Day 75 - Drawn-out goodbyes

I woke up early and headed to Café Madaa, where I happily found Alissa and had a nice talk before going to the lab. Once there, I worked like a crazy person to finish processing and entering data from a few more images and adding the points to all my Sigma Plot files, then began cleaning up all my files so they’d be interpretable by a normal human being (a.k.a. one other than myself). By lunch I was only about halfway done, which depressed me as I had afternoon plans to head to Jerusalem with Jordan and Jonathan. I said goodbye to Erica as she left, then headed out to eat.

I was one of the first to arrive at San Martin for the real goodbye lunch, so started a movement by sitting at a very long table, hoping everyone would join. They did, in such numbers that naming them all would not only be pointless but also impossible, as I couldn’t even see everyone seated. Jordan sat near me and I told him Jonathan had texted me to back out of our journey, and that I would have to as well because I hadn’t yet found my professor, to whom I had to say goodbye before leaving. He was disappointed but understood, and decided to go anyway to pray for the last time at the western wall.

I was pretty bummed throughout lunch, and luckily Daniela spearheaded an effort to hang out with people later today. I had that to look forward to as I went back to work, where I photocopied my entire lab notebook and organized all my papers, then burned all of my TEM images and data files to a very large DVD for Professor Wagner. We kept missing each other when trying to say goodbye, though, so I was glad when he finally tracked me down in the photocopy room, shook my hand, and told me to write a draft of a paper. After this, there wasn’t much to do but turn in my keys and say goodbye to Noa, XiaoMeng, Patro, and Asaf. What a great group to work in, and a good building to be in. I couldn’t have asked for better.

It was about time, so I left, with all of my things, and met Daniela (successfully, this time!), Tamara, Rachel and Zvonimir for an afternoon coffee. Tamara had to leave after a bit to finish packing, but we lingered until the evening, then headed back to Clore. Everyone was chilling in the lobby, either doing nothing or making weekend plans for Eilat and Petra, and it was reluctantly that I headed downstairs to change and grab my climbing stuff. I did this slightly earlier than I needed so I could have plenty of time to say goodbye, especially to Clay and Tamara who were leaving tonight!

Finally I had to break away and go meet Nitzan, which I again did slightly earlier than I had to because I wanted to call Ben. I anticipated this being a rather short chat, but Nitzan was a bit late so it was much longer. We had a great talk, so I was in a happy mood by the time Nitzan arrived. I found, as soon as I got in the car, that Yaron had backed out, so it’d be us, and Giora and Tamar (a different Tamar, though, who they call by her last name to alleviate any confusion) would be meeting us there. It happened that they were both late as well, so there was no harm done.

For the second time, I was able to avoid the equipment fee by having all my own stuff. This was just one small positive thing at the start of a great night climbing. I mainly led, starting off by warming up on something I had already done. By the time I reached the top my arms were screaming, an alert besides my soreness of the past few days that I had really worked hard on Monday at Performance Rock. But somehow I still managed to feel great about my night.

I was the first of us to test a new blue route that became negative and had a huge feature, and Nitzan said it really showed how much I’ve been improving. He got farther than me, of course, but still wasn’t able to conquer it. Then we switched so I was with Tamar, and we top-roped quite a bit. There were plently of new, and as it turns out, challenging, routes for us to do, and I did some moves I don’t think I could have done before this summer. After a chunk of time, Giora had to leave, so we said goodbye, and soon after Tamar had to catch her bus. Nitzan then showed me a route he had told me about over the phone after the last time he was here: a blue one with overhanging steps. I didn’t get too far, but it was still fun to try. We cooled down and then went over to boulder.

Unlike other nights, I actually felt good about this bouldering session. At first Nitzan was suggesting ridiculous things, but this quickly changed into constructing routes which I could almost finish! Revolutionary. We had a good time and only stopped as the place was about to close.

We were both hungry as we approached Rehovot, so decided to go to the science park. Rapper, the Mexican place, was sadly closed, so we settled for Black Burger, a pretty decent burger place. I really amused Nitzan with the use of the Hebrew word for change, mostly because, I expect, he thinks I’m completely ignorant (when in fact that’s only 99.9% the case). After a bit we headed to his apartment, where I got the grand tour. He just moved in a couple of weeks ago, but it’s a really nice place. I looked at his photo albums from his trip to China as he burned me a ton of music, then he walked me back to campus.

Back in Clore, I had promised Jonathan to hang out, so I headed for his room. I found him slightly asleep, but woke him for a short chat which ended with me passing out mid-word. This I took as a good sign to go to sleep.

Zvonimir contemplating science 

(which is what the second word of the name of Cafe Madaa means)

Day 56 - Proof of my past as a Super Jew

Today I got a chance, for the first time in a while, to sleep in.  Especially after a late night followed by an early start and a very long day, this was a welcome change.  I woke up just before lunch time, and had a relaxed shower and remainder of the morning.  Once I emerged from my room I found Stephen, Dave, their friend Mish from MIT, Jonathan, and Joel sitting in the kitchen, munching on leftovers from the previous night's shabbat dinner.  I was supposed to meet Daniela for lunch, but since I figured it would be difficult to find an open place to eat on Saturday, and there was food 10 feet from my room, I invited Daniela to join us in Clore.  The chicken Stephen (and Dave?) made was delicious, and there was plenty of that as well as pita, hummus, and other stuff.

After the meal we all sang Birkat Hamazon (the grace after the meal), and Joel kept making me laugh by looking at me during the parts where the summer camp version would have us sing silly English phrases instead.  Afterwards, Jonathan told me that he finally believes that I was a relatively observant Jew at home (because I knew all the words, or something).  I guess I have Camp Ramah to thank for that!

After all that hooplah, I walked Daniela partially home, then grabbed some juice at a convenience store before heading to Perlman for the afternoon, to continue the work I had begun on slides for my presentation Monday.  I was surprised to find Noa AND Patro both in the office and lab, but it was nice not to be alone.  While at work, Tamar called me and invited me to go climbing with her tonight at the top roping place.  As I was excited to try my new harness, I happily accepted.

I left work around 7, and snacked on some hummus at Clore before changing and heading out.  Tamar picked me up right outside along Hertzl Street and we drove to Kiryat Ono together, where we met Giora and climbed!  There were lots of new routes up; we finished many, including an orange one, a green one, and a red one which I led.  I finished two routes I had made it to almost the end of before: a blue one which wasn't so bad but I had only tried at the end of last time, and the yellow one which has been my nemesis for almost a month.  I successfully finished both on lead!  That was exciting, but my new harness, while comfortable for belaying, cut slightly into my legs while I was hanging from the wall.  Hopefully I'm just wearing it wrong or something, but we'll see.

When I got back to Clore, I made two very important and pleasant phone calls: my parents, and Ben.  Finally, I chilled with everyone a bit before bed.  All in all, a relaxing day compared to many in the last week.