and nearly 1 month later...

Ok, so this blog post won't be quite as happy as some of the others...

As it turns out, I did a good thing when I set expectations for this part of my life. Coming to Israel on a few month's notice, studying in Hebrew, beginning a Master's Degree, while learning the language... my expectations were explicitly set at "this being both the hardest thing I've done and something that I will never forget." You may notice that there are no "have a good grade percentage" or "ace all my classes" mentioned in those expectations.

And... that was a good thing when my midterm came around. The course is Analytical Methods I, and is basically an Advanced Differential Equations course where we derive the Bessel Function, and use Legendre Polynomials and all manner of crazy mathematical tricks to solve differential equations.

-The exam turned out to be over a week further into the material than I thought it was.
-I made an early mistake in an infinite sum expansion in the first section of the first problem.
-The later sections of the first problem bulit upon the (correct) answer to the section I knew was not coming together. This therefore had me freaking out and spending nearly all my time working on trying to get the infinite sum correct.
-The second problem, while quite straightforward, required the use of approximately 4 specific equations that I had neglected to put on my equation sheet. Therefore, a few of my answers were along the lines of "here, you would make a certain substitution... which I don't remember."

This was the ONLY test I've taken in my life where I experienced the feeling of despair, and a true sense of failing. As it turns out, my sense was faily accurate... final percentage below:

my percentage: 37%
class average: 57.8%
median: 59%
mode: {69,82}
my distance from average: -1.23 standard deviations
my percentile: 15.4

stem and leaf plot of reported class grades on the midterm:
0|
1|
2|3,9
3|3,3,4,4,7
4|2,3,4,5,8
5|0,3,4,4,5,6,8,9
6|1,1,2,2,5,6,9,9,9
7|0,2,4,6,7
8|0,2,2,2
9|1

Obviously, to anyone familiar with my academic record to date, this will probably be somewhat surprising. I'll be really honest: failing a test is a terrible experience, but it is one that I am glad that I have now had. I've never been able to relate to people very well who have struggled academically, since I myself have in the past had nearly no difficulties. Especially since I eventually see myself as a professor, probably writing exams which people will fail, this is a particularly valuable experience to me from a life-long/ relate to people viewpoint.

(A little-known fact is that I actually took two attempts to pass the amatuer radio operator test, failing the first attempt by 1 pt. However, this didn't really count, since I took the test with no preparation, and it was just for an extra-curricular activity).

(and, yes, I am a technician class ham radio operator. massive nerd points.)

an idea for a product

I like to hang out around www.makezine.com in part because of the fun, adventuresome attitude that they have, in part because of their recycling sorta mindset, and in part because they have great content, and in part because they have an awesome motto:

"Void your warranty, violate a user agreement, fry a circuit, blow a fuse, poke an eye out. Make: The risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things... Welcome to Make: Online! "

But anyway, one day while I was hanging out there, I got this idea. There are radio/ infrared systems that digitize a pen input from a normal whiteboard, but they require a big system of sensors stuck to the board, or special pens, etc. Probably the best, most widely known system like this is called a smartboard and pairs special pens for location awareness and a projector for live ink.

However, I have often wondered about being able to use an existing surface with a minimum of equipment to provide a touch input area... like for instance, take a real desk and section off an area to use for touch input. A microprojector could even be used. (There are now cameras that come with microprojectors to use for photo viewing). The core technology would be pretty heavy on the processing side, since it would use small piezo condenser mics to listen for taps on the surface, and then compare relative times for the sound to travel to pinpoint the touch location. Sound travels much quicker (and usually better) through solids than through air, so ambient noise shouldn't overwhelm it. I really think it might be able to work. It'd be lots of fun to try.

and no, I haven't done a patent search.

Thanksgiving - it's a wrap!

oh wow. Thankgiving went amazing well.

We ended up with I think it was 18-21 ppl, depending on if you count total who came at some point, those who came late, max at one time, etc. I borrowed two tables, and had some great help in setting everything up. It turns out that there isn't really any way to get thanksgiving decorations here, but I used a silver tablecloth with a sorta leafy orange lace-like runner that matched the Solo plates.

Here's the menu:
Appetizers:
vegetable tray with dip by Mordecai
deviled eggs by Daniel
pumpkin bread by Mordecai
(with optional vanilla ginger cream cheese spread)

Main Course: Oven roasted Turkey
Sides:
bread with butter or margarine by Oleg
corn by Anna
cauliflower by Melanie
green bean casserole by Mordecai
sweet potato deliciousness by Emma
deluxe mashed potatoes by Anna Maria
Dairy-free mashed potatoes by Josh
gravy by Mordecai
stuffing by Dahvyd
cranberry jello by Mordecai

Desserts:
dairy-free apple pie
regular apple pie
2 pumpkin pies with whipped cream topping
crepes by Erdos brothers
Ice cream by Stefan


Drinks:
Spiced hot cider by Josh
Water by Artyom
beer by Christoph
Sprite and Diet Sprite by Ricardo
French Wine by Gael
Israeli Wine by Friend of Emma and Shachar whose name I forget

The pumpkin pies were mediocre, partly because I don't own a blender to puree the pumpkin properly and partly because the only pumpkin you can buy here is the big white kind already cut up, which don't make as good of a pie as the small sugar pumpkin ones.

