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 74 - "Ezra's plunging our toilet!"

This morning I headed to the presentations far more relaxed now that my own was done. I went to grab some coffee and found myself joining Tess and Ester. Only Eszter ordered coffee, but there was some confusion and they prepared two, charging her for one only. My free coffee in hand, we left together.

The presentations today began with Tamara, and ended with Daniela. Almost everyone went slightly over, so we finished rather late. Everyone gathered outside the auditorium for an official group picture, which made me happy and sad at the same time. Here we were, bantering with each other after really getting to know one another, together, in a comfort zone that would soon dissolve as each of us headed home to our various corners of the earth. We would never, ever all find ourselves in the same place like this again.

The photographer snapped a few shots, then we all got up. After a bit of chatting and making plans for the evening, everyone went their separate ways. Jonathan, Daniela and I lingered a few moments longer, but at that point Noa and Sari, accompanied by her parents and children, came up the path. They had apparently been looking for me all day, and when I returned to the lab it became apparent why: they had planned a surprise get-together for me to say good bye to the entire group, but, being as I was at presentations all morning, I had failed to show up. I felt incredibly guilty about this, but the food and drinks were still there, as was most of the group, so we sat and chatted and made up for the lack of party in the morning. Erica, who was apparently the driving force for the celebration, had already left for the day, but I would thank her tomorrow for everything.

At around 3:15, I headed with Noa and her friend to Café Madaa for a late afternoon snack. Tali, Noa’s roommate, arrived just as we got down to an interesting conversation topic: creationism, and intelligent design, which evolved into religion and prayer in schools. This carried us far into the meal and on into my next date, which also happened to be at Café Madaa: cake with Rachel, Lisa, and Daniela. Daniela didn’t show up, which was puzzling, but I couldn’t call her because I had left my phone in the lab, and consequently didn’t know if she was calling me. We ate our cake and Rachel told a very entertaining story about the one time they let a boy in their apartment (her roommates and she are relatively religious): to unclog the toilet so they wouldn’t be late to the ballet. It was an amusing tale, the upshot of which in my mind is the following: late to the ballet + poo in the toilet = legitimate emergency according to Judaism.

When we left the café, we found Daniela had been waiting for us somewhere else. This made me incredibly sad; not only had she been waiting and not met us, but she had missed delicious cake! Only our plans for a Tim Tam party later managed to make me feel even marginally better about this. We set off towards Perlman, where I left the other three to go grab my stuff and say some preliminary goodbyes. I also opened a card signed by everyone in the lab, which was incredibly sweet, and discovered they had gotten me a gift as well: a Weizmann tee shirt and mug. I was delighted as I finally managed to break free and head towards the Garden of Science, where our KKISS goodbye tour and dinner were about to begin.

I caught up with Rachel, Daniela and Lisa taking pictures near Jubilee Square, and was just in time to be a part of an awesome one (which I can’t share because it’s not on my camera, but I am sure Rachel and/or Lisa will put it on facebook). Soon we were at the Garden of Science, which turns out to be a big park with science-like installations that are fun not only for small children but dorky college kids. We split into two groups to take simultaneous tours, and got to play with gravity, sound, water, light, and wind, among other things. I can’t explain much better than that, so hopefully the pictures below will suffice.

After the tour we had a chance to play with the exhibits on our own, then all headed up to the cafeteria where a dinner buffet was laid out for us. After eating the meal and about five different types of desserts Greta kept bringing us, she thanked us all for coming this summer and presented each of us with a backpack with the Weizmann logo and the name of the summer program printed on it. We had a ball taking a “backpack picture,” and practically had to force ourselves to leave after entering the garden more than three hours previously.

Back at Clore, everyone temporarily went their separate ways. I recruited Jonathan, Clay and Zvonimir to help me buy tasty beverages for the evening of fun ahead, and we all kicked in and got a crate containing a mixture of different beers. As we returned and set it on the table outside the music room, we found everyone breaking out either their personal stashes or new purchases for the occasion, and accrued quite a selection within minutes.  Asaf helped us set everything up.  Once we decided it was time for the party to start, we all grabbed drinks and sat down in the lobby to chat.

Since the party wasn’t yet hopping, Rachel and I decided it was prime Tim Tam time. I called Lisa, Daniela and Tamara down to the kitchen to join us. Rachel was heating the chocolate milk in the microwave as I grabbed the cookies from their safe, bug-free spot in the refrigerator. I also grabbed a few tee-shirts for us all to put on so as not to soil ourselves. Dan, Asaf, and Oren all passed through as this was going on, wondering what we were up to, and I demonstrated first, to explain.

I took a Tim Tam and bit off opposite corners. The cookie is chocolate-coated, and filled with a porous, crunchy substance. I dipped one end in the hot chocolate and used the cookie as a straw, and as soon as it filled, shoved the entire thing in my mouth to discover hot, melted chocolaty goodness. My preliminary, mildly successful trial was duplicated and improved upon by all of us girls, and even Oren tried, but only repeated it to see if he could actually see what was happening in side the cookie. By the time the box was gone, we were giggly and filled with chocolate, and I had burned my lip, but it was an amazing experience.

