Day 21 - Adventures with shopkeepers

I slept until about 11 am on Saturday, despite a brief awakening at around 8:30 when Ben called me to say hi :). Once I woke up and showered, Debby pulled out some rustic bread, jams, and jaffa oranges, and made coffee. She sliced the oranges and said, "Here. Try this orange juice." They were delicious. We chatted a bit more until her daughter, who was visiting a friend in the same building, called us. We met her at her car, which she had parked in her mother's space (since Debby doesn't have a car), and drove to the restaurant.

The place started out as a coffee shop , and still had that sort of look, but smelled wonderful and had a really exciting menu which made ordering difficult. We got a salad as an appetizer, and I ordered game-hen "meatballs" in a tomato, ginger, and coriander sauce over mashed potatoes and shaved celery stalks. It was delicious! I was tempted by about 17 other things on the menu, but was happy with my choice. Debby's daughter was delightful, and we had a great chat. After lunch, they dropped me off about two blocks from the Old City. I wanted to wander a bit and buy some gifts, so in I went.

The streets were mostly empty, except a few children playing between services, until I reached the shook, where there were some tourists. I think this was a good day to shop, though, because while there were a few other people around, the proprietors of the stalls were relatively desperate for business, and I think I didn't go two steps without an individual salutation to see a specific good in a shop. Eventually, at a stall where the goods were particularly colorful, I let myself be guided in. He got me a chair, offered me some coffee, and began showing me everything he had, asking me what I wanted, how many, etc. At first I said one small one, then went up to one small and one big one. He then said he'd give me the same price for two large ones, which he said was the original asking price of the small one. I whittled that price down by a third or so, then decided to only get one and practically forced him to give it to me for less than half the price he was offering for two. I felt good about that.

At another shop the man behind the counter was young and very polite. He showed me just about every piece of jewelry he had, patiently, and gave me a bottle of cold orange juice to sip as I was served. I ended up buying something other than jewelry, but he gave me his card and told me to return any time I was in the city.

After a few hours, I grabbed a popsicle and sat for a while, then exited the gates and began walking back towards Ben Yehuda Street, past which was the central bus station. I sat to rest once I got to Ben Yehuda Street, and planned to grab some food and wait for it to open once it got dark, but a man around 40 years old sat down and started talking to me. He asked me all sorts of questions, making me relatively uncomfortable. I excused myself from this interaction and started walking back in the direction of the Old City, at which point I called Ben. As we chatted, Jodi, an Australian student who lives in my dorm, walked by and invited me to join her.

We walked back to the Old City to meet Nina and Dave, then turned around and walked back in search of dinner. Night was falling and stores and restaurants were beginning to open up again. As we walked through a side street of bars and restaurants, Dave saw a stand selling hookas and began a discussion with the seller. Jodi moved on to the next table, which contained jewelry, and I followed soon. Both of us rejoined Dave and Nina in a couple of minutes, though, at which point the oddest part of my day ensued.

I watched as the jewelry seller talked to the other people at the table, who were pointing at Jodi and me. He yelled over, "Did you look at the rings? Did you take a ring?" Jodi said no, as did I. He came over and brought me to the table, showing me an empty hole in the ring display case, and asked me again, loudly, if I had taken a ring. He then reached into my skirt pocket and removed a ring! This is when the real yelling began, about how I needed to pay double (200 shekels) or he'd call the police. I wanted to shout back that I didn't take his stupid ring and that he could try calling the police, but what I did was beg him to stop and tell him I didn't have enough cash on me to pay him. Jodi came over when she heard this hullaballo, and I reassured him before the two of us returned to the hookah table.

Dave was settling on a hookah and price, and the seller was allowing him to test a comparable model, so we had a few more minutes to kill before the purchase would be complete. Of course, during this time, the jewelry seller came over a few times to yell about me stealing his ring. The hookah dude asked me if I was ok, and told me the jewelry guy was sort of crazy. This made me feel a little bit better, as I was quite shaken. I felt not only scared but guilty, and as we left, Nina reassured me and commented that I had had quite a sketchy afternoon.

