Sheep Tail and Sesame Paste

Yesterday morning, I went to the campus coffee shop and got a latte and croissant to eat on my way to work. I have quite a routine now, which involves getting up around 7:00, getting dressed and ready, checking my e-mail and blog down in the dorm lobby, and then heading off to pick something up for breakfast on my way to work! By the time everyone else arrives to work between 9:00 and 10:00 I'm happily programming at my computer and not groggily staring at the wall.

Croissant with sesame seeds on top--another food pic for UGER!

Autumn didn't come into work yesterday because it was her sister's bat mitzah the night before and she was exhausted from partying late into the evening. When Leo arrived, we talked for a good while about Jewish philosophy…not exactly work related but interesting nonetheless. He had gone to a study group at the synagogue the night before and was telling me about what they'd talked about. The subject of their discourse had centered around whether a Jew should or shouldn't perform sacrifice if they're not sure if they may have accidentally eaten a "dirty" piece of meat. For example, Jews aren't allowed to eat the fat around the heart or in the body cavities or even the tail of a sheep. All I can say, is it's a good thing I'm not a Jew because I don't know if I could possibly give up eating things like sheep tail and cow heart! Leo enjoyed my questions about Judaism but at one point warned me (somewhat severely) that I shouldn't be interested in converting to Judaism. I assured him that I wasn't and he explained how it's not right that someone should ever try to become a Jew. That somehow, you can never become Jewish and "its not your right." I'm a little confused about this belief about conversion, though I know it's one held by many Jews—sometimes it seems like the Jewish people just want to be a special separate group who believe they are in an elevated relationship with God, a relationship which no one else can even dream of realizing. It's a bit strange really, but I'll keep my mouth shut about it while I'm in Israel.

The rest of the morning, I worked on some more data analysis with Leo's help. Leo is performing a similar analysis on his data, so it was helpful for both of us to work together. Both of us took slightly different approaches. While he was more interested in a theoretical approach, I took a slightly more empirical one (and it turned out to be faster in this instance). It was good to compare the two methods. I'm not sure if the difference in techniques is a cultural one, or if Leo's background in physics lead him to a different perspective on the problem.

At 1:00, Leo and I went with two other guys from the floor (a Russian and a Chilean) to lunch at Charlie's. We all had salmon with some sort of side (I had potatoes and salad). The fish was very good (and surprisingly cheap). I did notice that I was the only one who didn't eat the skin. Scales don't sit well with me.

Before leaving work for the day, Leo took me to the campus grocery store and showed me around. We went from shelf to shelf and he pointed out things that he found really tasty: rice wrapped in grape leaves and canned in water, spicy red pepper dip, sweet cherry tomato spread. One thing that he really loves is an oily Arabic spread that's made with milled sesame seeds, kinda like peanut butter. But…you mix it with water and chickpeas. "When you go back to America," he told me, "You lug back lots of this for your friends and family to try, okay? They'll love it." Aren't you guys lucky that I'll be bringing back jars and jars of sticky dry sesame seed spread for all of you!?!? (Not really. I bought some, tasted it, and believe that peanut butter is much better…even if it is a bit on the pricey side. This stuff was way too dry and pasty). The last thing Leo showed me was Israeli olive oil: "This is very good," he explained. "It really gets the ladies in the mood. We will go to Tel Aviv and find you a chick so you can try it out. It will be fun." Hmmm….