Also, I forgot to put out the cranberry jello, and almost forgot to put out the green bean casserole.
The green bean casserole was a struggle, since you can't buy condensed cream of mushroom soup here, and you can't buy frenches fried onions, and I don't like frying onions because it's hot and boring and uses a lot of oil. But I managed to make my own cream of mushroom soup from scratch, and then used some yellow bread crumbs and a paprika blend and some unseasoned fried onions to put together a crumb topping that matched the tastes of frenchs surprisingly well.

We started off at the table with a sheet of paper instead of a plate. Then, because this was the first thanksgiving for many of the attendees (it was a mix of europeans, israelis and americans), I wanted them to have the full experience, so we began by drawing a hand-turkey, and then turned the paper over to play a sorta scategories-style thankfullness game, where everyone wrote down 3 things they were thankful for, and then we went around the table, reading them off and if more than one person had the same thing on the list, it didn't count. Obviously, with only 3 item list, like half the people won, but it wasn't really for the game anyway. (Plus I joked during the scoring that winning meant you got to clean up.... so lots of people winning was in my favor.)

I baked the pies and the turkey in this kinda stand-alone toaster oven/real oven hybrid that did surprisingly well. (Though it's pretty easy to shock the temperature, unfortunately, causing the cookies I tried to make a while ago to fail pretty miserably.)

The thanksgiving party was an incredible success, though. I did a few things right, kinda on accident. One was that I had the food not on the main tables, so there was room for people. The other was that because the attendee list started at 13 ppl, and grew, I had purchased an extra turkey breast and roasted that by itself in a second smaller toaster oven. it was really easy to carve, and so I had a nice platter of meat that was read to eat, and still had the whole bird that people could see and that I could carve table-side.

The party went from 7 pm to about 1:30. Then I called my parents back in the states, and found out that I had had a bigger thanksgiving here than they had there. Thanksgiving here would have been impossible without the great help of the people who came and pitched in with side dishes, especially since I only had 2 gas burners and one medium toaster/real oven and 1 tiny toaster oven to do my cooking.

My favorite quote from the night was when my housemate Oleg, who is a materials science guy, looked at my fancy shiny plastic fork that had broken and after a few moments said "Bad metallurgy."

demystifying science

Stay tuned after the following self-reflection for a thanksgiving story from Israel!

I used to think that the reason that people weren't as excited about some parts of science was merely because they had never had someone explain it to them. I used to think that the reason people didn't understand how things worked was because they hadn't found a good library yet. I used to think that other people would buy new things or pay to have them fixed because they didn't enjoy fixing them.

I have since learned that the majority of people in the world don't actually care how their possesions work. They throw them away or pay for them to be fixed simply because "it stopped working." They don't get rid of it because "oh, the surface mount component is fried on the main board, and it's cheaper to get a whole new [item] instead of a replacement main board."

Part of this realization came when someone asked why I knew how something worked. I replied that I liked to know as much about the things I use as possible.. it helps to form mental models and it is rewarding to understand the tools you use. They responded that surely it was a silly claim that I understood the things I use, for instance, my microwave. I answered by describing the electronics of the magnetron that is commonly used to produce microwave radiation for microwave ovens, and explain why it is that the screen is able to keep the microwaves in. The person reacted with a shocked expression of wonder.

People often ask why I know so much. It really comes down to a few things: an incurable curiosity, and an ability to learn on my own, and God has blessed me with a mind that can swallow concepts as easily as a snake swallows its prey (I think that means my mind's a little bit unhinged.... if you carry the analogy on...). These things are at the core of being an engineer, and it's why I love what I do.

THANKSGIVING IS TOMORROW....
and I will be spending the day in the kitchen, baking 2 pumpkin pies, 2 apple pies, and a turkey.

However, today I heard a story from one of my professors, who told me about his first thanksgiving in Israel. He and a few couples decided that they would do a thanksgiving party, and divided up all the dishes, and all gathered in a home. Just as they were getting ready to begin, they turned on the radio (I presume to find some music) and instead heard the news that JFK had been shot. The party spirit was killed, the meal cancelled, and he hasn't celebrated thanksgiving since.
I didn't say it was a happy story. But I've learned my lesson... only check the news after the party's over.

generic

While I was packing for Israel, I came across an old notebook from the seventh grade (so I was 13). It had a selection of those really lame writing assignments from a general prompt. I was feeling sorta nostalgic, so I decided to bring it along, in case I needed something to write about on my blog, I could always pull one out and post it.
I have decided to do just that. But first, a quick update. I went to a concert downtown on Monday night by the Jerusalem symphony orchestra w/ some other choral group, and it was pretty incredible. Hayden's symphony #24, and then 2 latin masses w/ the kyrie, gloria, credo, benedictus and angus dei. Since I got the ticket for about $5, I didn't feel so bad buying a piece of cheesecake for $2 at the little coffee bar outside the theatre where the concert was. It was rather unimpressive cheesecake.
Two nights later, I made some cheesecake which was ... well... perfect. astoundingly lovely and soooo deliciously smooth. Perfectly uniform and without visual flaw. There's some pictures on facebook.

In other food news, I'm planning a thanksgiving dinner here for some of the americans and some of the internationals who are interested. It's gonna be awesome. I have a turkey ordered, and did a warm-up chicken this last week. (which was perfect, because I made some chicken noodle soup then, and had it handy when a housemate got sick this weekend).

Back to the blast from the past, though...

