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.