Day 74 - "Ezra's plunging our toilet!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At the Garden of Science:

Standing on a large spring...

Bubbles in oil

An instrument used by Tibetan monks

Jonathan at the other end of a big "phone"

Bubbles; or, proof of thermodynamics

The breeze makes each pipe sound different

Alissa showing that distance from the center affects rotation speed

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

with a gyroscope, and Eszter's facial expression

Ari simulating a moonwalk

Rachel flying!

Lisa doing the same

Zvonimir!

Tamara says hi

Greta got us backpacks!

...so we modeled them

Zvonimir and our party selection

The super-secret Tim Tam eating time:

Tamara and Rachel

Lisa and Daniela...

Oren giving it a go

Simultaneous Tim Tam eating

The Tim Tam Gang...

...plus Oren

Day 68 - Flying high

After the habitual coffee at Madaa, I arrived at the lab to find Sari was in for the day.  While work can and always does get done, sometimes progress occurs at a different rate on days like this, due to the philosophical discussions that tend to happen.  Today's primary topic was olympics-inspired: China and communism.  So the morning was filled with analysis of governmental philosophy interspersed with me working on my powerpoint presentation.  Needless to say, it went by fast.

I joined Sari and Dikla for lunch, which was pretty quick because Dikla had an experiment running.  This was actually good as I didn't have much time to stay at work in the afternoon.  I continued my powerpoint until 3:30, when I grabbed my stuff and headed out, first stopping by at Asaf's lab to say hello and goodbye.  I returned to my room and repacked my bag for the weekend, then walked to the train station and got on a northbound train.

At the third Tel Aviv stop I got off and found the exit where the taxis were waiting.  After a very brief confusion which was resolved when I asked about the fare, I managed to convey that I wanted to get to Dov airport, which was closeby, and not Ben Gurion, which was not.  Ten minutes later I found myself at the pedestrian entrance to the airport.  I was asked to show my passport and answer a few logical questions about my stay in Israel, then passed through and entered the building.  

I then passed through the security and then had to answer numerous illogical questions centered on my brother and synagogue before being able to check in for my flight.  I was told that my flight would be boarding at gate two.  When I sat down, I looked at the back wall of the airport.  It was glass, so you were able to see that the three gates were just three adjacent glass doors opening onto the same bus lot.  I could also see numerous small planes, and a few of those little vehicles which tow carts of luggage at gates.  One of these was actually pulling a plane, interestingly enough.  I couldn't get a picture, to my dismay.

We began boarding about 15 minutes after I had been told, which also happens to be 5 minutes before the flight was scheduled to take off.  Two busloads of us filed through "gate 2" and onto the waiting vehicles.  Five minutes later we were climbing the steps up to the plane, which was parked on the tarmac about 30 meters away from the sea.  We all got seated and took off.  It was hard to hear, but at times during the flight the pilot pointed out sites like Massada as we passed over them.  The airline, called Arkia, is one of two that flies out of this airport (the other being Israir), but I totally approve of it due to their serving us Ben and Jerry's in cute little cartons with built-in spoons as the in-flight snack.  

Fourty-five minutes later we landed in Eilat, and I caught a glimpse of the hotel where my family was (and, as it turns out, my mom was out on the balcony and saw the plane land).  I grabbed a short cab ride and came up to the sixth floor to meet the fam!  We hung out a bit as they showered after their evening dip in the sea and pool, then, once everyone was clean and happy, walked a short way to the restaurant, called Pago Pago.  It was recommended to us by our guide, Eli, as the best place around for seafood.  The selection was amazing, and included all sorts of dishes including a diverse sushi menu.  We all ended up getting some sort of permutation of shrimp and calamari, but ordered a few different sushi dishes as apetizers.  I also introduced my family to Goldstar, which seemed to be a relative success!

After eating we started making our way back towards the hotel.  Andrew and I decided to stick around the boardwalk area for a bit and see if we could ride an extreme-looking contraption called the "Sling Shot," while the rents headed back.  We decided the ride was way too expensive, so bummed about the shops for a few minutes before heading back ourselves.  In the room, Andrew flipped the channels a bit and we caught the end of The Last King of Scotland (I think?) before calling it a night.

This is all of Dov Airport...

...and these are the three gates.

A view from the bus of the entire airport and the other buses

Very reassuring safety instruction card

The view from my window

Only in Eilat: sunscreen ads on the luggage carousel

An interesting sign along our walk to dinner

The [floating] restaurant

Day 58 - Meeting my fans!

