Day 5 - Why I love climbing. And Israel.

This morning I hit the snooze a few times. After a slight panic that the bathroom light was out and I'd have to use a strange shower (which sometimes emits brown water) in the dark, the light flickered back to life and all was well. Yogurt, cereal, then work.

All morning I worked on the computer analysis of the images. I continued work I had done on Tuesday, then once I decided which methods I wanted to compare, started completely from the beginning, while taking notes and printing things for my lab notebook. My lab notebook is seriously going to be the best thing ever. Well ok, there are better things (like ice cream!) but it might be close.

Lunch was in the airport cafeteria again. They had real mini pizzas with sweet potato, so I had to try it. Verdict: yummy! We also had fruitful discussions about Monty Python and the Golden Compass. After XiaoMeng stopped at the bank we returned to the lab. Asof gave me the e-mail of a Nitzim, a friend of his who he knows is part of an informal group of people who climb around here, so I e-mailed him.

I reverted to reading more articles as the afternoon wore on. Highlights: a call from Nitzim, the climbing dude, saying they were going tonight, and a (much too short) call from BEN!!!!! HI BEN! Miss you.

Needless to say the rest of the afternoon was LONG. I left around 6:00, hoping to get some brownie points for coming in early and staying late since I won't be in tomorrow, and apparently many people from my group come in then (in Israel, weekends are Friday-Saturday, and for many, Friday is only half of a weekend-day. I guess my lab friends are part of "many") so I don't want to appear to be a total slacker. But I do work hard while I am there (so far)!

I got back to the dorm and chilled for a bit in the kitchen, as always. When people came in and cooked we had a brief collective facebook stalking session, then I had to get ready to go climbing.

So I was supposed to meet Nitzan at the front gate on the right. I stood there for about 5 minutes, holding climbing shoes and realizing I didn't know what this dude or his car looked like, until someone pulled up and rolled down the window. "Is one of you Nitzan?" I asked as I got in? The driver said yes! The other's name was Yaron. We got down to business: turns out they are both chemists, and Nitzan works on the floor above me. Then I say, "So do you two boulder or top rope?" And Nitzan says, "We lead." Oh goody. They said the gym had all three though, so it would be fine. Then the two of them taught me some important hebrew climbing words:

lamala = up

lamata = down

kach = take (a very important climbing word in leading meaning for the belayer to pick up the slack so you can rest. As Nitzan said, this word is usually pronounced "[frantically] KAAACHHHH")

We next went to pick up their friend Ran. He got at the car and met me, then asked, "How do you know each other?" And all of us simultaneously replied, "We don't."

When we got there, we prepared to pay 40 shekels each, but then I was informed that that night it was only 20 shekels, with a free beer! I love this country.

So we all began by top-roping, because there were no lead ropes available for the guys. After a half hour or so they got one, so we all just took turns, them leading a few and then belaying me on a top-roping route. As we hung out, I learned the colors and some other random words. Somewhere toward the middle of the night we claimed our free beer. We climbed until we were pumped, then went to boulder. There were no routes marked, so basically one person got on, and the other pointed with this long wooden dowel to the next hold to go to. The person climbing had to go to that hold, could use any feet, and preserve the order of their hands. It was great; we climbed until we were really pumped, then left.

On the way back Nitzan and I discovered that we have THE EXACT SAME taste in music. Let me name a few of his favorite bands: Andrew Bird (!!!), Ivy, Rilo Kiley, The Flaming Lips, Sufjan Stevens. I am going to make him a CD! And give it to him next time, because I definitely want to go back.

When I returned to the dorm, a bunch of people were watching The Golden Compass. A bunch of people were giggling at parts so I found myself filling in the omitted information, especially when the DVD skipped 5 minutes ahead. Afterwards we chilled in the kitchen (where else?) for a bit, then went to bed.

Enjoy pictures of the plums from yesterday, then climbing! The first two are the gym, then Ran belaying Nitzan, then Yaron climbing, then the caribeaner they gave us with the ATC (belay device). Note the scotch tape, which they assured us was for "marking purposes."