My 30th Birthday!!!

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life and adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 persists in the US and around the world, and you are (hopefully) continuing to wear masks when you go outside (even if you’re vaccinated), avoiding large gatherings, and social distancing, I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy and that my blog highlights what the world can look like once recovery begins. Once things improve, I hope you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family and outdoor activities. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable as I have.

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Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest update continues to find all of you safe, happy, and healthy. For those of you who are in academia, I hope that the end of your semester is going well. Additionally, I hope that more of you have been able to either schedule your vaccination or get your covid-19 vaccination shot. If you haven’t, I hope you are able to do so soon.

I want to begin this post by reflecting on the result of the Derek Chauvin murder trial. I believe that like me, many of you were relieved that a guilty verdict on all counts was delivered. However, there’s still a lot to process about this trial. First, it was heartening to see the collapse of the “blue wall” that generally protects police officers from getting convicted for these violent actions. However, I fear that this may be a solitary example of police casting aside the worst offender and not a true structural change. To me, it’s paramount that we stop treating police officers as being above the laws that they are sworn to protect. Moreover, it’s hard to view this as celebratory, because George Floyd, and so many others, are not alive today. I found that Utah Jazz center, Rudy Gobert, put it best in his tweet “Let’s hope that one day justice for all will feel normal and not like a celebration.” So, while this is progress, it’s vital to remember that there is still much more justice to achieve and it’s up to us to keep pushing and working to make structural changes in policing and the removal of infrastructure that supports the systemic racism and oppression that is still prevalent in America.

Now for your weekly covid-19 update. The situation in China remains largely the same. The only real news was that China is now allowing people to enter who have had the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, instead of just those made in China. In terms of the number of cases, there are 66 cases in Shanghai (all imported) and the recovery rate is 96.28%. In Beijing, there are only 10 cases and the recovery rate is at 98.2%. For China as a whole, there are 530 cases and the recovery rate is 94.79%. All numbers come from OneTubeDaily, an expat English language news resource on WeChat that I follow.

In terms of Astronomy, this was a productive week. At long last, my DES paper on the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass relation and it’s evolution has progressed to the collaboration wide review (should go out soon) stage! This is the final stage of collaboration review and the last stage before I can submit the article for publication. Given that I’ve been working on this project for over 2 years, I’m ecstatic to finally get this paper in front of more eyeballs! Outside of that, much of my time was spent working on my mock Luminosity Function analysis. I’m now starting to make measurements, though it appears that there still may be some nuances that I’m trying to get figured out completely in how the measurements should be done. Additionally, I made some more interesting plots for my halo mass proxy analysis, so hopefully I’ll be able to start writing that up as well soon.

As you know from my previous posts, it is now Spring in Shanghai. However, it’s actually starting to warm up (reaching the mid-70s this past week and 80s next week). For those of you who remember my posts from the summer, Shanghai gets unbearably hot/humid in the summer, so hopefully the spring will hold out longer. This week, I was still able to go for two runs though and see some lovely flowers!

This was a very fun-filled week for me. In addition to my birthday celebrations, which I’ll discuss next, on Tuesday, Kehilat Shanghai hosted another trivia night at Tacolicious! We had another great turnout and David and I came up with some great questions! I’ll share mine with all of you at the end of this post. 🙂

The highlight of my week was that on Saturday, April 24th, I turned 30! Before I share some of my celebrations, I want to start by wishing my brother, Emmet, a Happy 30th Birthday! Thanks for being such a supportive and loving brother! I can’t wait until your able to move to Beijing so that we can see each other again and go on some China adventures!

In terms of my birthday celebrations, on Saturday night I had a lot of my close friends over to my apartment for a dinner party! I made tons of delicious food including Pra Ram Tofu (tofu with peanut sauce), Tempeh Fajitas, and Veggie Meatballs (following a veganized version of my great grandmother’s recipe!) as well as some salads. My friends brought some other dips, veggies and salads as well so it was a real feast!

For desert, we had a beautiful fruit/nut spread, choclate covered strawberries, and vegan cookies!

However, the desert highlight was the vegan carrot cake that my friend and fellow Kehilat Shanghai board member, Ha, made for me! I was incredibly touched that Ha offered to make me a cake and it was really delicious! It was the same recipe that my Mom used to make Emmet his cake, so there was a nice symbolism that even though we weren’t able to celebrate in person together, we were able to celebrate by enjoying the same cake!

For those of you who are unfamiliar, my family has a tradition of singing the birthday song: “Hooray Today is your birthday, not the pickles or the pears, not the beavers or the bears, not next week or yesterday, Hooray Today is your birthday!” And thanks to some help from my Mom (who reached out to my friend Heather), my friends surprised me by singing this, which I was totally not suspecting. This was then followed by Happy Birthday in English, 2 versions in Chinese, two versions of Spanish, 2 versions of French, and Hebrew! Overall, I had a wonderful time catching up with so many of my friends. I haven’t had a ton of dinner parties in my apartment, so it was really lovely to have so many people over and get to spend the evening with my friends here in Shanghai! While I’ve only been here for a year and a half, I’m incredibly grateful for my friends. I’m so fortunate that I’ve been able to make such kind, caring, and supportive friends here!

And as you can see, my favorite dog Pina was able to come join in my celebration as well and she also had a fun time! 🙂

While I’m not going to discuss most of the gifts I got, though special thanks to Emmet and my parents for getting me some really great and lovely gifts as well as my friends Heather and Shimi, I do want to share one of my gifts, because I think you’ld all find it really neat!

My friend Kate made me this decorative good luck charm. It says in Mandarin: be blessed by a lucky star. As an Astronomer, I thought this message was lovely and it will be a lovely memento of my time in Shanghai!

Food in Shanghai

On Tuesday, I got lunch with my friend Ha. We went to Duli, one of my favorite vegan restaurants in Shanghai. The food was as always inventive and fabulous! We enjoyed a cauliflower curry, sweet potato gnocchi, and ma po tofu hummus!

Duli is one of the few vegan restaurants that does fusion food, so it’s always cool for a change in culinary experience!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

On Saturday, Kehilat Shanghai held a Lag B’Omer BBQ. For those of you who have never heard of Lag B’Omer, this is a minor holiday that is celebrated on the 33rd day of the Omer and represents a break in the mourning period between Passover and Shavuot. This is joyous holiday, where people celebrate by having bonfires or BBQs.

My friends John and Alex (who invited me for Passover) hosted the BBQ and as you can see we had a fantastic turnout (there are a ton of kids not shown in the photos playing on the playground). You can also see that cool view of downtown Shanghai!

However, the highlight of the BBQ was when John and Alex surprised me with a birthday cake! I was absolutely not expecting it and it was really wonderful! John made me a delicious vegan chocolate cake! It was a big hit with the kids, and it was completely devoured! :).

I also have some great videos of being surprised by the cake that I wanted to share!

As you can see I was very surprised by this and it made me incredibly happy! I’m so grateful for all the wonderful friends that I’ve made in the Kehilat Shanghai community. It’s really been a huge part in helping me make Shanghai feel like home!

Overall, this was a great week of birthday celebrations! I had so many fun celebrations, both in person, as well as on Zoom/FaceTime with Emmet, my parents, and my cousin Margaret and her family! It was really wonderful to be able to celebrate so many times! This upcoming week will definitely be a little quieter, it’s not every week you turn 30, but I know I’ll have some fun things to share with you all as well!

I hope that you enjoyed seeing and reading about my birthday celebrations! I hope that this upcoming week is safe and healthy for all of you as well.

In peace,

Jesse

Trivia

This Day in History

1). In 2008, this racer became the first woman to win an IndyCar Series Race?

2). In 1986, Michael Jordan set an NBA record scoring 63 points in a playoff game against what team?

3). In 1980, Fidel Castro opened this port, allowing ~ 125,000 Cubans to leave the country over the next 5-6 months

4). In 1940, this type of microscope, that significantly improved upon the resolving power of light based microscopes was first demonstrated

5). In 1920, this Declaration officially made Palestine a British mandate

6). On this day in 1916 and 1912, these two famous and still used Baseball stadiums were opened

7). In 1862, the first of these tests, which later would extend the life of processed goods was done by this famed scientist

8). In 1611, this Shakespeare Tragedy featuring characters including Banquo, Hecate, Donalbain premiered

9). In 295 and 1910, this Astronomical Object was recorded as being seen in the night sky?

10). In 1937, this actor known best for his role as Sulu on Star Trek was born

Where in the World

1). Where did Dr. James Naismith invent basketball?

2). In what city was Arch Duke Franz-Ferdinand assassinated, leading to WWI?

3). What was the first city outside of the UK where the Beatles performed?
Bonus: Name the two former members who played in this show, but would soon after leave the Beatles

4). What was the first city outside of Greece to host the Olympics?

5). The emperors of China had seasonal homes, the northern capital was Beijing, name this southern capital?

6). In January of 1790, which city was the capital of the United States?

7). What is the name of the Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned from 1964 – 1982

8). The first manned flight by Orville and Wilbur Wright occurred near what North Carolina town?

9). The battle of this location in 1600 led way to the formation of the Tokugawa Shogunate?

10). Many of the world’s best and largest Telescopes are built in Chile in the Atacama Desert Region. This nearest city is 100 km to the Northeast and ~ 500km north of Santiago?

Units of Measurement

1). Which of these astronomical related distance measurements is the largest: parsec, Astronomical Unit, lightyear

2). Named after a French mathematician and physicist, this is the unit of electrical current?

3). Named for English Physicist, mathematician, and brewer, James Prescott Joule, the joule is the SI derived unit of what?

4). Name the three units that are commonly used to measure temperature

5). In chemistry, this is the unit used to describe luminous intensity

6). In astronomy, for measures of the mass of stars and galaxies, we use the unit solar masses. For planets, we use either earth masses or Jupiter masses. Which of these answers best describes how much more massive the sun is than the earth?
— 1 Msun = 300 Mearth
— 1 Msun = 30 million Mearth
— 1 Msun = 300 hundred thousand Mearth
— I Msun = 3 billion Earth

7). The Watt is a unit that is used to measure radiant power, in Astronomy, this is referred to as what inherent property

8). When this unit of measurement was originally introduced it was defined as the weight of a cubic centimeter of water

9). The modern formulations of Newton’s two Most famous equations begin with this quantity, that is measured in Newton’s

10). Named for a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, writer and Catholic Theologian, this is the SI unit of Pressure

April 18, 2021

Black History Walking Tour of Shanghai and Tianzifang!

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest update continues to find all of you staying safe and healthy. Hopefully all of you have been able to either sign up to get vaccinated or have already been vaccinated. Additionally, despite the fact that I saw photos of snow in Saratoga on Facebook this week, I hope that the weather is starting to feel more and more like Spring wherever you are.

As I’ve talked about in many of my posts, I unfortunately feel the need to once again address the importance of Black Lives Matter. The recent murders by police officers of Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo, further emphasize and justify the need for a sweeping overhaul in how policing is done in the US. Reform may not be enough. Both young men (though Adam Toledo was really a child) were killed in what should have been non-violent interactions with the police. That these officers chose to escalate to deadly force (or even have that ability, to supposedly due so by accident, in the case of Daunte Wright) highlights that we need police officers who have more training in verbal communication and de-escalation tactics. These violent actions by police officers come as America (and the world) watches for the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial. I hope that Chauvin is convicted for murdering George Floyd because it’s necessary to remind all Americans and police officers that they are not above the laws they claim to uphold. I hope that all of you can support your Black friends and neighbors and help make America a safer country. In my opinion, nobody is truly safe until everyone can feel feel the same level of safety. Black Lives Matter.

To transition back to covid-19, the situation remains under control in China. There are a few more local cases in Yunnan (Western China). However, in Shanghai, all the cases are imported cases. Unlike in the US, when people arrive in China, they are required to do a 14 day quarantine (in a hotel that they pay for). Every person is then tested and has their temperature monitored. This has been very effective in preventing the spread of covid-19 to the city’s populace. There are currently 57 cases in Shanghai and the recovery rate is 96.7%. In Beijing, there are only 10 cases and the recovery rate is 98.2%. For China as a whole, there are 529 active cases and the recovery rate is 94.78%. So, clearly these policies are working.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that Shanghai opened up the covid-19 vaccination to foreigners. Thanks to lots of perseverance, I was able to snag one of the slots that opened up (the initial slots were taken incredibly quickly, so I was checking all the available clinics, you can only go in the district where you live — Xuhui– or work — Minhang). On Wednesday, I got my first of 2 covid-19 vaccination shots! The vaccine that I got is the Beijing Biological Vaccine. From what I was able to learn (and told by fellow ex-pats who could communicate better with the doctors), the vaccine has an efficacy rate of 79%. For those unfamiliar, this is not an mRNA vaccine, I believe that it’s more in live with the type of vaccine that Johnson & Johnson developed. I’ll get my next shot in 3 weeks. 🙂

The process was relatively simple. I arrived at the hospital and got in line to sign in (you have to give your passport number and sign forms). Then I paid RMB 100 (~$15), the government covers the cost for Chinese citizens). Then I got my vaccine (and they scheduled my next appointment) and then waited for 30 minutes. My only side effect was a little fatigue, but I’m not sure that wasn’t my normal afternoon fatigue. So, I strongly encourage all of you to also get vaccinated when possible.

For those of you who’ve never been to a Chinese hospital, they look pretty similar to US hospitals, even down to decorations to make kids more comfortable.

In terms of Astronomy, this was a very productive week! I’ve been spending a lot of time (basically the entire week) running analysis codes on the mock galaxy catalog that I generated. The catalog is gigantic (> 30 GBs) so everything takes a while to run. However, I should start to have some of my results this week! Using mocks and doing a lot of this analysis is new to me, so it’s both fun and frustrating when I encounter new challenges! But a lot of the frustration seems to be paying off! Additionally, I’ve continued to work on my project comparing different Halo Mass proxies and have put together most of the figures that we plan to use in this analysis, so I will probably work on writing this analysis up over the coming weeks! Additionally, I’ve continued to work on my analysis of the redshift evolution of the Intra-Cluster Light. We’re still figuring out some of the nuances of the different ways that we can analyze the data, but I’ve been busy at work making plots comparing these. So, firing on all cylinders research wise!

In terms of running, the weather has been really nice here! It’s not hot yet, mostly in the low 70s, so I was able to go for 4 runs this week! As usual, I made sure to take photos of lots of flowers that I saw!

In addition to the flowers, I also saw some cool storefronts.

As well as some friendly cats! The one on the left was especially friendly!

The main highlight of my week was going on a Black History Walking Tour of Shanghai. Hannah Maia, Clem, and I co-organized this as part of our anti-racism discussion series along with Patrick Cranley, who runs Historic Shanghai. Patrick seemingly knows everything about the history of Shanghai, from the architects who designed the older buildings, to their original owners, to the landmarks that are seemingly hidden in plain sight. Every time I go on one of the Historic Shanghai walks, I always learn a ton! Unsurprisingly, there is not a ton of Black History in Shanghai. Most of it, is related to the Former French Concession (the area where I live) during the 1920s-1930s. At the time, many Jazz musicians would come to play in Shanghai, where they would experience the same cultural freedoms that they would experience in France at that time. Sadly, the international Concession (separate from the French Concession) was not free from segregation, due to the strong influence from the Americans. Additionally, we learned about Langston Hughes’s trip to China, where he wrote the poem Roar China! as well as about different civil rights activists and leaders who would visit China in support of Mao in the 1970s. Of course, we also learned about much of the history of many of the other buildings in Xuhui as well!

Additionally, on Sunday, I went to the shopping district Tianzifang! Tianzifang is a cool lane neighborhood with tons of different shops and food stalls that’s ~ 1 mile from where I live. Some of the things are artisan, others are small shops selling trinkets, lots of them are selling tea. I visited about 1.5 years ago, but it was cool to be back and I’ll definitely go again!

As you can see, there’s a lot of really cool street art/graffiti as well!

Despite this being another quieter week, there was a lot of fun stuff for me to share with you all! This upcoming week I’m aiming to get a lot of work done, but I also have some fun things planned (including my 30th Birthday on Saturday!). So, I’ll definitely have some fun things to share with you!

I hope that you enjoy seeing all the photos I shared of Shanghai! I hope that this upcoming week is safe and healthy for all of you.

In peace,
Jesse

April 11, 2021

Shanghai in the Spring!

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life and adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 persists in the US and around the world, and you are (hopefully) continuing to wear masks when you go outside (even if you’re vaccinated), avoiding large gatherings, and social distancing, I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy and that my blog highlights what the world can look like once recovery begins. Once things improve, I hope you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable as I have.

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest entry continues to find all of you safe and healthy. As vaccine eligibility opens to more of you in the US, I hope that all of you are scheduling your appointments (or have already done so) so that the US and the rest of the world can begin to recover. Additionally, as we all now enter Spring, I hope that you are using this as an opportunity to get out of your homes and enjoy some time outside doing some fun socially distanced runs, walks, or hikes.