At around this time Nitzan showed up. He didn’t seem to surprised at our experiment, asking how else one was supposed to eat Tim Tams. As the gathering broke up, Nitzan and I went to my room to grab my computer, and then had a great chat where I showed him Penn Band pictures and he called me a dork, and then I showed him climbing pictures, making him insanely jealous, as payback. At some point he decided he was hungry, so I accompanied him to a nearby pizza place for a bit. Our conversation carried us through the meal and back to Clore, where he left me at the door and went home. I re-entered and joined the party in earnest, which wasn’t hard because it had really gotten going by this time. Large groups of people sat and stood all over the lobby and spilled out onto the lawn outside. I was very pleased, but a bit sad because I had to start saying some goodbyes.

After this painful procedure, during which I negated the farewells by setting a date for San Martin at 12:30 tomorrow and making people promise to be there, I headed out to Hertzl Bar where a few people were waiting. First I stopped back at the store to return the crate, then I crossed the street to sit at an outside table and chat with Iris, Clay, Tanmay and Alex. I was far away from everyone because of the table, though, so soon headed upstairs and found Dan H., Ari, Jordan and Zvonimir having a great time. I ordered a milkshake and sunk into the conversation, which wasn’t very linear but covered many topics. Dan’s favorite waitress brought us free shots at one point, with which we all made random toasts, and at another, Jonathan joined the group and we really got going. It was a nice way to spend the last night out.

At the Garden of Science:

Standing on a large spring...

Bubbles in oil

An instrument used by Tibetan monks

Jonathan at the other end of a big "phone"

Bubbles; or, proof of thermodynamics

The breeze makes each pipe sound different

Alissa showing that distance from the center affects rotation speed

Things to note in this picture: Oren, to the left, 

with a gyroscope, and Eszter's facial expression

Ari simulating a moonwalk

Rachel flying!

Lisa doing the same

Zvonimir!

Tamara says hi

Greta got us backpacks!

...so we modeled them

Zvonimir and our party selection

The super-secret Tim Tam eating time:

Tamara and Rachel

Lisa and Daniela...

Oren giving it a go

Simultaneous Tim Tam eating

The Tim Tam Gang...

...plus Oren

Day 73 - Quit while you're ahead!

The big day. I stopped by Café Madaa and got iced coffee to go, then headed straight to Schmidt Auditorium, where we’d be hearing each other’s presentations most of the day.

Maria Magdalena went first. I was second to last, after two breaks. When I stood up, we were actually 4 minutes ahead of schedule, but by the time I sat down, we were 5 minutes behind. I spoke a bit too long, but I think it went well, and I got lots of questions, which was really nice: among others, Ari asked about the difference in size for functionalized tubes, and Tanmay asked about the TEM. Professor Wagner and practically the whole group (Erica, XiaoMeng, and Patro) showed up, as well as Asaf and Nitzan! This was nice but rather embarrassing, especially when my whole fan club got up to leave just as I finished, leaving the hall much emptier than before.

Maciej finished up the day with his presentation on the subject of particle physics, and spoke really well though I couldn’t get everything he was saying. I headed back to work for a few hours after we concluded for the day, taking a break to meet Lisa and get some delicious chocolate cake at Café Madaa before resuming until around 6:30.

At 7, Tamara had plans to find some kosher sushi along Hertzl, so we set off once our group, consisting of Rachel, Lisa, Dan, Jordan, and Joel, had all arrived and put their stuff in their rooms. Unfortunately, we knew Tuk Tuk to be not kosher, and SameSame, which had a kosher marking on their sign, had it covered up and told Tamara something confusing involving their vegetables, or something, and that they would be kosher next week. We moved on to Buzzi, where our luck was worse: there was nothing kosher about it.

After walking a bit farther along Hertzl seeking a meet place (because Joel is lactose intolerant), we finally turned back and settled for our favorite meat sandwich place about two blocks from Clore. Not as hungry, I decided to get falafel next door, and Lisa joined me. This was a good decision not only because the pitas are of a less gargantuan size, but we weren’t part of a huge group and so got our food and ate it before many of the other group had even completed ordering. We sat and chilled until everyone had gotten their food and eaten, though, at which point Lisa and I headed back to Clore.

I grabbed some things I needed to return at the mall before heading out again. We ran into Rachel coming towards us as part of the rest of the group returning, but she joined us for the walk. The first stop was Tartufo, because Lisa had yet to partake of ice cream at all in Israel, and considered herself a snob, a purist and a traditionalist at once. She ended up getting chocolate orange, but not before she and I tried lots of flavors and Rachel tried a few of the sorbets (she had had meat too recently). We sat for a bit to allow Lisa to eat, then continued down Hertzl towards the mall. On the way, we decided on a whim to see if the grocery store had Tim Tams, and, lo and behold, it miraculously did! I bought two boxes.

As we left, we passed a lottery booth. Rachel had told me earlier this morning of her stellar 5-shekel victory, so with Rachel and Lisa’s help, I purchased a scratch-off ticket for 5 shekels. The man asked me my astrological sign and seemed pleased with my answer, and I scratched it and happened to win 10 shekels! I decided to quit while I was ahead (after all, 5 shekels isn’t too shabby), and we continued along our way.