"Me, in a nutshell"
"I am smart, annoying (sometimes) and a little overweight. I enjoy reading immensly anything I can learn from, I also enjoy chess and tennis. My church family and real family are important to me. Right now, I am involved in Bible quizzing."
--by Mordecai Veldt, age 13

Just for good measure, here's another choice selection:

"How do you think that you would respond in an emergency?"
"I'm not sure, but I think that I would do okay. I am usually either very logical or very... strange.
In an emergency, I believe that the logical midset would kick in, and that I would be able to handle the given situation"
--by Mordecai Veldt, age 13

Two Trips

So, there have been two different weekend excursions that I've been meaning to talk about on here. One was a while ago, and the other was last weekend.

I took a day trip up to Akko with Tracey, a materials postdoc here at the Technion. It was pretty cool, as the old city is really small, and completely see-able in one day. There was this cool tunnel there that they only discovered like, 20 years ago. The walls of the city go right into the Mediterranean sea. It was a Crusader port back in the day when all that was going on.

see pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mordecai.veldt/Akko

The other trip was last weekend, when I went with some people from www.couchsurfing.org to the artists' village of Ein-hod. (www.ein-hod.info) It was pretty cool, too. The main attraction was the Nisco museum of mechanical music, this collection of music boxes from back when music boxes were made for a family to be able to have music, even if they couldn't afford a piano.

here's some of the music boxes playing: first second third last

There was this one slightly crazy-acting guy who did microbrewing and also sold pizzas that he made in a home-built oven. We also stopped in a few galleries and then went to this REALLY tiny secondhand clothes shop there, where I bought a tie, just to buy something really.

After the secondhand clothes shop, we walked over to this place that did pottery and would have pottery workshops where people could come experience pottery on a wheel. This place was in someone's backyard basically, and they also had a used book collection. I bought a copy of Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman and finished reading it this week. A good book, overall. I think my favorite line from it was something about him discussing how he never could throw a ball accurately... he would aim somewhere and "it would be off by about a radian." For those who don't know, a radian is an angle measurement which is a little less than 60 degrees.
some pictures here... including some of the couch surfers actually on a couch. http://picasaweb.google.com/mordecai.veldt/EinHod

After the artists village, we went to the beach and hung out there for a bit. I took a short swim, and it was not too cold.

The Official Description

From my Faculty's website, here it is: the official description of the lab that I work in (available at http://meeng.technion.ac.il/index.php?file=centers.htm#EEEPC):

Flow Control Laboratory (FCL) - Dr. David Greenblatt

Research in the Flow Control Laboratory involves the use of localized actuators to bring about global changes to flow fields of interest. Applications of this research are to industrial aerodynamics and hydrodynamics in general, including wind turbines, internal flows, industrial fans and compressors. The research aims to improve the efficiency of fluid machinery by means of active or passive flow control. Additional research of a fundamental nature includes flow transition and relaminarization, as well as vortex breakdown.

Experimental facilities:
* The primary experimental facility is a 1m?0.61m low speed wind tunnel with wind speeds of up to 50 m/s and a test section extendable up to 6m. The tunnel incorporates transparent test sections and is optimized for optical measurements, such as particle Image velocimetry (PIV) and Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA). Test sections can easily be changed and modified and this provides for a low maintenance high throughput facility. Major projects will study dynamic stall control on wind turbine blades and flow control on linear cascades of fan blades.
* A pipe flow facility is being used to study the generation of subcritical turbulence in developed and developing pipe flows and also the conditions under which the flow relaminarizes.
* A fan test facility is currently being constructed that will be used for studying stall on industrial fan blades.

Measurement Equipment:
The primary measurement techniques that will be employed in the laboratory are a high-power Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimeter (PIV), a multi-channel hot wire anemometer and a high speed pressure scanner. The PIV incorporates 2?200mJ Nd:YAG lasers and 2?4 megapixel cameras and will be used for three-dimensional flowfield measurements above and in the wake of turbine blades. The anemometer can be extended to a ten channel system.

a find, and cellphone struggles

I found out yesterday that you can buy mac&cheese here in some of the supermarkets.

Unfortunately, I bought one just for old (5 mths ago) times sake, and it's 8.1 NIS, which is over 2 USD! :( (though it is kosher, apparently).

The brand is Foulds "Wacky Mac." Somewhat surprisingly, you can also buy it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Fould-2019s-Macaroni-Cheese-Dinner-5-5-Ounce/dp/B000HQR0ZA though my box artwork is a little different. Slightly more interesting is that people who bought it from amazon also bought "spalding inflating needles."

In other news, there is still no success getting a data plan to work on my phone... I think it might just be a lost cause. Three visits to the service store and 2 calls to the service center have resulted in the advice to go ask someone who sells phones privately if they know any tricks. Oh well. The wifi works, anyway.

The Continuation

So, classes are beginning to be slightly less of a language shock... not to mean that i'm really understanding all that much more, but it's not as paniky a feeling anymore.

Things are getting underway in the lab, as well, and I'll be helping out tomorrow with some preliminary experiments. This evening I hung out there and helped with some setup for tomorrow. It was great... got to do a little soldering, help with some of the setup, and it was my professor, not me, who overtightened a set screw and cracked some of the plexiglass. In general, I feel very competent from my degree at Cedarville.

This week I also got my signet ring phase 2 delivered. This one is 3D printed in a SS/bronze mixture (don't think it's really an alloy). It's pretty awesome. However, the print method leaves a fairly rough surface, which threw off my ring size tolerance, so that it's a little tight. I used a file to take it down a little, but I think i'll just get the next one a little larger. I used it to put a seal on my rsvp regrets to Peter and Kate's wedding.

