11 Biet Hakerem

As we go through life, as I go through my life, mostly what happens follows more or less from what happened before. I am rarely inexplicably someplace doing something without understanding how it came to be. But occasionally there is so much change and confluence of new things that it feels incomprehensible. Such a moment occurred this morning while I was sitting on the tiny sun porch that is only in the sun before 9 am, looking out over this vista. I wondered: how can it be that I have been alone for five days in an apartment in Jerusalem, isolating myself to avoid spreading the pandemic disease that finally after two years of evasion, I am infected with?

Though it may feel inexplicable, it isn’t, and I’ll explain it. In fact, through a few paragraphs and some photos I’ll get us back to where I left off with you all, which was while I was stewing over making US winter holiday food in India. But first, so you don’t worry: I do have Covid, but it is very mild and I am already feeling nearly all better.

I came to Jerusalem to be a fellow at the Israeli Institute for Advanced studies where I am part of a research group applying ecological theory to insect pest management and conservation. This is a project that we got funding for before the pandemic, and before I took the job in India. It is an incredible five months of support to work together with a very nice group of people. I feel fortunate. Since I just started my new job in Bangalore (which I also feel fortunate about), I can’t be here for the whole five months though. So I am here for a few weeks now, and then I’ll come back for the last two months with Andy. In between I’ll participate via Zoom.

When I left Bangalore the Omicron variant of COVID was prevalent. There was a curfew and for the last few weeks most people around me had been working from home a lot of the time. Many of the people in my department had been sick, and most of the households in our apartment building had to, though Andy and I had been spared. I knew that traveling would be a risk but I wanted to go. I avoided getting it in transit, but eventually, in Jerusalem I did get it. For those of you worried about my vulnerability due to chemotherapy for lymphoma- I also worry, but it has turned out to be mild. Maybe that is becuase I was lucky enough to be vaccinated before I started chemotherapy, which apparently is much better than being vaccinated after it (see this timely medical article that my mother sent me if you are curious about that).

In spite of Covid slowing things down on campus, I am making progress in my new job. I am starting to set up a lab, I have a PhD student, and the beginnings of some research and collaboration. I am excited about it.

In the end of December I visited the butterfly rearing facility for the butterfly park at at the Bannerghatta Biological Park. I am hoping that they will give me the parasitoid wasps that get in their rearings so that I can learn about them.

This brings us finally back to winter holiday cooking. We have a family tradition of celebrating Coffeecake Day instead of Christmas, using the coffeecake recipe that my grandmother Ruth used to make. Here I am making the Bangalore version of it.