On the advice of Jodi's friend who lives in Jerusalem, we decided to eat at a cafe which doubled as a bookstore, which was hidden up some stairs at the end of a small alleyway nearby. The three of them all ordered shakshouka, a sort of Israeli breakfast dish consisting of tomato and eggs and sometimes a vegetable, like eggplant. I had never had it, but tried all of theirs as I ate my eggplant/egg/feta cheese puff pastry and salad. Then Nina and I split a brownie with some ice cream on top (her idea, not mine, but I like the way she thinks) before heading out.

We walked down Ben Yehudah Street, now buzzing with activity, and were forced to weave our way around bands of street performers, tourist groups, and random sculptures. Jodi left us to go see her friend, and we relocated Yaffo Street and eventually made it to the central bus station. The buses going straight to Rehovot had already left, so we took one which went through Ramla and then Rehovot before reaching its final destination. In line we ran into Tess, who had stayed the weekend in Jerusalem with some friends she had met as exchange students at Brown, her undergrad.

When the bus came, Tess got swallowed by the mob because she had to put her large bag underneath the bus, so it was a lucky thing when she got on the bus (and a long, tense wait until that finally happened). I had saved her a seat, though, which she eventually worked her way back to, and we chatted for about half the ride until my parents called. Toward the end of the ride I said goodbye to them, though. I went to the front of the bus to ask the driver to stop at the Weizmann Institute for the four of us. He did, and he waited for Tess to grab her large bag, both of which were lucky.

We got in to the building and parted ways. Ari and Oren's door was open, so I sat and chatted with them about their weekends a bit before going to bed. The following would be in Ari's blog, if he had one:

"So my brother was visiting for the weekend, and we were driving with our uncle. He's kind of old, and he's very Israeli in his driving. We're on the highway, and we miss the exit. No, we don't back up. He TURNS AROUND and starts driving, against traffic, on the highway. Luckily the oncoming traffic slowed down a bit. We then went up the ramp where traffic would come onto the highway from the exit we're trying to get to. It was really lucky that no one was coming in the opposite direction. I was in shock. I didn't realize fully what had happened until later."

Keep in mind that Ari was the one who was very near sick due to our dear friend Nick's driving on the way to and from our hike in the north. I can only imagine his facial expression during all of this.

Anyway, more photographs! Enjoy Jerusalem's architecture.

The building on the right houses Debby's apartment

You know you're nearby when...

View from just outside the walls

A deserted alleyway

Very old street signs

Day 20 - My great aunt-in-law, or something

Today I slept late.  Really.  Until 11!  When I woke up no one was around really except people with individual plans, so I called Deborah Magen, my sole relative in Israel.  She and I aren't really related, of course.  Her oldest sister married my great uncle, so here we are.  I left a message on her machine and then went to the drug store for some soap.  On my way back she called me back!  I had said I was thinking of coming into Jerusalem, and she asked me if my plans had solidified.  I told her that if they were to, I'd need a place to sleep.  She said, "Of course!  So are you coming or not?"  So I said yes.

I went home and packed a small bag, then walked to the mall/main bus terminal and caught the next bus to Jerusalem, which left at 3:30 pm.  When I got in, I walked straight to the shook and bought some baked treats as a thank you, some more dried fruit, some grapes because they looked so wonderful and I was thirsty and craving sugar, and some rolls.  Things were beginning to close for shabbat so it was the craziest I have ever seen the place and the vendors were yelling about their end-of-the-day discounts from every direction.  I am lucky to have emerged in tact.

I walked a bit further to see if any other shops were open, but no such luck, so I turned around and headed back.  According to my instructions, I was to take the #5 city bus to the last stop on Moshe Kol street, which is just past Mara street, where Debby's apartment is located.  I was nervous that I was waiting for the one going the wrong direction, a fear assuaged when I discovered it only went in one direction.  My next worry, that the last bus of that number had already been by, took a few more minutes to quell, but at least I was sitting down in partial shade as I worried.  Rehovot is hot, and humid, and while Jerusalem isn't the latter, it has improved upon the former.  The dry heat was astounding.  I finished the water I had brought and broke into the grapes, and I hadn't even walked that much.

In a little while the bus came and I got on, discovering as I did so that the driver spoke absolutely no english, which was interesting because I had no idea where I was going and was hoping for some help.  So we drove, and eventually got onto Moshe Kol street, which was a good sign.  Debby had warned me to get off before going down the big hill, which of course I failed to do because apparently I pushed the "I want to get off" button too late.  Rather than calling Debby to "come fetch me," as she put it, I trekked back up to the sign I had seen for Mara street, then called her.  She emerged from a building about 10 meters away!

