There is no way to happiness - happiness is the way. - Thich Nhat Hanh
Picture: My favorite Chemical Engineering resident
After I went to the Baha’i Gardens with the Italians, we met our German friend in the park, and she introduced us to AcroYoga, or Acrobatic yoga. I don’t know why, but I thought it was so graceful and cool for the flyer (the person on top) to form yoga poses while suspended in the air. When I actually think about it though, you’re just being supported by the feet of your partner, which is kinda weird. But then I tried it (I was super self-conscious and scared), and it was so fun.
So, I signed up for AcroYoga lessons (300 NIS) at Bat Galim beach every Monday. By some miracle, I only got lost a little bit and basically arrived on time. The teachers were so nice, and although they spoke mostly in Hebrew, it was relatively easy for me to follow. I got to try being the base, which was easier than I thought, and I realized that a lot of core work goes into AcroYoga.
What draws me to AcroYoga is that it’s a social sport. I feel that I am a very closed-off person, who doesn’t trust people very quickly. In AcroYoga, you need to get passed this otherwise you will be afraid of being lifted by your partner, and you will fall. It’s a very eye-opening experience to work on AcroYoga from this perspective, and I hope I will emerge as a different person.
My flat hosted a tea party on Tuesday. I went with this German guy to buy tea and cookies at Rami Levy, and then our flats gathered to chat and play some group games. Gloria taught us this game called Pabo. We go around a circle, and each person says a number from 1-5 to their neighbor, while simultaneously showing a different number on their hands. Then, the neighbor says the number which was showed to them, but show a different number. Whenever someone messes up, we imitate them twice, point at them, and say ‘pabo’, which means fool in Korean. It was so fun. Then, Gloria showed me all of the pictures she took around Israel for one of her culture classes. Her photos were all so thoughtful, and carried a lot of subtle messages to reflect different regions in Israel. I guess I would do this kind of thing if I studied abroad somewhere, but I’m not sure if I’m going to do that so I’m grateful that Gloria shared her work with me.
I’ve found that the bus drivers are usually grumpy, but if you ask a passenger for directions, then they’re super helpful. The swimming pool continues to be an awkward experience, with me not fitting into the right lane and getting whopped by limbs. I went back to Shufersal Sheli for groceries and it wasn’t that bad.
There was an end of semester party for the international exchange students who came for one semester. Since this was most of my flatmates, I joined them. I had some great conversations about what people study and their careers. I met this guy from the Czech Republic who did his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in materials science, but now has a signal processing internship. He said he made the switch because he felt that he could go no further in the field he had been researching (titanium dioxide thin films as photocatalysts). He wasn’t sure what he was going to do after this, but he loves travelling and was enjoying his time in Israel.
I wonder if that’ll happen to me, if I’ll hit a ‘road block’ in materials science and completely switch fields. I’m not worried about it at all – I think every field teaches you transferrable skills, and that connecting ideas across fields is what gives creativity. But at the same time, it might make you feel like you have no focus, or that you aren’t working toward a single goal. In other words, it may feel like you’ve gone backwards instead of forward.
I was having a similar conversation with one of my flatmates, who majored in chemistry but is now finding herself a bit burnt out and disenchanted from the field. I feel that I’ve been kind of naïve, working so determinedly toward the end of my undergraduate experience, looking toward obtaining a PhD, and not considering that I might find myself a bit lost in the end.
I finally started my experiment! Up until now it has just been planning, but this week I actually tested non-enzymatic ATP synthesis. The results were moderately successful, and my mentor and I formulated many new ideas of how to improve the next experiment to get better results.