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 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 63 - Day of rest?

As usual, my once-weekly chance to sleep late again fell on Saturday. I had no plans and didn't intend to make any, so there was no reason to get up. After breakfast, some brief blogging, and checking my e-mail, I showered and got dressed, and headed out of Clore. My destination: work, excitingly. Since I'll be missing a day during my final week and it's getting to be crunch time, I wanted to take the chance to get as much done as possible.

I was expecting to find Noa in, but instead found Patro, again. He was working on Matlab homework exercizes as he made some samples, and I just sat and processed images. For five hours. I didn't get up, or eat, or anything except listen to Kenna and measure distances in ImageJ. How I did this I don't know, but, magically, I am again, and hopefully permanently, DONE with all the images I have and plan to use! It's truly wonderful.

Once I arrived at this landmark point, I tore myself away from the screen and left Perlman. I was hungry, and learned that a group was heading out for dinner soon, so I stashed my stuff and chilled for a bit until everyone was back from the gym and showered. David, a Weizmann student, was having a large picnic outside to celebrate having been in Israel for a whole year, so I mingled with Ivonne, Maria Magdalena, Claudia, and Yovav outside and tasted a few of the many cakes which kept appearing among the other food. The picnic was really chill; music was playing as people sprawled on blankets on the lawn in front of Clore or tossed a frisbee (and later an American football, which puzzled me as no Americans were present) around. Claudia took an amazing picture of Maria Magdalena and I both making characteristic "Becca" faces, an image which I hope makes it to facebook.

Soon, though, Maciej, Onur and I joined Tanmay, Clay and Zvonimir at Hertzl Bar. I had a huge craving for meat, so got the hamburger, which is an ambitious undertaking. Onur and Maciej did the same, while the others had puny little sandwiches at the next table. They planned on seeing the Batman movie (again, for Tanmay and Zvonimir, but for the first time for Clay), and so went back to Clore to get ready and such. The three of us lingered a bit over coffee. Maciej and Onur suggested something I'd been contemplating for a while: asking the waitress whether the place had any of the coffee cups and saucers with an image of Hertzl for sale. Unfortunately, we learned they didn't have enough to sell any. Sadness.

After finishing our beverages we headed back to the dorm. I decided not to tag along to see The Dark Knight again, mostly because it was hot out and I didn't feel like walking. Maciej and I hung around at the picnic, which was still in full swing. I got a chance to catch up with Dan about his trip to Portugal with his family, and we had a discussion as to what defines cute (in his words, a large head-to-body size ratio: i.e. an iPod plugged into a TV = cute). During this discussion we also discovered that there was a cooler of liquid nitrogen at this picnic (how dorky and scientist-like). It had to be gotten rid of, so we made frozen treats out of the remainder of the picnic desserts. The frozen chocolate truffle was particularly delicious.

Eventually it got too hot to stay outside, and I kind of needed my computer adapter, which I had lent to Jordan but couldn't get back because neither Jordan nor Joel were around or in their room. When I mentioned this to Dan, though, he reminded me that his room adjoins theirs, so he helped me break in through the bathroom and get it back. I noticed some juggling pins on his floor, and of course made him show me his mad skills. He did the whole under-leg tossing thing, and other fancy stuff, and it turns out he attended a juggling conference here earlier this summer. Very cool. I had him give me some tips for starting out, but pins have always eluded me so after a few minutes and marginal improvement I called it quits.

Newly armed with my adapter, I went back to my room to grab my computer, and hung out in the lobby for a bit, chatting and blogging. Eventually I decided it was bed time, but who else was entering Clore as I went downstairs but Stephen and Ari! I made them come talk to me in my room where the air conditioning was actually effective, and Oren, Joel and Jordan came in and out periodically as Stephen and Ari told me about their weekends in Jerusalem, which had contained a few overlapping events (like Shabbat lunch). We all got tired at around the same time, though, so I kicked them all out and went to bed.

As promised, here are pictures of the Bahai Gardens. Enjoy!

