Travel doesn't become adventure until you leave yourself behind. -Marty Rubin

Contents: Dorms and Living, Research, Sea of Galilee, Baha'i Gardens

Picture: The Sea of Galilee from Nof Ginosar beach.

Dorms and Living

Life is good. I went to this spectacular ice cream place, Nocciola, in the Ziv Neighborhood on my roommate Marie's birthday. I had lemon-mint, coconut, and Ferrero Rocher scoops in a cone. Then, we went out to dinner the next day at Nola Socks, where I had some nice nachos. It was great to hang out with my flatmates, who are all so different and fascinating to learn about.

Last weekend, I happened upon a pancake party held by some of the international guys just a few doors down from my dorm. This weekend, I made “American” pancakes for the group, which ended up being almost 20 people since more students heard about it and joined. It was really nice to eat pancakes with students from everywhere: Taiwan, China, India, Germany, France, Singapore, etc. I feel like this amalgamation of cultures doesn’t happen amongst international students at CMU. Maybe it does, and I just don’t know about it. I don’t think I’ve made much of an effort to know the international students at CMU.

Research

So I presented my research literature review to Prof. Schroeder and my mentor last week. It was a bit confusing for me, since my prof suggested many new and exciting ideas, but the one thing he didn't say was what to do next. My mentor said I should start writing up a lab procedure and a list of materials I'll need to perform the experiments. The problem is, I've actually never done that before. In all of my classes, from high school through college, even during my previous research experience, I've never actually designed my own lab procedure. It's kind of sad. Maybe this is what my friend from Italy meant when she said that having no assignments during college helps you become independent (see Baha'i Gardens section). Anyway, that's something I'll have to learn this week. I'm just a bit frustrated because my mentor is really busy. But at the same time, he probably doesn't expect me to need so much hand-holding, and I don't want to disappoint.

I think about research ideas all the time. I'm good at coming up with ideas, and I know I am a creative person. But I can't seem to get the juices flowing for this project. Most of my literature review was synthesizing previous work, and didn't present anything really novel. And now, I am having trouble with like...being a good scientist. Isn't designing a procedure part of the scientific method?

Sea of Galilee

There was a Technion Intl School-subsidized trip to the Sea of Galilee, a place of economic, historical, and religious importance. On Thursday, we went on a water hike (sort of) in Kibbutzim Wadi (valley containing multiple kibbutz), had lunch (falafel), visited Capernaum and the Mount of Beatitudes, then swam in the Sea of Galilee after reaching our hotel, Nof Ginosar. On Friday, we went rafting on the Jordan river, had lunch (shawarma), visited Naaman winery, and then returned back to Haifa. For just 150 shekels per person (around $40), I’d say that’s a pretty good deal.

We started from Haifa around 8am, picked up our tour guide, then drove about an hour to Kibbutzim Wadi. There, we started hiking. It was supposed to be a hike in water, but all of the ponds we came across were muddy from nearby construction, so it ended up just being a really hot hike. It was nice though, I got to talk more to Marie, my roommate, and these Indian students study ECE/ CS. The scenery was really pretty as well.

After that, we went to Capernaum, a fishing village said to be the home of St. Peter, and Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus is believed to have performed the historical Sermon on the Mount. It was incredible, to be in places where remarkable religious figures resided, and to see the remnants of their stay.

Then, we went to our hotel, Nof Ginosar. My roommate was from Germany, majoring in math. We went with the other girls to the beach at the Sea of Galilee, which was really nice. The water was cool and peaceful, and we had a nice talk with the Noa, who organized the trip, about the environmental impact of natural gas companies on the beaches in Israel. Afterward, we showered and had an amazing dinner, where I met other international grad students from Germany and Italy. After dinner, we had a bonfire with roasted marshmallows, tea, and icebreakers, where I met more people. Finally, I played ping pong against some guys. I won 2/3 matches :).

The next day, we went rafting on the Jordan River. My flatmates and I were joined in our boat by the lifeguard of the trip. He’d been rafting many times before so he showed me how to paddle and stabilize the boat. It was really peaceful, except for one small waterfall and this time when everyone decided to wage a splashing war on everyone else. That’s when we all got really wet. Finally, after lunch, we went to wine tasting at Naaman Winery. I don’t drink, since I’m underage in the U.S., so I wasn’t expecting to enjoy or relate to the tour. However, when we got there, we were greeted by Rami Na’aman, film director of The Flying Camel. I didn’t know who he was, but when he described his life, how he worked in high-tech and the film industry, and then settled down to start a winery, I thought that’s basically the best kind of life one could lead. He described all of the wines he made: blends, single source, and a syrup from the skins of grapes. He gave them all names of different bands he enjoys, and talked about his connections formed with the bands after they tasted his wine. There was this one story he told about how he made some port wine, a famous type of wine from Portugal, and waited a long time to package it so it could age properly. On the exact day he deemed it fit to package, three foreign exchange students visited his winery, and one was from Portugal. The student tasted the port wine and said it was one of the best he’d every tasted, and his family owned a winery in Portugal. The stories were remarkable, and I did taste (emphasis on taste) some of the wine. I figured there wasn’t any better way to try alcohol for the first time than at a winery in the valleys of Israel. Once I got past the sourness, I did have this warm feeling inside, which was nice. That’s when I figured I should probably stop tasting. I bought some syrup for my family as a souvenir.

