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 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 34 - Independence Day

After 11 hours of sleep, I woke up to meet Ari for breakfast before he went to Jerusalem to meet friends and then his family. We both went back to Clore, he left, and I grabbed my stuff and went to work for a bit. I stayed, processing images a bit to catch up for yesterday, until a bit after noon. On my way back to Clore I called Asaf, and we met in the lobby so I could give him a CD i had made him. Then I changed and went to go meet the guys to go climbing (Nitzan, Yaron, and Ran) at 1 pm.

We went to the top roping/leading place, which was nice because it was relatively un-crowded and they had finally gotten new leading ropes. I tried the yellow route twice but got really stressed, so I took a long rest. Ran and I belayed each other on some top-roping routes, then I led one I had done before and one new problem. I was overly tired considering what I had done, though, so further lead-belaying lessons from Nitzan will have to wait until next time. We then bouldered for a while, and the guys each had a beer and we sat and chilled until leaving.

I returned to Clore at around 6, and showered in time to be clean and ready for the Shabbaton Stephen, Tamara, and Rachel had planned. Stephen had printed a Friday night service, in Hebrew and transliterated into English, for everyone, and he led the service and gave a brief interactive sermon about the portion. It was a great dialogue and a fun service, and there were about 12 people (but only 9 Jews, so no minyan). Afterwards, we acquired many more people as we headed down to the basement for Shabbat dinner.

Rachel had been the driving force behind the cooking, and Tamara and Stephen had done the grocery shopping. They had pushed all of the dinner tables together and set it with tablecloths and plasticware, but there weren't enough chairs, so we all grabbed some from our rooms before sitting down and filling our wine glasses. We said Kaddish and hamotzi, and began the meal with challah, pita, hummus and other spreads. Then there were two salads, rice, couscous, and chicken. We had juices and soda to drink, and cakes for dessert. Everything was delicious! We lingered for a while, talking and laughing, then cleaned up a bit before going our separate ways.

Stephen, Oren, Dan, Ari (who had gotten back in the middle of the meal), and I sat around a bit longer, having a hilarious conversation. Pretty soon, Ari, Ivonne, Dan, Joel, and I headed out to Hertzl Bar, where we met Ran, Nitzan, and a friend of Nitzan's from the army. The outing was ostensibly in honor of the United States' independence day, which was made amusing by the fact that Ari was wearing a tee shirt with a huge union jack on it (which he hadn't realized would be ironic when he put it on). We got a rather small table, but squished further around it to allow Zvonimir, Tess and Jonathan to join us. Everyone got various exciting drinks; I got a mango, pineapple, and banana smoothie which was delicious. We talked about a bunch of mostly unconnected things, occasionally jokes which are hilarious in Hebrew but just don't really translate, until a bit too late, then finally all headed home.

Pictures today are a continuation from yesterday. Behold: Ein Gedi! And Ari's outfit.

So typical of an oasis...

A hyrax

The caves in the cliffs

The first pool (Jonathan took this one)

A series of waterfalls

The second pool

The third pool

Jonathan holding a tadpole (with legs!)

A dragonfly

And finally, Ari's ironic tee shirt

(notice Dan is wearing a red, white and blue shirt like a good American)

Day 25 - Radially symmetric invertebrates

Work today was spent mostly processing images, adding the data to my growing excel file, and adjusting the plots to include the new points. The trends I'm seeing aren't changing shape, but the standard deviations are becoming smaller, which is nice. Yay for large sample sizes!

Exciting things today included lunch with XiaoMeng, her friend, and Asaf at San Martin and the math department cookie break, which I crashed because my eyes were starting to water from all the image examination. I went to Ran's cubicle at 3:25, then headed over to the lounge with him at 3:30. Apparently there was no hot water for the coffee or tea, but Jonathan had gone up a floor to get hot water for his tea, so he slurped it extremely loudly for the entire half hour I was there in an effort to inspire jealousy in the other warm drink seekers. I went back to my building to get my camera, then came back to Ran's cubicle room to record the contrasting images displayed below. Before leaving, he gave me a gift: a small porcelain figure of a fighter in purple robes wielding a yellow bat. His explanation was that he used to have twelve, 6 on either side, but someone took one from the other side so I was helping him re-achieve symmetry. I said I'd borrow it for the summer, for my unadorned desk.

