Day 75 - Drawn-out goodbyes

I woke up early and headed to Café Madaa, where I happily found Alissa and had a nice talk before going to the lab. Once there, I worked like a crazy person to finish processing and entering data from a few more images and adding the points to all my Sigma Plot files, then began cleaning up all my files so they’d be interpretable by a normal human being (a.k.a. one other than myself). By lunch I was only about halfway done, which depressed me as I had afternoon plans to head to Jerusalem with Jordan and Jonathan. I said goodbye to Erica as she left, then headed out to eat.

I was one of the first to arrive at San Martin for the real goodbye lunch, so started a movement by sitting at a very long table, hoping everyone would join. They did, in such numbers that naming them all would not only be pointless but also impossible, as I couldn’t even see everyone seated. Jordan sat near me and I told him Jonathan had texted me to back out of our journey, and that I would have to as well because I hadn’t yet found my professor, to whom I had to say goodbye before leaving. He was disappointed but understood, and decided to go anyway to pray for the last time at the western wall.

I was pretty bummed throughout lunch, and luckily Daniela spearheaded an effort to hang out with people later today. I had that to look forward to as I went back to work, where I photocopied my entire lab notebook and organized all my papers, then burned all of my TEM images and data files to a very large DVD for Professor Wagner. We kept missing each other when trying to say goodbye, though, so I was glad when he finally tracked me down in the photocopy room, shook my hand, and told me to write a draft of a paper. After this, there wasn’t much to do but turn in my keys and say goodbye to Noa, XiaoMeng, Patro, and Asaf. What a great group to work in, and a good building to be in. I couldn’t have asked for better.

It was about time, so I left, with all of my things, and met Daniela (successfully, this time!), Tamara, Rachel and Zvonimir for an afternoon coffee. Tamara had to leave after a bit to finish packing, but we lingered until the evening, then headed back to Clore. Everyone was chilling in the lobby, either doing nothing or making weekend plans for Eilat and Petra, and it was reluctantly that I headed downstairs to change and grab my climbing stuff. I did this slightly earlier than I needed so I could have plenty of time to say goodbye, especially to Clay and Tamara who were leaving tonight!

Finally I had to break away and go meet Nitzan, which I again did slightly earlier than I had to because I wanted to call Ben. I anticipated this being a rather short chat, but Nitzan was a bit late so it was much longer. We had a great talk, so I was in a happy mood by the time Nitzan arrived. I found, as soon as I got in the car, that Yaron had backed out, so it’d be us, and Giora and Tamar (a different Tamar, though, who they call by her last name to alleviate any confusion) would be meeting us there. It happened that they were both late as well, so there was no harm done.

For the second time, I was able to avoid the equipment fee by having all my own stuff. This was just one small positive thing at the start of a great night climbing. I mainly led, starting off by warming up on something I had already done. By the time I reached the top my arms were screaming, an alert besides my soreness of the past few days that I had really worked hard on Monday at Performance Rock. But somehow I still managed to feel great about my night.

I was the first of us to test a new blue route that became negative and had a huge feature, and Nitzan said it really showed how much I’ve been improving. He got farther than me, of course, but still wasn’t able to conquer it. Then we switched so I was with Tamar, and we top-roped quite a bit. There were plently of new, and as it turns out, challenging, routes for us to do, and I did some moves I don’t think I could have done before this summer. After a chunk of time, Giora had to leave, so we said goodbye, and soon after Tamar had to catch her bus. Nitzan then showed me a route he had told me about over the phone after the last time he was here: a blue one with overhanging steps. I didn’t get too far, but it was still fun to try. We cooled down and then went over to boulder.

Unlike other nights, I actually felt good about this bouldering session. At first Nitzan was suggesting ridiculous things, but this quickly changed into constructing routes which I could almost finish! Revolutionary. We had a good time and only stopped as the place was about to close.

We were both hungry as we approached Rehovot, so decided to go to the science park. Rapper, the Mexican place, was sadly closed, so we settled for Black Burger, a pretty decent burger place. I really amused Nitzan with the use of the Hebrew word for change, mostly because, I expect, he thinks I’m completely ignorant (when in fact that’s only 99.9% the case). After a bit we headed to his apartment, where I got the grand tour. He just moved in a couple of weeks ago, but it’s a really nice place. I looked at his photo albums from his trip to China as he burned me a ton of music, then he walked me back to campus.

