Weizmann Summer Science Program

Post Mortem 7-10

2004-08-08T08:25:00.000+03:00

On Thursday morning, I went to the beach with my cousin Ittai - we brought the dog as well. We walked along the shore, and then went into the water. As fun as it was to swim in the huge waves, it was no fun getting salt water in my nose... or eyes... or my mouth for that matter. Regardless, I went in again on Friday.

In the afternoon, my cousin Josh graduated from basic training. We all went to the ceremony where he receives his beret. Before the ceremony, Ittai and I were talking with him, and he was reaching into his pocket for something. He tells me "Hold this" and gives me his M-16. I personally wondered "what kind of nut case would trust *me* with a gun" - however, I handed my camera to someone and had a picture taken of me.

After the ceremony, we all went to a south american restaurant, had nice conversations, same old...

On Friday, I slept in, then went over to my Aunt Shirley's to hang out with several of my cousins there. Before Shabbat, we went to the beach again, and I went swimming in the sea... again. I managed to keep the water out of my crevices, and I had a great time. We returned to Aunt Shirley's and had dinner there.

On Saturday, I learned that my cousins, Assaf and Ittai, are soccer hooligans. They brought me to a game, where they beat on large drums, chanted curses at the other team. After a while, I found myself beating on the drum and chanting the curses as well. The game was Hapoel Haifa against Maccabi Haifa - Maccabi Haifa is the current champion, and my cousins are fans of Hapoel Haifa. Apparently, one Hapoel player went to Maccabi for money - he was benched at the beginning of the game - so everyone was cursing him, calling him a traitor, taunting him that he was benched, etc.

Tonight, I come home. Not sure what the plan is for today, but I hope it involves Shawarma.

-- Alex

Post Mortem Day 6

2004-08-04T22:57:00.000+03:00

Yesterday, we ended up going to the mall in Pisgat Ze'ev. Still haven't found Sharwallim, but it turns out that thats not what my sister was looking for... Apparently, Sharwallim and "Fisherman Pants" are different. Sounds like she was describing "Fisherman Pants", and not Sharwallim.

Oh well. I'll hopefully find them before I leave.

Anyway, the plan was to go to Haifa yesterday, however, Naava invited me to come with her to a poetry shtick last night - she told me that the poetry is crap, but we'd meet interesting people. Sure enough, we did. But that's not the whole story. I had the entire day, so we left for Tel Aviv at 3:30 - I met up with Orly, a friend from the Weizmann program, who showed me around Tel Aviv university - she'll be there for the year. She had a dinner to attend - one that was being held for participants of the program that she is on, so I then went to a Hotel on the "Tayelet" (beachside pedestrian walkway thingy) where I met 3 other Weizmann participants. One, Lillian, was about to leave for a bus to Jerusalem, one, Ora, had dinner to go to, so I hung out with Amir - who is on a program at Ben Gurion University (in Be'er Sheva), similar to that which Orly is attending. He was staying in Tel Aviv with old friends, so I went along with him to where he was staying - they were particularly nice people.

Afterwards, I went to the poetry thing - Naava was right - there were rather interesting people there, but we both got a little bored, so we returned to Jerusalem.

Today, I came to Haifa. I met up with my cousin Nancy at the station. I hung out at my Aunt Shirley's for the afternoon, and in the evening, after dinner, Nancy took me to the Tayelet in Haifa we had a nice walk and a nice chat (and a nice ice cream), then returned to her house. My cousin Ittai just finished his Army service today, and we were all rather excited to see him.

I have to run, so that is all.

-- Alex

Post Mortem Day 3-5

2004-08-03T09:29:00.000+03:00

On Sunday, I slept in, once again, to about 10:00 or so. It certainly beats waking up at 3:30. Our plan was initially for me and Michal to go to the mall at 11:30 or so. We really ended up going at around 3:00, but it meant Naava could come too. So I was busy carrying around Naava's purse while we picked through women's clothing. I, playing the role of some girl carrying around Naava's purse, pointed out a pair of short shorts that I would have considered buying (cough) - Michal and Naava convinced me otherwise. Oh well. Later on, Ela, Michal's good friend, joined us. At one point, I was holding 3 purses while the three girls were trying different things on. It was horrible! Fortunately for me, Ela's boyfriend came around, and there was more of a male presence. He was a pretty funny guy. Anyway, we went for lunch - I had, none other than, shawarma. It wasn't all that great - it was somewhat dry, not nearly as good as the shawarma in Rehovot - but what can you expect from a stand in a mall... The girls shared chinese food. It probably isn't anything like the chinese food in Toronto, but it was kosher... I tried a piece of the sweet and sour chicken - it was pretty good. When we were leaving with David, he asked if we wanted to rent a movie, so we went to a movie rental machine. I suggested the Butterfly Effect. Michal and Yael *loved* it.

Yesterday, we went to the restaurant where Michal waitresses. We badgered her well! I wanted to take a picture, but my camera was out of battery - she had been spared. Beth, Yael and I then went to the Armoured Division's memorial/museum in Latrun. We learned about the battles at Latrun - a strategic point overlooking much of Israel - during the independance war. We also saw a wall with all the names of the armoured division that fell in battle. Afterwards, we went to mini-Israel, where we saw mini-everything. Including a mini-Western Wall, and a Mini-Particle accelerator (the one at the mini-Weizmann Institute). There were also mini-beaches and mini-buildings,accompanied by mini-cars, trucks and motorcycles. Afterwards, I met with Ronit for dinner - we went to Vaquiero. I never knew I could eat so much food. It was incredible. I have pictures of me and Ronit standing there, with the Vaquiero sign in the background.