After work, I went back to Clore to grab a bathing suit and towel, then met everyone in the San Martin parking lot. We all got on a bus for our first official KKISS trip, to the beach at Ashdod, also a huge port city. I sat next to Erin on the way there, which made for some interesting, and rather politically charged, conversation. We got there in about a half hour, and after helping deposit all the food in a central location, most of us headed to the nearby beach and took a dip. The water was warm and there were waves, but there was trash in the water, and many of us received minor jellyfish stings (except Claudia, whose sting was slightly worse than minor). I swam with Lisa and learned the basics of her life story, and helped prevent her from exiting the water with makeup dripping down her face. We got out and everyone photographed the group and the sunset. I met and chatted with Maria, a relatively new member of our program, after we examined a huge jellyfish which had washed up on shore. Finally, we headed back to the food, where Greta was finishing the grilling.

We ate pita, salad, cold cuts and grilled hot dogs as we dried off. Greta had told us this would be a "light meal," but most of us were stuffed by the time she brought out the fruit and marshmallows. Someone had assembled a pile of dry wood on the other side of the beach before we arrived, which was then lit as soon as darkness fell. Many of us headed over to the bonfire to dry off and attempt to roast the marshmallows. The latter task proved challenging, but eventually we rigged a system by which we insterted our small wooden skewers into the tip of a much longer piece of scrap wood, so that the marshmallow could reach the fire without the person wielding it having to get too close to the fire.

Eventually we headed back, grabbed the leftover food and dry goods, and packed up the bus. I sat with Lisa on the way back. When we got back to campus and unpacked the bus, I noticed that the driver had a bed and clothesline underneath the bus. Innnnteresting.

We walked back to Clore and as everyone wanted to shower, there was quite a backup. I hung out with Stephen and Jonathan as they got ready to go out; I was still undecided as to whether I'd join. Alissa and I watched the remainder of the Germany/Turkey game, and she decided to go to bed. I showered and was on my way out of Clore when I ran into Stephen on his way back. We decided to get an ice cream, and at the convenience store struck up what ended up being an hour-long conversation, in Hebrew, with another patron. The best part, though, was that I think I understood a good portion of it! Eventually, I reached the point where I was tired enough that I had to leave. As soon as I got back to my room I went to bed.

The whiteboard in the cubicle next to Ran's:

observe the math content

Ran's whiteboard:

observe the pirate ship, mountains, desert island, and pokemon

Left to right:

Tamara, Ivonne, Lisa, Anya, Andre, Claudia, and Maria Magdalena

Jonathan, before the application of the idea to use a longer stick

Ari and Zvonomir

Tamara, Joel, Lisa and Alissa

Erin with the spare meat some random dude gave us

Day 16 - Floating

All of us in the summer program had to be up early for an 8:30 am safety training session, which not only meant that our staying up rather late together watching the Bourne Identity was not the best idea, but also spelled certain doom for our concurrent desires to shower before leaving the dorm. Now that everyone is moved in, rather than me having a huge bathroom to myself which happens not to be connected to my room, I share it with four other people (!), the most of anyone in the basement that I know of. So that was complicated.

The training turned out to be rather amusing, which made up for its relative lack of content. The chief safety officer chose to tell us cute anecdotes about hood sashes shattering from explosions and his brief period of panic during which he believed his daughter had been murdered in Costa Rica. After about an hour the mathematicians and computer scienctists were allowed to leave (lucky bastards), and the chemists and biologists remained for the most useful, and actually serious part of the lecture: how to dispose of waste. As this always varies from place-to-place, let alone country-to-country, it was necessary, and luckily brief. By 10:00 we were out in the lobby, where we had to purchase our medical insurance for the summer.

I was back at Perlman by 10:30, and met with Professor Wagner about my work so far. I showed him a whole lot of plots which revealed nothing, to which his response seemed optimistic. He told me to plot them in terms of another parameter, which I had already calculated, and then we had a bonding moment when we discovered we're both very anal when it comes to grammar and writing (it turns out we both circle mistakes in any papers we read as we go along), and we both have a secret desire to be writers when we grow up, which is more complicated in his case due to his relative success and experience in his field (aside from his being grown up, already, sort of). I think he was impressed with how much I've gotten done, but we'll see whether that actually turns into anything meaningful.