At the mall, I made the necessary return, which was complicated because I also wanted to have them retroactively apply my (new) membership discount, but it eventually was a success, so we left. Near campus once more, we stopped in the small grocery to get juice, for now, and chocolate milk, for the Tim Tam adventure. I used my newly won lottery money to buy myself a carton of chocolate milk in celebration, and we sipped as we crossed the street and entered Clore.

The three of us hung out a bit more in the basement kitchen, where we were joined by Jordan and Jonathan, the latter of whom had the wacky idea to try to flip, with one finger and in one motion, a chair from upside-down on the table to the floor so he could sit on it. Obviously this was a failure, and was very noisy, so he soon gave up and contented to make himself a sandwich. He put it away when he heard of my plans for ice cream with Tamar later, and decided to tag along.

When Tamar texted me that she was close by, we left, and met her there. I got the chocolate orange, which is really to die for, and snickers, while Tamar stuck with her favorite flavors. This would be our last ice cream date, so we sat and chatted for as long as we could, but Tamar had to be up early to baby-sit her cousin and eventually we had to call it a night. We said goodbye and wished each other luck on our travels (she’s headed to Spain next week, semi-permanently), then Jonathan and I headed back to Clore.

We found Jordan and Joel chilling in the lobby, and sat to join them. The main discussion topic was a minority, but not rare, tendency to mislabel Jonathan’s orientation, and a dissection of Jonathan’s every aspect resulted, trying to identify the source of the confusion. The upshot: it isn’t any one thing. Jordan eventually left the discussion in favor of bed, but Joel, Jonathan and I kept at this until far too late, when we all followed suit.

Presentations, Day 1

Maria Magdalena: "Low Frequency Vibrations of Trans-Stilbene"

Onur: "Least Concave Utility Functions"

Anna: "Costly Nash Paths"

Andrey: "False Discovery Rate in Case of Small Number of False Hypotheses"

Jessica: "The Mechanisms of the Pro-Migratory Function of Synaptojanin-2 and its Role in Actin Rearrangement and Extracellular Membrane Remodeling during Invasion"

Oren: "Modeling Magnetization Transfer NMR of Semi-Solid Biological Tissues under Magic Angle Spinning"

Ivonne: "Interaction of Pluoronic Blocks Copolymers with Single Wall Nanotubes Observed by Spin Probe EPR"

Marina: "Reversible Charge Separation Followed Exciplex Formation"

Erin: "Characterization of a Naturally Occurring Single Gene Mutation in Barley and the Role of Silicon"

Jonathan: "Evolution of Transcription Factor Binding Sites"

Joel: "An Investigation of Anisotropic Stochastic Dynamics: Mean First Passage Time for a Random Rod to Rotate in a Confined Domain"

Daniel: "Transcriptional Regulation of the Oncogene miR-373 by Mutant Forms of p53"

Rachel: "The Role of BDNF in Antidepressant Treatments"

Me: "Determination of the Thickness of Graphitic Planes in Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes using Transmission Electron Microscopy"

Maciej: "Calculation of the Feed-Downs to the Meson Transverse Momentum Spectra Measured in PHENIX Experiment at RHIC, BNL"

Oren and his magic!

Joel speaking about how a random walk is similar to being drunk, 

something he enjoys as much as exploring fundamental scientific principles

Unfortunately, I missed the opportunity to snap photos of Jonathan and his worms 

(Brigsey, Gramps, and the other one, I think...), which were beautifully drawn

Day 66 - Panic! at the office

I grabbed a muffin on the way to work this morning, but once I got there I realized that the flash drive where all of my work and documents are located wasn't in my backpack. I searched slightly frantically for it, then decided (/hoped) it was in my room somewhere, and walked home. I randomly ran into Asaf on the path to Clore, and we chatted briefly before I went on to my room. I looked all over my desk and still couldn't find it, which was awful. Luckily I peered underneath my desk chair, where it was. Phew.

I headed back to the lab and worked on my presentation all morning. Tamara and I met at Charlie's for lunch, where Lisa was almost done eating but stuck around to chat. I had chocolate milk with my meal, for the third time in Lisa's presence (and third total). Back at Perlman, I continued working for a couple more hours, then headed to the Physics Building for another talk.

The speaker was a professor in physics, and his presentation was titled "Massive Black Holes." It started out by being very interesting, but all the blinds were drawn and I had forgotten to take my narcolepsy medication, and together these factors led to a disaster which resulted in my not really knowing anything further about this talk. Daniela, who sat next to me, told me it wasn't too noticeable, and that she would have woken me if I had snored too loudly. I was terribly embarrassed anyway. On the walk back, though, we made plans to eat dinner the next day.

At work afterwards, Noa had found a really old sonicator in a corner of our lab, so we decided to make some more samples. I had to take some pictures of it, though, so I also took some other lab shots (see below). At around this time, Mom called to tell me they were back on campus for the evening. I told them to stop by Perlman, as they were about to walk by. They came up to the fourth floor. Between the elevators and the lab, Professor Wagner and XiaoMeng were chatting, so I introduced the fam to the Professor. I then gave them the three-minute tour of the office and lab, introduced them to Noa and Patro, and took them down one floor to meet Asaf.