Today, we are going shopping in downtown Jerusalem. But I have to get dressed quickly, because Ela is coming over today to pack with Michal - they are going to Spain tomorrow.

-- Alex

Post-Mortem Day 1-2

2004-07-31T23:48:00.000+03:00

I managed to get 2-3 hours of sleep thursday night. I woke up at about 5:45, leaving me 15 minutes to say goodbye to my American/UK friends. Friday was, indeed, a sad day. In reality, we will probably never see each other again as a full group. Ideally, we'd all like to keep in touch with each other, but in reality, we'll probably end up keeping in touch with maybe 10, at most, of the people. It's pretty sad when you think about how, in the future, many old friends disappear, and you can't imagine how you could possibly forget about them, but it seems to happen. I guess I get a little cynical at some times. It doesn't come often to me.

Anyways, I caught a bus to Jerusalem at about 10:30 in the morning on Friday, I met David at the bus station. I took a little nap in the afternoon, to compensate for my lack of sleep earlier. We went to shul for Kabbalat Shabbat, where Michal, Yael, and (of course) Beth sang - its Shloshim for the song writer who wrote Yerushalaim Shel Zahav, Sheleg al Iri, and a number of other songs. They all sang very beautifully! Beth Led Lecha Dodi to three different tunes of songs written by this song writer. We went home and had a Shabbat dinner cooked entirely by Michal and Naava (I chopped the carrots and celery for the soup!) - they did not allow David, the usual chef, into the kitchen. I ought to try that some time... though my dad, bless his heart, will always find some way to "help" (aka take over!)

Today, Beth and David let me sleep in until 10, when Michal and Naava decided that it was time for me to wake up - it was the latest I had slept the entire month. It was well deserved. We played Shesh Besh (Backgammon) and Naava beat me 2 out of 3 times - but the third time, I beat her and she had not yet removed any pieces from the board, nor had she finished clearing pieces from my side. There was a name for that kind of win, but I forgot what it is. Oh well, I was proud of myself! I also taught Michal and Yael (who was a little less interested) how to play Texas Hold 'em. Michal beat me... I guess she learned from an expert :-)

We did havdalah, then David, Yael and I went out for dinner - Yael and I had Porgiot. It is grilled chicken filet bits in pita - Beth claims my dad hasn't had something. I was almost sure that my dad would have tried any sort of Israeli food. I thought that if you ate Jerusalem Mix, you ate anything. I guess I was wrong. It was pretty good though. We then visited Yoni, our British cousin, who was here on a Bnai Akiva trip. His grandpa Morris was there, and Josh came by as well. I took a few pictures, as did Yael, who was fascinated by my camera.

That's that.

Day 24-25

2004-07-29T20:40:00.001+03:00

At the Bedouin camp, we all slept together under one tent. After we woke, we had an amazing breakfast - it included fresh baked bread. It was veerrrrry tasty. We then went on a camel tour. Michelle and I were paired on one camel. Apparently it was the strongest in the herd, because I overheard one of the Bedouins ask, as he approached Michelle and me to help us onto the camel, "?יש שמנים בקפוצה" - are there any fat people in the group. Anyhow, Michelle and I named our camel "Joe" because "My name is Joe and I AM CANADIAN". Hey... we thought it was funny at the time. Anyway, we learned quite a bit about Camels, how they are the supreme desert animal. Everything was very interesting, much of it was somewhat distasteful. I won't go into many details, but it involved materials which are excreted from the body.

After the camel ride, we left the Bedouin camp and went on a hike through a dry stream. We saw many different types of rock, and at the end, we were given vials to collect sand in various colors. I made a nicely colored vial. I should drop science and take up fine art.

We returned to Rehovot, and I sifted through my emails, and made a long blog post before heading out for shawarma and drinks.

Today, we had the latest wake up this entire trip. 8:15. Of course, my stupid internal clock woke me at 7:15. Oh well. I guess this might mean, to my parents' delight, that I won't oversleep much at university.

It was pretty much a free day, I spent some time packing, some time putting together a bunch of movie clips and making my 2nd ever film. We also got our journals - we did alot of signing, then had our last dinner. We received our participation certificates and our group photo. I don't count on getting much sleep tonight. Both my roommates are leaving at 6 am. I'll make up for it on the bus to Jerusalem tomorrow.

2004-07-28T17:45:00.000+03:00

Day 19

We left for Jerusalem - a last minute addition to our itinerary - at around 7 in the morning. We stopped at an observation point overlooking the Old City. It was a nice view despite the fact that right in front of us was what seemed like an old land fill. After we listened to the tour guides talk about some history, we ate lunch, then boarded the busses. We stopped at Mount Zion, where we saw King David's supposed tomb, the room where the Last Supper was held, and Mary's grave. We then walked into the Cardo, and we were told more details about the history of the Old City. I had not realized that we were in the Cardo until I saw a sign that said "Cardo Gallery". It occured to me that Ronit, a friend of ours, owns a shop in the Cardo. I gave her a quick call to let her know where I was, and she met me as we we were walking towards the stairs overlooking the Kotel. We chatted for about a minute before I had to catch up with the group.

We then went to the Kotel. I followed a couple people into the room to the left of the outside portion of the wall. An old man handed me flowers and told me to recite the Besamim Prayer. I was not quite sure of the purpose, however, he seemed like a friendly person, so I did as he asked. I went outside again, and approached a stand where a few Hasidim were giving Tefillin to Jews to put on, and helping them with the prayers. I put on Tefillin, said as much of Shacharit as I could before we had to leave. I thanked the Hasidim profusely, wished them a Shabbat Shalom, and put some money in the Tzedaka box that they had placed on the stand.