Back in Clore, I had promised Jonathan to hang out, so I headed for his room. I found him slightly asleep, but woke him for a short chat which ended with me passing out mid-word. This I took as a good sign to go to sleep.

Zvonimir contemplating science 

(which is what the second word of the name of Cafe Madaa means)

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

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 73 - Quit while you're ahead!

The big day. I stopped by Café Madaa and got iced coffee to go, then headed straight to Schmidt Auditorium, where we’d be hearing each other’s presentations most of the day.

Maria Magdalena went first. I was second to last, after two breaks. When I stood up, we were actually 4 minutes ahead of schedule, but by the time I sat down, we were 5 minutes behind. I spoke a bit too long, but I think it went well, and I got lots of questions, which was really nice: among others, Ari asked about the difference in size for functionalized tubes, and Tanmay asked about the TEM. Professor Wagner and practically the whole group (Erica, XiaoMeng, and Patro) showed up, as well as Asaf and Nitzan! This was nice but rather embarrassing, especially when my whole fan club got up to leave just as I finished, leaving the hall much emptier than before.

Maciej finished up the day with his presentation on the subject of particle physics, and spoke really well though I couldn’t get everything he was saying. I headed back to work for a few hours after we concluded for the day, taking a break to meet Lisa and get some delicious chocolate cake at Café Madaa before resuming until around 6:30.

At 7, Tamara had plans to find some kosher sushi along Hertzl, so we set off once our group, consisting of Rachel, Lisa, Dan, Jordan, and Joel, had all arrived and put their stuff in their rooms. Unfortunately, we knew Tuk Tuk to be not kosher, and SameSame, which had a kosher marking on their sign, had it covered up and told Tamara something confusing involving their vegetables, or something, and that they would be kosher next week. We moved on to Buzzi, where our luck was worse: there was nothing kosher about it.

After walking a bit farther along Hertzl seeking a meet place (because Joel is lactose intolerant), we finally turned back and settled for our favorite meat sandwich place about two blocks from Clore. Not as hungry, I decided to get falafel next door, and Lisa joined me. This was a good decision not only because the pitas are of a less gargantuan size, but we weren’t part of a huge group and so got our food and ate it before many of the other group had even completed ordering. We sat and chilled until everyone had gotten their food and eaten, though, at which point Lisa and I headed back to Clore.

I grabbed some things I needed to return at the mall before heading out again. We ran into Rachel coming towards us as part of the rest of the group returning, but she joined us for the walk. The first stop was Tartufo, because Lisa had yet to partake of ice cream at all in Israel, and considered herself a snob, a purist and a traditionalist at once. She ended up getting chocolate orange, but not before she and I tried lots of flavors and Rachel tried a few of the sorbets (she had had meat too recently). We sat for a bit to allow Lisa to eat, then continued down Hertzl towards the mall. On the way, we decided on a whim to see if the grocery store had Tim Tams, and, lo and behold, it miraculously did! I bought two boxes.

As we left, we passed a lottery booth. Rachel had told me earlier this morning of her stellar 5-shekel victory, so with Rachel and Lisa’s help, I purchased a scratch-off ticket for 5 shekels. The man asked me my astrological sign and seemed pleased with my answer, and I scratched it and happened to win 10 shekels! I decided to quit while I was ahead (after all, 5 shekels isn’t too shabby), and we continued along our way.

At the mall, I made the necessary return, which was complicated because I also wanted to have them retroactively apply my (new) membership discount, but it eventually was a success, so we left. Near campus once more, we stopped in the small grocery to get juice, for now, and chocolate milk, for the Tim Tam adventure. I used my newly won lottery money to buy myself a carton of chocolate milk in celebration, and we sipped as we crossed the street and entered Clore.

The three of us hung out a bit more in the basement kitchen, where we were joined by Jordan and Jonathan, the latter of whom had the wacky idea to try to flip, with one finger and in one motion, a chair from upside-down on the table to the floor so he could sit on it. Obviously this was a failure, and was very noisy, so he soon gave up and contented to make himself a sandwich. He put it away when he heard of my plans for ice cream with Tamar later, and decided to tag along.