Next we headed to the stairwell, where I showed them the Foucault's Pendulum as we headed up to the fifth floor. I made Nitzan come out and meet them, where there was an awkward moment where Nitzan told my mom he was kidding with all his jokes about not holding onto the rope when we climb, and my mom's blank and slightly confused face revealed I had not been telling her anything about these jokes. After this amusing occurrence, they left Perlman so I could do some more work before we met for dinner.

I had told my family we would have some of my friends as guests for dinner, but didn't know who that would be yet. Once I made it back to Clore, I ran into Jonathan, and asked him to come along with Stephen (who wasn't around, but who I called). After about a half hour, my family approached Clore, Stephen had returned to Clore and dropped off his stuff, and he, Jonathan and I headed up to the lobby. We all met on the lawn and started walking toward Tuk Tuk, the sushi/Japanese restaurant near the science park.

Jonathan and Stephen introduced themselves and such on the way. My dad complained mildly as we walked, because the science park is sort of far from campus. Finally we made it to the restaurant, where we figured out the seating arrangements and surveyed the menu. I ordered a sweet potato "photomaki" (futo maki) and a rainbow roll thingie, while my family also ordered sushi and Jonathan and Stephen ordered cooked things and/or vegetarian rolls. I think it was a great meal: the food was good and my "roommates" seemed to get along with my family. Jonathan is in applied math, so he and my dad talked about that stuff, while Stephen and my brother completely agree in their hatred of Million Dollar Baby. The latter relates to the following conversation:

Stephen: I used to be a real movie buff. I would watch all of the Academy Award winners, and everything...

Me: Andrew, you and Stephen can really agree on something.

Andrew: Is it that Million Dollar Baby is a terrible movie, and should not have won Best Film, and that you stopped watching the Oscars after 2004?

Stephen: YES! How did you know that?

So it was a good meal. We were off to our normal Goldman family roll, and our guests didn't seem to mind. When we headed back to Clore, pretty much everyone was in the lobby, so I was able to have my parents meet some new people, including Jordan, Lisa, Joel, Tamara, and Ari! We sat and chilled, then decided to try the other ice cream place, Tartufo. We all had more basic flavors tonight, before heading back to Clore. Andrew left with my parents this time, so I joined those chilling in the lobby registering for the GREs together, namely Ari, Tamara and Stephen. The registration session eventually degenerated into Ari and me watching a few episodes of The Office before I headed to bed.

Today's pictures feature Perlman:

Noa hard at work breaking ice...

...for the sonicator! It used to be white. I know because I found it online (they still sell it!)

Patro dipping silicon, held in clothespins, into solution

Day 65 - Balloons. Candles. Singing. Pita. Which one is not like the others?

This morning at Cafe Madaa was great not only because of the delicious iced coffee or Tanmay's company, but because Ben called and we had a great chat!  After about a half hour he had to go and I had to go to work, but it was a nice way to start the day.

At work I learned and performed some statistics on my data.  It doesn't sound exciting, but may very well lead to the most measurable and significant results I'll have this summer, so it's a big deal.  Just after noon, I went to San Martin to pick up the keys for my parents' and brother's rooms there, dropped them back off in my bag at the lab, and went down to the square in front of Perlman to meet Dan and Jordan.  

We walked in the practically blistering heat to Rapper, the mexican place in the science park, for lunch.  Dan and I ordered the same chicken and pineapple burritos as last time; Jordan got a steak one.  This time I made sure to order us corn chips, which turned out to be a fabulous decision.  I really love tortilla chips, and only upon eating them did I realize that while hummus and pita is wonderful, I really miss just chips and salsa.  Dan put into words the problem with the burritos even better than last time: they're wraps with burrito ingredients and heating.  Fine, but odd.

After the just-as-painfully-hot walk back to campus, I did some more calculations and presentation work before making the decision to go to the lecture for the afternoon.  It turned out to be Professor Lia Addadi, a professor and scientist in structural biology here who also happens to be the dean of the Feinberg Graduate School, the educational arm of the Weizmann Institute.  Instead of talking to us about her research, she introduced us to the graduate school, giving us information about the school's history, the programs, and how to apply.  While this was nice information to have, it was presented slowly, and it might have been easier for us to read in a pamphlet, so we could actually hear about her research (which from her homepage sounds interesting!) 

About as the lecture was ending, I received a cell phone call which turned out to be from my family!  They had just landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, and were on their way to Rehovot!  So I went back to work and did some stuff, but was very excited so didn't really focus very well.  They arrived about an hour later, so I met them at the gate and got in their cab, so I could direct the driver to San Martin with their luggage.  We unloaded it and brought it up to the guesthouse.  I pulled their keys out and we opened their rooms, which turned out to be not bad!  My dad and brother wanted to shower, though, and the water was the customary brown/yellow for a bit.  Just as I finished telling my dad to run it for a bit, my brother called my parents' room with the same comment, which was amusing.  I gave him the same response, of course.

My mom and I headed to Clore so I could change and she could get the tour.  I showed her around a bit and introduced her to the people in the lobby, then showed her my room.  Zvonimir was randomly wandering the halls looking for Ari, so as my mom had specially requested to meet him, I made the introduction happen.  Soon Andrew and Dad made it to Clore, and we walked through the lobby and out to Hertzl Street, towards our dinner destination: the four-flavor falafel.  This is exactly how it sounds, and the consensus was my previous determination: it is delicious!  Everyone had Fanta, too, which is so much better in foreign countries.  We sat for a bit to digest and discuss politics, and Rehovot, before walking down towards the mall to explore a bit, and finally heading back towards Clore.  I gave Andrew and Dad the complete Clore tour, which even Mom hadn't gotten all of.  There was still no one in the lobby for them to meet, though, so we headed back out for ice cream.