Yesterday, I got my student visa! I had an appointment, but ended up waiting an hour anyway. Oh well... main point is that I have it.

Last weekend I went down to tel aviv for a day with some people, looked at some Bauhaus buildings there and had a pineapple (which was way more expensive than I initially thought it was) while we sat by the mediterranean.

Tomorrow I will be in the lab in the morning, then hebrew class, then the weekend begins! (thursday night) This weekend there's a meal at beit eliyahu, and a baptism and a thing on saturday by the sea of galilee with a bunch of believers from northern Israel. Then Sat. night there's a birthday/housewarming party, which unfortunately is preventing me from going to another party. life is hard.

Oh, and the financial side of things should be working out.

The Beginning

So, classes began yesterday.

It was... interesting. After consulting a few different resources, I had come up with 3 different sets of times and places for what I thought was the Hebrew course that I needed to take. I showed up for the most recent set of times/places, and found out that it was the wrong class. It was Hebrew 2, not Hebrew for beginners 2. Of course.

Then, I had my design and analysis of experiments class, which handily was scheduled for the exact same time as the graduate student organization had scheduled their "understanding your time as a masters student at the technion/getting started / answering questions" meeting. Clearly this was a well-planned event. Don't know how it turned out, since I was in class, not understanding much.

The professor speaks english natively, but the lectures are in Hebrew. Fortunately, he gives out printed notes so I have somethign to translate later, and there are the subject titles in English. Two of my friends here have managed to have 2 of their 3 courses in English. (Partly because their advisor was teaching one of them).

Oh, and my HTC G1 android phone arrived in the mail... finally... with customs tag of 120 dollars... so I thougth that was a little extreme, and asked the guy at the post office who said that I can come back on sunday and write a letter to the customs board. should be fun.

Cough... do not look at the long absence of posts... nothing to see here... move along.

welp, I'd say the verdict is failure. DEFINITELY have managed to slip on the one post a week goal.

But, not much point to dwelling on that, I'll just pick up some of the highlights and move on.

Since classes don't start until the 14th, I've been spending a lot of time hanging around, staying up late, sleeping in, watching movies (which counts as studying if you turn on hebrew subtitles, right?) and in general picking up on the summer laziness.

This time is full of holidays; there's a "new year" (during the seventh hebrew month... yeah... I think it's just an excuse for a holiday). There's also Yom Kippur, and now Sukkot.

I've managed to fit in two birthday parties for friends from the congregation I'm attending, including one that was in Tel Aviv at a Thai restaurant, where I ordered "Moo Phat Prick" (that's exactly how it was written on the menu). It was really good.

Besides that, there's not a whole lot that I can report on in general. I bought a really nice phone online, and cell phone service here in some ways makes more sense than in the US. For instance, it always bugged me to death that you would get charged for text messages/calls that you did not initiate. Not so here in Israel. score.

So, I'll finish up this post with a quick bit of Hebrew for y'all.

Some of the worst parts of Hebrew/English are shown by this cute little phrase:

She is היא and he is הוא and who is מי and me is אני.

she is {HEE} and he is {HOO} and who is {MEE} and me is {ANNEE}.

but seriously, the fact that the hebrew word for "she" sounds exactly like the english word "he" is not a great help.

Have fun everyone!

Another good day

So, with no classes, I still managed to have a pretty good day yesterday:

well I woke up late (which ended up working out ok).

took a walk

got some old tennis balls from the sports center and put them on my chair legs so it doesn't make horendous noises when I move

read most of a book

sat by a tiny pond covered in lillypads and cattails under a grape vine arbor

took another walk

ate dark chocolate

explored some academic buildings

explored some abandoned buildings

fixed a toaster

played knockout with friends.

Tomorrow: start the day off with a swim, then read, then clean the floor, maybe fix a fan, and frisbee!

teenageers: the same everywhere?

Today I went to church at Beit Eliyahu and then took a (long) walk along about 1/2 the coastline of haifa, and a bus home. It turns out that there ARE busses that run on shabbot, as I had heard, but they don't go to the "mainly jewish only" parts of the city, such as the technion, but it's a short walk to where they do have them.

On the bus home, while waiting for the bus, there were two young teenagers who apparently thought the world should be blessed by their mp3 collection on their cell phones. Someone thought it was a good idea to make cell phones which can be turned up to near boombox sound levels, and these two kinds were just wandering around the bus station playing their music from their phones very loud. The one with the louder phone was also sporting a short mullet. Anyway, it wouldn't have been so bad except that they got on the same bus. :( Someone asked them to stop, but it only resulted in a slightly lower volume level and a change of seat. Haven't they heard of headphones? I need to learn the word "loud" so that I can tell them.

Also, this evening I ate the dragonfruit (or pitaya) that I bought.... see a picture of one here: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYtwtkctfoxBOYJvnTYmHWt99uBOyHmHDQihKLbIooJqG9iDIgZ5-pzqU5ERtkv-2APT3S6h1f61IhTRks7HLO4ohsppCtQcUkQcaHux1P_iqQDeeEKcKPRQulNPObRddwpm_dxyd5tEU/s320/DragonFruit.jpg

It's a very mild taste, not as sweet/sour as kiwis, but very much that texture. anyway, it looks cool.

the Jerusalem trip of last week

As a reminder to everyone, here in Israel the week is a little different than in the US. In Israel the working days are the first through the 5th of the week (sunday though thursday) and then Friday and Saturday are the weekend. (quite literally). This also means that classes are sunday thorugh thursday.