We hugged and she congratulated me on the feat of finding my way to her door, which, as I pointed out, wasn't so much my doing as her direction.  We went inside and she gave me the grand tour, then we sat and talked until we were both hungry, while she meanwhile heated some things up that she had cooked earlier.  She apologized for the culinary "adventure" upon which we were about to embark, which turned out to be delicious: chicken stuffed with a mix of sauteed mushrooms, peas cooked with mint, salad, corn on the cob, and pasta with more mushrooms on top.  It was really good, and not at all what I had expected when she told me that since I hadn't given her much notice we'd be having an odd mixture of dishes.

Afterwards we had tea and the baked thingies which I had brought, and chatted more.  She was hilarious!  She talked my ear off, and would get onto these ridiculous tangents which I struggled but was usually able to reconnect to the main conversational thread.  Example:

Weather in D.C./Maryland

Weather in Jerusalem

Her daughter in Jerusalem

Her grandchild

Bob the Builder

Olivia

The possibility of eating lunch on Saturday at a place which serves bacon hamburgers

So it was a great night.  After a bit of news on TV, Debby went to bed, I watched some of the Turkey/Croatia game, then an episode of Crossing Jordan before going to bed myself.

And now, what you've all been waiting for...more pictures!  *applause*

Dried fruit at the market

Since it was close to closing time for shabbat, 

vendors were cleaning up their stalls

Spices in colorful plastic bags

Olives (assortment)

Day 19 - Soccer Extravaganza

Thursday is like Friday in Israel, because the work week is Sunday to Thursday. I haven't really gotten used to this yet, but it does make the weekend a pleasant surprise.

So Thursday was a relatively chill day. Got into work around 9, but since I had run out of cereal and milk and forgotten to replenish, I decided to stop by a cafeteria on my way in to work to grab a snack. I ended up with a delicious, warmed croissant and "iced coffee." And no, those are not unnecessary quotation marks. It was iced in that it was cold, and it did taste like coffee, but it was more like a frappuchino, and I am of course now officially addicted.

I got in to work, sat down with my delicious treats, and continued re-analyzing the TEM images. This method takes a lot longer, so I was at this pretty much all morning. I then met Tanmay for lunch in Weisgal Square. There was no one else with him, so we waited for 5 minutes to see if anyone else would show. This was lucky, because soon Clay and Lior arrived with food! Lior's mother had cooked him chicken with wild rice, cabbage, and cherry tomatoes. The cabbage was purple and had made the rice purple as well, so the dish was a gorgeous combination of golden brown, purple and bright red. There was enough to feed the four of us but not quite enough utensils or plates, so some of us used pot lids and we ate in shifts on some benches underneath a tree in the square. The cats loitered nearby hoping for scraps but didn't enjoy what we gave them. We had a frightening moment when a dog came by and caused one of the cats to noisily leap into a tree, but other than that it was a peaceful lunch. We then grabbed ice cream bars before heading back to our respective buildings.

When I got back, I did one or two more images before making some coffee and heading down to the second floor, where we were scheduled to have a talk by Shimon Vega, the Weizmann resident NMR expert. This was the first in a series of lectures scheduled for the summer program students, and while Vega was very engaging, the level of the talk was a bit low. He did an hour about NMR in general, then allowed whoever wanted to leave to go before diving into an overview of the theory behind MRIs. I stayed, along with some other random folks and everyone in the neuroscience field.

Afterwards, Jonathan, Tamara and I wandered around Perlman a bit, going to the top floor, then the bottom, where we set the building's Foucault's Pendulum in motion. We were basically wasting time until the Perlman cookie time, 4:00 pm according to my informant. As our wandering got less interesting and we gravitated closer to the second floor lounge, we noticed others doing the same, and eventually entered the lounge around 4 to see the table laid out with yummy goodies. However, the organizer saw us preparing to move in for the kill, and informed us we'd have to wait until 4:30. We therefore sat and waited, and sure enough, the room filled up just after that time. It was a good way to spend the afternoon, and I am no longer as jealous of the math department's daily 3:30 coffee and cookies (which isn't to say I won't continue to crash it occasionally).