Day 62 - ...in which we took almost every form of transportation known to man

I woke up very early this morning for a shower, and a knock on my door at around 7:30 revealed that Jordan was the sole person who had expressed interest in our day trip who hadn't backed out (I'm looking at you, Maciej). I told him we'd meet in the lobby in ten minutes, then grabbed some breakfast-type snacks, packed my bag, and headed up.

I was soon joined by Lisa, who also had some food (fruit and yogurt) and Jordan. We started off for the train station, where I got some chocolate milk as we waited for the train to arrive. All of us were very tired, but Lisa was very giggly as a consequence of her exhaustion, which was entertaining to Jordan and me. When we got on the train, Jordan opened up Ulysses, and got a good amount of reading done before eventually falling asleep. I didn't have any delusions; I closed my eyes immediately.

We had to switch trains at Binyamina, so it was necessary to wake up from our naps and cross the platform. The rest of the ride was less easy to sleep through, as it took us alongside the sea until we reached Haifa. We got out at a train station which looked like it belonged in the 70s, and oriented ourselves as we walked. Luckily it was relatively easy to find the sea, which was our first goal. We walked along the Promenade (or Pomenade, as the website Lisa had been consulting last night called it), getting a gorgeous view of the water and mountain, to the foot of the cable car, near which our first stop was supposedly located.

We wandered into a restaurant to ask about the Museum of Clandestine Immigration, but they couldn't help us. It turned out to be right across the highway, with the Maritime Museum, but also happened to be closed (despite what my book says). We therefore crossed back over the highway and found our way into the building which housed the bottom of the cable car. Although it was of course overpriced, we bought one-way tickets and got into our own round car.

The view was incredible, and grates in the car wall gave us an almost cool breeze as we ascended. A few lookout points at the top made the journey even more worth it. The entire city lay sprawled out beneath us, looking, as Jordan put it, as it you could just reach out and move the pieces. The red train wove its way along the coast and towards downtown, where tall buildings partially obscured the port area. Trees coated the mountainside, touching the edge of the developed area, and faded into a haze in the distance.

We got our fill of the view, then crossed the street and covered ourselves before entering the Stella Maris monastery. It was a beautiful building, but we were only permitted in the chapel area, so didn't spend too much time there. After we exited, we caught a cab to take us to the Tikotin Museum, which bills itself as Israel's only museum of Japanese art (as if there would be more than one...?). The exhibits included a gorgeous collection of colorful, painted kites, as well as a room full of drawings, sculptures, and other objects depicting interesting mythical animals (like the shishi, or lion-dog, and the baku, with the head of an elephant and assorted other body parts). The final rooms displayed photographs taken by a Jewish photographer during a trip to Kapan and printed from negatives discovered after his death.

We headed upstairs in hopes of finding more exhibits, but instead found a table full of apple juice and cookies. Being hungry and thirsty and having no shame, we lingered a bit and stealthily helped ourselves. We also sat to consult the tour book for the remainder of our stops and to try to coordinate meeting up with Dan, and called him as we sipped our juice. Having oriented ourselves, we grabbed a last few cookies before heading out.

Outside the museum, we walked a few blocks to our next stop: the Mane-Katz museum. While my book had said the Tikotin had a fee and the Mane-Katz museum would be free, the truth in fact turned out to be the opposite. We paid the small fee and entered what I think is the most interestingly arranged museum I've ever seen. Instead of spreading out the works, having them all at an adult's eye level, and forcing you along a path, this place was more like a collage of his paintings, Judaica collection, and photographs and news clippings detailing events in his life. Two timelines ran along the walls, one at the top (his biography) and another at the bottom (historical events during his lifetime). The place clearly used to be a house, and therefore had interconnected rooms. We wandered about with no semblance of a method to our madness, until we were satisfied and headed out.

The next part of ourday was the sketchiest in terms of planning. We wanted to make our way straight down the mountain to meet Dan in the Arab area known as Wadi Nisnas, but of course the steepness of the terrain meant no roads went straight down. Luckily, instead of following the sidewinding sidewalks available, we stumbled upon a set of stairs with signs that indicated they led straight to the area we wanted to go, and followed them. Aside from a few blocks where they ceased to exist, they took us all the way to the City Hall (in other words, most of the way down). At this point we tried to find a good intersection to meet Dan, and headed there ourselves.