We left Jerusalem and went for a hike in an "ecological island" - it is the only place with fresh water for many kilometers. We were taught about the biological and evolutionary workings of several plants and animals. We also saw many telapia in the water - I proposed that we catch some and have lunch (I was particularly hungry). There were also many palm trees - the dates were not yet ripe, unfortunately (not for another 3 months). We had a decent lunch after the hike, then left for the Field School in Ein Gedi. There, I had a nap, then we did a Kabbalat Shabbat Service - I counted 6 countries that were participating in the service. Everyone knew the same tunes. We had a very nice Shabbat Dinner, then went outside where we were shown several constellations and the surrounding area that we would be hiking the next day.

An interesting note about Ein Gedi Field School. Up until then, we had not needed any towels. Towels were provided for us by The Weizmann Institute, and there were towels provided at the Kinneret and Eilat. So I assumed I wouldn't need to pack towels for Ein Gedi. Oops.

Day 20

We woke up at 6 in the morning and ate breakfast quickly. At 7, we went hiking at Nahal David. It was an incredible place to hike - there were several "slides" - smooth surfaces that I'd sit down and slide to the bottom. I also had 3 near-death experiences within about 5 minutes. We were traversing a wall with narrow foot holds. There were handles to hold onto for safefy. Me and a few other people thought that they were foot holds. So we were holding onto the side of the rock. At one point, I didn't have a good grip and almost feel into a slimy pool of water. Worse than death, i thought. I fortunately didn't fall. I don't recall the second one, but the third, I went down a long "slide" and almost toppled over. I just scraped my knee a bit.

There were several places to swim along the way. At the first, the water was an interesting shade of green. It didn't bother alot of people, but I wasn't too keen on catching any sort of bacterial infection, so I passed on that particular spot. Later on during the hike, we went to the Ein Gedi Spring, where I waded in the water. Only when we reached a nice waterfall did I decide to go completely in the water. Once we reached the end of the hike, we bought some overpriced soft drinks and made it back to the Field School for a late lunch.

After lunch, I took a long, well deserved nap. We visited the shore of the Dead Sea. 30% of its mass is salt. Half magnesium chloride, half sodium chloride (table salt). We had a stone skipping contest - there were many flat stones, ideal for skipping :-D The fact that we were skipping them into the Dead Sea probably helped too. I helped one of the counselors collect salt deposits from large rocks. I wasn't sure why we were doing it, but it kept me occupied. I went to bed at 9:30

Day 21

We woke up at 3:45 in the morning (not our earliest, by the way) - we had a snack and packed breakfast. We were out of the Field School by 5:00. We watched the sunrise as we discussed survival in the desert. We designed and conducted an experiment to estimate how much we sweat per hour. We estimated that the forearm (elbow to fingers) is appx 5% of the body's surface area. We made a number of assumptions, including: We sweat the same everywhere on our body, that the temperature and rate of exercise would remain constant, etc. These assumptions meant that our estimation would probably be lower than reality. Anyways, it was a rather nasty experience. I felt the sweat accumulating on my arm, the entire bag was coated with a thin layer, and there was a small pool of sweat at the bottom of the bag. And to think, my bag was even leaking the entire time. We extracted only 6.5 mL from my bag - we estimated that the total that was still on my arm and in the bag was about 2 mL. The average, not including everyone who leaked, was about 17 mL. This meant that after a 10 hour hike (we were gone for 13 hours) one would sweat 3.2 Litres. Mmm. Despite my disgust, it was an incredible hike. On the way into the canyon, there was alot to climb. When we made it to *the* rest stop at about 12:30, everyone had lunch. Some people went swimming, some went climbing. I took a 3 hour nap.

Our return trip was not as fun. I was still a bit tired from waking up. It was a long, slow descent, which was great considering my exhausted state. We stopped several times to learn about desert plants - some have roots 20 meters deep to locate water. None can ever *expect* rain at any particular moment. Desert plants and animals will reproduce immediately after rain - plants will drop their seeds. Animals will...

Day 22

We woke at 7:00 - it was a nice break from the 4-5 o'clock wake ups. We were, however, expecting an 8:30 wake up that happened to be a typo. Today's hike, as relatively short as it was (only 4 hours) was not very fun - most of the hike, at Nahal Arugot, was in direct sunlight, and I was hungry for the second half of the hike because I had forgotten to pack a snack. Also, since we were in the sun most of the time, my water was very hot. I wasn't really keen on drinking it, so I was a bit dehydrated. There were two stops along the way where we went swimming. One had a massive waterfall - it felt like a massage - I wore my hat underneath, and I could open my eyes and look around.

We returned to the Field School - I ate a rather large lunch, then took a nap. I woke up to find that the air conditioning had turned off, and I was sweating buckets. We went to a beach on the Dead Sea after I woke up. I didn't go in - I wasn't particularly fond of my experience 8 years ago, and I didn't feel it was necessary to repeat it. I took a number of pictures with someone else's camera because I had forgotten my own back at the Field School. After an hour of stinging salt, everyone seemed happy to go back to the Field School.

Tomorrow is a 3:15 wake up - I might die. At least it will be in the holy land!

Day 23

We woke up at 3:30, packed our things, and left quickly for Masada. We arrived at about 5:00, a tiny bit behind schedule. It was practically a race against the clock, to get to the top by 6:00. We still had a bit of a head start. I was about the 15th person to reach the top. We sat on a ledge on the east side of the mountain. It was incredible to watch the sunrise. It took about 3 minutes for the sun to appear completely above the mountains across the Dead Sea, in Jordan. We walked around Masada, learning about it's history. It was initially a palace, built for Herod "the Great". I wrote a paper in grade 10 about how he was a particularly bad ruler for the Jews, having "Romanized" the Temple, killing his children out of paranoia, etc. Our guide was particlarly "pro-Herod". Despite our conflicting views, it was a very educational experience. We learned about how a radical group of Jews took over the mountain, and how it became a Haven as the revolt against the Romans begain to fail.