As we approached, we still hadn't decided whether to go to Benny's or Tartufo.  But when we ran into Clay on the way back from Benny's, I decided we should go for it.  We all got yummy candy flavors, like Ferrero Rocher, and sat to enjoy it.  When we got back to Clore, Andrew decided to stick around while the rents headed back to San Martin.  We sat to chat, and I called Asaf and Lisa and suggested that they come down and meet Andrew.  Soon the group had grown to include Dan, Jordan, and others.  We sat talking for a bit, but Andrew left after a bit to sleep off the jetlag.

Jonathan surfaced around this time.  The festivities for his birthday were supposed to include Hertzl Bar, so soon a large group headed out.  On the way down the steps and across the street, Jordan managed to help me light the birthday candles I had stuck into a pita, while Jodi distracted Jonathan.  As soon as we reached the other side, by which time the surprise had been blown, we all burst into the birthday song.  Jonathan appeared entertained by the replacement of cake with a pita, but what can I say; you expect me to remember not only to seek out birthday candles (which turns out to be no mean task over here) AND a cake?  

It turned out that 11-shekel night at Herzl was a popular occasion, so we put our name down and grabbed some beverage to chill and wait.  A group went into La Morse, the Irish pub, to pass the time, while some others of us hung out in a nearby square.  At one point, Jonathan was talking with Odelia, a girl we'd met on the train from Tel Aviv back to Rehovot a few weeks back, on the phone.  She mentioned that she'd come out and join us, which seemed odd because she is relatively religious.  But then a cab pulled up to the bar holding a card and balloons out the window.  There was no one in it.  She had sent Jonathan balloons!  How cute is that?

Dan, meanwhile, had been chatting with the waitresses at Hertzl and managed to get us a large table area on the second floor.  We rounded everyone up and headed there.  All seated, the company consisted of Maciej, Ran, Tali, Clay, Tanmay, Dan S., Dan H., Jonathan, me, Joel, Jordan, Zvonimir, Lisa, and Jared (Alissa departed when the group moved from La Morse).  We all ordered 11-shekel beers, mostly Goldstar, and settled in for the evening.  As we got sillier, and the hours, the talk became much more interesting; let's just leave it at that.

By a ridiculous hour, it was just me, Joel, Jonathan, Ran and Tali remaining.  Ran, Tali and I decided to call it a night.  I returned to Clore and tidied my room enough to get into bed.

Day 64 - This is a test.

Today it was back to work, for my second-to-last week. It's so sad that I'm leaving soon enough to count down like this. I stopped in at Cafe Madaa for some coffee and a chat with Tanmay, then headed to the lab, grab some TEM samples, and turned right back around and left again for the TEM class. I ran into Talmon walking that way as well, so we chatted briefly until we reached the microscopy building. I headed downstairs to the microscope, and he joined me in a few minutes, followed soon after by Patro.

< .science >

Within about a minute it was evident that today would be a sort of extended test. Talmon asked me if I had brought any samples we could use, then asked Patro to align the beam and ready the microscope for a sample. Patro had somehow not taken notes on this part of the procedure, though, so struggled a bit and needed some help from Talmon as to where to start. We then took a short break before it was my turn to try. I was able to do the various direct alignments, but needed to ask a question or two in order to correct the stigmatism of the beam.

After this, we insterted a sample and finished the alignment, and did some more review of the computer menus and functions before learning a bit about the CCD camera, the camera software, and how to capture, save, and batch convert the images. Finally, we learned how to mount samples in the sample holder and insert (and remove) the holder into the compustage. Talmon made us each practice this a few times, as it's the only real part of the procedure where you can damage the microscope.

< / science >

We finished in time for me to head back to Perlman with Patro to drop off my stuff before lunch. This was a busy five minutes, though, due to me running into Asaf and Nitzan one after the other and then receiving two almost simultaneous calls from Dan and Tamara about lunch. I met Dan and we walked to Charlie's to meet Tamara. We sat inside to eat, and were joined soon by Jordan, but later by Rachel.

During the afternoon I finally began to use my new and last batch of data to update my statistics and plots, and began updating my presentation with these edits. I lost track of time during all this and didn't leave work until rather late. When I got back to Clore, Dan proposed an outing to satiate his sushi craving. I had to eventually end up at the mall, so we walked along Hertzl in that direction. 

Onur had mentioned "Same Same," the first place we encountered, but it was empty and all the people behind the counter looked Israeli, so Dan exercised his veto power and we moved on. The next place, "Buzzi," looked more appealing. It was a very small restaurant, basically a bar with two waiters and a Japanese sushi chef, and they didn't have any menus in English. Dan and the waitress talked a bit about the options, and we ended up ordering some sweet potato roll and a "photomaki" roll we designed ourselves: spicy tuna with green onion and tempura flakes. This latter choice ended up being so delicious that we got another.