I worked until 6-ish, and when I got home discovered that Ari, Dan and Tanmay were ready to go play soccer. I changed quickly and left just behind them. There was no frisbee game running concurrently, and someone had already brought a ball. We set up the goals and began some 3-on-3, but soon we had enough for 5-on-6 and then 6-on-6. I had decided to wear my Puma "retro running-inspired shoes" instead of my real running shoes, which had not only given me a blister but made my ball handling terrible, and I think the improvement was immense. We played until dark again, then Jonathan (a different one) offered us a ride in his friend's car to the front gate. Ari, Tanmay, another girl who had played named Olivia, and I crammed into the back seat of this rather small vehicle. Luckily we dropped Olivia off rather soon, so we could sit more comfortably.

We got out at the front gate, thanked them for the ride, and went to our favorite convenience store for some refreshment. We each purchased a 1.5-liter bottle of Prigat juice (I got strawberry banana, Ari got grape, and Tanmay got mango), then we walked a block down and ordered a large pizza to split. We had to wait a bit once it came out, because it was too hot to eat at first, but once it cooled down we decimated it rather quickly. Then we walked half a block in the direction of campus to the Hertzl bar and sat down to watch the Germany-Portugal game. After about 15 minutes they made us order something to stay, so we each got a beer. For those who didn't watch, it was a fun game, and (/but?) Germany won 3-2.

By the time we got back to the dorms it was not too late, but I'd been tired enough lately that I went to bed immediately.

Since you got a link today and this post is very retroactive, you don't get pictures. But I will catch up, and illustrate my adventures, so don't get too worried.

Day 18 - Start at the very beginning

Today marks the second consecutive day I've arrived at work after 9 am. It is glorious thing. I think from now on, I will only mention notable things about work, as I find myself using the same words every day.

Ok, now that that's settled, something notable happened! At 11 am Dikla came in and told us a talk was about to begin and there weren't enough people there. XiaoMeng and I were the only ones sitting in the office, but she had a meeting elsewhere, so I decided to go alone. The speaker was someone from Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, and he talked about a whole bunch of stuff, from solid state fuel cells to sensors, all in the context of microelectronics. To be quite honest, I don't even need the "science" tags, because it was way over my head, too. But even if it had been at a manageabl level, it still would have been relatively unexciting.

For lunch I met everyone in the square again, but this time the group had expanded to include someone from Clay's lab, Lior, and Tamara. We went to San Martin, the meat cafeteria where you can load as much on your plate as you can fit (which results in some interesting food sculptures). We ran into Claudia and Maria Magdalena in line, and Lisa and Dan (physics) joined our table after a while.

< .science >

After lunch, at 2 pm XiaoMeng and I headed over to Wolfson (the microscopy building) to add another coating to the TEM grids. This time it was a carbon layer, which conducts and therefore prevents the electrons from becoming trapped in the sample and causing charging. The apparatus consisted of a bell jar, a carbon filament holder, and a stage. XiaoMeng vented the cahmber, placed the grids (still on paper from the polymer coating) on the stage and strategically and scientifically weighted down the paper edges with old metal nuts. She then replaced the carbon filament from a roll of filament, tightened it, and resealed the chamber. After venting, she ran a current through the filament, instantly vaporizing the center of it. The chamber immediately dispersed the carbon evenly throughout it, effectively depositing a thin carbon coating over the polymer on the grids.

As with anything that sounds awesome (like vaporization), this was rather anticlimactic. In one second it was done, then she vented the chamber once more. As I told her, I always get excited for this stuff and then am sort of sad when it's not an epic, visible reaction. Once in p-chem lab, we did bomb calorimetry. Literally we're exploding a bomb of our sample, multiple times, so I expected movement, or a visible quiver or muffled boom, but all we got was a little red LED light to tell us it was over. Needless to say, I was incredibly disappointed.

< / science >

As I walked back to the lab, I pondered the most recent plot I had constructed of my data. Something was really bugging me about a very clear trend that was present, so I resolved to check exactly what I had done to create it. After looking at it for a minute, I reached the unhappy conclusion that the trend was completely a product of my automated measurement method. And then, being as anal as I am, I decided that the only way to show this for sure would be to recreate all of the data by hand and see if the trend remained. So basically, I started over again, this time taking manual measurements.