It really struck me how “into” the wine tasting all of the other students were. Like, I know it’s alcohol and they’re graduate students, but what I mean is that it was a very unifying experience, and fascinating to have people from so many different countries gather to taste Israeli wine.

Baha'i Gardens

During our Friday dinner at Nof Ginosar, I met some Italian graduate students studying mechanical and biomedical engineering. They were super friendly. One of them really wanted to visit the Baha’i Gardens before she leaves next week, so I asked her if I could join. My roommates have all been here longer than me so I figured they already saw it, and I didn’t want to go alone. I met them at Technion, and we took the 28 bus to Louis Promenade, a famous location in Haifa where there was a street guitarist, a street singer, and an amazing view of Haifa Bay. The gray haze above the Mediterranean made sea and sky meld together, so it looked like the ships were floating in the sky.

While waiting for the bus, we had a conversation about the lifestyle of a traveler. Some people are seemingly nomadic; they travel the entire world and experience so many new cultures and ideas. The downside to that is eventually, they lose their home. Not literally, but their home changes and they don’t change with it, so it’s like they have no anchor that gives them their identity. I’ve been feeling that myself, a bit. The home I know is in NJ, where my brother, sister, and parents all come home in the evening, where we can grill fish and corn outside with my uncle in the summer, and where we drink hot chocolate by the fireplace on Christmas. But since I’ve been away from home so much, in Japan or Pittsburgh or Israel, and since my sister’s out of the house, my brother’s growing up, and our neighborhood is changing, I feel that part of my identity slipping away.

And then there are larger questions like, where am I from? When you’re abroad, people want to know where you’re from, and I’m learning that that’s a difficult question for me to answer.

Person: Are you from India?

Me: No, the U.S.

Person: Are your parents from India?

Me: My mom is from India, but my dad was born in Uganda and grew up in the U.S. after the 1972 Expulsion.

Person: Oh. But you look Indian.

Me: My dad is of Indian descent, but when his family applied for refugee status to the Indian government, they didn’t grant it, so he never was an Indian.

During the Baha’i trip, my Italian friends were joking about how the Baha’i founder was Persian, since one person’s last name is Persian. I said that my grandmother was of Persian descent, and he said, “wow, so you’re a melting pot of everything! American, Ugandan, Indian, and now Persian!” Needless to say, I think the Italians found me as interesting as I found them.

It was fascinating to hear their own perspectives on life. A few years older than me, they seemed to be grappling with the question of whether a “good life” consists of driving yourself to excel in work and impact society, or of working just enough to put fresh food on the table and enjoy a peaceful life with family and friends. They also had a strong sense of returning to their homes in Italy to take care of their aging parents. Contrary to what I expected, one of them said that the main reason why parents have kids is so they will take care of them in old age. I thought his reason would be so that I could have kids and continue our family line.

The Baha’i tour was beautiful. It was also really hot and hard to understand because we only arrived in time for the Hebrew tour, since it was Shabbat and there were fewer tours running. I learned a few interesting things though. The Baha’i faith is one of the world’s newest religions, and it embraces a lot of modern concepts such as equality between the sexes and merit of all religions. In fact, Baha’i people view other major religions as stepping stones toward the true “religion” which will bring people closer to god.

The Baha’i Gardens in Haifa are just one installation of many around the world; I spoke with my mom afterward and she said she visited one in Delhi last time she went. Baha’i communities exist in nearly every country on the planet, despite having only 5 million people practicing (a small number compared to other religions). Interestingly, there are no Baha’i communities in Israel, because the founder Bahá'u'lláh believed that forming one in the Holy Land would cause even more tensions with the other religions already present.

After the tour we walked to Masada street, to a café called Hapina, where we met a German graduate student who also went with us to the Sea of Galilee. There we had lunch and talked about living spaces and our work. I was amazed to hear that college students in Italy aren’t given homework, only exams. That way, they learn to study information on their own, instead of being guided like children. The Italians believed this made them more independent and capable when they went into research or industry after college.

Following lunch, we walked to a park near Hadar, where the German student taught us how to do AcroYoga, or acrobatic yoga. It was really insane. I was so bad at it, because I was so scared that I’d fall. But it was intriguing once I found my balance, and not as bad as I expected. There’s AcroYoga at the graduate student dorms every Sunday at 8pm, so I think I’ll join today and see how I like it.