Today was fantastic.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Day 53 - A harness and a bowling ball

When I got in to work this morning, I found the whole group in a stir helping Sari prepare for her PhD defense presentation. I listened to her rehearse a few times, while helping her with some grammar in her slides, for most of the morning, doing a bit of work on the side. At noon we all gathered in the conference room, and Sari did her official presentation. It went really well! She was able to present smoothly and answer the questions which came up along the way, and afterwards she disappeared, and I later learned she was interviewed slightly more privately by a panel and Professor Wagner.


Meanwhile, it was 12:45, and I was late for a lunch group I had sort of organized at Charlie's; we were rebelling against the daily migration to San Martin, a movement made less effective by the fact that I didn't have a chance to tell everyone I would be late and therefore made them wait for me. I felt really bad, but joined Tamara and Rachel when I got there. I ran into Daniela, Asaf, and Iris in line, and Iris sat with us for a bit before going back to work. I grabbed a sandwich and some delicious iced coffee so I could go through the line slightly faster, and was able to sit with them for most of their meal.


Back at the lab in the afternoon, I worked more to come up with some conclusions from my data processing so far. After much PowerPoint, I decided to call it a day. I went home and changed, then headed to Tel Aviv by train. I met Nitzan, who had been north of the city for the day for his reserve duty, in the train station. We set off walking for Performance Rock, where I hoped to purchase a harness. Somehow we got wrapped in our conversation, and it turned out that Nitzan thought I was leading us there, and I thought he was. We discovered this when we found ourselves nowhere near where we wanted to be after about a half hour, but after surveying the skyline re-aimed ourselves and found our destination relatively soon.


Nitzan sat and watched as I was fitted for a harness. I decided to go for the one without adjustable leg loops, because there's less to get caught and it's more comfortable (and I won't be doing too much rappelling or winter mountaineering, probably). My purchase made, we crossed the street and got some sushi for dinner. It's really fun how popular sushi is in this country; whether at a place in a mall food court or a corner restaurant in an industrial part of town (like where Performance Rock is located), it's actually pretty good! So we ate our sushi and discussed the meaning of our lives...sort of. The evening in general was full of interesting conversation topics, including but not limited to serving your country, relationship philosophies (and kittens...), Wilco, and other such varied subjects. After a walk back to the station, we got on the same train south. I got off at Rehovot, leaving Nitzan to go a bit further to get home to Yavne.


When I got back to Clore, I found Ari, Dan, Jordan, the other Dan, Jonathan, Clay, Daniela, Tanmay, and Zvonimir ready to go bowling. After getting some socks, I joined them and we left. We walked past the train station almost to the science park, and got into the elevator to go up to the bowling alley. The alley was strangely clean and pleasant-looking. It was decorated to look like an outdoor park, with benches, lamp posts and stucco pillars. We paid for shoes and a game, and got lanes next to each other. Daniela, who had only played a few times before in her life, somehow managed to break 100 and led our lane by a long shot. The other lane, including Tanmay, Clay, and Zvonimir, was much more serious and competitive. After the game, we headed home. The walk seemed incredibly long; I crashed pretty much as soon as we got there.


Here's the one picture I took today. Enjoy an interesting sight in Tel Aviv, on the long roundabout walk to Performance Rock:

Day 51 - ...and very little work was done

Today was an amazing and positive change compared to yesterday's slight lack of excitingness. Coffee at Madaa happened as usual, but when I got to work, I discovered that Sari would be giving her presentation for her PhD defense to our group as practice. We were supposed to ask her challenging questions. So of course I texted Stephen to tell him when and where it was. And he actually came! We had to wait a bit for her to start, because Professor Wagner was tied up, but once he arrived we began. She did a good job, and all of us asked at least one question at the end.

< .science >

Her project involves space-environment simulations for testing of polymer composites, including hypervelocity (up to 3 kilometers per second!) impact. The test apparatus was so cool! She used a high-powered laser to create plasma at the surface of aluminum foil, which generates a "flyer," simulating a micrometeor impacting her samples. Some of her samples were also irradiated before testing (another aspect which simulates space), and Stephen asked what the actual chemical mechanisms are for radiation damage to the samples. Sari answered well and later I found out that Wagner asked Sari to include a slide answering it, because she knew it!

< / science >

Afterward, Sari disappeared to be grilled by Professor Wagner. I did some work before lunch, which was an exciting time. Dan and I decided to try something new, so we walked to the Science Park (a new-ish area with restaurants, clubs, and lots of science start-up companies, just past the train station). Our goal was Mexican food, and we had seen a place when we were out last week. We found it again: it was called "Rapper" and had burritos, which was really all we were asking for.

Dan and I both ordered chicken and pineapple burritos, and some chips to start with. The chips were more like pita, but the guacamole was pretty good, and there was bean dip and salsa as well. The burritos were also not bad, actually. As Dan put it, the ingredients were all good, but the proportions were slightly off (i.e. we could have used more rice and less lettuce), and of course they had no idea how to approach proper wrapping technique. But it was a fun place, and Dan and I had some great bonding time.