After about 3 hours I realized what time it was and left work. I had hypothetical plans to go bouldering with Anna, a girl from New York City who I had met at the top-roping gym on Sunday. I called her and we arranged to meet at the Tel Aviv train station nearest to the gym. In the kitchen back at the dorm, I invited Ari and Jonathan to accompany me. After pondering it for a bit, they both decided to come! We caught the 7:38 train from Rehovot, arriving at the Hahagana station in Tel Aviv at 8:00. Anna called me to tell me she was running late and would meet us there, so we started walking without her.

It was an interesting part of town, so I was glad I had recruited others to accompany me on the walk. About 15 minutes later we found it, with the help of my hand-drawn map (which of course I had printed, in color, at work and then intelligently left on my desk). When we paid to get in, there was no change, so the man behind the counter recorded his debts to us and we went in. The guys both changed into shorts, I put on my shoes, then I helped them try to find matching shoes to borrow from the large bin of them. Then I gave them a brief introduction to bouldering and we began.

They both knocked off the V0s relatively easily, but the V1s were more challenging. As we climbed I gave them a few pointers and occasionally demonstrated some moves. Both of them got very pumped pretty quickly, so I advised that they slow down. Soon, Anna called me to ask if she was nearby. I went outside and it turned out she was walking towards me from the other side of the street, so she successfully found us. She was dressed for a party at synagogue, though, so she changed and began to climb with us. She and I climb at almost exactly the same level, so it was really great to tackle the problems together. She told me the best advice she had gotten out of a climbing course once: try to be as quiet as possible with your feet. I really like thinking about it that way!

We climbed literally until the place closed, then walked back to the train station and waited a bit for the train to Rehovot (Anna is staying there, too). On the platform we met an Israeli girl our age who had recently returned from a year's stay in New Jersey! We sat with her and chatted all the way to Rehovot. She went to learn English, is the oldest of 13 children, and was recently accepted to an architecture program in Israel. When we got to Rehovot we exchanged phone numbers, so maybe we'll see her again!

As we walked back towards Weizmann, Anna redirected us to her friend Shaun's house. We met and drank some water, then headed out to the pub on Hertzel for a late dinner. Anna is obsessed with edamame, so we had some as an apetizer. After the meal we all parted ways, and just before Ari, Jonathan and I entered Clore, something icky fell from the sky onto my shoulder. Its identity remains unknown but Jonathan was kind enough to remove it.

Ari went to bed, but I showed Jonathan and Stephen (who was still awake!) The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks (see my feeds, on the sidebar of this page), which is really amusing and which you should all check out, before going to bed myself.

Since you've all been suffering, enjoy a picture of the varied reactions of Jonathan and Anna to a french-fry machine on the train platform in Tel Aviv...

Day 17 - I Scream, You Scream...

Today I took it a bit easier at work. I got in after 9, which is unusual, and spent most of the day reading papers and finding more papers and plotting my existing data in new ways. For lunch I met Clay and Tanmay and we ate at Jubilee. My fake pizza was actually quite a disappointment, which led to my being hungry again much sooner than usual. Since most of the on-campus cafeterias here are subsidized, it's a whole lot of food for not much money so I tend to eat large lunches. This also works out because everyone tends to eat dinner late.

I left work around 5:30 and again noticed how nice the weather was as I walked home. But this time I decided to actually take advantage of it. I changed into shorts, grabbed postcards and a book, and went to sit on a hill outside the dorm. After only 20 minutes I was so miserable from the bugs, though, that I had to come inside. I noticed Clay reading in the lobby, so I joined him. I discovered that the lobby is just as good as the kitchen for catching people as they walk by and chatting. We saw Tamara, Dave, Nina, and Dan, Lily, and other people on their way in or out, and even had some reading time in between.

But dinner was on my mind, and I was determined to break my ridiculous 16-day streak of living in Israel without consuming falafel or schwarma. Clay said he'd go with me even though he wasn't extremely hungry, but we waited long enough that our group expanded to include Tess, Jonathan, Daniel from MIT, grad student Dan, Jordan, Stephen, Rachel, and Lisa. We walked down Hertzl street for about two blocks and found a bunch of adjacent eating establishments, which was great due to our group's size. I led the falafel movement, with Daniel, Stephen, Clay, and Dan following in my footsteps. Since I got mine first, and they were frying the falafel as we ordered, I was done by the time Dan got his, so I ordered another half, this one with potato slices, before we rejoined the other part of the group outside at some tables. Dan and I then got some delicious gelato, and we sat for a bit before heading back to Clore.

