Day 47 - Living underground

Today began earlier than usual, because we met at 7:00 am in the San Martin parking lot for a KKISS trip to the caves at Beit Govrin and a stalactite cave. After not too long a ride, we arrived at Beit Govrin. We munched on sandwiches as our guide gave us an introduction, then he walked us through various caves and cave networks. Many of the caves were used to breed pigeons/doves for food, fertilizer, and some religious uses, while others were water cisterns and still others housed presses for making olive oil.

The caves were amazing, and the air was cool and wonderful in comparison to outside, which was already hot despite it still being the morning. We had to walk outside to get from some caves to others, and along the way we found some carob trees, and tasted the pods which turned out to be very sweet and crunchy. We spent about two hours in the park, seeing mostly the highlights, before getting back on the bus.

The next stop was for the stalactite cave.  We got off the bus and walked a ways down the mountain towards the cave entrance, basically a set of doors in the mountainside.  Just inside was a miniature theater, and we all sat to watch a video which would tell us a bit about the caves.  It was a very dramatic film, which basically flashed pictures of the caves at us while defining (with appropriately-placed pauses) terms like stalagmite, stalactite, and others, set to very creepy and at times disturbing music.  The highlight, though, was towards the end, when the narrator told us "Absolutely no photography is allowed in the cave, except on Fridays."  Of course, that makes perfect sense.

The cave itself was pretty amazing.  Many of the stalactites and stalagmites are still active, and the huge formations are made of many different types of water flows and everything.  As it turns out, photography is allowed towards the end of the path, so pictures can be seen below, but the tour guide was very unfriendly about this and, well, everything, and throughout the tour pointed out formations which resembled various biblical, fairy tale, and cartoon characters. 

After this tour we returned to the bus and headed back to Rehovot.  We were on campus again by 1:30 pm, so I stopped by Clore to get my flash drive and went in to work for the afternoon.  I also stopped in and gave Nitzan some more music for his birthday, which was yesterday (happy late birthday, if you're reading this, which is unlikely because you can't really read, right?), then worked more until around 5:45 pm.  

I went back to Clore and changed, then Ari and I headed down to the field to play soccer!  It was a smaller game this week, but that was fine; I hadn't played in a while and it was really nice to run around a bit.  It ended up being me, Ari, this guy I hadn't met before named Alex, Olivia, Michael, and after about an hour, Doron (once the others finished playing frisbee).  We used bags for goals, which was much easier, and had a great game.  

After a quick shower, I went to Cafe Madaa with Ari, Zvonimir, Iris and Rachel for dinner.  The food was typical, but things of note included that it was Zvonimir's fourth time there today, and the waitresses thought this was amusing.  It was also close to closing time, so the waitresses were making complete fools of themselves behind the counter, dancing and casting spells on each other.  But when they started doing the Soulja Boy dance, I was somehow recruited to join in, and, even more remarkably, Zvonimir took video of it.  [Un]fortunately, he is having trouble uploading the video, so I can't share, but I'm sure it was hilarious.

After dinner, a group of us met in Clore to discuss our trip plans for the weekend, then hung out while some people started a game of Settlers of the Catan, which Clay just bought.  I went to bed soon after they began, to stock up on sleep for the weekend.

Let's start with Beit Govrin photos...

A dovecote (for raising pigeons)

Outside the caves

The group, with our guide

Daniela eating a carob pod

Look up!

An olive press

All of the doorways were this short!

Some limited shots from the stalactite cave

(limited because it's not Friday)

Day 43 - "Directive"

Back to work today meant more plotting. I am trying to keep good records of what I am doing an why, which is almost harder than the actual work because I'm trying to make sense of what my brain wants to do, and sometimes that's not possible. So yeah, work is fun. I had lunch with practically the whole gang at San Martin, which was really nice, before diving right back in for the afternoon. Luckily I had thoughts about the evening ahead to tide me over.

As I walked back to Clore after work, I ran into Ran, and he convinced me to accompany him on an errand to buy a router. Since I was planning on going on some errands myself, this did not take much effort. He found what he was looking for immediately, then moved on to a cheap clothing store where he found some adequate shorts. I was planning on starting with some clothing shopping myself, so we parted as he found an ATM and I entered a slightly nicer shop.

I was unsuccessful, though, and not really in the proper shopping mood, so I decided to head to the grocery store, which was across the street at this point. Among the things I purchased was some hummus, but there was no pita to be found in the store. Luckily, or coincidentally, or surprisingly, I ran into Ran again as I left the store, and he steered me towards a bakery that had a few fresh ones left. We parted again as he turned into another store just before Clore.

After putting my groceries away, the warm pita called to me, so I snacked on the hummus for a bit. It was delicious and so I didn't accompany a group heading out for shwarma, even though I have yet to have some since I got here (almost 7 weeks ago!). I asked Ari to bring one back, and went to Wix to sit with Stephen and Zvonimir as they ate (I was full already). Ari joined us, bearing shwarma, and being the kind and generous soul I am, I brought it to Nitzan who was still working on homework in Perlman. I then rejoined the gang as they finished their meals, and we all went back to Clore to rally the troops for the impending adventure.