When we found it, Jordan went to scope out lunch possibilities while I conversed with Dan in an effort to lead him to where we were. Soon he found us, and we sat down at the most crowded hummus place I have ever seen. This turned out to be the positive endorsement we had hoped. They brought us rice and falafel and pita, and we ordered one hummus with mushrooms and another with meat. Everything was delicious, and we all drank lots of water. Before leaving, we asked for directions to the Carmelit, Israel's only subway. We were right to think it was nearby; two blocks down the road we found the entrance.

We each paid our 5 shekels for a ticket, inserted it in the machine for validation, and entered the station. A few minutes later, the car arrived. Now, this subway basically goes up and down a mountain, so the tracks are constantly sloped. Therefore the car is built to accomodate this slope. The catch is, though, that the angle of the tracks changes slightly from station to station, so for the first part of our ride, the car's tilt was more than that of the tracks, so we felt very...lopsided. This evened out by the last station or two, but then the steps next to the tracks were not sloped enough when we got out of the car, so the entire journey was, in sum, rather off-putting (but also hilarious and enjoyable).

At the top, we were about 4 blocks from the entrance to the Bahai Gardens. We found a restroom and freshened up, and Lisa and I put on long sleeves (because the gardens are a holy place) before approaching the entrance. We claimed our reservation and went inside, and sat with a couple dozen people to wait for the tour guide. He arrived and began speaking - in Hebrew. I had been warned, but Lisa hadn't. She was able to understand a lot of what he said, though, which made her happy and kept me informed. We learned a bit about the Bahai faith as we descended the mountain, surrounded by perfectly manicured grass, babbling fountains, and beds of flowers separated by sweeping stone stairways. The Shrine of the Bab loomed at the bottom, with its bronze-colored dome, and beyond it, modern Haifa stretched to the port, backed by the turquoise sea. It was an amazing sight.

The tour took about an hour, so as soon as it was over we hailed a cab to the bus station and boarded the second-to-last bus to Tel Aviv. Jordan fell asleep, but Dan, Lisa and I talked about all sorts of topics during the ride. An hour and a half later we found ourselves at the central bus station in Tel Aviv, and headed outside where we found and boarded a sherut which left promptly. Lisa accidentally paid part of her fare to someone sitting in front of her who happened to be begging, instead of to the driver, but she got some chocolate out of it so it was ok.

We were dropped off near Clore house, and I took a shower before sinking into bed for a delicious nap. I awoke an hour or so later and joined Maciej, Zvonimir and Tanmay at Hertzl Bar for coffee. The conversation topic was police forces (present were representatives from India, Poland, and Croatia to provide evidence and opinions), and everyone was swapping stories about traffic stops and other encounters with crooked cops. I had little to contribute but listened with amusement. Eventually we headed back, and I blogged and caught up on things before heading to bed.

Since I took so many pictures today and don't want to overwhelm you all like last Friday (and, since I live in the future, I know tomorrow won't yield many exciting photographic opportunitites), I will post everything but Bahai Gardens pictures today, and the rest tomorrow.

The retro train station

Interesting translation...

Along the P(r)omenade

Old and new

I had to be stealthy to get this one

Too bad it was closed!

Going back up and over the highway

Lisa and Jordan in our cable car View from en route
A marigold at the top
A garden outside the monastery
A kite in the Tikotin museum
Kabbalah and shopping, in one stop
Jordan in the Mane-Katz museum
An amazing garden, visible from the stairs down the mountain
Jordan, unhappy with the architecture of the building in the background
The subway station at the bottom!
A photo of the subway being built
The subway car

Lisa and Dan (and Jordan's reflection)...note the car not being level despite being built to compensate ?
The station at the top
Exiting the subway
View of downtown and the port from the top
Near the Bahai gardens

Day 61 - Perpetual hunger?

Alissa and I happened to find each other at Cafe Madaa this morning, and had a rare chance to chat, over cappuchino. I had brought my Israel travel guide, to read about possibilities for tomorrow's trip to Haifa. Alissa suggested that she and some others might want to join us, and since we hung out until just after nine, during out breakfast I made my first (and ultimately first failed) call to the Bahai Gardens in order to make a reservation for a tour.