At around 9:45 we left once more for the Kukula, a bar on the Hebrew University Rehovot campus (across the street), which houses the agriculture department. They had both soccer games on, which made Ari very happy. Soon Ran and Tali showed up, and my favorite part of the night followed: Ari, Tali, Ran and I shared a container of ice cream while watching two UEFA Euro tournament games in a bar in Israel. The bar sells ice cream. The bar sells ice cream. And provides spoons. It was glorious.

As we ate, Jonathan, Stephen and Jordan, who had accompanied us to the bar, relocated with some of Tali's friends to a table outside. After we finished our ice cream we followed, and we hung out, watched two of the Israelis in the group practice swordfighting with wooden katanas, and ate pretzels. It was a great time. We got to talk a bit more easily on the walk back to Clore because it was quieter and the sidewalk split us up, but everyone was really nice and I think we may make this a weekly gathering.

Of course another day has passed without pictures. I hope you all survive. Withdrawal can be tough.

Day 16 - Floating

All of us in the summer program had to be up early for an 8:30 am safety training session, which not only meant that our staying up rather late together watching the Bourne Identity was not the best idea, but also spelled certain doom for our concurrent desires to shower before leaving the dorm. Now that everyone is moved in, rather than me having a huge bathroom to myself which happens not to be connected to my room, I share it with four other people (!), the most of anyone in the basement that I know of. So that was complicated.

The training turned out to be rather amusing, which made up for its relative lack of content. The chief safety officer chose to tell us cute anecdotes about hood sashes shattering from explosions and his brief period of panic during which he believed his daughter had been murdered in Costa Rica. After about an hour the mathematicians and computer scienctists were allowed to leave (lucky bastards), and the chemists and biologists remained for the most useful, and actually serious part of the lecture: how to dispose of waste. As this always varies from place-to-place, let alone country-to-country, it was necessary, and luckily brief. By 10:00 we were out in the lobby, where we had to purchase our medical insurance for the summer.

I was back at Perlman by 10:30, and met with Professor Wagner about my work so far. I showed him a whole lot of plots which revealed nothing, to which his response seemed optimistic. He told me to plot them in terms of another parameter, which I had already calculated, and then we had a bonding moment when we discovered we're both very anal when it comes to grammar and writing (it turns out we both circle mistakes in any papers we read as we go along), and we both have a secret desire to be writers when we grow up, which is more complicated in his case due to his relative success and experience in his field (aside from his being grown up, already, sort of). I think he was impressed with how much I've gotten done, but we'll see whether that actually turns into anything meaningful.

After the meeting I continued my literature search for TEM images. By the time lunch rolled around, Noa and Sari invited me to Charlie's. I called Stephen, and we met him there. We got there at peak hours, so while in line we did the basic personal history conversations. By the time we sat down, however, things had gotten more serious. A long debate over the history of Islam insued, broken up only intermittently by the cats whose territory the outdoor seating apparently occupied. As lunch wore on, the Torah and religion in general became the primary focus of the conversation. My personal theory is that Sari's presence is the cause of these deeper, probing topics, mostly because last week she began the afternoon's ongoing debacle with the question of whether or not science and religion mix. We stayed long enough for ice cream and/or iced coffees to become necessary, and eventually were joined by Noa's roommate Tali and another friend.

During all this, we unearthed an interesting quirk of Hebrew, of which our Israeli friends had not been aware previously. Stephen's friend at MIT who had studied at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) had been puzzled when, upon his arrival, people kept asking him who his "shutaf" was. This friend spoke some Hebrew but was unaware that this word, which directly translates to "partner," was in this context intended to mean "roommate." What his, and our, Israeli friends didn't know was the implication, in English, that "partner" meant "gay lover." Noa and Sari got a huge kick out of this.

After a while, we exhausted these topics and decided that getting some work done might be advantageous. Stephen and Sari kept talking, hald in Hebrew and half in English, until we had to part ways. Back at work for the afternoon, I replotted my data as recommended. Unfortunately, I still didn't see much going on.

My literature search continued until 5, when XiaoMeng called me from the microscopy building to come join her. I was going to watch her prepare TEM grids (sample holders), and the first step, coating with a polymer film, was very sensitive to vibrations and needed to be performed after most people had left for the day so there would be fewer people walking around. I am always entertained by the sensitivity of new instruments and methods. When acquiring an image on the TEM, talking will make the image blurry! I guess I'm easily amused.