Back outside on Hertzl street, Dan and I parted ways. I walked the rest of the way to the mall and headed straight downstairs to where I had bought my outlet adapter when I got here, to pick up a couple for my parents. I then wandered a bit more, picking up a few more tank tops from the same place I had gotten them in Tel Aviv at Azrieli, before getting a call from Tamar. We made plans to meet, not only so she could return my harness to me but also so we could eat ice cream.

As I walked back towards Clore and our meeting place, I called my parents to see what was up. They were in the car on the way to New York to catch their flight to Israel! We chatted briefly about logistics and such, then I let them go to focus their full attention on the New Jersey Turnpike. Soon I arrived at Tartufo, Tamar's ice cream shop of choice, and within a few minutes she had joined me.

We tried many of the flavors before making our final decisions, and sat to enjoy. Tamar had brought me my harness back, as well as a few tee shirts (with Hebrew logos and stuff) that she was getting rid of before moving to Spain. Yay tee shirts! As we ate we discussed important and non-important things, like significant others, climbing, pets, and other topics. Joel had walked by earlier and grabbed falafel to go, and some of Tamar's friends had picked up some ice cream and sat for a bit before heading to dinenr down the street, but when Stephen and Dan S. randomly turned up, they got sandwiches (the falafel had just closed) and sat with us. The conversation then turned to topics like Hebrew, dogs, and Holocaust jokes. Eventually Tamar had to go home, which turned out to be a good cue for us all to head out. I said goodbye to her and then joined the boys for the walk back to Clore.

Once there, the party materialized in Stephen's room. Both Dans, Jordan, Oren, and I sat around, some of us on our computers, talking, and in my case blogging. Jonathan got home eventually and joined us, and as it got late, the room gradually emptied. I was the last to leave, and for some reason Jonathan and I continued our chat in the hallway. He tried on my new 30-shekel aviators, as he's contemplating new sunglasses, and munched (in a not-so-visually-pelasing way) on sabres as we discussed his gradual comeback in the tagging war on this blog. After a bit we said goodnight and I crashed.

For your photographic entertainment, here's Jonathan trying the aviators and holding the fruit:

Day 58 - Meeting my fans!

Today was fantastic.

I got in to work around 8:20, made sure my slides opened on one of the work computers, then had Erica get me the laptop our group uses for presentations. I set it up in the conference room, turned on the projector, and had everything ready to go by 8:40. No one else was there yet, though, so I decided to take a proactive question-preventing step, and drew a key diagram on the whiteboard next to the screen so people would have a reference up for the entire presentation.

A little bit before 9 (I was supposed to begin at 8:45), Professor Wagner entered. He introduced me briefly, and I began. I think it went pretty well! I talked for about an hour, and people asked me questions as I went along. By the time I was finsihed and got to my "Questions" slide, people seemed satisfied. Overall, I think the presentation was a success. It forced me to justify my decisions, and people's questions and suggestions gave me a lot more to do. I was glad I had finished this in the morning, because I still had most of the day ahead of me. As soon as I had put away the laptop and everything, I sat down to write notes about all the feedback I'd gotten and plan my next steps. Between Sari having come in today to see me present, and a visit from Asaf at one point, it was a fun and conversation-filled morning in the office.

Sari and Noa asked me to join them for lunch at Stone, which turned out to be an amazing decision for a reason I will share in a moment. First, though, Noa's boyfriend Danny met us there, which was really cool. He works in security on campus now, which makes Noa happy because she can see him all the time and he can give her a ride home on his scooter. So he found us in line for food. I got a sweet potato quiche, which was just as delicious as it sounds. But back to the awesomeness. I was the first in the line, so I was first to choose a table and set my tray down. As I do so, I look up to see Nissim (the Clore house manager) standing by the cafeteria door, holding a box. He looks at me and beckons me. When I'm in conversation range, he goes, "Can you read English? I can't quite tell who this package is for." He has a strange sense of humor; he really appreciated it once when I bought two laundry coins (for 7 shekels each) all with half-shekel coins.

The bottom line: my chalk bag and bathing suits arrived! YAY!

Lunch was pleasant and delicious, and my good mood carried me entirely through the afternoon. Besides working, which included making some TEM samples of nanotubes Noa would like me to examine for her, things of note included a conversation about cakes, during which Sari discussed a cinammon cake at a Hungarian place in Tel Aviv which is supposedly the best thing she's ever tasted. It's also unique because they cook it around a rod, so it's basically tubular. Sari of course compared it to a nanotube and began describing it with the corrresponding vocabulary. I love scienists.

Before leaving Perlman, I decided to go upone floor to visit Nitzan and show him my chalk bag, because I have been talking about it for a while. He seemed only sort of impressed, but whatever. After some banter, I said something that was either too fast or too ridiculous for him to catch completely, so he says to his office mate, "Sometimes it's hard to understand her, because she doesn't speak English; she speaks American." And the resulting dialogue must be recounted in its entirety (with as much accuracy as I can muster):

Him: "Oh, it's ok, I went to high school in America for a year, so I can understand American."
Me: "Oh, whereabouts?"
Him: "Maryland."
Me: "Oh, where???"
Him: "Rockville. No, Bethesda."

Ok, there's only one Montgomery County high school which one would think of as possibly being in Rockville when it's really in Bethesda.