We also learned of their mass suicide. Personally, I was somewhat shocked that it is deemed "heroic". Allow me to take a moment to mention my current thoughts - The legend has it that the Red Sea did not part for the Jews during the Exodus until they were almost completely submerged in the water. They needed an incredible amount of faith in God to put their lives in God's hands as such. Instead of fighting for their lives, putting some sort of faith in God to redeem them, they threw their lives away. Similar battles had been recorded in the Bible. Who is to say that the 1000 people atop Masada would not have experienced a miraculous victory?

I guess there is no way of knowing now.

Anyways, after Masada, we came to a Bedouin camp and had lunch. We then went for a short walk to the "small crater". We returned and had a Bedouin feast. The food was incredible - we had lafa bread with meat, humus, vegetables, rice. It was almost as good as, if not slightly better than, the Druze lunch that we had two weeks ago. I was chatting quite a bit with one of our security guards - his English was not fantastic, so I helped him with his English, he helped me with my Hebrew. Later, we played a pickup game of soccer... errr... "Football" with some of the Bedouin teens. With the combination of sandals, poor skill, and hardly any light, my game was not up to par with everyone else's. Regardless, it was fun.

Day 18

2004-07-22T18:39:00.000+03:00

Yesterday was basically "Work all day" day. We 'thought' we almost had our report and presentation done. We were wrong. This morning, we went to the lab and finished everything with an hour to spare before our presentation. Everything went very well though. I'm not quite sure if everyone understood what we were talking about, but everyone loved our intro movie. I think we should put it in a few theatres. I'd get an Oscar, I'm sure.

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that two nights ago, I went for shawarma again. Once again, it was an incredible experience. I could write paragraphs about the taste, but I think I'll spare you all.

Last night, Ruben and I went into town to get a gift for our mentor. After about an hour of searching, we finally came upon a nice pen set with a Jewish Star keychain. I also bought a סבלימינל CD - their second one. It was a price comparable to most CDs in Canada, so don't freak out, dad.

Tonight, we are just chilling around for a barbecue. Relaxation after a hard day's work. Tomorrow we leave for Jerusalem then Ein Gedi. The coordinators managed to fit in a day in Jerusalem - everyone was rather pleased. It'll be 6 days without internet access, so i think I'll record a journal on... gasp... paper. I'll type it all up when we return.

We also received our program T-Shirts. We were all quite excited - except that all the t-shirts are smaller than advertised. It seemed as if all the sizes were rather small - a large was a medium, a medium was small. Fortunately, like a moron, i put myself down for XL. Wasn't so bad after all.

Bye Bye.
-- Alex

Day 17

2004-07-21T08:57:00.000+03:00

Two nights ago, I got only 5 hours of sleep, because I was hanging out with a couple friends. So yesterday, I was rather exhausted. I took a 2 hour nap... in the computer lab during lab hours. It wasn't really a big deal, because I had been doing some work on our report while Michelle was doing some preparations. When I let Rubén take over for me, I put my head down, and woke up two hours later when they said "It's time to go back to the village."

Needless to say, I felt a bit less tired when I woke up. In any case, tomorrow we submit our reports and perform our presentations, so we are devoting the entire day today (minus half an hour for e-mail) to working on our report and presentation. Exciting...

Oh well, its about halfway finished already, and Vered, our mentor, will be helping us to complete it without leaving out any details. We also found out at breakfast that we will be stopping in Jerusalem on the way to Ein Gedi on Friday. Apparently it is going to be a very strict/safe itinerary, so (a) we won't have anything to worry about (b) I won't have a chance to see my cousins there. Its okay though. I'll be staying with them next week for a few days.

Well, off to do some work now.
-- Alex

Day 16

2004-07-20T09:48:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I completed the intro movie for our presentation. Its really crappy, but kind of funny. Its no Spielberg though. We also celebrated the birthdays, and the birthday girls were rather happy. Most of all, we had a lecture/demonstration about soap bubbles, and how they solve problems. Despite what I expected, it was a very interesting demonstration, and we learned a bit about energy efficiency and all that fun stuff. At the end of the demonstration, he gave a geometry problem, and told everyone that whoever comes up with the answer will win 50 shekels. Apparently, Michelle found the answer, so she told Ruben and me that we'd go for an ice cream party. Ice cream is really nice at 35 degree weather.

That's all for today.
-- Alex

Day 15

2004-07-19T09:20:00.000+03:00

Yesterday was a bit of a confoosling day. There was a birthday yesterday, and one last night/today (Shira, a Canadian, celebrates her hebrew birthday) In a nutshell, there were lots of birthday politics that went on, but hopefully it will all be fixed tonight.

Last night we slept on the roof of one of the buildings. It was a fun experience, but I probably won't do it again. The humid air condensed on our pillows and sleeping bags, and we woke up rather moist. Not a problem for me - there's only 3 people in my 4 person room, so I'll just take the extra set of pillows.

During our free time during labs, we began work on our presentation and report. We started working on an "intro" video which will introduce us and our work. It will be about a minute long, or so. For my first time doing any sort of digital editing, I think I'm doing a pretty good job. I'll talk more about it after the presentation, just in case any other members of the program are reading this (shifty eyes).

Today, Vered is back. We sent the two products of the carminic acid reaction to a mass spectrometer to determine which is the one we want.

All in all, yesterday was the "same old, same old". Nothing very exciting to report, thus the unusually short length of my blog post.

-- Alex

P.S. speaking of short, I bought a book, "מר קצר" for Maricris - its one of those "Mr. ---" books, in hebrew. If I can't decypher it, I'll have Jessie do it for me.