Just after this, we both realized we should probably head to work, so we went up to the counter to get our check. I had had a muffin, which was interesting due to its shape, and which turned out to be much more expensive than I had intended. I actually thought the waiter was joking; he seems to find me really amusing, and of course knows me well due to my being a regular, so it would have made sense. Anyways, we paid and headed out.

At work, I sat down and really devoted myself to image processing. I need to move on to my final presentation, but still have data to gather, so it's beginning to become crunch time. My morning was rather productive; not only did I finish a chunk of images, but I also managed to make a reservation for a Bahai Gardens tour. Around lunch time I called Dan. He suggested heading off campus and called Ari, and when we met outside Perlman I found out our destination was supposedly Hummus Weizmann. This was completely unacceptable, as their hummus is awful, so I lobbied for us to go to a smaller place that is actually closer to the main gate of campus (which was hard for Ari and Dan to believe at first because Hummus Weizmann is literally one block from the main gate), where Noa had taken me once in the past.

This turned out to be an amazing decision. The employees spoke only Hebrew, so Ari and Dan got to practice a bit. We debated about how much food to order, but eventually decided upon two skewers of hen, one of lamb, and some hummus with beans. They brought pickles, pita, and falafel to go with it, so we were mostly full before all the food was gone. It was so good. I don't know what it is, but I am so hungry lately, all the time, and all the food here tastes so delicious, so this is why I write about it in such detail.

After lunch I was able to maintain productivity at work until around 4:30 pm, but from there couldn't bring myself to continue. I was supposed to go climbing relatively early, so I left just after 5 pm and grabbed a snack before changing and grabbing my stuff. This was to be a historic climbing evening; not only was it possibly going to be my last time climbing with Nitzan and Yaron, but it was also my fist time climbing with all my own stuff: shoes, a harness, and my newly arrived chalk bag!

The two of them called me about 5 minutes before 6, when we were supposed to meet, to ask where I was. I rushed the rest of my readying, filled a water bottle, and dashed out of Clore. Yaron was driving this time, and had his fiance Rotem's car. As soon as I got in, I told Yaron how cute it was, which is apparently not really the best thing to tell a dude about his ride. Whatever, though: look how cute! (Click all three; this was the color his was!) Of course this kicked off the discussion as to how American and ridiculous I am, as always. It was a fun ride.

When we got to Kiryat Ono, the gym was relatively empty. Since I wasn't borrowing any equipment, my admission was cheaper than it's ever been, which was nice. We all started off by leading a warm-up route which happens to be my favorite (the orange one). Then we branched out into some stuff that was completely new for all of us (different ones for them and for me, of course). Nitzan warned me, and was right, that now I am going to have to get strong, because the routes which require technique only are too easy for me, and I've finished everything I'm strong enough to do, so the routes at the next level are negative and technique can only go so far. I started a blue route which I got pretty far on, but wasn't able to do the last move of, and got three clips into another orange route, near the yellow one which is my nemesis. It's ok that there's not much more I can do, because I don't want to get too attached to working on stuff this close to leaving, but it was a good workout. We bouldered a bit before leaving at 9, because Yaron and Rotem had a place to be at 10.

Yaron dropped Nitzan and I off by campus, and I headed back to Clore for the evening. Onur and Maciej were chilling in the lobby, so I stashed my stuff, grabbed hummus and pita and my Israel tour book, and came back. Soon Lisa joined us, and I snacked as the two of us planned the next day. We went through various stops we wanted to make and tried to plan a route, which was complicated by the fact that the city of Haifa is located on a large mountain. After we came up with a rough itinerary and looked up train and bus routes and stuff, I was so tired I could barely move. I managed to transport myself downstairs and set an alarm for tomorrow before crashing completely.

Mutant muffin!

