Our Third Week (already??)

1/22 - pov lilly

No more points will be awarded for guessing what we did first today, because it has been exactly the same for the past two weeks and will be for the next two weeks… feed the fish!

Our big project for today was cleaning the seahorse tank, which hadn’t been cleaned in awhile. It was like the world’s most chaotic game of Where’s Waldo trying to find these two tiny camouflaged seahorses in this ginormous tank. I think we’re getting pretty good at the tank cleaning now though, because after about 20 minutes we both remarked about how easy the tank was to clean. The seahorses had been scooped out and put in a smaller tank while we were cleaning, but one of them was covered in some sort of fungi that we later attempted to get off by treating special blue stuff called methylene blue. We weren’t very successful, but we didn’t want to stress them out any more, so we put them back in their tank and gave them lots of good food.

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after --->

In the afternoon, we worked quite a bit on one of the 10th grade group projects. They wanted to measure the consumption of O2 by goldfish while swimming against a current, but they weren’t sure how to create the system to do it. This is awesome!! Another chance to help out kids while also getting to use my MechE skills and see cute goldfish! So after some brainstorming with Liel, Rafi, Marie, and the teachers, the goal was to put several goldfish in a long tank and add a water pump to one end, which would create a current for the goldfish to swim against. This then allows them to measure a change in O2 concentration of the tank as the fish use up O2. You’re probably thinking what an amazing idea for a project!! because it’s a totally cool concept, but the execution was a bit harder. We needed a long enough tank, then we had to install a pump, then we had to find a way to cycle the water back through, then we had to find a way to cover it, we needed to figure out how to seal it and get all of the oxygen out, and by then it was almost 5pm. Whew!

We decided to work on it more tomorrow morning, and then went to watch the sunset. While we were out watching the sunset, Liel mentioned that there were vending machines on campus with ice cream. If you know me, you know I have a sweet tooth, especially for ice cream. And guess what? The dining hall here doesn’t serve any kind of dessert! I guess it makes sense, because the kids would probably eat a ton of it, but it doesn’t mean I don’t still end every meal wanting just a little something sweet. So after dinner tonight, Marie and I ventured over to the vending machines and saw the ice cream one. In big green letters, it read OUT OF ORDER. My heart dropped. No ice cream tonight :( I ended up getting a chocolate bar from the snack vending machine right next to it but I guess from now on we’ll need to hop the fence and walk to the mini mart if we want any ice cream.

1/23 - pov marie

I feel like I can stop mentioning what the first thing we did was. In the future we will write FTA, short for fed the aquariums! The rotifers have been struggling a little bit, so we also treated the two tanks with methylene blue and then strained them a few hours later.

After this, Lilly continued doing some cool MechE stuff: she built a new cover for one of the aquariums with the hopes of it being nicer, cleaner, and more practical. She built a wooden frame, sanded it probably 27 times because it wouldn’t fit the 26 first times, and then covered it with netting so that we could feed the fish without removing the cover. She also added a fancy shmancy holder to support the water hose.

In the meantime, I was tasked with bathing a seahorse. Yup, you heard that right. I bathed a frickin seahorse.

We realized this week that one of the seahorses, who we will name Peaches, appeared sick. After cleaning out their tank yesterday, we saw that she was covered in something and appeared more depressed than sea horses usually do. Our two goals were to remove as much gunk as possible from her body and take a sample of the gunk to look at under the microscope. Having never touched (or even interacted with) a seahorse, I was expecting some guidance. However, Liel handed me a bowl, a brush and a squirt bottle and told me to go figure it out.

Once Peaches was in the bowl, I was definitely a little confused. The first time I touched her, it was a very weird feeling - they’re a lot coarser and drier (?) than you would imagine. Kind of like a stick, but a stick that moves and writhes around. I scooped her up in my hand so that I would have ‘access’ to her whole body, all while trying to keep her gills and face in the water so she wouldn’t be too freaked out. Immediately, she curled her little tail around my pinkie, which was both adorable and uncomfortable. I proceeded to brush her as gently as possible, making sure that I got every side of her and that I couldn’t see any more gunk. She definitely wasn’t too happy about this process, but I think we had a mutual understanding that this was weird but necessary. Once bath time was over, I put her back in the tank with her boyfriend where she found a nice piece of seaweed to anchor to.

After lunch, we began working with the 10th grade class on their projects. I first helped out a group of three girls that are testing the effect of pH on pulsing Xenia (if you read the blog, you’ve heard of this one before - this was our third time performing the experiment for various reasons). We were a bit smarter this time around, making bigger batches of water and adapting the project a little. Once they no longer needed my help, I worked with three other students that also wanted to test the effect of pH, but this time on the calcification of dead coral. Now a pro (of working with the hella concentrated HCl), I helped them make their different pH waters as well.