Day 12-14

2004-07-18T09:00:00.000+03:00

Early Friday morning, we left for Eilat. We arrived 6 hours later, unpacked, ate lunch, then went across the street to a beach. The coordinators rented many sets of snorkel gear, and I managed to get a hold of one. The first time I went under water, I looked at the fish, and it was incredible - I was disappointed because the underwater cameras cost 75 shekel and I decided it was too expensive. Fortunately, one person brought a waterproof disposible from home, so I'll try to get her pictures if she scans them.

The first time the sea water hit my mouth, I practically died. The salt in the water was nasty. What was worse was when I finally gave up the snorkel gear to someone else, The water periodically got into my eyes, and I realized that it probably was not a good that I neglected to remove my contacts from my eyes before hand. I couldn't see a thing, so I hung out on a floating bar (designed for tired swimmers to rest on) until I could get another snorkel set.

After we were done snorkeling, we had free time until dinner. I had seen dozens of kite-boarders (board with foot straps, and they use a large parachute-type "kite" to propel them) around the area, so I was determined to learn how to do it. Me, Ruben (my Mexican lab partner) and Alejandra, another Mexican friend, went to the beach where all the kiteboarders were. While Ruben went to find out about what it would take to get lessons and rent equipment, I was taking spectacular pictures of kiteboarders doing tricks mid-air. It turned out that they don't rent equipment, so I was rather disappointed, however, I intend on taking a lesson or two when I get home. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do it on Lake Muskoka because it is apparently too rocky for it, however, it would be a nice experience, and perhaps I'll be able to do it on Lake Ontario when I'm at Queen's. If it isn't frozen over.

At night, we went for a "barbeque" at a "Texas Ranch". All the North Americans found it funny that we were going to a "Texas Ranch" in Israel... Especially when Texas isn't too far from home. Anyways, we ate, and then we all danced. I learned how to Cha-Cha and how to Salsa. I wasn't bad, but there is definitely room for improvement.

Afterwards, we went into the city. Me and a few other friends went to a bar and had a couple drinks. It was a nice place, except the music was incredibly loud, and we couldn't hear each other speak. We decided to stay later and missed the bus back (we already told the staff that we'd be late) We took taxis back, and on the way, I was chatting with the cabbie in Hebrew. It was an amazing experience :-)

The next day, we went on a Yacht for the day. We were taken to the borders with Jordan and Egypt. We also had a chance to go Tubing, Banana Boating, and/or Parasailing. I decided to go on the Banana boat, because Parasailing was fairly expensive, and I didn't want to waste my parents' money. Despite the fact that I put on sunscreen, and that I reapplied it, I got a pretty bad burn. I've been putting an Aloe gel on it, it's somewhat soothing, but burns, in general, are pretty sucky. At one point, the boat dropped its anchor, and we were given a chance to swim off the boat. Many of us jumped off the second floor of the boat - some nuts even jumped from the 3rd level. Not me. When we returned from the Yacht ride, we took quick showers, packed our things, and boarded the bus to come home.

When we met up with the people who didn't come on the trip, it seriously seemed like we had not seen them for ages. We ordered pizza, because we were all kind of hungry, and I shared my pictures with them - I was so proud of my pictures, because SOOOO many of them turned out spectacularly.

This morning, our cafeteria sunk to a new low. There were FOUR types of eggs for breakfast. Egg salad, egg omelete, poached eggs in some red sauce, and scrambled egg. I think I'm going to die. In any case, Vered, our mentor, is sick today, so I'm not sure what we are going to do, but they are going to take care of us. It also means that I actually have time to post all of this.

Lastly, I finally saw someone wearing these שרוול pants that my sister has been obsessing about. They are SOOOO cool. I think I'm going to get myself a couple pairs, because apparently, they are rather cheap - some people got them for 25 shekel. I expect Michal and Naava to help me find a few nice pairs :-)

לבריאות
-- Alex

Still Day 11

2004-07-15T22:45:00.000+03:00

I just returned from Jerusalem. It was pretty uneventful, except for a number of... events.

So my bus to Jerusalem left at 3:10, without me. I left my lab at 2:10 just in case I got lost. Well, I passed right by the Rehovot mall which has the bus station inside. After I realized that I went way too far, I asked where the station was, and turned back. On the way, two girls spoke to me in Hebrew. I told them, in Hebrew, to speak slowly because I speak very little Hebrew. Turned out that their cellphone was busted and that they wanted to borrow mine. I told them that I was in a big hurry and I was really sorry.

Anyways, I get to the station at 3:00, and there is only one ticket booth open. There were two teens there that took waaaay too long. I missed my bus and I took the 4:20 bus there.

When I got there, David and Michal were there to pick me up. We went to their house and hung out there.

My return bus was at 8:45. I didn't catch that either. I arrived at the station at 8:35, and the bus was absolutely packed. People were standing up in the aisle. The bus driver turned me away along with 6-7 other people. I gave David a call, and he drove me to Rehovot. It wasn't all bad, we had nice conversations about Michael Moore's flagrant stupidity.

Tomorrow we wake up at 5 in the morning to leave for Eilat at 6. We return on Saturday night. So I guess I'm making up for tomorrow's post by posting again today. Oh well.

אין לי כלום לכתוב בעברית.

Oops, nevermind.

-- Alex

Day 11

2004-07-15T13:07:00.000+03:00

Last night was a lot of fun. When I returned from lab work, an Israeli and I compiled a CD full of Israeli music - Mizrachi, Rock, the works. Its an incredible mix :-) I finished burning the CD just as the Israeli Night started. The coordinators hired people to make fresh falafel for us, and it was incredible. We were schmoozing for a little while, listening to my beloved mix.

After about a half an hour, an Israeli belly dancer arrived, and taught us all how to belly dance. She handed out the jingly hip scarf thingies. I decided to grab one for myself. She taught us a little history behind belly dancing - that it was not originally for entertainment, but for woman's self-expression. Women did it with each other, fully clothed. Apparently, the modern belly dancing outfit is a creation of the West. I'm not complaining.

Once our hips were all wasted, and after we all had a number of good laughs, she changed out of her outfit while we took a 5 minute water break, and then taught us some Israeli folk dancing. At first, many were quite clumsy, but eventually, just about everyone got the hang of it. It was a very different experience doing it with so many people from so many different cultures, as I'm used to doing it only with Jews.

After the Israeli Night was over, I plugged the CD player in outside, and we listened to the Israeli mix again while playing ping pong, and playing cards.

This morning, in the lab, we extracted the two main products from the Carminic Acid reaction, and we will be evaporating them, then testing them under a mass spectrometer to determine which is the one that we want.

We also started a new reaction - a molecule developed and patented by the Weizmann institute (dibromyl-methyl-helianthrone) will also be tried as one of the photosensitive drugs that will be attached to GnRH, the peptide carrier. We are currently attempting to attach an organic acid to it in order to have a point to which we can attach the peptide.

I'm leaving the Weizmann institute in an hour to go to Jerusalem to hang out with my cousins, Michal and Naava, for the evening. I'm looking forward to seeing them, because its not every day that you can see your cousins who live halfway across the world. Besides, Michal is my only cousin that was also born in 1986.

לשעה‮ ‬הבא‮ ‬בירושלים
-- Alex‮ ‬

Day 10

2004-07-14T09:19:00.000+03:00

Yesterday, we got quite a bit done in the lab, but afterwards, we practically had the night to ourselves. We first visited the particle accelerator, and I don't know whose brilliant idea it was, but a few people decided that everyone should climb up to the top, instead of taking the elevator. So we all did. Worst experience *ever*. I was hot and sweaty by the time I made it to the top, and the air conditioning at the top was not so great. However, it was interesting to see how particles are accelerated.

On the way to the particle accelerator, the physic coordinator who was giving us the tour told us a story. The people who donated money for the construction of the particle accelerator asked that the building be the highest at the Weizmann Institute. At the same time, the people who donated money for the Solar power centre gave the condition that their building be the tallest at the Weizmann Institute. So, being logical scientists, they decide to make the ground floor of the solar building below ground level, such that it is the tallest building, but the particle accelerator is the highest.

It was a joke, of course. There were scientific reasons to build the ground floor of the solar building below ground.

Michelle and I were both very delighted to notice that the primary donors of the Particle Accelerator building were Ann and Max Tanenbaum, the same people who donated a large sum of money to CHAT to have the south campus in their name.

After the particle accelerator, we had a physics demonstration, where the founder of the Summer Science program showed us some neat tricks with a bunch of toys. Hard to really describe, but it was rather cool. My camera had run out of power right before the demonstration, so I'll try to get someone else's pictures.

After this, we had the night to ourselves. I worked on compiling a CD full of Israeli/Mizrachi music - partially for my own benefit, partially because we have an "Israeli Night" tonight. We'll be eating falafel (no shawarma...) listening to music, dancing, learning to belly dance... (shudder) And much more.

Today's lab work is devoted to dividing the carminic acid mixture and extracting the product that we want. Since a machine basically does it for us, we don't have much to do today.

Currently we are brainstorming ideas for our presentation. We want it to be a serious presentation, and we want to teach everyone, but at the same time, we want to have a little fun. We're (hopefully) going to keep our ideas to ourselves because they are rather clever.

I'm starting to get really tired of the food. Its practically the same every day... Hard to find variety - and although there is always a selection of desserts for lunch, I always tend to choose the worst one and regret it when I have a taste of someone elses. S'alright. I plan on having shawarma 3 times a day after the program is over. (drool)

בתאוון
-- Alex

Day 9

2004-07-13T09:06:00.000+03:00

Yesterday, we had a scheduled pool party. On mondays, the pool closes at 8 - so we were allowed to have the pool to ourselves for two hours - we played volleyball with a particularly slippery rubber ball. We also threw around my Canadian football a bit. Afterwards, we ate cake to celebrate two birthdays. Someone had balloons, so we filled a few with water. Another guy and I tossed one back and forth, taking steps back every time we threw. Neither of us got wet... Then one of the Mexicans - Orly - taught us a little varation - two teams of two people hold towels on each side, and they fling the water balloon back and forth. It was rather fun, but once Orly got her feet wet, she decided to call it quits.

We also had a lecture on DNA mutations and cancer, we were taught about an enzyme, OGG, that repairs a particular type of mutation (an oxidized guanine) that is mostly caused by smoking, among other things. We were shown epidemiological studies that showed that being a smoker with a low level of OGG activity increases your chance of developing cancer 118 times (as compared to a non smoker with regular OGG levels). The average person has a level of about 7.2 - and for every 1 point decrease, one's chances of developing cancer increases twofold.

Two days ago, I forgot to mention, we had a lecture about particle physics - we were taught about quarks and gluons, and color charge. Also interesting stuff, and wasn't too far over our heads.

This morning was the first time that I didn't jump right out of bed. The regular routine: our doorbell is rung at 7:00 in the morning, and I yell out "I'm awake" to which the counselor responds "Alright, make sure everyone else is awake". I then take my shower, and wake everyone up after I'm done. This morning, I yelled out "I'm awake" and fell back asleep almost immediately. I woke up 20 minutes later and did the regular routine. Its not as if I was up very late last night - only 1:30, but I guess this whole "I don't need much sleep" thing is really catching up with me.

