Day 53 - A harness and a bowling ball

When I got in to work this morning, I found the whole group in a stir helping Sari prepare for her PhD defense presentation. I listened to her rehearse a few times, while helping her with some grammar in her slides, for most of the morning, doing a bit of work on the side. At noon we all gathered in the conference room, and Sari did her official presentation. It went really well! She was able to present smoothly and answer the questions which came up along the way, and afterwards she disappeared, and I later learned she was interviewed slightly more privately by a panel and Professor Wagner.


Meanwhile, it was 12:45, and I was late for a lunch group I had sort of organized at Charlie's; we were rebelling against the daily migration to San Martin, a movement made less effective by the fact that I didn't have a chance to tell everyone I would be late and therefore made them wait for me. I felt really bad, but joined Tamara and Rachel when I got there. I ran into Daniela, Asaf, and Iris in line, and Iris sat with us for a bit before going back to work. I grabbed a sandwich and some delicious iced coffee so I could go through the line slightly faster, and was able to sit with them for most of their meal.


Back at the lab in the afternoon, I worked more to come up with some conclusions from my data processing so far. After much PowerPoint, I decided to call it a day. I went home and changed, then headed to Tel Aviv by train. I met Nitzan, who had been north of the city for the day for his reserve duty, in the train station. We set off walking for Performance Rock, where I hoped to purchase a harness. Somehow we got wrapped in our conversation, and it turned out that Nitzan thought I was leading us there, and I thought he was. We discovered this when we found ourselves nowhere near where we wanted to be after about a half hour, but after surveying the skyline re-aimed ourselves and found our destination relatively soon.


Nitzan sat and watched as I was fitted for a harness. I decided to go for the one without adjustable leg loops, because there's less to get caught and it's more comfortable (and I won't be doing too much rappelling or winter mountaineering, probably). My purchase made, we crossed the street and got some sushi for dinner. It's really fun how popular sushi is in this country; whether at a place in a mall food court or a corner restaurant in an industrial part of town (like where Performance Rock is located), it's actually pretty good! So we ate our sushi and discussed the meaning of our lives...sort of. The evening in general was full of interesting conversation topics, including but not limited to serving your country, relationship philosophies (and kittens...), Wilco, and other such varied subjects. After a walk back to the station, we got on the same train south. I got off at Rehovot, leaving Nitzan to go a bit further to get home to Yavne.


When I got back to Clore, I found Ari, Dan, Jordan, the other Dan, Jonathan, Clay, Daniela, Tanmay, and Zvonimir ready to go bowling. After getting some socks, I joined them and we left. We walked past the train station almost to the science park, and got into the elevator to go up to the bowling alley. The alley was strangely clean and pleasant-looking. It was decorated to look like an outdoor park, with benches, lamp posts and stucco pillars. We paid for shoes and a game, and got lanes next to each other. Daniela, who had only played a few times before in her life, somehow managed to break 100 and led our lane by a long shot. The other lane, including Tanmay, Clay, and Zvonimir, was much more serious and competitive. After the game, we headed home. The walk seemed incredibly long; I crashed pretty much as soon as we got there.


Here's the one picture I took today. Enjoy an interesting sight in Tel Aviv, on the long roundabout walk to Performance Rock: