Presentations, Day 2

Tamara: "Structural Basis for Resistance to Ribosomal Antibiotics"

Claudia: "MoS2 Nanoparticles by Concentrated Irradiation"

Eszter: "The Role of L1-CAM in Colorectal Cancer Metastasis"

Dan: "Connecting Molecular Devices to the Outside World: Permanent Top Contacts in Metal-Molecules-Semiconductor Structures"

Tess: "Signal Design of Biological Sonar: Frequency Modulated Calls vs. Ultra-Wideband Clicks"

Ari: "Automorphic Forms and Tate's Thesis"

Alissa: "Gene Regulation of Orthopedia: a Homeodomain-Containing Protein Necessary for Neuronal Specification and Differentiation in the Hypothalamus"

Stephen: "Self-Assembly of Perylene Diimides: A Novel Tool in Solar Energy Conversion"

Jordan: "Finding Explicit Integrable Systems of Differential Equations"

Tanmay: "Three-Dimensional Structure of the Helical T-Complex in A. tumefaciens" 

Zvonimir: "Alteration in the Retrograde Transport Protein Composition Upon Nerve Injury"

Andrew: "Assays of Light-Dependent Hydrogen Evolution in Aqueous Cultures of Micro-Algae, Wild Type and Mutant Strains of Cyanobacteria"

Daniela: "Immunomodulation of Experimental Autoimmune Encephalitis by Copaxone"

Ari's last slide

Jonathan in a tree afterwards.

Day 72 - Last time at Performance Rock...

After a quick coffee, I stopped at the lab before meeting Patro and Talmon at the TEM. This was a bonus session, after the training was technically complete, because the time happened to be free and I needed to look at some samples for Noa, so Patro and I each took turns doing various startup and alignment procedures, loaded the sample, and began taking images. After about two hours Patro had to go to his Matlab class, so Talmon and I started taking and saving images so I could calculate an average tube diameter for Noa.

We ended just in time for me to head to San Martin directly for lunch, where I met and sat with Rachel, Tamara, Stephen, and Asaf and a visitor to the Institute. I was very nervous about meeting with Professor Wagner in the afternoon so didn’t eat too much, but we still had a fun chat about Stephen’s feelings with regards to chemical engineering. We all had to be back at work soonish, so didn’t linger too much after eating. I made some last-minute touches on my presentation back in the office, until 2 pm, my scheduled meeting time with Professor Wagner.

I was expecting to go to his office, so I printed a handout copy of my presentation. This turned out to be an excellent idea, as he actually came to see me and sat down as I went through my slides on the computer. It was good that I could take notes on the printed copy, as we chatted about good points and ideas for adjustments for over a half-hour. As soon as we were done, I e-mailed Greta asking how late I could submit the final copy. She said I could just bring it on my own flash drive tomorrow, which was great and helped me to relax before settling in to make all the changes.

I worked on the slides, and the images for Noa, until almost 6:15, when I luckily finished both to my satisfaction. I left the lab and fell into step with Chen, a woman on my floor, on the stairs. Earlier today, when chatting with Nitzan in the hall, she had waved us into her office and shown us her recent art submission on Threadless. It was getting good feedback so far, and we both really liked it, so this gave us something to talk about as we walked out of Perlman. I wore a Threadless shirt today (“bobshoppers,” for anyone curious), so we moved on to how the shirts fit; as it turns out, the one Chen has ever ordered fit her really weird so she sent it back. I really hope her submission turns into a shirt. I won’t ruin the surprise, in case it does, but I would definitely wear it!

Anyways we walked out the main gate and along Hertzl. I needed to get a snack before climbing, so we went to the small grocery across from Clore and both looked over the yogurt selection. She recommended one with toppings, which I won’t say no to, but it was a bit expensive. After I lent her two shekels to cover hers, I realized I was two short myself. She promised to give the store clerk two shekels tomorrow, and made our way out. We said goodbye right outside Clore, and I went inside and directly downstairs to change for climbing.

I found Asaf waiting in the lobby, ready to go, and soon Tamara and Rachel had joined us. I told Stephen to meet us at the train, and we were off. We walked down Hertzl to the station, meeting Yaron and Nitzan on the way through security, and all bought tickets and got onto the train. Stephen arrived soon and sat with us. After the train ride, Nitzan, Yaron and Asaf were hungry, so stopped for falafel, meeting the rest of us at Performance Rock not much later.

Once there, I helped Stephen and Rachel find matching shoes of the appropriate size, which turned out to be a failure in both cases: Rachel’s were fine but ended up not matching, and Stephen ended up borrowing Nitzan’s spare pair because there weren’t any of his size in the barrel. I gave Stephen an introduction, and he seemed to be doing very well on the intro problems, so I migrated over to Rachel and Tamara for a bit. They had changed all of the routes, as Tamara had reported, which was exciting! Tamara recommended a bunch of things for us to work on together, and we found some things for Rachel to do, most of which she finished rather quickly. Nitzan and Yaron were working on some interesting things, one of which was in the cave and which Tamara and I attempted. Stephen at first seemed to be enjoying just climbing around, but eventually sort of stopped climbing. Dave came a bit afterward, and Tamara and I worked with him on a few problems as well.

We stayed practically until the place closed, then headed back towards the bus station. We didn’t have enough time to really justify running for the train, so got on two sheruts (one with me, Asaf, Yaron and Nitzan, and one with Stephen, Rachel, and Tamara). Theirs left slightly earlier. When ours got back, we headed to Benny’s for ice cream, then Asaf and I returned to Clore. And thus ended my last Monday in Israel, a day which included my last visit to Performance Rock.

Asaf didn’t climb, but came to observe, due to his recent recovery from tendonitis in his shoulder. While this is regrettable, I am glad he didn’t reinjure himself and even gladder he agreed to be the official photographer of the evening! Here is the best of his work:

Nitzan, as Yaron and Stephen watch

Stephen

Me (I ended up failing at this)

Asaf!

Rachel finishes a problem

Day 71 - Re-entry

Andrew and I woke up for the first time this morning to a knock and a man asking us if we were checking out today. This was inconveniently before our alarm was due to go off, so we slept slightly past it and, once dressed and packed, found our parents and Eli downstairs already for breakfast. Andrew was happy; there was an extremely large selection of breads, as well as cheeses, juices, and pastries.

Once we were finished, though, and had gotten our stuff down to the lobby, it became evident that our driver was late. Eli called him and found he wouldn’t arrive for another 20 minutes, so Dad stayed with the luggage while Andrew and I went on a quest for a bottle of Coke. After a few shops I settled for a can, and we rejoined the group just as our van arrived. After packing our stuff and selves in, we set off on the two-hour drive to the border near Eilat. Towards the end I took a nap, and woke in time for us to unload and visit the various windows necessary to show our passports and pay the fee to exit Jordan. Back through the “no-man’s land” between the two borders, we re-entered Israel, put our stuff back in Eli’s van, and within three minutes were back in Eilat. I hugged everyone goodbye and grabbed my backpack, and Eli dropped me right outside the airport.

Susan had re-scueduled my flight, which wasn’t supposed to leave for three hours, to one scheduled to depart in one hour, which was great until I saw the size of the security lines. I successfully answered all of the questions and checked in, then headed downstairs to the gates.

This is where it became slightly interesting. There was one screen which had my flight number on it, but showed a departure time about 30 minutes after mine. The screen at a different gate, which happened to be the gate printed on my ticket and the one to which the person who checked me in had directed me, showed the correct flight time, but the flight was headed to Ben Gurion and had a different number. Interesting. I sat down and waited by the gate with my flight number, which turned out to be the right move because after about twenty minutes, it became clear that this new flight time would be more accurate.

Eventually we boarded the plane. I slept the entire flight and woke up at Dov airport, where I rode the bus back to the main terminal and took a cab to the train station. Here, another interesting event occurred: I was asked for my passport. At a train station. Of course, my surprise at this request led the security guy to actually look at my passport, at which point he saw I had been in Jordan and made me unpack my entire bag. Wonderful.

Since I wasn’t, as it turned out, carrying anything threatening, I soon passed through and got on a train back to Rehovot. The humidity was fierce as I walked back to campus, and by the time I ran into Iris in the Clore lobby I was in sore need of a shower. After a brief chat I returned to my room to unpack and shower, then went to work, where I made progress on my presentation and submitted my abstract to Greta. Once I was finished with all of this, though, I went back to Clore and joined a group heading out to Tuk Tuk for sushi. I had told Stephen that Dan and I would join him in breaking the fast (for Tisha B’Av), but decided to tag along until I heard from him.

So both Dans (H. and S.), Alissa, Rachel, Ari, Iris and I walked to the science park and sat down at Tuk Tuk, at what happened to be the same table where my family had eaten. Everyone ordered different things, but Dan H. and I shared sushi, which didn’t discourage either of us from stealing tastes of Ari’s pad thai. Our order included the sweet potato roll thingie and a spider roll, which was delicious. At one point Stephen finally called and told me he had ended up joining Jordan at Greta’s house, which was exactly what I had suspected but still made me feel less guilty about joining in on others’ plans.

Back at Clore, there was chilling and talking, and for me, some blogging, in Ari’s room for a while, but I was so wiped from the weekend’s traveling that I went to bed rather soon.

Pictures today are from today and yesterday (mostly the latter).

Entering Jordan...

View of Israel from the middle "nowhere" zone

View of Jordan from the middle "nowhere" zone...

both of these were taken from the same spot to give an accurate impression of distance

The fam at an overlook in Jordan

Outside the Petra reserve...

The Movenpick hotel:

Lobby ceiling

View from the pool

Farther in the lobby

An interesting sign...marking a dish made with lots of mayonnaise

Another lobby room

Even the No Smoking signs were ornate!

A lamp on the Tea Terrace

Day 66 - Panic! at the office

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stephen: YES! How did you know that?

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

Today's pictures feature Perlman:

Noa hard at work breaking ice...

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

Patro dipping silicon, held in clothespins, into solution

Day 64 - This is a test.

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

< .science >

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

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

< / science >

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Day 63 - Day of rest?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Day 59 - Rachel's Chavayah

Especially compared to yesterday, today at work was not too exiciting. The one exception to this statement was that it was Noa's birthday (Happy Birthday!!!), so her mom made amazingly delicious brownies for everyone. It was hard, but I managed to eat only one before lunch. I worked pretty diligently all morning, then found myself back at San Martin for lunch, and sat with Dan, Alissa, Ari, and, very notably, Stephen! He basically never joins us for lunch, especially at San Martin (he has been spotted at Charlie's from time to time), so he was a welcomed addition to our party.

After lunch, I ate one more brownie and managed to be as productive as I had been in the morning, which is a major feat. A visit from Asaf also broke up the afternoon. We watched a few YouTube videos of climbers doing ridiculous things, before they got too dangerous and I had to close the window.

After staying as late as I could, I knocked on Rachel's door back at Clore to let her know we had some time before we had to leave for Tel Aviv, and that I was going to have a snack. She said she'd join me, and offered me the contents of what can only be described as the world's largest fruit basket, which her mother had sent her. I tried sabre, dragon fruit, and fig, interspersed with yellow watermelon, pineapple, nectarine, and white melon. We took some pictures with her camera to show her mom of us enjoying the fruit. It was all delicious!

Around 6:30 I went to change and grab my stuff, then Rachel and I walked out the main gate towards the train station. Before we had gotten very far, though, I got a text from Anna (who is back in Israel, and was going to meet us at Performance Rock) saying her boyfriend Peri was driving from Rehovot to Tel Aviv to meet her and would be leaving soon, and could probably give us a ride. After calling him and arranging to meet him right outside the gate at the bus stop in 10 minutes, Rachel and I sat and chilled and discussed that in Israel, things which would elsewhere be risky or dangerous or gross or, well, anything can be considered an "experience," or "chavayah." This came up especially in the context of hitchhiking, in light of a recent, unexpectedly ridiculous ride which she had had from the North back to Jerusalem this past weekend.

Soon Peri called and told me he was close by, so we went back outside the gate to wait. Someone who looked sort of like Peri pulled up, rolled down the window, and sat there in front of us for a few minutes. Rachel and I quietly discussed how embarrasing it would be if this were actually him, but luckily the real Peri pulled up soon and stopped right in front of him. We got in and were off. On the way to Tel Aviv we discussed Anna and climbing, before the conversation shifted to other things, like Peri's army service and current status (student, in mechanical engineering). Then Peri asked us what we though of Israel. Rachel had spent a year here before, but this was my first extended period of time here, so the focus was on me. It felt sort of like the third degree; when I said I liked it, he wanted to really get at the reasons why. Rachel wasn't surprised by this, though, and said Israelis always want reasons as to whether or not people like it here.

We reached Tel Aviv rather quickly; there was little traffic. Parking wasn't hard to come by, and we entered Performance Rock, which turned out to be very crowded. Rachel, who is pretty religious (and therefore not really used to shirtless guys falling off of walls in every direction), took one look through the door into the bouldering area and said, "Oh yeah, this is going to be a chavayah." We paid and entered, and I rummaged a bit to find matching shoes of the correct size for her. I then started her on the Vos, which she had absolutely no problem with, and a few V1s. Peri had never been here before, so he was off exploring the routes, and soon Anna arrived. I showed her what I'd been working on lately, because all of the routes had changed since she had last been.

After a bit, Tamara and Mena also arrived. The crowd was gradually thinning, so we were able to climb everything we wanted. Anna finished everything I showed her, and Rachel finished all the V0s and all but one of the V1s. The trouble this one route gave her I attribute to fatigue combined with her first time climbing, because if she goes there again, she'll definitely get it. Tamara and I worked on a problem partially in the cave, and found a new way to work through the middle of it, but still have a ways to go. She also made a bit of progress on the last move of another problem, but still can't quite get it. I finally completed a V2, the last move of which had been giving me issues. It felt good to finally check it off the list.

As 10 pm approached, the manager, who had fitted me for my harness and whom I had told when I came in that something was causing it to be uncomfortable, asked me to try it on again for him. He saw what I was talking about, that the leg loops were sort of digging in to me, and showed me how to adjust the straps connecting them to the back of the waist part to make them more even and aligned with my thighs. Hopefully this will make the harness more comfortable! After this, Tamara, Rachel and I decided to head out. We said goodbye to Anna, and thanked Peri again for the ride, then walked to the bus station where we caught a sherut back to Rehovot. I hung out for a bit, then went to bed.

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 57 - Back to school, sort of

The beginning of my third-to-last work week began like many previously: with coffee at Cafe Madaa. I had to leave before Zvonimir, Tanmay and Clay did, to get to the lab and drop off my stuff before heading to Wolfson with Patro.

< .science >

We then had our first TEM class with Talmon! The purpose of this first session was for him to give us a very in-depth introduction to the microscope, including details about each lens, aperture, valve, pressure gauge, and vacuum pump. I always knew it was a very complex piece of equipment, and Talmon has been telling me about it little by little during our sessions, but only in response to my questions, and I don't know everything to ask. It was also helpful for him to be able to make all sorts of adjustments to demonstrate things as we went along; most of this was stuff you can't do with a sample in there, so it was mostly new to me.

< / science >

Anyways, I took about 8 pages of notes, including annotated diagrams. It was very jam-packed, but hopefully if I review it all it will sink in. Patro and I headed back to Perlman afterwards, luckily early enough for me to head straight to San Martin, where I sat with Anna and Onur. Back at the lab, I continued work on my presentation, and ended staying at work until very late (around 8:30 pm). When I was happy--or as happy as I was going to be--with the powerpoint, I decided to call it a night, and headed back to Clore.

When I got back, Dan, Ari, Stephen and I headed out for dinner. This was a banner evening: Stephen's FIRST TIME AT HERTZL BAR! I got shakshouka, which was delicious but since I was so hungry, I didn't wait for it to cool fully and really burned the roof of my mouth. Stephen ordered a mixed drink consisting of coffee and Kahluah, and it was delicious. Dan got an Irish coffee (coffee and Bailey's), which turned out to not be delicious at all. In general, though, the service was slightly faster than usual, and everything was yummy.

Back at Clore, the "party" was in Ari's room. I grabbed my computer to catch up on some blogging, while chatting with Ari, Dan, Zvonimir, and Oren. I don't know how it started, but I got into a sort of shouting match with Zvonimir on the subject of Macs versus PCs, which was very silly but somehow made a lot of sense at the time. At some point Joel came in. His family is visiting this week, so he was with his little sister Barbara. While I would have liked to hang out with them more, I was tired and sort of cranky by this point, so I lingered only a few minutes more, enough to promise Barbara her first tag (and here it is!), before going to bed.

Day 56 - Proof of my past as a Super Jew

Today I got a chance, for the first time in a while, to sleep in.  Especially after a late night followed by an early start and a very long day, this was a welcome change.  I woke up just before lunch time, and had a relaxed shower and remainder of the morning.  Once I emerged from my room I found Stephen, Dave, their friend Mish from MIT, Jonathan, and Joel sitting in the kitchen, munching on leftovers from the previous night's shabbat dinner.  I was supposed to meet Daniela for lunch, but since I figured it would be difficult to find an open place to eat on Saturday, and there was food 10 feet from my room, I invited Daniela to join us in Clore.  The chicken Stephen (and Dave?) made was delicious, and there was plenty of that as well as pita, hummus, and other stuff.

After the meal we all sang Birkat Hamazon (the grace after the meal), and Joel kept making me laugh by looking at me during the parts where the summer camp version would have us sing silly English phrases instead.  Afterwards, Jonathan told me that he finally believes that I was a relatively observant Jew at home (because I knew all the words, or something).  I guess I have Camp Ramah to thank for that!

After all that hooplah, I walked Daniela partially home, then grabbed some juice at a convenience store before heading to Perlman for the afternoon, to continue the work I had begun on slides for my presentation Monday.  I was surprised to find Noa AND Patro both in the office and lab, but it was nice not to be alone.  While at work, Tamar called me and invited me to go climbing with her tonight at the top roping place.  As I was excited to try my new harness, I happily accepted.

I left work around 7, and snacked on some hummus at Clore before changing and heading out.  Tamar picked me up right outside along Hertzl Street and we drove to Kiryat Ono together, where we met Giora and climbed!  There were lots of new routes up; we finished many, including an orange one, a green one, and a red one which I led.  I finished two routes I had made it to almost the end of before: a blue one which wasn't so bad but I had only tried at the end of last time, and the yellow one which has been my nemesis for almost a month.  I successfully finished both on lead!  That was exciting, but my new harness, while comfortable for belaying, cut slightly into my legs while I was hanging from the wall.  Hopefully I'm just wearing it wrong or something, but we'll see.

When I got back to Clore, I made two very important and pleasant phone calls: my parents, and Ben.  Finally, I chilled with everyone a bit before bed.  All in all, a relaxing day compared to many in the last week.

Day 54 - Inconsistencies in the rate of passage of time

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

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

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

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

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

Stay tuned for plenty of photos tomorrow...