When Tamar texted me that she was close by, we left, and met her there. I got the chocolate orange, which is really to die for, and snickers, while Tamar stuck with her favorite flavors. This would be our last ice cream date, so we sat and chatted for as long as we could, but Tamar had to be up early to baby-sit her cousin and eventually we had to call it a night. We said goodbye and wished each other luck on our travels (she’s headed to Spain next week, semi-permanently), then Jonathan and I headed back to Clore.

We found Jordan and Joel chilling in the lobby, and sat to join them. The main discussion topic was a minority, but not rare, tendency to mislabel Jonathan’s orientation, and a dissection of Jonathan’s every aspect resulted, trying to identify the source of the confusion. The upshot: it isn’t any one thing. Jordan eventually left the discussion in favor of bed, but Joel, Jonathan and I kept at this until far too late, when we all followed suit.

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 67 - A Musical and Philosophical Evening

I woke up slightly early this morning to go to the front gate and meet Eli, my family's guide. I got in his van just as he was getting through the gate; evidently he didn't need my help with that. We drove to San Martin, where I helped my family get their luggage down to the van and such for a few minutes before I had to head to work.

After dropping my stuff off in the lab and grabbing my samples, I headed to the TEM for our last session with Talmon. Patro and I had gotten a taste of working on the microscope last session with alignment procedures, but this time, with supervision, Patro basically did the entire procedure. He took some images, then turned the machine over to me to do the same. Talmon told me just after this that I was ready to operate the TEM without supervision!!!

Just before lunchtime I found myself grabbing my final forms and heading to the library for a signature (the department secretary's I had gotten first, and I had miraculously happened to run into Nissim after hours for his, so the librarian's was the last I needed). I then went straight to Cafe Madaa to meet Tamara and Dan for sandwiches. Tamara and I split a piece of cake that was chocolate and spiky and wonderful.

During the afternoon I managed to finish a draft of my abstract, as well as work on my presentation and write-up of my summer. I worked straight until 6, when I left and headed to Clore for an event arranged by Greta. We sat around and watched as she spread out some snacks and food, then at 6:30 went into the music room for a musical evening put on by the Russian summer students, Anya, Marina, and Andre. They made programs listing the songs we'd be hearing, and played the piano and violin (Anya on violin, the others on piano) for almost an hour! All of them were amazing, and the music room was packed, with summer students and Weizmann students from Clore.

Marina and Andrew each played an encore before we all headed back out to the lobby for snacks, fruit, and ice cream homemade by Greta, which was delicious. I couldn't hold back, and ate a few helpings of it. Then Daniela, Rachel and I headed out for dinner to the science park. Once there, we looked at menus at a few restaurants before finally settling on Papardella, an Italian (and Kosher) restaurant. Both Daniela and I ordered gnocci, with different sauces, and Rachel, who had had a craving for corn, had brought her own can of it, so semi-secretly ate it when our meals arrived. The restaurant was nice, although it didn't have its own bathroom on the premises (there was one labeled with the restaurant's name around the corner). Also, as is shown below, the cute ambiance of the terrace was overshadowed by a towering sign for the neighboring gas station.

After eating, we just sat and talked for a couple of hours, about religion, which always seems to come up when Rachel is present. The interesting thing is that Judaism was only a part this time. Daniela shared some really interesting experiences from her year in Africa, and as it turns out, she's rather spiritual. We also talked about reincarnation, and how it's mentioned in Judaism not just in arcane texts but in the daily prayer to be said before bed. The weather was actually rather cool, so it was a pleasant evening to just sit and chat.

After the walk back, we said goodbye to Daniela outside Clore and headed in. Rachel and I ate a bit of ice cream and chatted with physics Dan in the kitchen. I retired once my eyes wouldn't stay open.

Here are a few pictures from this evening:

The program:

Marina playing

Anya on violin, Andre on piano

The Entertainer (piano, four hands)

What a crowd!

Me, Daniela, and Rachel under the Sonol sign

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 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 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