerator on myself, getting yelled at by the bipolar president of the Renters association at the new building at 6am (after having no sleep), and of course - dragging a box full of Ikea-stuff about half a mile up the road to catch a minibus back to Tel Aviv at 2 in the morning. (PICTURES COMING SOON)

Second - Conferences:  One of the many perks of going to a large school that is influential in middle eastern affairs is getting to attend the conferences.  Over the last 3 weeks, I have had invitations to 3 conferences.  The first one was with the diplomatic core from Turkey and was regarding Turkey's relationship to Israel.  Very enlightening.  The second one was hosted by the French Institute - Tel Aviv and I heard from Gilles Kopel - French Scholar on Radical Islam and Itamar Rabinovich - former Israeli Ambassador to the US - about the Obama policies on the middle east.  Today I am attending the biggest seminar on Iran ever to take place in Israel.  SO - I've been busy.

Third - Esta - My long-lost cousin.  Tuvya called me and said we had a relative coming into town, and it was so nice when she arrived.  Several of us got together for dinner and had a great time.  Here are a couple of photos: