Blast from the past

This week has been a strange blast from the past. I have been working in my old lab and even getting into a lab coat to do some syntheses in my old fume hood. 

I find signs of me everywhere- my writing on the labels on the chemical shelves, my christmas card to the lab on the wall, my old lab books on the shelf and even… and I'm not proud of this…a drawer full of my neatly organized samples. 

When I went to make myself a cup of the nasty Nescafe Israelis love, my old orange mug was waiting for me in the kitchen. 

It has been a hoot freaking out people. Old lab mates, cleaning ladies, and students from other labs etc. have been coming across me in the hallways or in the lab unexpectedly. It is fun to see the surprise on their faces and our mutual delight at seeing each other again. 

My student will be here for the whole month and is getting going on experiments and working with Uri's students. Uri has been picking my brain about my opinions on some chemistry (his weak point) and I have been picking his brain about spectroscopy experiments (my weak point) and professor-fu (my big weak point). 

Uri has a start up company that has really grown since I was there from four to sixteen staff and a has a new shiny lab. I'd love to ask all sorts of questions about their technology, but of course that verboten. His staff, some of whom are my old labmates, just talk vaguely, smile and change the subject. 

Uri is equally curious and frustrated for another reason. His son is just finishing military service and we are not allowed to know what he does. Must be intelligence. When you ask Asaf about his service, he just smiles, talks vaguely and changes the subject.All the same, you can tell that Uri is extremely proud of his son, but dying of curiosity. 

While I've been at work, James and Alex have been hanging out and taking long walks though Jerusalem. A baby sitter, Erica, comes for a few hours everyday so James can tread water in his daily tsunami of emails. 

Alex loves the bustle of the market and the buskers of Ben Yehuda Street. He has been consuming an incredible amount of fresh fruit and no small number of pitas. His sleep patterns are all out of whack, but his late evenings mean we have been able to have nice long visits with old friends after work.