The group, composed of Ari, Rachel, Zvonimir, Stephen, Jordan, Dan, the other Dan, Michael, Tanmay and I, began our walk to the mall for an evening at the movies. We made good time, and had enough spare time to purchase tickets and food before sitting down. Jordan, Tanmay, Jordan's friend Dan and I saw Wall-E, while the others (most of whom had seen it already) caught the Zohan movie (which I happened to have already seen that one). Wall-E was wonderful. Everyone who has told me the primary descriptor of the film is "cute" was absolutely accurate.

When we got out, we waited a few minutes for those in the other movie to join us, and all walked back together. Many of us just chilled in the lobby once we got back, and after a bit Ari grabbed his laptop and we watched The Office before finally heading off to bed.

Anyways, here are some more pictures from this weekend...

Day 24 - And the winner is...

Woke up early again today (but not as early as yesterday) to get to the lab and grab my samples before meeting Talmon for a TEM session at 9 am. We worked until 1 pm and I got some great data, but we only looked at 3 samples! Not only did we get a lot of images which are perfect for my processing, but we found some really cool-looking nanotubes, one of which can be found at the end of this post.

Anyways, I had missed lunch again, but Anna had texted me during my TEM session about grabbing some food, so I called her on my way back to the lab. She said she'd grab a cab to the front gate, so I dropped my stuff off and went to meet her. She was literally stepping out of the cab as I got there, which was great timing. We walked about two blocks down so I could get some delicious falafel, and since Anna had been sort of snacking all morning, she just grabbed some sorbet. We chatted about a whole range of things, including how when people (/boyfriends) reliably go the extra mile, it's hard not to get frustrated (although it's totally unfounded) when they fail you that one time (in this case, not putting a lactaid pill in Anna's wallet for her because she always forgets), roommates and messiness, and other random topics.

We re-entered campus through Clore house, and as we approached my building ran into Doron wearing a sort of cowboy hat. We chatted for a few minutes, but it was too hot for more, so I went to work, Doron continued towards the cafeteria for his late lunch, and Anna went in search of internet so she could practice chess openings on her laptop. Hopefully we'll get together again before she leaves on Tuesday!

I began processing the new TEM images in the afternoon, and left around 5:30. I changed into climbing stuff and blogged/etc in the Clore lobby until it was almost time to go climbing. I had organized a train trip to the bouldering place in Tel Aviv, and ended up accompanied by Tanmay, Tamara, Michael, another guy from soccer, Jordan, and Jordan's friend. We left at 7 but missed the 7:16 train by about 30 seconds, so we hung out to wait for the 7:38 one. From the Tel Aviv Hahagana stop, we walked the 10-15 minutes and arrived at Performance Rock. It's not a huge place, and Dave, Nina, and her two friends from Germany were there waiting for us, so Weizmann people might possibly have outnumbered all others.

I showed everyone the beginner routes and gave some tips to those new to climbing, and eventually started working on some new stuff with Tamara, which was really fun. Towards the end of the night we made up a really interesting traverse route, the last move of which neither of us could manage. It was a successful trip. We left a bit late to catch the 10:12 train, and the next one was at 11, so we went straight to the central bus station and practically filled a shuttle back to Rehovot. Some interesting religious discussions occurred during the ride back, which will be discussed another time, and I tried to listen to both simultaneously.

When we got back, those of us who hadn't eaten yet grabbed some pizza and then returned to Clore. There was a group of people chatting in the lobby, which was fun but which eventually turned into a smaller, summer-student version of the gathering relocated in the kitchen. Stephen, Joel, Ari, Jordan, and even Jonathan brought their laptops out, and we had an amusing time. Highlights included showing Jonathan his first ever complete episode of The Office ("Diversity Day," for those interested), and a major overhaul of my blog tagging system to correct the many omissions of Joel tags, one of Jonathan's, and the revision to organize the "Labels" sidebar by label frequency (not in alphabetical order), to facilitate competition among my friends here for "most tagged." It was very dramatic but now that it's easier to see who's winning, I feel sure people will hang out with me more just to be mentioned here and then consequently labeled.

Work pictures today...an unusual coil-shaped nanotube!
"DANGER: Laser Radiation" (edit)

Day 14 - "The North" is a big place, right?

Today was an adventure, as predicted. We were supposed to leave at 9 am, but luckily I received a call around 8 notifying me that just in case I hadn't received the text message alert (which I hadn't; I don't think I can get texts), we were leaving at 10 am instead. So I slept a bit more.

A bit of back story. On Friday when I was in Jerusalem, I had planned on staying the night in a hostel by the Damascus gate (between the Christian and Arab Quarters), but towards the early afternoon I received a call inviting me to go hiking in the North of Israel. I decided to go back to Rehovot that afternoon with Stephen at that point.