After the meeting I continued my literature search for TEM images. By the time lunch rolled around, Noa and Sari invited me to Charlie's. I called Stephen, and we met him there. We got there at peak hours, so while in line we did the basic personal history conversations. By the time we sat down, however, things had gotten more serious. A long debate over the history of Islam insued, broken up only intermittently by the cats whose territory the outdoor seating apparently occupied. As lunch wore on, the Torah and religion in general became the primary focus of the conversation. My personal theory is that Sari's presence is the cause of these deeper, probing topics, mostly because last week she began the afternoon's ongoing debacle with the question of whether or not science and religion mix. We stayed long enough for ice cream and/or iced coffees to become necessary, and eventually were joined by Noa's roommate Tali and another friend.

During all this, we unearthed an interesting quirk of Hebrew, of which our Israeli friends had not been aware previously. Stephen's friend at MIT who had studied at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) had been puzzled when, upon his arrival, people kept asking him who his "shutaf" was. This friend spoke some Hebrew but was unaware that this word, which directly translates to "partner," was in this context intended to mean "roommate." What his, and our, Israeli friends didn't know was the implication, in English, that "partner" meant "gay lover." Noa and Sari got a huge kick out of this.

After a while, we exhausted these topics and decided that getting some work done might be advantageous. Stephen and Sari kept talking, hald in Hebrew and half in English, until we had to part ways. Back at work for the afternoon, I replotted my data as recommended. Unfortunately, I still didn't see much going on.

My literature search continued until 5, when XiaoMeng called me from the microscopy building to come join her. I was going to watch her prepare TEM grids (sample holders), and the first step, coating with a polymer film, was very sensitive to vibrations and needed to be performed after most people had left for the day so there would be fewer people walking around. I am always entertained by the sensitivity of new instruments and methods. When acquiring an image on the TEM, talking will make the image blurry! I guess I'm easily amused.

< .science >

XiaoMeng floated a thin film of polymer on the surface of water in a slightly over-full beaker, then placed the grids, rougher side down, on the film. I know I am a huge dork, but I found this amazing to watch. Now we have to wait 2-3 days for the grids to dry before the next coating. My next TEM time with Talmon is next week, so they should be ready in time for me to deposit nanotubes on them for that session.

< / science >

I left work around 6:30, and reached the conclusion on the way home that it really was a gorgeous day outside. Of course my resolution to spend the evening enjoying the weather was promptly destroyed. I always sit in the kitchen to check my mail and such, but people kept joining me, and I guess I'd rather be social than outside (also sometimes outside there are ants! just kidding. except there reall are). So we chilled until around 10, when the first official KKISS rooftop gathering began. People brought beverages and cookies, and we stayed out there chatting and marveling at the bats until the security guard came and told us to shut up. I guess this really does happen every time! So we relocated to the piano/music room in the lobby, and while we didn't modulate our voices, our being indoors helped and we weren't visited again.

Our relocation also helped other residents find us, and soon there were masters and PhD students present as well. Ran and his ex-girlfriend Tali invited Jonathan and I to come walk Tali home. She's a member of the staff, and so lives near the faculty bar; showing us this place was the secondary mission. When we got there it wasn't yet closed, so Tali's roommate bought some fries, and Tali went up to her room brought down a melon (yes, very hip bar food), and we sat outside the place and munched for a bit. Evenually everyone got tired, so Ran, Jonathan and I walked back to campus (a 4-minute odyssey). I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Pictures really didn't occur today. And yesterday I wrote relatively few words. So enjoy: a TEM grid! *insert gasps of awe here*

Day 10 - My Dream Home

Yesterday was very busy! Got into work around 8:40 because we had a group meeting at 9. Everyone went around the room, briefly stated their project, and talked about recent successes or problems, and their progress in general. It was a great way to review names, because Professor Wagner said each person's before they spoke. Then Patro, who is almost as new as me, gave a brief talk. He got here almost a month ago to work on his post-doc, so he presented for about 20 minutes on his PhD, which he did at IIT (the Indian Institute of Technology) in Bombay.

< .science >

I was actually able to follow along! His PhD explored and compared the stiffness and electrical conductivity of silicate clay nanocomposites, which was really cool because the papers he referenced for his background (these awesome people at Toyota) were the same ones I used to write a paper on this subject for my polymers class last year.

Basically silicates are layered structures with layers which allow proton exchange, which is promising for conductivity applications. He explored different clays and polymers, and the effect of processing temperature on each combination in terms of modulus. He also cleared up for me something I had been wondering for a long while (but which Professor Wagner asked before I got a chance): the definition of intercalated silicate layers. Nanoclay clumps aren't useful; complete exfoliation occurs when clay layers are separated by multiple polymer chains and no longer really retain periodicity. Intercalation, however, happens somewhere in the middle and has always seemed to me like a fuzzy definition. But according to Patro, it is a periodic structure with at least 5 layers where the period is larger than that in the original clay. I learned something! Which was good because by the end of the talk I was in way over my head.