Day 52 - These days keep getting better

Today began with coffee at Madaa, as usual, and a quick stop by my lab to grab samples before heading to the TEM to meet Talmon. I decided I needed more data on functionalized tubes, and we tried two samples that before hadn't yielded much data, just in case we had missed something. Turns out we had! Talmon found great areas of both samples and I have tons more data now. Not that I need it or anything, but it's always great to start the day with a really good TEM session. The best part, though, was towards the end, when Talmon goes, "I havea crazy idea..." Turns out that even though I'll be leaving soon and it doesn't make that much sense, he thinks I should tag along with Patro for the TEM course he's giving, just for fun! I know it seems really dorky, but it will be fun, and I walked back to Perlman with a huge grin on my face because of this news. It starts next week. Yay!

Anyways, we ended slightly earlier than 1 pm, so I was able to grab some money and meet almost the entire population of Weizmann summer students for lunch at San Martin. Naming them all would be ridiculous, so suffice it to say it was a good meal.

Back at Perlman, I did a lot of thinking in the afternoon about my project as a whole: have the basic questions changed? Have I found anything out? What can I make of this data? I started making a powerpoint and writing down some of my thoughts, and hopefully I will catch Professor Wagner in the next few days to discuss everything with him.

I worked pretty late, then headed home to change before grabbing a train to Tel Aviv. I got off at the Hashalom stop, which connects to the Azrieli Center, a complex of three buildings which also houses a relatively large mall. I shoppped for a couple of hours, then met Itamar near the food court. We had sushi for dinner, and I gave Itamar a few lessons on how to use chopsticks. With practice, he'll be a pro soon. When we were done eating, we went out to this courtyard on the third floor of the mall to check out the view of the buildings. It's a really cool-looking complex; see photos below for more detail. Finally we walked a bit down the street and caught a bus to take us to the beach area, where our destination was the bi-weekly jam session at a bar called Mike's Place.

We found some seats with an iffy view of the stage, which was at this point empty. Pretty soon, though, a drummer, guitarist, bass player, and keyboard player got up and played a few songs. The lead guitarist is apparently the coordinator of these jam sessions, because after the group played three songs or so, he asked who else in the audience played what instruments, and assempled a completely new "band" on stage to play a few more songs. This process repeated itself, shuffling through the musicians present. Exciting guests included a very hippie-looking soprano sax player, a tenor sax player, and a violinist/fiddler; I saw a trumpet player on deck but he didn't get on stage while we were there. Towards the middle some seats were vacated; we took them and found ourselves with a much better view of stage.

All of the ensembles were great! Some were louder than others, and Itamar and I preferred the slightly softer ones, because then we could hear the wind instruments. Two guys played the harmoica, and were both excellent. Itamar and I sipped Goldstar and just listened.

Slightly after midnight, we decided to wait for the current set to be over, then head out. We had to walk a bit to get back to the stop for the sherut I was planning on taking, so we took off our shoes and walked along the edge of the ocean, past at least 4 groups of kids smoking hookah and playing guitar (or recorder). I guess it's the latest trend. As we approached, my sherut back to the central bus station was filling up, so I said goodbye to Itamar and got on. Once there, the Rehovot sherut was empty when I got on. This disheartened me, but within 5 minutes, seven more people boarded. I was still marveling in the magical ability of sheruts to fill up when you need them when I took a brief and accidental nap, waking up a half hour later to find we hadn't left yet. So much for that theory.

Soon after I woke up, though, we were on the road. Back at Clore I found Stephen and Jonathan's room was the party spot; Daniela and I sat and listened to Jonathan and Stephen attempt to prove to Joel the existence of electrons from basic science and first principles. A few other discussion topics came up before we all about simultaneously decided to call it a night.

Today you get more pictures!

The Azrieli Center...

(from the distance)

Mike's Place...

Itamar looking goofy

Check out this ensemble!

On deck...

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