In Shanghai, covid-19 remains entirely under control. As I mentioned, there was a minor outbreak in Yunnan (western China), but that outbreak appears to have been contained. In total, there are currently only 49 active cases and the recovery rate of covid-19 is at 97.08%. In Beijing, there are just 9 cases, with a recovery rate of 98.29%. For China as a whole, there are only 481 active cases, and the recovery rate is at 94.82%. These numbers remain very comforting. So,it’s important to remember that much of this has been able to happen because people continue to wear masks in public transportation/enclosed spaces and when outbreaks occur (like in Yunnan), cities or neighborhoods have been quarantined.

In terms of Astronomy, this was a productive week! After about 2 weeks of struggling, I finally got my Luminosity Function analysis up and running in parallel on the SJTU computer server. I hadn’t used parallel computing since my time at Michigan (and only figured out how to do it then thanks to help from my friend/colleague Hui), so thanks to help from some of my friends/colleagues and advice from my supervisor Ying, I was able to make the proper adjustments to my analysis to get my code to run quickly and properly. What would have taken ~ 77 hours can now be done in 25 minutes. I should start to have results from my mock analysis in the coming days. Additionally, I finally received more positive feedback on my DES Stellar Mass – Halo Mass relation paper (still waiting on 1 reviewer), but hopefully this analysis will move to collaboration wide review soon! Lastly, I’m back working on some of my high-z intra-cluster light (ICL) analysis (with my collaborator Yuanyuan) in order to look at how the ICL grows over cosmic time. So, thanks to a lot of time spent running code and getting everything back up and running on my computer, I was able to have a very productive week of research!

Although most of the time I spend on the SJTU campus is spent in my office, occasionally, I take the time to walk around the beautiful campus grounds!

Over the last week, we’ve had very nice weather, so this week, I got to go for three more runs! It hasn’t started to get very hot yet, so I’m trying to go for as many runs as I can before it gets too hot (generally June/July/August).

Spring is my favorite season in Shanghai! As you all know from my past entries, there are so many beautiful flowers planted all over the city. There are tons of small parks in each neighborhood as well as beautiful flower boxes scattered throughout the city. This makes the walks and runs that I go on particularly enjoyable this time of year! Moreover, there are also the gorgeous cherry blossom trees.

This week, I went for a really nice walk on Saturday and visited the Jing’an sculpture park. Sadly, it was too late in the year to see the tulips that are planted each year, but there were still other gorgeous flowers and cool sculptures to see!

In addition to all the gorgeous flowers, I also saw some really cool advertisements that I wanted to share with you all! I’m always on the lookout for DC Comics things, so I’ll have to stop by the bar that I took a picture of.

While most of my week was spent working (and thankfully making tangible progress), I did go to Moishe House on Wednesday for a Yom Hashoah event that I’ll discuss below. While there, I got to play with Daniel’s cat Osiris! He’s much bigger than the last time I saw him, but he still really seemed to like me! 🙂

Food in Shanghai

When I was at my local grocery store this week, I saw white strawberries for the first time! I’ve seen these before on tv and the internet, but I’ve never seen them in person or tried them. For those of you who are unfamiliar, white strawberries are very popular in Japan recently. They are sweeter and more delicate than regular strawberries. Their white color results from an absence of a certain protein that yields the traditional red coloring. The most expensive varieties that are cultivated in Japan are also exposed to little sunlight as well and only ~ 10% of the harvest is truly white (without the pink spots you see on some of time). I’m not sure if these are available in the US, but if you see them, you should definitely try them.

Jewish Life in Shanghai

As I previously mentioned, on Wednesday, Moishe House hosted a discussion to commemorate Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. As part of this event we took part in an Israeli program called Zikaron Basalon, and listened to and discussed recorded testimonials from two Holocaust survivors. The testimonies were incredibly moving. Following that, we had a discussion of the testimonials as well as how the Holocaust is taught around the world and how we should react to modern genocides happening today. Overall, the event was a very important discussion, and I’m glad that I was able to participate.

This was a quieter week, which definitely helped me be very productive. This upcoming week should also allow me to get a lot of research done as well. Though, I’m sure I’ll have some fun things to share with you!

I hope that you enjoy seeing all the photos I shared of Shanghai in bloom! I hope that this upcoming week is safe and healthy for all of you.

In peace,
Jesse

April 4, 2021April 4, 2021

Passover in Shanghai 2021!