< .science >

XiaoMeng floated a thin film of polymer on the surface of water in a slightly over-full beaker, then placed the grids, rougher side down, on the film. I know I am a huge dork, but I found this amazing to watch. Now we have to wait 2-3 days for the grids to dry before the next coating. My next TEM time with Talmon is next week, so they should be ready in time for me to deposit nanotubes on them for that session.

< / science >

I left work around 6:30, and reached the conclusion on the way home that it really was a gorgeous day outside. Of course my resolution to spend the evening enjoying the weather was promptly destroyed. I always sit in the kitchen to check my mail and such, but people kept joining me, and I guess I'd rather be social than outside (also sometimes outside there are ants! just kidding. except there reall are). So we chilled until around 10, when the first official KKISS rooftop gathering began. People brought beverages and cookies, and we stayed out there chatting and marveling at the bats until the security guard came and told us to shut up. I guess this really does happen every time! So we relocated to the piano/music room in the lobby, and while we didn't modulate our voices, our being indoors helped and we weren't visited again.

Our relocation also helped other residents find us, and soon there were masters and PhD students present as well. Ran and his ex-girlfriend Tali invited Jonathan and I to come walk Tali home. She's a member of the staff, and so lives near the faculty bar; showing us this place was the secondary mission. When we got there it wasn't yet closed, so Tali's roommate bought some fries, and Tali went up to her room brought down a melon (yes, very hip bar food), and we sat outside the place and munched for a bit. Evenually everyone got tired, so Ran, Jonathan and I walked back to campus (a 4-minute odyssey). I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Pictures really didn't occur today. And yesterday I wrote relatively few words. So enjoy: a TEM grid! *insert gasps of awe here*

Ok fine...

...I'll make up for it. Here are some more pictures from the market in Jerusalem, not only to please my numerous and far-flung fans but because I am hungry (oh and Mom, we can add these to your collection if you so desire).  Also, enjoy the format changes in the blog.  They took some time but I like it a lot better, which is of course what matters.

Day 15 - Like, OMG!

This post is dedicated to those Israelis (especially Nitzan) or anyone else who reads this just for the pictures. I will be pithy and concise. Oh, and no pictures *grrr*

Today I woke up and went to work. I worked and ate and then worked some more. Afterwards I went climbing, this time with 2 full cars-worth of people. We went to the top roping/leading place, and I led my first climbs, on top rope also as a backup. In the car to and from the gym, as well as while we were there, we had some interesting chats, the topics of which included my blog and, like, how, like, American I am.

When I got back I went to sleep. It was all very exciting. Like, yay!

Day 14 - "The North" is a big place, right?

Today was an adventure, as predicted. We were supposed to leave at 9 am, but luckily I received a call around 8 notifying me that just in case I hadn't received the text message alert (which I hadn't; I don't think I can get texts), we were leaving at 10 am instead. So I slept a bit more.

A bit of back story. On Friday when I was in Jerusalem, I had planned on staying the night in a hostel by the Damascus gate (between the Christian and Arab Quarters), but towards the early afternoon I received a call inviting me to go hiking in the North of Israel. I decided to go back to Rehovot that afternoon with Stephen at that point.

So I woke up at 9:30, put a backpack together, and met some of the others at the front gate. We had rented two cars, and there were 6 of us who lived at or around Weizmann. The other three we were to pick up along the way. So we set off, Daniel (from Mexico, and in my program) driving the other car with Michael, whom I had met playing soccer and who had invited me, and Nick (from Germany) driving the car which contained me, Ari, and Joel. We first picked up Lily (who works at Weizmann but will start her masters soon in Canada), which turned out to be an epic adventure including multiple u-turns, not all of which were legal, and, as Joel put it, more driving in reverse than he had ever seen in his life. To sum up, those in the car we were following had no idea where she lived. Luckily we eventually located her. She took over driving the other car, which was a very positive thing.

From there she drove, and we followed, to pick up the next two people, each of whom we located with few u-turns and no backtracking (!). They both lived close to Tel Aviv. We continued north for one or two ours, stopping for lunch at a Burger King (how ironic; I consumed my first ever Whopper in Israel) until we reached the park. We grabebd water and set off on the shortest hike, which was the only one still open because we only reached the park rather late in the day.