Yaron climbing

Belaying responsibly

Action shot courtesy of Yaron

A very negative route

Nitzan climbing

Day 54 - Inconsistencies in the rate of passage of time

Time at work today seemed to drag on or leap forward, unpredictably. I don't even really recall getting much done, because my head felt like it was located in an insulated box, lined with cotton balls, somewhere rather far away from my body. It was an odd experience. Lunch occurred with almost the entire gang at San Martin, as usual. I took a break with Noa in the early afternoon for a slice of cake at Cafe Madaa, where we unexpectedly (har har) ran into Zvonimir. We split a piece of delicious mousse cake, while Zvonimir sipped coffee at the next table. I think Noa appreciated his sarcasm right off the bat.

I had spent most of the day trying to hunt down Professor Wagner to chat for a moment, and when I finally did, we talked for about 10 minutes, during which he decided I should present to the entire group at 8:45 am on Monday and ask everyone for feedback at once. I feel two ways about this. On the one hand, I really like this idea, as I can explain myself one time and get lots of feedback from people who understand the intricacies of my processing. But on the other, I had to get started right away on a presentation, since I only finally found him in the afternoon. The upshot was that I stayed at work slightly later than I meant to. Luckily I had some slides to start off with that I had made so far for discussions with Professor Wagner or just for my own clarification.

Back in Clore in the evening, I packed a bag for the night and next day, and intended to leave very soon to bring it to Itamar and Dave's place in Givat Shmuel before meeting everyone for dinner in Tel Aviv at an Indian restaurant called Indira. Luckily, Stephen saved me much time and effort, as he was headed there soon anyways, and took my bag for me. I hung out for a short while, then changed and headed out with Lisa, Dan, Iris, Daniela, Ari, Zvonimir, Clay, Jordan, the other Dan, Maciej, Maxime, Joel, Alissa, and of course the man responsible for the planning of the outing: Tanmay. Four of us took a cab to the restaurant, while the rest just missed the train to Tel Aviv and had to wait for almost 45 minutes for the next one. Finally it arrived, but we had to switch trains just before Tel Aviv.

Luckily we made it to the correct stop, and, due to Lisa's superior directional skills, successfully navigated the approximately 7 minute walk to the restaurant. When we got there, we found the entire upper floor had been reserved for our party, and that Zvonimir, Jordan, Dan and Clay had gotten drinks already. The rest of us ordered, and the food started arriving soon. It was all extremely delicious, and I think I would have thought so even if I hadn't been incredibly hungry (by this time it was about 10 pm). The samosas were small but good, the naan was crispy and delicious, and my chicken malai kabob was more like the chicken makhani at Rasika (Mom, you know what I'm talking about), meaning it was to die for.

Dinner went on a while, and I was so sleepy that I dozed off, waking up when everyone was leaving. They all grabbed cabs back to Rehovot, but I got one to drop me off at the main gate of Bar Ilan, basically across the street from Itamar and Dave's place. I found Itamar and Josh outside, and when we headed up I found Stephen stressing out slightly about the chicken in the oven, which he was preparing for Shabbat dinner tomorrow. Josh and I had some frozen grapes and we all chatted a bit, but I was so exhausted, and the plan was to wake up so early tomorrow, that I went to bed soon after.

Stay tuned for plenty of photos tomorrow...

Day 46 - Hi, my name is Alissa. Nice to meet you!

Today was a bit low after yesterday's awesomeness. I got in relatively early in the morning, as always. I like to start before 9 usually, even though most people in the group don't get in until 9 or 9:30, just because I am much more able to concentrate and be productive in the mornings, and so I usually work with few breaks from 9 to 12:15. This was the case this morning. I began processing the new images. Usually I save as I go along, which is just good sense, and I thought I had been, until at around 12:09 Excel stopped responding and had to quit, and when I reopened it there was no recovered file and everything I had done that morning was gone. Wonderful. So I decided to stop for the morning, maybe write a bit in my lab notebook, and go get lunch with everyone at San Martin.

Since I was there somewhat earlier than usual, I got to eat with a slightly different group, including Zvonimir, Lisa, and Onur. As I was finishing, more people arrived, but I decided to go back and get an early start redoing everything from that morning. I worked, but less diligently because the afternoon is always a harder time to concentrate for me (and because of my new lack of faith in Excel), until around 5:30 or 6, when I returned to Clore and had a snack of hummus and pita.