After lunch, I had a bit of a chance to work before setting off to the tour of the accelerator. I was a bit late because I had to go back to my building to get my SD card (I had originally left with my camera but no card), but I found the group outside the accelerator. We went inside and saw a scale model/cutaway of the building and learned the basics of what an accelerator does. Then we walked past part of the bottom of the accelerator pipes before going up to the top of the structure. There, besides getting great views of Rehovot and beyond, we discussed the rise of physics, and science and technology in general, in Israel. We also learned a bit about particle physics, and that the accelerator is no longer used for it but instead has been applied to dating of archaeological finds and irradiation of cancerous tumors.

After the tour, I returned to work and was able to get a little bit done, again, before distractions set in. Noa, XiaoMeng, Patro and I explored pictures online, that Noa's boyfriend had taken, mostly, but also some I had taken. Noa joked that her boyfriend collects pictures when they travel, and she collects stories. But it's true; her boyfriend had taken dozens of pictures, but Noa was able to tell us stores about each one, including one that took at least 10 minutes to summarize but clearly was richer than she was able to tell briefly.

Eventually I had to leave work, to grab my stuff and get onto a train to Tel Aviv. I met Tamara and her friends from MIT, including Jesse and Mena but also some new people, at Performance Rock. It was very un-crowded, so we were able to climb whatever, whenever, and gave each other lots of tips. Tamara's boyfriend Colin was among the new people, so I got a chance to meet him. Tamara and I both finished a V3, which was super exciting, but she also finished this red problem I can't quite do yet, and gave me a tip which allowed us both to finish a purple one we had both been able to do all of except the last move.

After we had climbed our fill, done some push-ups and pull-ups and such, we walked back to the bus station. Tamara and I got a sherut back to Rehovot, and I found a bunch of people playing Catan in the piano room upon our return to Clore. I split a beer with Ari and watched Zvonimir lose again to Clay. This was a key result, as it was the first game we had seen Clay play without being the banker. His win gives us a control in the experiment exploring his perfect win-loss record. Once the game was done, though, we all decided we were tired and headed off to bed.

And now, please observe photographic evidence of our accelerator tour!

From the ground (I know, you've never seen this before...)

A cutaway model

The top!
View of Jubilee from above
Sitting to talk about physics!
One floor below the top

Day 39 - GT (Girl Talk)

To start off with, congrats to my mom for her first ever comment on my blog (see Day 36)! Instead of a gold star, she will receive a tag. Way to go, mom! Ok, moving along.

Today turned out to be a much better one than the last. Work was more satisfying, for the following reason: while this is definitely a temporary state, I am now officially done processing every image I have taken (i.e. watched someone else take for me). This is monumental. Applause, please.

Once this was done it was time to graph, graph, graph. I added the final data to the file in my new favorite program, SigmaPlot, and while things aren't being proven conclusively, at least they now look attractive and professional. Who says I don't have goals?

I ate lunch at lunchtime (a good time for it, usually) with Sari and Noa at the Stone cafeteria, which is a dairly place at which I've never eaten a meal. It was actually rather good, and our ongoing conversation with Sari was entertaining as always.

After lunch I continued working on plots and organizing my data, and just before 4 pm I headed with Xiaomeng to the TEM to look at some tungsten disulfide "nanotubes" we recently acquired, for free. This freeness turns out to be key, because after what we saw, they can't really be called nanotubes (hence the quotation marks). For one thing, most of them are more like rods. For another, the ones that do have hollow middles have a whole bunch of crap in them that is very interesting but not really identifiable. Anyways, it was a fun session, because XiaoMeng kept finding new areas which had such completely odd-looking things in them that we couldn't help but be equally surprised at each one.

After about an hour, though, I had to go grab my stuff from Perlman and head to Cafe Madaa (literally, "science cafe"), a restaurant on campus very near to our dorm, for a summer program meeting. Greta talked briefly and then introduced us to our "scientific advisor." We learned a bit about how our final presentations will go, and looked over abstracts from last summer, while munching on fruits and pastries and sipping coffee and tea. Since we all are getting to know almost everyone in the summer program better now, it was great to see everyone all at once, and a nice break from work.

As we left for the 100-meter walk back to Clore, Zvonimir asked me to come with him to a small music shop down the street for him to purchase a cheap guitar. He wants to have one for the summer so he can practice, and he said I would be welcome to borrow it for the same purpose, so I said of course! Rachel, Dan, Jonathan, and Daniela decided to join in on this plan, so after Jonathan gave her a quick tour of Clore House (she lives with a friend off campus) we were off.

The shop turned out to be a small room and an even smaller recording studio-type room on the second floor of a building just past the police station on Hertzl road, about three blocks from the main campus gate. We barely fit inside the place once we had all grabbed guitars and started playing them. Jonathan showed off a bit on a regular guitar but he and I both had a great time with a 12-string guitar (which was a tuning test I fortunately passed). Zvonimir asked the owner to hook up an electric guitar for him to try in the small studio room, and I tried this one as well. It sounded good but even better with a pick. Maybe that's motivation for me to start using one? In any case, despite the lack of a whammie bar the distortion on the amp was very entertaining.

As this was going on, Jonathan was receiving mandolin lessons from the owner, and Zvonimir purchased a relatively inexpensive (blue, due to my request) guitar and case. Dan and I decided not to try the saxophone or clarinet on display (they both read "japanese technology" on the bottom and sat, alone, in a corner), but the owner showed me some Vandoren 5's he had in stock. The best part about them was not the dustiness of their box, nor the fact that they were actually dark brown, but the bright purple color of the plastic reed-cases themselves. He only wanted 13 shekels each for them (around $4), so I am considering returning to get one, just because.

We finally all tore ourselves away from whatever fascinating thing we'd found (Rachel had been playing an electronic keyboard, for instance) and exited the shop. The boys headed back to Clore, but Rachel and Daniela decided to accompany me on my Israeli linen capri quest. The first shop we entered had some for 29 shekels, in a lovely mauve-ish (ISH - Zvonimir's new favorite thing to say) color. They were sort of funky in the fit, in a manner I can't explain with words but will show you sometime, but I decided to go for it. The other girls browsed briefly, then we continued. We walked on Hertzl almost to the mall, our next goal a bag for Daniela. The problem with her quest was that she had a specific, and, as it turns out, nonexistent bag in mind, so we were unsuccessful.

As we walked back, we approached a Kosher pizza place and stopped for some slices. We waited for a fresh cheese pizza to emerge from the oven, then each bought a piece and sat and chatted for what turned out to be a couple of hours. At some point Iris walked by and joined us, and we had a number of great conversations, including one about the most evil biochemistry professor in Austria, climbing, pigeons and other bird incidends, keeping Kosher, falling down, getting married in Israel, trampolines, and other fun stuff. Jonathan called at some point, apparently on Zvonimir's orders, and told us about the plans for the rest of the evening. Ari walked by as well, accompanied by his friend Talia from Princeton who is also spending the summer in Israel (and was visiting him for the evening). Eventually we headed back to Clore, and Daniela went to her place to change.

Back in my room, I put on the weird pants, which I think I like, and we played a bit with Jonathan's guitar before gathering in the lobby to head to the Kukula (the bar on the Hebrew University's Rehovot campus, just down the street) for 10 shekel beer night. As we entered the campus Daniela texted me, so I told the others to go on and backtracked to meet her. The Kukula is tucked in the back corner of the campus, so it's best to have someone to show you the way your first time. We found it and the rest is history. All in all, a very satisfying day.

Day 30 - How bizarre

Today was an even weirder day at work. I had nothing to do but somehow managed to create tasks for myself. I even made two more TEM samples, in the afternoon, and had an approximately 7-minute-long talk with my professor about my data. He again, as he seems wont to do, suggested another way for me to graph and break down the data, because at this point I have data pouring out of my ears. My EARS. Luckily that's an exaggeration or that would be very bizarre.

Lunch was spent with Sari, Tamara, Clay and Lior, and the highlight was watching the ants near our table heft huge (relative to their size) vegetables, which after a while we started providing because we were fascinated. Also, we gave one of the cats Tamara's salmon skin, and in so doing discovered the territorial boundaries for the cats at Charlie's Place. All in all, an educational hour for us with respect to wildlife.

I stayed at work rather late and decided not to go swimming, because Asaf wasn't going either. Instead I went back to Clore and retrieved my climbing shoes from the roof. A picture of them hanging, as well as some views of campus and Rehovot from said roof, can be found below. Then I fell asleep until dinner time, when I roped Stephen, Oren and Joel into a falafel run. We ran into Alissa and Rachel, a German student here for the year, at the falafel establishment and later Dan showed up and joined us, so we had a yummy meal and fun chat. Eventually we headed back.

The rest of the evening was spent chilling, mostly in Stephen's room (which is apparently the new hang out place), playing some guitar, blogging, and talking. Eventually there was interest in a rooftop party, but I was tired, so I went and found Dave (!) and said a final goodbye to him before his flight, had a chat with Ari (and intermittently, Oren, Jordan and Joel), then went to bed. Oh, and I talked to Mom and Dad on the phone, which was lovely. But they told me they were behind on the blog (Hi parental units! You guys better catch up).

My poor climbing shoes...

View of campus

View of Rehovot

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*