Me: "Which one?!"
Him: "Walter Johnson."

At this point I am in disbelief. I thought this was some sort of elaborate hoax until we started discussing Mr. Whipple, whom he credits partially for his choice of science as a career path, and Mr. Kearns (he plays the oboe). He was at WJ before I was, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1999, but still...how ridiculously amazing is this? I showed him the WJ website and some of the current construction, and we reminisced about lunchtime and the WJ math department and other such topics. I think Nitzan watched with amusement, but I wasn't really paying attention so I am not sure.

After 40 minutes I was able to tear myself away from the conversation, but it was difficult. I went to the grocery store and grabbed some necessities, then headed back to Clore. Zvonimir, Clay, and Tanmay were on their way out to Cafe Madaa, and I told them I'd join them soon after putting my food in the fridge. Downstairs, I ran into Rachel and invited her to come as well. First, though, I called and chatted briefly with Ben, until I had to go eat and he had to go open the door for the cable guy. Then Rachel and I headed to Madaa, where we found Clay and Tanmay only drinking coffee, and Zvonimir almost finished. We ordered, and by the time our food came we were alone at the table. This was not a problem: we could discuss Penn things (like the Chemistry department, or graduation) without excluding others! It was a good meal.

Back at Clore, I ran into Jonathan about to leave with Doron to see an outdoor screening of The Big Lebowski at the Hebrew University campus down the street. I was deciding whether or not to join them when who appeared in the hallway but Joel and his whole family! Stephen and Jordan also turned up. I don't know if this is emphasized enough, but I love it when people read my blog, and Joel's mom is a big fan of this publication. She said, after shaking my hand, "It's great to meet the face behind the words," to which I replied, "And it's always great to meet the fans!" We all hung out in the hall talking for a while, until we had to leave for the movie and others had to make other engagements (like the train to Tel Aviv).

Jonathan, Doron and I walked down the street and entered the Hebrew U campus through the side gate, from which we could see the big screen. Jonathan was worried about missing the first half hour of the movie, but I told him all he had missed was that they peed on his rug, and that rug really tied the room together. Once we sat down, it became apparent that he had also missed that someone had been kidnapped. But that was basically it, and, as Jonathan confirmed after it was over, it's not like having any more information would have helped the movie make more sense.

We had been joined mid-movie by both Lisa and Joel, and the five of us headed into the Kukula (the campus bar) after the movie was over to grab some drinks. I was pretty tired, though, so I only stayed there for about another half hour. Joel, Lisa, and Doron decided to head back to Clore with me. We found the usual suspects at the usual Monday night activities (sipping beer and playing the guitar) in the music room in the Clore lobby when we returned. Doron's arrival was celebrated; he is a great musician who can play almost anything he hears on the piano, so he instantly became the party hit. An hour of sing-alongs ensued, after which most people decided to take the party to Hertzl Bar for the remainder of the evening. Personally, I thought the evening was over, as my eyelids were drooping, so I headed to bed.

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.

Day 55 - Asaf was right! (or alternatively, the best and most jam-packed road trip ever!)

{Readers beware: this post will set a record for most pictures of any single post for this blog. If it loads slowly, that is why. Dial-up users: there is no hope for you...turn back now}

Stephen, Dave, Itamar and I woke up before 6 am today, and after working out the sharing of the shower and getting dressed and packed, left the apartment and got into the car for what promised to be an amazing roadtrip.

Once we got on our way, I of course fell asleep. I think this was allowed, or maybe even intended, because Stephen did it too. Itamar kindly woke us at our first stop: a kibbutz called Lohamei Hagetaot, where we got out to see a Roman aqueduct. After some pictures we explored the kibbutz a bit on foot, and bought some breakfast food at a small grocery store before getting back in the car.

As we progressed farther and farther north, the scenery got more and more unbelievable. Itamar had served some of his time in the army at a base near the border with Lebanon, and therefore was very familiar with the region's roads and history. He warned us whenever we were about to embark upon a particularly beautiful piece of road, and was able to answer all of Stephen's questions about the locals: what they do, what the towns are like, etc. Stephen was really enamored with the landscape and area in general.

The next stop occurred after Itamar navigated us through the dirt roads of a small national park near the border with Lebanon. We got out of the car to find an amazingly beautiful overlook, and across the gaping ravine stood the ruins of a fort used by Crusaders, creatively named Montfort. Itamar is very knowledgeable about this area, and told us a bit about the history of the structure. On the way back out of the park, we stoppped a few times to take pictures, then were back on our way.

Since we coulnd't really go much farther north (due to fences and, you know, national borders), we were now headed South. Next was what I think is Itamar's favorite of the stops: Bar Am. A national park, it contains the ruins of a very old stone synagogue, and also the ruins of a village, where fruit orchards had long since been abandoned. Most of the fruit wasn't ripe, but we found fig trees and picked some pomegranates which will hopefully ripen on our windowsills in about a month. The park was filled with fragments of old stone walls, and occasionally a peek through the trees rewarded you with an amazing view of the countryside.

Being hungry once more by the time we got back onto the road, we stopped in a town called Jish (which was pretty Arab-looking) for lunch. Once we got back in the car after this, we were in a slight hurry. Dave started driving in a slightly less leisurely manner, and when we made stops to take pictures, we got out of the car less and less. We still had to make it back to Givat Shmuel to grab our stuff and the food, and then get to Rehovot before shabbat, so our schedule was tight.