Ari, Dan and I then decided to go out and try a cafe we'd neer been to, called Lool. I posted a picture of this cafe's sign a while back, mostly for Joe Coyne due to its similarity to how you'd write LOL in Hebrew. The menu didn't really appeal to the boys at first, but once the server came by they decided to tough it out (translation: she was cute). Ari ordered a pizza and Dan a salad, but she recommended to them an apetizer for two involving corn. I graciously volunteered to abstain so they could both impress her, so they decided to go for it. It turned out to be corn on the cob, which itself was delicious and perfectly cooked (I had a bite), but which was then coated in mayonaise, parmesean and chili powder. See below for the guys' impressions.

The rest of the food was pretty good, actually, and I'm sure we'll go back there (for more resons than one). As we were on the way home, Ben called, so I sat in the lobby for a lovely chat with him. Once I hung up I noticed a group chatting and joined in. Somehow the topic of music sharing came up, and I said that while illegal, massive music downloading is and obviously should be illegal, it is perfectly legal, and rightfully so, to lend a friend a CD. Alissa then said that she thought massive music sharing should be legal, because all music should be free. Lisa and I agreed that the music industry isn't the best thing ever but that people should be paid to make music. Maciej made the excellent point that without payment, the quality of the product would be significantly reduced. I then tried to compare the situation to the publishing industry. The issue got convoluted by Alissa's environmentalism and desire to save trees, but it turns out she thinks all writers' work should also be free. When questioned further, she revealed that she believes the notion of property to be wrong, harmful, and unnatural. And then the fun began.

Logically (or amazingly), the remainder of the conversation entered the arena of environmentalism and the history of civilization. We discussed the nature of materialism and trade, the myth of the noble savage, the destruction of our planet, and related topics. Asaf, Lisa, and Onur took rather moderate views, while I played devil's advocate to every one of Alissa's rather hippie-like points. The argument got quite heated, which was fun because we both knew it was just for kicks. I actually agree with her on a lot of the points she made. Alissa, if you're reading this, the book you MUST read, which my friend Jamie recommended to me, can be found here. Seriously. Read it.

Anyways, more people began to arrive gradually, and in the end the group had swelled to include Stephen, Dan, Zvonimir, Tanmay, Iris, Clay, Ori, Rachel, and later Jessica. As more people joined, the topics became less antagonistic, which was a welcomed relaxation opportunity. Zvonimir kept leaving to grab something and coming back to find his chair taken, and having to pull up another one as a result. It was most amusing the fourth time, when I deliberately removed his chair.

At about this time, Alissa randomly came up with a fun game to play. She asked everyone to go around in the circle and say "Hi, my name is Alissa. Nice to meet you." in a language other than English. It took some convincing, but eventually we all tried. Asaf went first, using Chinese, just for kicks. Next was Onur, with Turkish. Tanmay said it in Hini. Hebrew came next, furnished by Amir, followed by Rachel with German. I was next, and got to use French before anyone else did. Iris had to pass because Hebrew was taken, but later lamented that she hadn't said it in Canadian. Zvonimir got to use Croatian, and Maciej Polish (and, impressively, Russian). His stood out, in addition to his double contribution, because he was the only one to literally follow the directions and refer to himself as Alissa. To wrap it up, Alissa attempted Yiddish, with some grammar corrections by Rachel. When Jessica stopped by she used Spanish. I hadn't expected it would be as entertaining an activity as it was!

Jessica and I then went downstairs to change. We then headed out with Zvonimir, Tanmay, Dan, Ari, Stephen, Iris and Jessica to the science park, with the intention of going to a sort of Clore event at a club called Truman. We didn't make it to Truman, however, stopping around the corner at a really cool bar/club with very varried music (from the "Cinderella" remix of Rihanna's "Umbrella" to Israeli metal) and, oddly, those free foam and plastic ice cream cone toys which have a button so you can "shoot" the foam "ice cream." It was really fun! We hung out and sort of danced, had some Goldstar, etc. Eventually Iris and I decided to leave, and Tanmay joined us, so we could get some sleep.

I took a few pictures tonight at Lool, for no real reason.

Jay Olman, if you are reading this: look, a threek!

Dan and Ari: reactions to the corn thing (a comparison)