So, last week, after class on Thursday, a group of 9 students from the class took off for Jerusalem. We took a bus from campus, transfered to another bus and then arrived at one of the central bus stations in Haifa. There we got our round trip tickets to Jerusalm for 71.40 sheqels. This was a pretty straightforward event, except that while I was waiting to buy mine, I was talking to some of the students ahead of me in line, and had been standing off to the side a little bit. When I moved around to get up to the window, an old israeli guy objected --we'll call him "OG"--, apparently saying that I should get behind him in line. There were like 2 people in line, and he apparently didn't speak english, and I'm not all that excited about getting into a fight, so I figured, hey, I can wait. Well the person in from of OG didn't take long at all. However, OG gets up to the window and starts asking the teller questions in hebrew. As close as I can tell, he was attempting to determine how many different bus routes there were in the country, with all their stops.

OG kept on asking questions and talking. I got behind him in line at about 1:30 and stayed there for a full 20 minutes. After about 15 minutes, the line had grown behind me to be about 12 people long. Getting irritated that he had been so insistant about 'HIS' unrightful place in line when he was taking so long, and having plenty of time to think, I managed to say this in Hebrew: " סליחה, יש הרבה אנשים בטור " (transliteration: slee-hach, yesh harbey anashim ba-tor; translation: excuse me, there are many people in the line) to which OG replied "I know" in Hebrew (which I was really proud I understood! ) At that point, one of the other people in line started talking to him in Hebrew in a tone that perfectly expressed my frustrations. Fortunately, he got done and finally bought a ticket before our bus left at 2pm.

Once in Jerusalem, we checked in at the youth hostel we were staying at, where we had a matress and a spot big enough for the matress on the roof for 50 sheqels a night. In case you're curious, it's the Citadel Youth Hostel, Marks St. 20, in the heart of the old city.

#####that's it for now, but I'll extend this post later####

I'm slipping on these posts...

Ok, so my goal is a MINIMUM of one post per week. last post was a week ago... so I guess I'd better post today. It's not for a lack of material :).

Last week I went to the haifa sculpture park with David Erdos, a guy from Ulpan who is from Missouri. After the sculpture garden, we stopped in the ba'hai garden for a little bit and then we tried to find the prehistory museum, which on the map we had, looked like you could get to by a nice walk on a "scenic nature trail."

Finding the scenic nature trail itself was quite an interesting search. After looking all over the area indicated as the start on the map, we finally decided to go down what looked like an access sidewalk for some businesses off the main street. At the end of this, we found a hole in the fence, from which we could see what seemed like it might be the ACTUAL trail that we wanted. Still a little unsure, we crawled through and then continued down past the zoo. There was quite a bit of litter, and some

little campfire rings in the first 1/4 mile or so, and it quickly became clear that the prehistory museum was either the fire rings we were seeing, or that you got to it by some other way. However,

the map indicated that this scenic nature walk had a convient end that we might as well continue on to. We never did find THAT end. Having gone far enough, and passed an abandoned old pumphouse, we turned back to admit defeat.

On the way back up (the whole walk had been significantly downhill), we met two israeli girls who were hiking the trail, which on their (much nicer) map was shown to go almost all the way down to the sea. At this point, they invited us to join them on the way down, and I agreed. David, however, needed to get some things done and went back to the Technion.

On the way down, we found a cool little cave

that looked like it had been walled in and maybe used as a house at some point.

After parting from the Israelis, I took a few pictures of the rocks in the surf, some of which turned out ok.

Then I hung out on the beach for a while

and then walked over to the haifa mall, which was quite nice, though not as big as the "Grand Canyon" (the hebrew word for "mall" is קָניוֹן pronounced "kan yon", so the big mall in haifa is named the grand canyon).

At the mall, I got a kitchen knife for only 10 shekels b/c it was an open package. Great deal. I also bought some childrens books. Then I took the bus back to the technion.

And, a preview of topics to come: the haifa zoo, the weekend trip to Jerusalem.

A great Friday

So, yesterday was a great day.

I got up in the morning and met some people from ulpan (language class) to show them where the indoor market was. I got some more dried beans, rice, and oatmeal. I also ended up getting some ground chicken (14 shekels per kilo) however, there's about a half hour ride back to campus, and I still wanted to buy some milk. I also didn't want hot raw meat. So I bought some cheap-0 popsicles (1 shekel a piece) which were deep frozen, and put them in my bag, turning it into a refrigerated bag :). Problem solved.

After dropping my things off at my apartment, I went back into the city and tried to stop by the tourist information center, but I got there at 1:30, and it closed at 1:00. Then I found a bike shop I was looking for, but it didn't have much selection, and when I asked for a catalog, they said they didn't have one... hmm... so then I wandered around some more and stumbled upon a park that was very nice. see pictures in the second half of the facebook album available here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070049&id=141300373&l=2197b4bfdc

Then, at a little before six, I came back to Beit Eliyahu, a messianic congregation in downtown haifa. They had a special dinner and service, and then I helped them clean up a little afterwards, and then some of us went to an apartment and had a prayer meeting for a few hours for christians in the west bank and gaza. I ended up getting home around 1 am or so then.

Great day.

so much to say.

well, let's see.

It's early tuesday morning, and I've got a quiz in Hebrew class today, so I got up early to study, which I will do RIGHT after I finish this post.
On Friday I went to the market again, and this time I took a picture and a video.

The video is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In2Mc9e52Vg

I bought too much food, but hey, I won't have to go shopping for a while. I also mixed up the words for 1/4 and 1/2, and bought a half kilo (little over a pound) of Parmesan cheese instead of a 1/4 kilo. Oh well.
Saturday afternoon, I went to the Israel Science Museum, where there happened to be the Body Worlds Exhibit, which I totally didn't know was even here now. Anyway, I did go to see it, and it was kinda weird/interesting. Some of the most amazing parts were the ones where they filled arteries and veins with a poly mer then removed the flesh... the delicate network, especially in the fingertips and the intestines was just incredible. Anyway, there was a sign that said no photography... but I did sneak one picture. Because maybe not everyone wants to see people w/o their skin on, I'm just going to link to the picture here:
http://www.freewebs.com/knowledge_sharers/PHOT0025.JPG
This set of three people playing poker (note the passing of an Ace under the table) makes a cameo in the James Bond film Casino Royal.
The science museum proper was quite nice. Not nearly as big as the London one, but pretty well done. In particular, they have a puzzle room with oversize wooden puzzles that was one of the best collections I've seen. The biggest disappointment was that there were many "push teh button" exhibits which were not working. They also had a really great outdoors area, with a really fun energy storage toy using a big flywheel... see the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvgIpXHL-ms

There was also a great sound wave demo, like one they have at all the cool science museums, but this time i got a video of it, available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4itkvYnuGQ

Then, later that night I went to the German Colony, a sorta touristy place in Haifa, and ran into some friends from class, so I joined them for a dessert at one of the outdoor seating restaurants. I came back to the area on Sunday, looking for a church that someone told me about, but couldn't find it. Then, however, I was able to take some pictures, as well as visit the Haifa subway, the only underground in Israel. It was definitely interesting, but I'm afraid I didn't get too many very good pictures due to the fact that I was kinda freaking out about having just lost my camera case. I set it down with my map somewhere and I have no idea what happened to it.

More pictures have been posted at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070049&id=141300373&l=2197b4bfdc

Mid-week activity report

allrightythen.

I mentioned before about the hike that I took Sunday night. Here's some pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2069717&id=141300373&l=6d52a68871

On Monday, I mostly slept. It was crazy.

On Tuesday, after Ulpan, I stopped by the visitors' center on campus and picked up a map of haifa, and looked around a little bit. It's actually got a lot of stuff there, like a mini-museum. I'll have to go back and take pictures etc.

Then, several of us from Ulpan class took the bus down to the beach. It was great.
The waves weren't quite as big as when I was in Africa. but we did see a few people surfing, and there was good swimming with a nice shallow grade into the sea. The sand was spectacular... very fine and not too hot at all. On the way back to campus we stopped and got falafils. Today, I'm going to do laundry, and I'm researching different options for transferring money.

The Second Half was Better.

So, after having a fairly rocky start to sunday, I took some steps to turn it around. I played a card game with some of the other english speakers, and then I had a mango for an early dinner.
Mangos are where it's at. Seriously. And fruit in Israel is great! I would say that the mango that I had yesterday was even better than the mangos that I had in Liberia. (Just in case anyone else cares, the title is deliberately ambiguous, and refers to both the day and the mango.)

Then, I took a hike in one of the parks on campus that goes up the mountain toward Haifa University. It was great fun, and I have a few pictures, but I'll upload them later. I even saw some of the wild pigs that live on the mountain, though I didn't get a picture of them. I had to turn back b/c it was getting dark, but I plan to go back and explore a little more in the woods.

Today so far has been a lot of errands, and I definately need to review some of the Ulpan lesson. I also plan to go visit my advisor (if he's in) and see the Mechanical Engineering building.

a good Shabbat, and a bad Sunday (so far)

The Campus Jewish organization Chabad hosted a shabbat meal on Friday night and saturday noon. There were several of the international students who came and it was a good time with far more food than we could eat. It was kind of interesting, sitting at the table with friends from Ulpan, none of us really understanding hebrew much yet, but having a good time. There were two or three from Germany (I think Anna-Maria, Christoph, and Daniel were all there), and Traci, who is from Scotland, but did her graduate school in the US and is doing postdoc now at the Technion. There are also the Erdos brothers, who are both from Missourri and doing a masters in EE. It was a good time. On Saturday, there was the meal and then we were going to a do a scavenger hunt around campus, but something got messed up with the clues, so we're gonna try again. It should be great picture fodder of some of the more scenic parts of campus.

Also of note, it took 5 days before I had someone call me a genius. I think that's a new record.

I've noticed that there is a disproportionate number of people who salute me as a greeting. This has included military persons, employers, professors and peers. It kinda creeps me out a little bit. But anyway, Saturday was the first salute in Israel. maybe it won't be as common here. We'll see.

But on to the bad news.