The hike began with a flat, rather rocky but wide trail which led us past and thorugh some ruins among which cows were grazing and lazing about. Past this area we walked along the top of a huge gorge which reminded me strongly of the scene in the Princess Bride just before they enter the Fire Swamp. There were purple bulbous clusters of small flowers on tall stalks everywhere, as well as dry grass and thistle-like plants. Soon the descent began, and rocks prevailed over dirt along the trail. The going was narrower but stair-like, and at certain points the bottom of the trail, a pool at the foot of a waterfall, came into view through the trees and bushes.

By the time we made it down we were very hot, so most of us stripped down to our bathing suits and got into the water. I took a few rocky steps, then just plunged in once it was deep enough, but most worked their way in a bit slower. The water was deliciously cool but not hypothermia-inducing, and while it wasn't clear, it wasn't dirty or slimy. Small and slightly larger fish darted in and out of the rocks in the shallows, but the center of the pool was deep (at least 10 to 15 feet at places). We swam closer to the waterfall and were able to stand directly under it. To the right was a dry, flat collection of rocks which jutted out into the pool, providing an excellent natural platform for us to show off our diving skills (or lack thereof). There was also a point, directly to the left of the falls, which was trickier to reach (Ari commented that I must be using my climbing "route-finding" skills) but provided a higher jumping point.

Within a half hour or so, however, a park ranger told us we had to head back, to leave before the park closed. We emerged, dried off a bit, and began the hike back, which was much steeper but for some reason we chose to attempt at the same pace as the descent. I dipped into my water supply for the first time during the ascent. We had some insightful conversations about how to compliment girls, and being the only female in our half of the group, I was the only one present to confirm that saying "You have nice front teeth" or "You are so beautiful; your ears are perfectly centered" might not go over perfectly well. Other conversation topics included the Colbert Report, a favorite of Michael's (see below for "Colbert pictures). Michael's plan is as follows: save someone from a disaster, like drowning or a burning building. When interviewed by local press, say that his heroic inspiration came from Stephen Colbert. Get onto the Colbert Report as a guest, and after befriending Stephen, have him introduce Michael to any number of hot famous girls. I, for one, think this is a sound idea. The only possibility for failure might be if Michael sets the building on fire in the first place, which as I pointed out might result in a much bigger scandal and prevent Rachel Bilson or the like from being truly interested.

Once we reached the flat portion again, we noticed an army helicopter hovering near the cows. We didn't ever discover what was going on, but it was fascinating to see the blades whip ripples into the grass, which must have been ready to seed because vast, billowing gusts of golden particles soon surrounded the craft as it slowly surfed just above the ground choosing a place to land. We stood, some of us transfixed, some of us just wondering how far behind the rest of the group had become, until we headed back to the car.

Many of us then grabbed ice creams, discussing the merits of the flavors and what a person's favorite might say about his or her personality, before leaving. We stopped in Tiberias for dinner; many went to McDonalds but the Americans (me, Ari and Joel) chose not to consume food from two American fast food chains in one day, and chose instead to eat Italian food at a British pub called "Big Ben" (I'd like to say for the record that I had schnitzel). What a way to explore the setting of Jesus' magnificent bread-multiplying episode.

We met up with the other car before parting; they would drop off the others again, and our car would go directly to Weizmann, where we all lived. On the road again, we periodically checked the map we found in the glove box as we made the long journey home. Nick and Joel work for the same professor, doing computational biology and neurology, respectively, and Ari also studies math, so as they discussed algebraic topology, Michael and I talked a bit about astrophysics, his field. When conversation included the whole car, it was more philosophical: we attempted to enumerate the many definitions of "cute," which turned out to be a much more fruitful topic than expected.

Finally, around 10:30 pm, we made it back. I had no energy to blog; I crashed almost immediately. Many pictures were taken; I will show you a few now, but later this week, during the more boring work days, more may follow.

The ruins and the cows

"You can die too, for all I care..."

"Aaaaaaaas yooouuuuuuuuu wiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssshhhh!"

Purple flowers

Michael and me in the waterfall

All of us who swam. Left to right:

Nick, Michael, Ari, Me, Joel

Me making the Colbert face with Michael

The poisonous flowers by the pool

The Sea of Galilee (view from Tiberias)