This week has been great! I was finally able to test the perfusion system I have been building for most of the summer and it worked great!(pictured is an early model of the tubing system, in my next post I will post a picture of the finished product!) We had to overcome some obstacles along the way such as growing cells on specific types of slides while keeping notch signaling stopped at a specific point in the pathway and getting the housing of the system to fit in the microscope but in the end It is working! I hope to be able to use it to get some good images using the microscope and hopefully enough data in my remaining week to reach some conclusions about the activation of Notch signaling. Other than work I have spent this week seeing friends that are leaving Israel and continuing to explore Tel Aviv. I found a few local restaurants that were excellent and had some of the best hummus Ive ever tried! (pictured). As I make my way through the city I have begun to get slightly melancholy about leaving it, as I have begun to grow accustom to the way of life here. Although I did not personally experience any significant culture shock when I arrived I think that jumping back into life in New Jersey will be quite the shock. I will miss the beaches, the city and the friends Ive made along the way while working here. That being said, I am not gone yet! I have been preparing for two presentation I have next week about my research, one for the Tel Aviv University International office and one for the members of the lab I have been working in. I am excited to present the findings and data I spent the summer collecting and I am sure it will feel satisfying to see all the work Ive done in one place! This weekend I plan to make a trip to Peta Tikva, the town next to Tel Aviv, and hopefully go to a few museums as well. Stay tuned for updates!

 

As I near the end of my internship I have just started to feel at home in Israel. I have fallen into a standard, yet relaxing, routine of alternating my focus from work to the beach. As the summer has begun to come to an end many of my friends who I have gotten quite close to have returned home, leaving the campus slightly less lively. That being said, the students who are here on the same program as me remain. This week Is my last full week of work and I am both saddened and excited. I am saddened to be leaving what has been a wonderful expierence yet excited to return home and be reunited with friends and family. However, I still have roughly 2 weeks left and I plan to make the most of it. First, I have a presentation about my research coming up which I have to prepare for. This week I will be collecting the last of my data for the presentation and the following week I will be working on finishing up a few parts of the projects I have been working on throughout the summer. Past that, for fun I am planning to go to a few local museums at the university such as the Natural History Museum of Israel and the University Planetarium. I also hope to continue to go to the beach as much as possible to catch every sunset over the mediterranean possible before my only option is once again the Atlantic, which is only slightly less impressive. Lastly, I am hoping to be able to make once last trip out of Tel Aviv to Eilat. If all works out I will be able to go next weekend and stay for a night or two. I am really looking forward to my remaining days in Israel and all the experiences I will have.

A few updates from Israel! This week in the lab I have been working on transfecting cells with new DNA and imaging them under high powered microscopes. Work has been good as I have hit a point in the summer where I have begun to work almost entirely independently. I find this work extremely interesting and it has been amazing to learn so much about biology and how to work successfully in a lab. My coworkers are great, very smart and extremely helpful. Once a week we have group meetings where a scientific paper is discussed, it is very interesting every time and food is always served! I am hopeful that by the end of the summer I will have enough data to reach some sort of conclusion about the research I am conducting but it seems unlikely that we will have enough data to do that in the next few weeks.

In my downtime I have been spending a ton of time at the beach with friends. The beaches here are spectacular and the past few days after work we have been going just to enjoy the sunset. I have never been a fan of the beaches but finally being somewhere that is not the jersey shore has quickly changed my mind. Moreover, the other day I took a trip to Petak Tikva, the city next to Tel Aviv. The town there is very different as it is far less busy. It is a historically religious city and therefore on the weekends it almost completely shuts down which is a slightly peaceful characteristic of the city. I am looking forward to my last 3 weeks in Israel and hoping to continue to do new and exciting things.

Attached is a picture of what a typical sunset at the beach looks like, beautiful.

 

 

This week has consisted of a lot of the same in regards to work. My research is continuing nicely however no major events worth documenting have occurred. I have been able to do some really cool things this week such as go to the beach and to the market. I wanted to touch on the food that I have been eating here. It is delicious! One of my favorite local dishes is shawarma. A meat sandwich that is cooked with meat that is rotating on a spit and then shaved off. It is usually served in a pita with hummus, vegetables and hot sauce. Another local dish which I enjoy is falafel. Falafel is fried chick pea balls. They are also usually served in pita with the same toppings. It is not uncommon to find good shawarma and good falafel at the same location! Whenever I meet a new person from Israel I like to find out where the best shawarma/falafel place is. So far my favorite is a place called falafel hacosem (The falafel magician!). Another local food is a dessert called Halva. Halva is sesame based food that is a somewhat pasty texture. It is seen in shops (pictured) in giant wheels and then cut and sold by weight. I will admit it is a little bit of an acquired taste but I think it is fantastic! I have throughly been enjoying the food here and trying new local dishes.