I woke up late today... partly because the battery in the alarm clock that I brought died 3 days after I arrived. Then, while biking my way to class, I was looking for a turn and hit an irregularity in the pavement which caused me to wipe out. All through class I just wasn't really able to concentrate, and about halfway through, we got the bill for the Ulpan, which is 1500 sheqels, or about 400 dollars. (which, incidentally, is $100 cheaper than Rosetta Stone).
Anyway, I got the impression that we were supposed to pay it today, but when I went to the post office to pay, they said cash or check only and no, an american check wouldn't work. (even though it worked for the deposit with the application). Anyway, I went to the bank on campus then to see if I could convert some money, but it was closed. Eventually I found out that no, it's fine to take care of it whenever.
Then I needed to get some pushpins at the bookstore, but on my way there, I wiped out on my bike again.. I think partly b/c I was tired and not watching my speed very carefully. Minor scrapes is all, but it's still frustrating. Oh yeah, and my bike lock that I bought on Friday broke. Not during one of the wrecks, no, that would make too much sense. It broke when I accidentally tried to turn the key the wrong direction. I think a swift kick would have defeated it. So, another trip to find another bike lock.
Oh yeah, I forgot about the part where I had to leave class early to go talk to Rodica, the foreign students coordinator, but even though her office is open until 12:30, she's only there until 12. Go figure.
I did accomplish at least one thing today: I found out what my mailing address is:

Mordecai Veldt
193-1-5
Nave America
Technion
Haifa 32000
Israel

Into the City

This morning (Friday) I woke up nice and late, and then my housemate took me into Haifa on the bus to a market. Markets are one of the best things about cities. It's so much fun to walk around and see all the different goods, and is by far the fastest way to get a good handle on what is available and how much things cost.

Sorry, I took my camera, but didn't take any pictures... except for one of the McDonalds a few streets over from the market. **edit*** inserted pic

Here's a pretty good map of Haifa: http://www.tour-haifa.co.il/eng/uploads/maps/HaifaEng.pdf
The market is in grid I-7, and the McDonalds is a little northeast of the intersection of Herzl and Balfour Streets, in grid H-7.

So, just as a reminder, a New Israeli Sheqel (NIS) is about a quater, roughly. (3.8 sheqelim to the dollar)
Also, a kilo is 2.2 pounds.

So, meats and fish are around 40-50 NIS/kilo which works out to around 5-7 dollars/ lb
Carrots were almost universally 2.8 or 3 NIS/kilo which works out to around $0.33/lb
Small potatoes could be found for as low as 2 NIS/kilo, but were usually more like 2.5 or 3, and large potatoes are more like 4 or 5 NIS/kilo.

A 5-pack of pita is around 3.5 NIS, and 10 small loaves of bread is about 12 NIS.
A perogi-type thing (potatoes or meat cooked in a bread container) was around 4-5 NIS.
Figs are around 5-7 NIS/kilo.

Also.. don't pick up the weird prickly pear looking things, because you'll have little stingers in your hands for hours. I don't know how people work with those.

The McDonalds prices seemed a little high.

I had some fun wandering around the shops. Sometime next week I plan to go down to the beach. (that's the mediterranean beach...)

Progress?

Ulpan is going well, and fast. I'm still doing Rosetta stone in the evenings, which helps to reinforce things.

A few details:
So far I've eaten in a few of the "cafeteria" places around campus... actually small restaurants. They all seem to have about the same options, with some minor variation and difference in prices.

You can get a large plate full of one meat dish, some rice, and two sides for about 16-20 shekels. That works out to about 4.50-5.50 for a good sized meal. A sub-style sandwich is usually around 7-10 shekels. (it's about 3.8 shekels to the dollar).

Today I visited the pool, where I can get in free until august 1. After august 1, it's a few hundred shekels for the year. It's an olympic sized pool, and pretty nice. I also visited the two saunas. One was a dry sauna and one was a steam sauna. If you want the same experience, just stick your head in the oven. For the steam sauna, stick your head in the oven with a pan of water that's been there a while.

After swimming, I was hanging around the cafeteria thingy attached to the pool, and I met a Computer Science/Mathematics student from Japan, who was folding modular origami. He shared a few pieces of paper with me and I showed him a new modular piece and made a vase. Then I was going to go to a free Jazz concert... but I misread the email, and it was yesterday. :(

I'm still waiting for an email back from a few people about churches and details.

monday update

The plane from London to Tel Aviv was not only on time, but was 35 minutes early getting into Ben Gurion. However, all of that time was taken up standing in line at the passport control.Also, my camera battery was still dead, so I didn't get a picture of the sweet miniature they had of the old wall and temple, and it was only after I left that area that I remmebered I could take pictures if I hooked the camera up to the computer through usb. (I suppose, in retrospect, I could have just taken it with the webcam even, but I doubt that it would turn out very well. 1.3 Mp versus 6.0So, using the usb connection, I was able to get some pictures from Ben Gurion, which is a sweet airport. Airports in my experience have typically been really neat or really not fun at all. For instance, even though the Dayton airport doesn't have too much in teh way of awesome architecture (though the new tower they've built definately qualifies), but they DID have FREE, no strings attached, email stations at the gate. Chicago has some pretty nice lounges, and notifies you of gate numbers several hours in advance. London has some sweet hinged 3d truss elements to support the arching roof sections, and Ben Gurion has some sweet water things and awesome pillars.However, in Liberia and Russia, the airports were painful and dirty and small and just generally not fun. Maybe there's some middle ground somewhere, but I don't feel like I've run accross it. I'd have to think a little harder about Columbus, Cincinnatti, Newark and Brussels, since I HAVE beenh to them, but I don't have any really striking memories--a key hint that maybe I only remember the extremes.I was hoping to sleep on the ~5 hr flight to Tel Aviv, but I never was able to fall asleep. They had the little screen s with the remotes, but after about halfway through the flight mine stopped working. They're running some kind of a linux distro with custom airline software... I got to see the sys start screens a few times since tehy reset it to try to fix it, but I was too uninterested to notice much more than the penguin. Were I a true coder, with a black belt in hacking awesomeness and presenting a lecture at DEFCON, I probably could have told them the problem as well as using my little remote to code in a custom tetris app while I waited for the meal.Also, a question: can matthew mcconahay ?sp? be in anythign that isn't a chick flick?so I think I've been telling people that I was going to take a bus to haifa... well it's actually a train... just got it a little mixed up in my head. Good reason to have things written down.It's gonna be a long day. --written at 6:30 am

