Christmas is over - at last!

Christmas is finally over, and the city is going back to normal. In Starbucks near my house they finally stopped playing non-stop Christmas music and went back to quiet jazz in the background. The T is running more frequently again (and not one train every 30 minutes). The traffic returned to the streets and people can be seen again.
I have spent my Christmas eve in an Italian restaurant in North End part of Boston. Quite expensive, and not the best food, but I had to get out of the house and see some humans around me.

The weather has also smiled at me and it got up to 10 degrees today with sunshine at parts of the day. The best part is that the snow finally disappeared and the streets are clean enough for walking easily.

I got my house fully accessorized this week, when two friends left Boston and gave me a full kitchen (pans, pots, utensils, plates and appliances) and some other stuff like a DVD, a dining table and chairs, a fan, a humidifier and more. It's unbelievable how a pickup truck full of boxes can really upgrade your living experience.

Work was a little slow this week, but it is understandable, since MIT was practically empty this week. One more week of slow working is coming up ahead with new year's coming up.

Hopefully, this Tuesday I have an overnight measurement that should move me on to the next step in my research. I hope that it will go out well, even though first experiments rarely succeed as anticipated.

That's it. Only 12 more days (and counting).

The Blizzard of 2009

Just like in the movies, Christmas is near and it's all white outside. It started snowing yesterday night and it snowed until 16:00 today, the thin powdery snow piled up to knee high in some areas. And I waited until 15:00, and when I walked up every wall in the house I went for a walk in the snow. It was really quite beautiful (See pictures).



The roads were open all through the snow, and most of the sidewalks were also kept clean. The only sense of urgency came from the TV that kept reporting on the 'Blizzard of 2009' and 'the Storm of the decade'. Apparently TV all over the world likes to exaggerate to keep the viewers watching. I found out that my new boots were watertight and that my new The North Face coat (like every American around) is really warm and perfect for the cold and wet weather.

As for me, I've been working in the lab everyday now, I have started training on different instruments around MIT and I have been ordering a lot of chemicals and labware. I finally feel like I'm doing something and starting to gain the recognition of my peers when they come to me and discuss different scientific issues with me. I am slowly settling into a position that's good for me and makes me feel good and comfortable.

This holiday season is felt well around MIT and the Boston area. The department of Chemistry had a Christmas party with food, drinks and Karaoke, almost all the professors went up to sing and there was a nice atmosphere all around. Most of my lab mates left, this weekend, to be with their families during the holidays and all the undergraduate students have their semester break, so MIT is very quite (which is calming). The Israelis are pretty socially active, and I find myself going out almost every night, sometimes to bars and sometimes to other people's homes. So it is not lonely at all.

Less than 3 weeks before Or will join me, I'm already waiting impatiently, planning every move like going to the airport, taking her to know the city and to get her winter cloths. Everything is planned and the clock is ticking away.

Christmas all around

So this week started with a promise of rain and very low temperatures, and at least the later was true. It snowed at the beginning of the week (the picture is of the view from my window at home). After the snow the temperatures fell below freezing, this left ice puddles on the roads and sidewalks. At least the ground is frozen and we don't need to worry about mud.

The real problem around here is not the low temperatures, even down to -5 degrees is still manageable, the real problem is the winds. The wind chill factor here is very important, this means that the temperatures you fill can be a lot lower than the measured temperatures. This week, with the wind chill factor considered we have reached around -13 degrees during the mornings. And I must say that in that temperature your nose, ears and chin really ache. But, due to this weather, I went and bought a new winter coat, one that can keep me truly warm.

So Christmas is coming soon and trees and homes are decorated with lights, in all the stores they play annoying repetitive holiday music in the background, the TV shows only Christmas movies and people spend endless hours shopping before the holidays.
Yesterday (Saturday) noon, as I was walking the freezing streets of Boston I saw police cars and a large crowd of people. As I got closer I saw what was making all the commotion was about - around a 100 people, men and women, young and old, thin and fat were running in the street, wearing nothing but a Christmas hat and underwear/bathing suit (See photos)
. I don't understand what they were thinking with the temperatures around -2 and the wind blowing hard. Only when I got home and watched the new I found out that it was the Speedo Run in which each person has to donate no less than $250 to run in a speedo down the wintery streets of Boston.

Some Israelis also met for the first candle of Hanuka, which was really nice. Around where I live you can see many Menora's in the windows, and also lights in the shape of dradles, candles and more. It seems that the Jews here really want to resemble the christians and have lights and decorations so they found a way to decorate for Hanuka.

So that's it. Next week we have the department's Christmas party and I'll update you after watching respectable scientists turn into drunks.

Sardines in a box

Just a short thought - did you ever try to imagine how sardines feel like in a closed box? Well, all you need to do is ride the Green T Line on rush hour. People stand packed like sardines and all are quiet like fish (no one complains or confronts anyone for standing too close). Amazing.

A winter wonderland

So winter is here at last. After a very warm Wednesday, with temperatures at the 20's, Saturday was cold... really cold. It even snowed. So after watching the snow pile in the streets I woke up to a beautiful and white (yet cold) Sunday morning. But the real problem is that at night the temperature are well below freezing, son the snow melts and re-freezes as ice on the side walks. And even worst - on the trees. It's not really nice to have a piece of ice fall from a tree onto your head!!

Here's a thing that came to me - if you live in a place that is as cold as your fridge, that's a cold place. But when you live in a place that's even colder than your icebox - life's is though!

As for my week. It was a good week for my science. I finally returned to the lab and started my new research. It was fun. And also my last article from my PhD was accepted for publication. So, yes, a pretty good week. And as always extremely busy. I don't really know where most of the hours of the day go to, but it seems to me that 24 hours a day is really not enough. I leave home early in the morning and arrive back late at night, and when I finally sit in front of the TV and check the time I find out that it is almost time to bed. That's crazy.

We had another group party this week. This time it was the boss' Christmas party. It was really nice, and I am really enjoying the people I work with. There was good food, good people and great fun.

So that's it. Only a month until my beloved Or (and CJ) joins me. I can't wait.
See you on the next post.