The last project of the day was to continue working on the other students’ aquarium to measure the O2 consumption of goldfish swimming against a current. After our brainstorming session yesterday, we needed to assemble all the parts to build the system. We added a tube connecting both ends that would allow the water to circulate, a chamber and a mount for the pump, and a mosaic of PVC pipes that would help ensure the current was going straight. We also cut three pieces of plastic that would function as the lid to the aquarium and would allow us to seal it without oxygen inside.

Once all of this was assembled, we thought we were good to perform the experiment with the students. We added in the goldfish and began sealing them in using a mighty amount of hot glue. Quickly, problems began arising. One found himself past the PVC pipes, stuck directly in front of the pump. Another swam into the tube that would recycle the water. Not being able to U-turn, we had to blow him out of there backwards… In addition to the fish being tipshim (‘stupids’), we also had issues with junctions leaking. We decided that we needed an extra day to fix these unforeseen issues and make sure the experiment ran smoothly.

To finish off the day, we had our daily tea-drinking session with Liel while watching the sunset. As usual, beautiful.

1/24 - pov lilly

FTA!!

I have the best boss. Period! Major shout out to Liel for bringing me candy this morning, lollipops AND sour candy strips. As per my last post, the way to win me over is definitely through candy.

My job today was to finish up the goldfish O2 experiment with the 10th graders. After our little trial and error yesterday, I had a few improvements to make. Firstly, a netting with smaller holes needed to be installed so that no more fish went any places in the system that they weren’t supposed to. After cutting the net, I installed one piece right next to the tube, which was super easy. It was the other piece, however, that was a bit of a challenge. It needed to go about 4 and a half feet forward through the sealed tank. I ended up putting a ton of hot glue on it and then using huge forceps stuck inside a long metal rod to push the netting forward until it was stuck on the gray tubes at the from of the tank. It took me a hot minute to do, but everything survived the test and no fish got stuck!

So once I was finished with that, the students were ready to get the goldfish in and do their test. Just like yesterday, we filled up the tank system with water, put the fish in, and sealed the whole thing up. Once that was done, the students turned the pump on to create the current and started collecting data with their O2 sensor. It worked perfectly, and I was able to help them create a graph on excel afterwards. It was super fun to get to help them see the project through, because I remember talking to them two weeks ago when it was just an idea. It reminded me a lot of my middle and high school projects, and it was awesome to see all of the staff members come together and dedicate so much time and energy to the project.

In the meantime, Marie worked with Liel to clean up the lab a bit and giving the algae a “spa day.” This involved straining and splitting the algae into new containers, and then making and adding growth medium.

Because of all of our hard work this morning, Liel gave us the afternoon off. We ventured to the Banana Beach, which is a little restaurant and beach area right next to the village. It was nice to lay down and relax a bit, as we are both avid beachgoers. But it's suffice to say that it was hella windy. Which is absolutely great for the kitesurfers and foilboarders out on the water, but not so much for two girls trying to tan even though there's only a UV index of 1. But like actually sand everywhere. After spending about 20 minutes doing our killer sudokus, I got up and walked along the beach while Marie read her book. Not more 15 or 20 minutes later, I returned with a handful of sea glass to find my towel completely covered in sand. If I hadn’t known it was there I wouldn’t have even noticed it.

We decided it was time to head back to the youth village and meet Liel to watch the sunset. Again, another gorgeous sunset, tonight with snacks. We had gone to the grocery store before lunch and I picked up some Cheeto puffs, which are probably my favorite snack ever. These ones were pizza flavored though, which was kinda funky. They really tasted like pizza, and came in small X and O shapes, which was interesting. Marie loved them, but I think I’ll just stick to the regular ones from now on.

1/25 - pov marie

FTA!

After feeding everybody, we worked on the seahorses. Lilly and Liel took them out, fresh water treated their tank, and then methylene blue treated it. They also cleaned some of the other tanks in the Mediterranean hall to make them a bit more presentable for the tour (more on this later).

In the meantime, I was tasked with cleaning the seahorses once again. However this time, I would describe it more like a medical procedure and less like bath time. Tweezers and forceps in hand, looking through the microscope, I carefully removed the gunk from their body (#real premed moment). Unfortunately, my patients were neither anesthetized nor cooperative. At first they held tails, but then they got mad and just starting swimming away from me. After developing cramps in all my fingers, I finally gave them a final brush and put them in new water.

Then it was time for the tour! Kayla and Jessica from Givat Washington paid us a visit with a group of students and their supervisor. After giving them a tour of the aquariums and labs, we went on a boat ride to go see the sharks and fish cages! We went in Liel’s boat with Jessica and Kayla and four students while Carmel took the others. It was absolutely gorgeous out plus Liel let me drive all the way there 😎. Once we got near the power plant, we hung out and eagerly waited for a shark. The students apparently saw 4 in the span of 40 seconds so 🤷🏼‍♀️. We had some fun picking up non-stinging medusas (or attempting to) and then we left to go to the boat cages. Each student got to take a turn driving the boat and they looked so happy doing it - it was really cute. We saw the fish cages, which were massive, and then Lilly drove us back to the school. We got lunch with the Givat Washington girls at our dining hall and then said goodbye to them.