After the train ride, I had to lug my bags over to the bus station accross the street, where I ducked into a bathroom to changed *attempt* to clean up a bit after 2 days on airplanes etc.
At the bus station, I met Marjon (pronounced "maryon"), a new Technion student from Macedonia. We chatted with an Israeli girl in the army who was waiting at the same bus gate, who was asking about why we had come, etc. Just as we had to leave for our bus, she asked "why Israel? a tiny country full of soldiers?" All the answer I had time for at that point was "yes, but an important country."

Later, we got off the bus and went to Rodica Levy's office, where we met Iliya, who is an Israeli student who GREATLY helped as we scurried around getting a bank account and room forms and keys. Then we had to take the luggage UP to the houses, which was rather strenuous, especially owing to the fact that Haifa is on the coast and therefore inescapably humid.

More about the house later, but we also visited a convienience store on campus and then I fell asleep at about 7pm.

Sunday Update

** I typed this earlier, on my laptop as I traveled.
my oh my... where to start
Wednesday I found out that there was still a small leak in the water chlorination system. However, I went ahead (per the advice of my advisor) and did a few test runs with the blue dye concentration anyway. However, this had the unfortunate side effect of me ending up with a right hand that looked like a smurf. It was at this point that I had to wait before doing anything else with the project, so I joined John Gray and Malaika at John's favorite restaurant, a little chinese buffet in Xenia. (It's called the China Buffet...very original.)You may note that I still had a blue hand for this outting.Thursday was spent writing the report, and my loving mom and sister finished emptying my apartment in Cedarville. Then Friday was dedicated to me packing and trying to get through organizing my possessions. Oh yeah, and the goodbye party. Thanks to everyone who was able to make it--I had a great time.The last of my party obligations ended at about about 11:20 or so. It was then that I started the final packing and the clothes selection.Through some careful packing, I ended up with two bags that weighed in at the airport as 50.0 lbs (the limit). I'm not really looking forward to manhandling them on the bus from tel aviv to haifa.I got to bed around 3:30 am, an dthen got up at 6:30 in order to attend prayer breakfast. Then, we packed the car and stopped by the millers' reception on the way to the airport.My flight from dayton to Cicago was fine.. really really short, but left and arrived on schedule.However, my flight to london, which was supposed to leave at 9:15 Chicago time got delayed until 10:45pm chicago time, since the plane was late getting to the airport. That meant I had an extra long layover in O'hare. I played some Red Alert 2, read and bought a salad, which was actually quite good and not as terrible a deal as I was expecting.Then today, I arrived at London Heathrow, and took the Piccadilly line in to South Kensington, where I spent a spectacular 4 hours at the Science Museaum. Special thanks goes out to Tom Harris, who tipped me off on its free entry and general awesomeness. Facebook and/or Picasa photo albums will be coming soon. Unfortunately, my camera battery died long before I got to the most awesome section of the museaum, the "launchpad" -- it's basically like COSI used to bo.. really great demos, really hands-on and really kid-friendly. As I finish this up, I'm back in London Heathrow, waiting for the gate to open for my flight to Tel Aviv.

partly just for Andy Hoover

First off, Partly Just for? what was I thinking? Is this possible? It sounds like a budget clause at a rally.

I'm typing this from the Technion Library, where I have free internet.

However, I have several well-developed entries which I have prepared on my laptop, so this will be kept short to minimize the anachronisms. Interestingly enough, I have been mostly awake for.... gave up on tryign to figure it out with time zones and my current state of tiredness. In fact, I just stopped typing for a few minutes, to be awaked by what sounded like a ping pong ball burting from my skull with a decidedly happy popping sound. However, it would seem that I was drifting off into dre

more later

setbacks are a way of life.

Yesterday I was going to mass the dye for the known, calibrated solution that makes measuring possible for the water chlorination project. However, the person with the keys to the lab wasn't in his office. I figured, hey, try again tomorrow at a time that's not as close to 5pm.

Today I found out that he's on vacation for this week.

Wouldn't be a huge problem, but everyone else that has keys to the rooms is at the faculty/staff luncheon. So I'm pretty much stuck until 1pm.

Also, the "for drain or sewer use only" size of flexible connector is only strong enough to hold onto the main pipe up to about 10 gal/min, which is about 1/6 of what we would like to test.
It really needs to be glued, but I don't have time to do that. Right now my goal is to get a data point, and to type up the documentation.

Tomorrow my mother comes down to help me finish moving out of the Cedarville apartment, and then I'll be packing at home, until the party friday night. Then I leave on Saturday. Crazy.

First post

I have started this blog in order to (hopefully) encourage some healthy writing and updating while I carry on with pursuing a master's degree at the Technion, in Haifa, Israel. We'll see how well it goes--past blog/journals have had an average lifespan of 1-8 months. For the sake of family, friends, personal memories and sanity, I hope that this one will have a little more staying power.

I will count this a success if I can consistently post more than once a week.