So I woke up at 9:30, put a backpack together, and met some of the others at the front gate. We had rented two cars, and there were 6 of us who lived at or around Weizmann. The other three we were to pick up along the way. So we set off, Daniel (from Mexico, and in my program) driving the other car with Michael, whom I had met playing soccer and who had invited me, and Nick (from Germany) driving the car which contained me, Ari, and Joel. We first picked up Lily (who works at Weizmann but will start her masters soon in Canada), which turned out to be an epic adventure including multiple u-turns, not all of which were legal, and, as Joel put it, more driving in reverse than he had ever seen in his life. To sum up, those in the car we were following had no idea where she lived. Luckily we eventually located her. She took over driving the other car, which was a very positive thing.

From there she drove, and we followed, to pick up the next two people, each of whom we located with few u-turns and no backtracking (!). They both lived close to Tel Aviv. We continued north for one or two ours, stopping for lunch at a Burger King (how ironic; I consumed my first ever Whopper in Israel) until we reached the park. We grabebd water and set off on the shortest hike, which was the only one still open because we only reached the park rather late in the day.

The hike began with a flat, rather rocky but wide trail which led us past and thorugh some ruins among which cows were grazing and lazing about. Past this area we walked along the top of a huge gorge which reminded me strongly of the scene in the Princess Bride just before they enter the Fire Swamp. There were purple bulbous clusters of small flowers on tall stalks everywhere, as well as dry grass and thistle-like plants. Soon the descent began, and rocks prevailed over dirt along the trail. The going was narrower but stair-like, and at certain points the bottom of the trail, a pool at the foot of a waterfall, came into view through the trees and bushes.

By the time we made it down we were very hot, so most of us stripped down to our bathing suits and got into the water. I took a few rocky steps, then just plunged in once it was deep enough, but most worked their way in a bit slower. The water was deliciously cool but not hypothermia-inducing, and while it wasn't clear, it wasn't dirty or slimy. Small and slightly larger fish darted in and out of the rocks in the shallows, but the center of the pool was deep (at least 10 to 15 feet at places). We swam closer to the waterfall and were able to stand directly under it. To the right was a dry, flat collection of rocks which jutted out into the pool, providing an excellent natural platform for us to show off our diving skills (or lack thereof). There was also a point, directly to the left of the falls, which was trickier to reach (Ari commented that I must be using my climbing "route-finding" skills) but provided a higher jumping point.

Within a half hour or so, however, a park ranger told us we had to head back, to leave before the park closed. We emerged, dried off a bit, and began the hike back, which was much steeper but for some reason we chose to attempt at the same pace as the descent. I dipped into my water supply for the first time during the ascent. We had some insightful conversations about how to compliment girls, and being the only female in our half of the group, I was the only one present to confirm that saying "You have nice front teeth" or "You are so beautiful; your ears are perfectly centered" might not go over perfectly well. Other conversation topics included the Colbert Report, a favorite of Michael's (see below for "Colbert pictures). Michael's plan is as follows: save someone from a disaster, like drowning or a burning building. When interviewed by local press, say that his heroic inspiration came from Stephen Colbert. Get onto the Colbert Report as a guest, and after befriending Stephen, have him introduce Michael to any number of hot famous girls. I, for one, think this is a sound idea. The only possibility for failure might be if Michael sets the building on fire in the first place, which as I pointed out might result in a much bigger scandal and prevent Rachel Bilson or the like from being truly interested.

Once we reached the flat portion again, we noticed an army helicopter hovering near the cows. We didn't ever discover what was going on, but it was fascinating to see the blades whip ripples into the grass, which must have been ready to seed because vast, billowing gusts of golden particles soon surrounded the craft as it slowly surfed just above the ground choosing a place to land. We stood, some of us transfixed, some of us just wondering how far behind the rest of the group had become, until we headed back to the car.

Many of us then grabbed ice creams, discussing the merits of the flavors and what a person's favorite might say about his or her personality, before leaving. We stopped in Tiberias for dinner; many went to McDonalds but the Americans (me, Ari and Joel) chose not to consume food from two American fast food chains in one day, and chose instead to eat Italian food at a British pub called "Big Ben" (I'd like to say for the record that I had schnitzel). What a way to explore the setting of Jesus' magnificent bread-multiplying episode.

We met up with the other car before parting; they would drop off the others again, and our car would go directly to Weizmann, where we all lived. On the road again, we periodically checked the map we found in the glove box as we made the long journey home. Nick and Joel work for the same professor, doing computational biology and neurology, respectively, and Ari also studies math, so as they discussed algebraic topology, Michael and I talked a bit about astrophysics, his field. When conversation included the whole car, it was more philosophical: we attempted to enumerate the many definitions of "cute," which turned out to be a much more fruitful topic than expected.

Finally, around 10:30 pm, we made it back. I had no energy to blog; I crashed almost immediately. Many pictures were taken; I will show you a few now, but later this week, during the more boring work days, more may follow.

The ruins and the cows

"You can die too, for all I care..."

"Aaaaaaaas yooouuuuuuuuu wiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssshhhh!"

Purple flowers

Michael and me in the waterfall

All of us who swam. Left to right:

Nick, Michael, Ari, Me, Joel

Me making the Colbert face with Michael

The poisonous flowers by the pool

The Sea of Galilee (view from Tiberias)