After they left, we helped out around the lab, cleaning up after the morning and straining some algae. Once that was all done, we went outside to help the juniors out with their company Aqua Coral. They are selling coral to pay for a class boating trip to Cyprus words cannot describe how jealous I am) and so they were making stands out of clay to hold the coral. It was such a vibe - it was so nice out and we were playing music and talking with them and having fun with the clay. It was also our first time really speaking with the whole junior class (we’ve talked to a few of them a lot, but this was my first conversation with all of them); they worked on speaking English and they asked us a bunch of questions about MIT and university in the US and all and it was overall just really fun.

Then Omer and Mika came to ask if we could help them with their experiment. They wanted to see if and how covering the spirullina flasks with tin foil (so light can’t pass) would affect the rate of photosynthesis. Since they are pros, they didn’t actually really need our help for most of it, we just chit chatted about life. Once they were done with their experiment, we moved to go sit near the ocean to watch the sunset; today, instead of drinking tea with Liel, we spilled the tea with Omer and Mika :). It was truly a bonding moment - we took instagram photos, we made a groupchat, Omer called Lilly a NPC, etc. They also helped us make reservations (because none of the websites seem to have English translations…) to go eat sushi at a restaurant Liel and his fiancée Yana recommended.

The restaurant, Mojo, is south of Netanya, so we took two buses to get there. They just opened up a new bus stop right in front of the school, which is amazing because it means we don’t need to do the 40 minute walk sandwiched between the highway and the dunes to get to the other stop. When we got into the new bus, the driver looked at me, said something in Hebrew and then went ’No blondes allowed!’ We just laughed it off and sat down and continued our journey through Netanya.

The sushi and drinks we ordered were so good. Like so so good. Absolutely delicious. And then we went next door and got a Lotus crepe and hot chocolate. It was really nice to exit the school during the evening for once - probably should have done that earlier but whatever.

On our way back, we took the same bus line that would bring us back to the new bus stop in front of the school. When we saw the bus approach, we both wondered if it wasn’t the same driver as on the way. When we got in, he opened his door and said ‘When I said ‘no blondes allowed’ I didn’t know you guys spoke English. But then you two chit chatted in English the whole way!’ It was the same guy! Yosef was so sweet - he had been a camp counselor in New Jersey during his youth and spoke nearly perfect English. The bus was empty so we chatted the whole way about Israel and the US and his wife and how when he dropped us off he would be sad because then he would have to drive alone and wouldn’t be able to talk to anybody. It was really cute.

Anywho, after that, we just went back to the room and went right to bed.

1/26 - pov lilly

FTA!!

No candy from Liel today because he forgot it at home. Maybe next week…

First on our agenda today was helping the 10th graders wrap up their projects. I worked with the boys doing the goldfish experiment, so we took all of the data from their oxygen meter and created some graphs on excel. They looked pretty spiffy and the kids were excited to use them in their final presentations.

After that, we went on a tide pooling adventure. Liel needed algae for his sea slugs to eat, but we were looking for anything and everything. Marie collected a bunch of anemones and sea tomatoes, while Liel got heaps of algae. I was in charge of catching fish, but they were really fast. So we didn’t get any fish. But it was super nice to get up and move, a good change of pace from most days we spend in the lab.

After that we started working on a new tank for the ulva algae. We found an empty tub and got to work. It needed oxygen tubes that had holes in them for the air to come out and move around the algae. We also needed those tubes cut to the right size and weighed down enough to keep them on the bottom of the tank once there was water in it. Easier said than done, they needed a lotttt of weight. But after a few hours of work, we had everything ready to go and it looked awesome.

After we ate lunch and wrapped up the ulva tank, Liel had to go study for an exam he had the next morning, so he let us go a little early. We decided that since the weather was so nice, we would go paddle boarding around the cove area. I am a huge kayaker, and I can manage on a paddle board if I’m sitting down, but SUPing is not reaaaaally my thing. Marie was up and moving in the first minute, but I sat and paddled around the cove for a bit. Once I finally had enough encouragement from Marie, I attempted to stand up. Unsuccessful. The board was shaking back and forth and the waves were coming and it just wasn’t happening. But eventually I tried again and made it onto my feet. We paddled around and chitchatted and then went for a swim. The water was a bit chill but super refreshing.

After getting out of the water, warming up, and getting back to our room, we got packed for our 2 am bus from Tel Aviv. We left the school and walked to the bus stop, getting to Tel Aviv around 8:30. First things first - we needed dinner. We met up with Sam, Jessica, and Josh at the hostel we stayed at last weekend. Sam came with Marie and I to get shawarma at a place we had been meaning to try. It was soooo good. I’m a plain eater so I just had hummus with mine but they had a whole bunch of vegetables and other options as well. After eating, we went back and played cards in the hostel until 1am. Then we headed to get on our bus to Jordan!!