The roads in the Golan were straight and empty, so Dave was able to make up for some time. We zoomed past abandoned tanks and ruins of Syrian bases amid the golden-brown grass. Dave slowed slightly as we passed the Sea of Galilee, and we made our last stop soon after, at the Quneitra overlook. Itamar had been showing us where we were on the map all along, and continued at this stop. Using my camera's zoom lens, we were able to identify a few amazing things from this vista: a suburb of Damascus in the distance, a semi-permanent UN camp, the ruins of a relatively modern town among the trees nearby, and some windmills (for power) atop a distant hill. Itamar imparted some more knowledge about the location before we got back into the car. He also pointed out two nearby hills, one of which is home to an Israeli base and one a Syrian one.

After a bit more driving, including Hamat Gader, a gorgeous downhill drive and view, we reached a checkpoint: the entrance to the West Bank. No other cars were around. Dave was asked to show his ID but was given no trouble, and soon we were inside. The lanscape was different than even slightly north: it was desert. We passed one or two settlements, which were like oases of white walls and green trees in a sea of sand. A few donkeys could be observed along the deserted road, and once we passed a herd of sheep, but other than that all we had to keep us company was an endless expanse of dunes, dotted with low bushes, and the narrow road stretching out like a gray ribbon in front of us.

A few things to note about the West Bank portion of our drive. One, Stephen, using my phone, was able to get perfect cell reception to call someone about shabbat plans. Two, an interesting sign, reproduced below, revealed to us that Israelis have less-than-unlimited rights and access in the region. It came at an interesting point in our journey, because at the three-way intersection where we stopped to see whether to go right or left, it stood to our right, by a checkpoint, and told us explicitly we weren't allowed past it. At about the same time as Itamar concluded we needed to go left based on the map, I concluded that we needed to go left based on the law (apparently). And three, while we had no trouble exiting (except that Dave volunteered information about our destination which wasn't requested and led the soldier to believe he was asking for directions), the driver of the car next to us was asked to pull over and get out.

Past the checkpoint, Dave was relatively familiar with the roads because he worked nearby, so we flew along towards Tel Aviv. We could see the sea in the distance, tinged pink. Soon thereafter we reached Givat Shmuel. We all hurried upstairs and gathered our stuff and the food, then packed up the car and I navigated Dave to Rehovot. We luckily made it in time! After bringing everything into Clore and putting the food on the hot plate, Stephen and Dave showered and dressed quickly, and headed to services. I chilled a bit, showered, and then helped (a very tiny bit) to set up for dinner.

Joel, Jonathan, Dave, Stephen, some of Stephen's and Dave's friends who happened to be in Israel for various reasons, and someone from Stephen's lab, joined us for the shabbat meal. I unfortunately had to leave slightly early to head to the mall, but was able to eat my fill before this occurence. I called Asaf on the way, and soon was sitting outside the movie theater with he and XiaoMeng. A few minutes before 10, we were able to enter and pick up our pre-paid tickets. I left Jonathan's and Joel's with the man at the door, and we went inside to find almost the entire summer population of Clore scattered about the theater.

Soon Joel and Jonathan arrirved, and the movie, The Dark Knight, began. I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I love that superhero films are so dark now...I like having something to think about when leaving the theater. Heath Ledger's performance was remarkable - I still can't really believe it was him. There also weren't too many unnecessary computer-generated scenes involving explosions or the like, which I appreciate. And that is all I will say, in order to avoid spoiling anything (although since it came out a week later in this country than in the country where most people are reading this, I probably shouldn't worry).

On the walk back, Asaf, XiaoMeng and I discussed various things, including the fact that XiaoMeng and I should really be making our nanocomposites for Batman and not "science," as clearly the former has more money in it and is cooler. Asaf and I also discussed that he needs to be mentioned in this blog more, as his tag count is too low. This topic seems to be coming up often nowadays...people are probably realizing I will be leaving soon and that they have to start hanging out with me in earnest, or their tag counts will never increase enough to make them competitive.

Anyway, back at Clore I said goodbye to Asaf and XiaoMeng, and went to bed soon after getting back to my room, after a quick hello to Stephen and Dave. It was a long, but exciting, day that I won't soon forget. I have way too many pictures, but I've tried to include a representative selection below.

Me at the aqueduct

Itamar and Dave racing back to the car

Stephen looking out at MontfortItamar, Stephen and Dave
Montfort
Itamar taking a picture out the car window


Goats!
The Lebanese border
The location at which this picture was taken
...



Dave about to ask directions from some farmers
By an apple orchard


Stephen dozing off
Jish!
Another road in Jish
At the convenience store in Jish...note the interesting brand name

The synagogue at Bar Am
Me observing it
Pomegranate!


Us walking along a path with fruit trees...
An open pomegranate

Two on one branch! I picked these.










Ruins from when the Syraians occupied this area
The demolished town, and a Damascus suburb in the background
Windmills!
The Sea of Galilee





The Golan is so lush in places...
Entering the West Bank
Donkeys

Desert...


Let's not turn right...
A soldier at the exit checkpoint
Exiting the West Bank