< / science >

So that was the morning, mostly. I also got on the computer and processed all of the single-wall and half of the double-wall nanotube TEM images, then went for a quick lunch with XiaoMeng. We ran into Joel at the cafeteria, but refused to move and made him come to us :)

After lunch, I prepared some more TEM samples, then at 3:30 went to Charlie's (a dairy cafeteria on campus) for a meeting with Greta and the other kids in the program. It was great to meet everyone! I knew about half of the people from chilling in the basement, but some I had seen but not introduced myself to. We are fruit and pastry thingies and chatted until we all realized we should probably go back to work. I returned around 5 and worked for a solid hour and a half before leaving.

When I got back, I burned a CD of music for Nitzan, then went to wait for him to pick us up at 7:20 to go climbing. Us was Nitzan, me, Ran, the Australian dude Dave, and a German girl named Nina (who is new to rock climbing). This week we went to the bouldering place in Tel Aviv.

It. Was. Gorgeous. The holds were wonderful; rough, not sticky, clean. The routes ranged in difficulty from V0 to V6, and the map which showed them gave the rating and color, most of which I could read! There was a cave in the corner. I knocked off all the V0s and a few V1s while giving Nina a few tips. She was really good, and I think she wants to come climbing again.

We climbed until just before 10, when the place closes. I didn't want to leave, which Dave said meant I didn't climb hard enough. I didn't. I could have climbed for another 2 hours. I love this place! Nitzan was like, "I mean, bouldering is fun, but it's not climbing." And I was like, "But it's my favorite! It's like candy!" And he goes, "Exactly. It's like candy. But it's not food." Looks like they're still gonna teach me to lead next time we go back to the other place, which should be a lot of fun.

Got back to Rehovot then grabbed a burger with Dave, because neither of us had eaten in a while. We watched a soccer game which was going on and discussed his love of extreme sports (adventure racing, kayak water polo, etc), then returned to the dorm.

I chilled in the kitchen, blogging and beginning to work on my hebrew! I am borrowing Stephen's copy of a workbook thingie until mine arrives. It should be good.

The bouldering gym is pictured below; the guy in the cave is Ran. I am off to work. Enjoy!

Day 5 - Why I love climbing. And Israel.

This morning I hit the snooze a few times. After a slight panic that the bathroom light was out and I'd have to use a strange shower (which sometimes emits brown water) in the dark, the light flickered back to life and all was well. Yogurt, cereal, then work.

All morning I worked on the computer analysis of the images. I continued work I had done on Tuesday, then once I decided which methods I wanted to compare, started completely from the beginning, while taking notes and printing things for my lab notebook. My lab notebook is seriously going to be the best thing ever. Well ok, there are better things (like ice cream!) but it might be close.

Lunch was in the airport cafeteria again. They had real mini pizzas with sweet potato, so I had to try it. Verdict: yummy! We also had fruitful discussions about Monty Python and the Golden Compass. After XiaoMeng stopped at the bank we returned to the lab. Asof gave me the e-mail of a Nitzim, a friend of his who he knows is part of an informal group of people who climb around here, so I e-mailed him.

I reverted to reading more articles as the afternoon wore on. Highlights: a call from Nitzim, the climbing dude, saying they were going tonight, and a (much too short) call from BEN!!!!! HI BEN! Miss you.

Needless to say the rest of the afternoon was LONG. I left around 6:00, hoping to get some brownie points for coming in early and staying late since I won't be in tomorrow, and apparently many people from my group come in then (in Israel, weekends are Friday-Saturday, and for many, Friday is only half of a weekend-day. I guess my lab friends are part of "many") so I don't want to appear to be a total slacker. But I do work hard while I am there (so far)!

I got back to the dorm and chilled for a bit in the kitchen, as always. When people came in and cooked we had a brief collective facebook stalking session, then I had to get ready to go climbing.