Currently, we are taking shifts watching the "column" - it is a method of separating products by feeding a mixture through silica gel, while a solvent - in our case was composed of a 1:1 ratio of a hydrophilic (ethyl acetate) solvent and a hydrophobic (hexane) solvent - pushes each product downwards, toward the bottom of the tube. Silica is quite hydrophilic, and therefore, the more hydrophilic the product, the slower it will fall through the silica. In order to increase the speed of the hydrophilic products, once the hydrophobic products have passed through the tube, the hydrophilic content of the solvent mixture is increased.

Today, we will be visiting the particle accelerator, and we will watch a physics demonstration - something about the senses.

באהבת ציון
-- Alex

Day 8

2004-07-12T11:21:00.000+03:00

Yesterday, our mentor was writing an exam in the morning, so she was not able to work with us. In the afternoon, we spent most of the time extracting water from a solution and filtering it. It took much longer than we expected. This morning, we were working on finding a good solvent for the chromatography of the same solution.

Enough with the technical stuff - last night, I had to help plan our movie night, so one of the counselors took michelle and me out of the institute to get ice cream and popcorn. He parked right inside of the institute gates, because the store was right outside. So we go to the store, and buy the food. When we come back out, the gate was closed. So instead of walking around to the other gate, we decided to climb over the fence instead.

Now I'm going to digress a little: this counselor and I had a little joke going - On Saturday, we were doing a hike, and I was a bit behind because I was talking with some people, so Baruch, the counselor pokes me in the behind with a stick. So I yelled at him "Ani Lo Ohev Batachat!" (I don't like it in the bottom) Then I chuckled, and he chuckled. And I kind of snuck away. Yesterday, he was with a friend and I was walking by - so he says to me "Alex, tell my friend what is it that you do not like" with a big grin on his face. So I shrug, grin, and say "Baruch, ani lo ohev batachat." We all laughed again.

So back on topic. On the top of this fence, there were pointy spikes - not sharp, just pointy. So as I pass over them, the back of my pants get caught on one. Frantically, I yell to Baruch "BARUCH! ANI LO OHEV BATACHAT." While he was laughing, I was a little less than amused. I made it down in one piece though :-) Kind of tells you something about the security at Weizmann though. We weren't caught!

Meanwhile, The Weizmann Institute, being scientific and all, Baruch decided to grab a styrofoam cooler full of dry ice (solid CO2) in order to keep the ice cream frozen. I have a picture of us with it, and one of me juggling it. Michelle and I were both quite amused by it.

We then went to the movie store, and Michelle and I agreed that Fight Club and The Whole 9 Yards would be a good movie combo. We came back to the youth village, had dinner a bit late, then we went to swim. It was my first time in the pool at Weizmann - and I was quite shocked that there was no shock of jumping into the pool. The water was as if it belonged in a hot tub. We swam around for a bit, and then I left early to prep the movie night.

On Saturday, one of the participants had his birthday, and today, another one is having his. Tonight we have a pool party scheduled, so I spoke to another counselor, Antonio from Chile, about getting pizza and cake - we'll have a birthday/pool party :-) yay.

Thats all for now, folks.
-- Alex

Day 5-7 (edited)

2004-07-11T09:09:00.000+03:00

On friday we left the Institute at 6 in the morning - I only had 2-3 hours of sleep. Fortunately we had a long bus ride to our hiking site. The hike was amazing - It was mostly down hill. The guide took everyone down the easiest path, but sometimes there were alternate ways down - Me and another two guys often decided to climb down some cliffs rather than walk down themn with the rest of the group. It was incredible - except I scraped my knee, and didn't notice that it was bleeding a bit until someone pointed it out. The medic was reluctant to pull the alcohol swabs out of his pack to treat me. It was a very minor cut, but I insisted that he give me the swabs because I didn't want any infections this early in the trip.

After the 3 hour hike, we went to a Druze village for lunch, and had amazing food - they had fresh pita with zatar, and lafa bread with several dips - including humus, an eggplant dip, very tasty rice. Afterwards, we listened to some traditional Druze music - A teen played the darbouka (drum), a middle aged man sang and played a 12 string guitar-type instrument - I caught a clip on my camera. We were served a sweet tea and bakalva for dessert. I didn't particularly like the baklava, but other than that, everything was amazing.

We then had a short trip into the Shuk where I bought my long-awaited-for Darbouka. The owner offered it for 65 shekel. I got it for 50 - I probably could have bought it for less, but I guess I'm a rookie. Oh well.

We continued to the Kinneret and stayed at a beautiful resort. We had a nice dinner, they had kiddush wine available, so I made kiddush with several other Jews. We washed hands and said Motzi. I led birkat hamazon. I suppose the best thing about this resort is that for every meal, they had an enormous basket of litchee. It was heaven :-)

The next day, we got up and went to an observation point on a mountain, it had a nice view of the mainland and the Kinneret. We then hiked to the bottom - It would have been a much more challenging hike than Friday's had there not been a rope attached to the mountain to hold onto for safety. There were also foot holds on some of the steeper drops. Me and a few other guys didn't bother with them - Mom always told me that teens think they are invincible. Its true of course :-) We made it to the bottom and there was a fountain of fresh water coming through a pipe. We drank and we splashed each other a bit.

We then bussed to another location where we hiked through a stream for about 1 km. We had numerous waterfights along the way. I brought my Canadian neoprene football and we tossed it around a bit. Near the end, I dropped my sunglasses, and the water was too cloudy to find them. I suppose I needed a new pair anyways.