So I was supposed to meet Nitzan at the front gate on the right. I stood there for about 5 minutes, holding climbing shoes and realizing I didn't know what this dude or his car looked like, until someone pulled up and rolled down the window. "Is one of you Nitzan?" I asked as I got in? The driver said yes! The other's name was Yaron. We got down to business: turns out they are both chemists, and Nitzan works on the floor above me. Then I say, "So do you two boulder or top rope?" And Nitzan says, "We lead." Oh goody. They said the gym had all three though, so it would be fine. Then the two of them taught me some important hebrew climbing words:

lamala = up

lamata = down

kach = take (a very important climbing word in leading meaning for the belayer to pick up the slack so you can rest. As Nitzan said, this word is usually pronounced "[frantically] KAAACHHHH")

We next went to pick up their friend Ran. He got at the car and met me, then asked, "How do you know each other?" And all of us simultaneously replied, "We don't."

When we got there, we prepared to pay 40 shekels each, but then I was informed that that night it was only 20 shekels, with a free beer! I love this country.

So we all began by top-roping, because there were no lead ropes available for the guys. After a half hour or so they got one, so we all just took turns, them leading a few and then belaying me on a top-roping route. As we hung out, I learned the colors and some other random words. Somewhere toward the middle of the night we claimed our free beer. We climbed until we were pumped, then went to boulder. There were no routes marked, so basically one person got on, and the other pointed with this long wooden dowel to the next hold to go to. The person climbing had to go to that hold, could use any feet, and preserve the order of their hands. It was great; we climbed until we were really pumped, then left.

On the way back Nitzan and I discovered that we have THE EXACT SAME taste in music. Let me name a few of his favorite bands: Andrew Bird (!!!), Ivy, Rilo Kiley, The Flaming Lips, Sufjan Stevens. I am going to make him a CD! And give it to him next time, because I definitely want to go back.

When I returned to the dorm, a bunch of people were watching The Golden Compass. A bunch of people were giggling at parts so I found myself filling in the omitted information, especially when the DVD skipped 5 minutes ahead. Afterwards we chilled in the kitchen (where else?) for a bit, then went to bed.

Enjoy pictures of the plums from yesterday, then climbing! The first two are the gym, then Ran belaying Nitzan, then Yaron climbing, then the caribeaner they gave us with the ATC (belay device). Note the scotch tape, which they assured us was for "marking purposes."

Day 4 - Chips and...

Today I had to get up sort of early to get in to work by 9 so we could be on the TEM by 9:30. XiaoMeng operated it, and Petro came along again, but the samples were ones XiaoMeng and I made yesterday. OH! I forgot to mention that in my post yesterday about my morning. Oops.

< .science >

So we examined single-walled, double-walled, and multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Turns out the single-walled ones clumped together too much for us to be able to see much of anything, the double-walled ones were really triple-walled or more, and the multi-walled ones were beautiful. XiaoMeng is also really good, so we got some great images for me to process. Yay!

< / science >

I had thought I would be able to take a class to learn to use the TEM, but it turns out it doens't start till too late, so I will be consulting with the TEM expert/person who teaches the class and is the TEM god as he operates it and takes images for me. That was slightly disappointing, but it does cost like millions of dollars so I understand the rules.

After the TEM work we went to lunch, at another cafeteria on campus. They had schnitzel, which was delicious. And there were plum trees outside, from which we plucked (with great effort and lots of help from Asof, our tallest friend) tasty yet cherry-sized plums. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading again; I didn't even finish!

Upon leaving work, I decided to go on a postcard quest, but was unsuccessful and got a number of quizzical looks from shopkeepers. I got home and began cooking. I made chicken with soy sauce and peanut butter (Rebecca, it totally worked and was delicious!) and cooked rice, in a pressure cooker. Has anyone ever used one of those? It was scary, but I made rice successfully for the first time in my life.

Anyways, I ate and drank pomegranate juice and then changed, and we went salsa dancing! Our new friend Ran drove us to the place; Baila Salsa. The first half hour was warm-up, then there was an hour of lessons. I was in the beginner group with the two other summer students who came with us, but Ran was off with the moderate/advanced people. After that it was mostly free dancing but there were a few line dances, which were more fun. I wasn't bad; of the two friends who came as well, one was the same and the other was from Columbia. She was very popular :) After a few hours we finally pulled her away and came back here.

Pictures today: enjoy some views of my dorm! This includes, in order, the lobby, my room (which is one floor below, in the basement), the communal kitchen, and the refrigerator room (a technical term, of course). I have a picture of the aforementioned plums, which you will see tomorrow maybe. Also notice that although my room seems spacious, the photo was taken from the hall, and to enter my room I have to open the door completely or take small steps, as the door path passes very close to my dresser (not pictured).