After the hike, we returned to the resort. I took a nice shower, then had lunch. I then immediately took a nap. I missed dinner. Fortunately, someone brought me some food (including litchee), and informed me that we were heading home in half an hour. I packed my stuff, and ran over to the hotel shop, found a nice pair of sunglasses for 50 shekel. We then loaded up the bus and headed home. The ride back seemed much longer than the ride there - probably because we didn't stop along the way.

Today, my mentor is writing an exam in the morning, so currently, I'm "researching photodynamic therapy". I already understand it, so here I am, updating my blog.

להתראות
-- Alex

P.S. We just found out that there was a bombing in Tel Aviv at 7 in the morning. 1 female soldier was killed, 20 were injured. We're all alright here in Rehovot. Haaretz

Day 3-4 (edited)

2004-07-08T12:14:00.000+03:00

Didn't have enough free time to update this yesterday, so I'll make up for it today. We began our work with our mentor, Vered Lev, yesterday. Yesterday we prepared for two reactions that we performed today, and she taught us about the reaction sequence that we would be performing. As well, she showed us this very high-tech ( = expensive) "HPLC" system. (High Pressure Liquid Chromatography) It determines the absorbance of all the substances in a solution - and it is used to find out how much of a reactant or product exists in a solution. Today, we actually began reacting stuff. I was personally amazed how the tools in CHAT's labs do not nearly compare with those in the Weizmann labs. (sorry Mrs Silverberg) The pipettes could be set to draw a specific volume...

Anyways. I'm having a great time, despite the fact that we hardly have free time. Fortunately, I'm having my flight moved to a week later so I can spend time with family here.

(beginning of addition)Two funny things happened yesterday: 1 - I was hanging out in Michelle's room, and we saw something run across the wall. It turned out to be a salamander. So I, being the brave soul that I am, decide to try to capture it to put it outside. The salamander did not understand that I had good intentions and was running all over the place while I tried to catch it. I finally snatched it by the tail, and to my horror, the tail fell off. When I let it drop, it was bouncing around on the ground (which I managed to capture as a movie file on my camera). So the salamander, which was still at large, continued running around frantically. I grabbed a plastic bag and put it around my hand to avoid infection because the salamander had a bit of an open wound where the tail fell off. I finally snatched it around the torso and brought it outside to the bushes.

Later that day, I was in Michelle's room hanging out again, and jokingly, I yell out "Oh my god! Another salamander!" and as if it were God wreaking divine punishment upon me, lo and behold, there WAS a salamander on the wall, exactly where I was pointing. It also decided to drop its tail at one point during the chase, but victoriously, I manage to dispose of salamander #2 as well. Alex 2, Animal Kingdom 0.

Exciting story #2 - There was an earthquake yesterday - The epicentre was a bit north of the Dead Sea. I didn't realize that it was an earthquake at the time, despite the fact that the projector that a lecturer was using shook violently on the screen. For more details, click here. (end of addition)

Tonight I will be organizing a shawarma run into town, and we'll probably hit a bar afterwards. It certainly beats eggs 24/7.

Tomorrow we leave early in the morning for the Kinneret, and we return Saturday night, I believe.

Scientifically Yours,
-- Alex Goldberg

PS - Dad, I had to burn the pictures to a CD late last night from my roommate's computer, because it had XP and didn't need drivers installed for my camera - the pictures will come hopefully in this afternoon.

Day 2

2004-07-06T15:22:00.000+03:00

Chances are that I will be researching new chemotherapy treatment which will lower the toxic effects of conventional chemotherapy by targeting specific tumor cells instead of all cells. I will be attaching a photodependant acid to a carrier which will find receptors on a tumor cell and attach to them.

Interesting eh?

Anyway, I'm one of the members of the social commitee - planning parties and other social events. We're going to see about setting up a pub night or something. After yesterday and today, we won't have much free time - we'll be doing alot of research and there will be lectures and trips and stuff.

I've met some very nice people from all over the world - there are participants from Mexico, USA, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, England, France, etc. Some accents are hard to understand, but I manage.

Yesterday, I decided to take a short nap before an orientation lecture and a tour of the campus. Of course, I, being the science genius that I am, forgot to set an alarm, and slept through the lecture, and the first five minutes of the tour. So I ran around the campus looking for everyone, to no avail. Fortunately, everyone told me that I missed nothing, and it was mostly boring.

Not a good start, but I'm doing okay now. One of my roommates has an alarm clock, so we're all set.

Reporting from Rehovot, Israel
-- Alex Goldberg

Day 1

2004-07-05T10:48:00.000+03:00

I have arrived at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot safely and soundly. Quite tired too. I got maybe 3 hours of sleep total on the 11 hour flight. No problems though - found my luggage and our escort quite easily. However, one person's luggage was delayed for security reasons, and apparently, El Al will be giving him 300 shekels to compensate.

We were on the same flight as a Birthright group and a group of grade 9 graduates from Montreal. I was near the front of the plane, but apparently, the back of the plane was incredibly loud. I feel very bad for the passengers in the back who were *not* part of one of these groups. I am also quite glad that I was not one of them.

The cellphone that was ordered for me has yet to arrive, so I'm not quite sure how to contact my parents, other than through e-mail. Oh well. It's 3 in the morning in Toronto anyway, and hopefully, my dad is not staying awake to hear from me. Dad, if you are, I'm sorry :-P.

Anyways, I met a number of people, had some food in the cafeteria - which was quite good actually. They had a chocolate cereal, and bread, egg salad, scrambled eggs, and other breakfasty type foods.

I'm currently in the computer lab where a number of other participants are sending emails to their friends/family - as am I.

My Weizmann Experience

2004-06-14T03:57:00.000+03:00

Here I will post my day-to-day experiences at the Weizmann Institute Summer Program in 2004.

Enjoy.