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life and adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 persists in the US and around the world, and you are (hopefully) continuing to wear masks when you go outside (even if you’re vaccinated), avoiding large gatherings, and social distancing, I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy and that my blog highlights what the world can look like once the road to recovery begins. Once things improve, I hope you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable as I have.

Life in Shanghai

Thank you all so much for understanding why I wasn’t able to post last week. I wanted to begin by letting you know that my computer has been fixed, thanks to AppleCare! So, hopefully going forward, there won’t be any more unforeseen delays. I hope that this latest entry continues to find all of you staying safe and healthy. For those of you who celebrated Passover with Seders last weekend, I hope that you had a meaningful and enjoyable holiday! I did and I’m excited to share my experiences with you in this entry! Also, regardless of whether you’ve been vaccinated, I hope that you are continuing to stay socially distanced. It frightens me to see how relaxed some of the restrictions in the US have become, so I hope that you all continue to take the covid-19 situation seriously.

In my last post, I focused on the recent shootings in Atlanta and the rise in Asian and Anti-Asian American racism in the US. I really appreciate that so many of you took the time to read and reflect on what I had to say. While I still fully support everything I wrote, I realized that I didn’t really make clear what portion of this insight was impacted by my experiences living in Shanghai. While living in the US, both in childhood and through college and graduate school, I had family and friends who are Asian/Asian-American. However, my time in Shanghai has provided me with an opportunity to both learn more about and gain a much better appreciation of Chinese culture (and to some extant some other Asian cultures as well). Whether it’s the visiting the breathtaking Buddha statues inside the different Buddhist temples, the traditional and modern works of art I’ve seen in different museums, watching different decorations appear around Shanghai and thus gaining an understanding of the different holidays beyond just the Lunar New Year, watching people do tai-chi or dancing in the park while I go running, or enjoying the different types of delicious food, living in Shanghai has instilled within me a much deeper level of appreciation than I had prior. I also didn’t discuss how these attacks are being reported in China. I didn’t do that because I honestly don’t know. While I know that all of my expat friends are fully cognizant of what is happening and some of my work colleagues are aware, since I can’t yet read Chinese, it’s difficult for me to learn what is reported. I get most of my news from expat aggregators with articles in English, so there’s definitely a slant to what I’m able to learn from the news. That being said, that doesn’t mean I haven’t had many discussions about this. I’ve met so many interesting, warm, and wonderful people living in Shanghai and much of my understanding and response to this tragic hate crime was based on conversations (either in person or on WeChat) with my Asian/Asian-American friends. It was based on advice given to me from them that I came to best understand what I can do to be a better friend and ally (the information I shared with you) and for that, I’m very grateful.

To transition back to covid-19. Since it’s been a few weeks since my last update, here are the revised numbers. Unfortunately, there’s been a minor outbreak in Yunnan (western China), so travel to parts of that part of the country have been restricted. Thankfully nothing is happening here in Shanghai, though we still need our QR codes and masks. In total, there are 50 current cases in Shanghai with a recovery rate of 96.99%. In Beijing, there are only 4 cases with a recovery rate of 98.76%. For China as a whole, there are only 421 active cases and the recovery rate is at 94.87%. So, if you’re excited by these numbers, remember that they only happened because people took covid-19 precautions seriously and still do.

In terms of Astronomy, these two weeks were mildly productive. Not having my computer for ~5 days prevented me from getting much done in the interim. Thankfully I frequently back up my computer, so I didn’t lose any research. Over the last two weeks, I’ve been getting my Luminosity Function code up and running on the SJTU servers in order to analyze the mock Universe that I generated. The mock is pretty gigantic, so I’m currently trying to figure out how to best optimize and run the analysis in parallel, which is pretty neat and kind of tricky. Hopefully, I’ll get this solved soon since there’s a bunch of tests I plan to run on the mock catalogs I generated.

Outside of Astronomy, the weather’s been really nice in Shanghai, so I’ve gotten to go for a ton of runs! In the last two weeks, I’ve gone for 8 runs, which makes me really happy! On top of that, there are so many beautiful flowers and cherry blossoms to see around Shanghai, which makes my runs all that more enjoyable!

Outside of Passover, which I’ll discuss next, I didn’t do too many fun activities (other than my runs), since I wanted to make up for some of the time I lost due to my computer being repaired. One thing I wanted to mention was that last Thursday, I attended the most recent Unravel Story Telling Event! I’ve mentioned these before, these are kind of like an in person version of This American Life that I really enjoy attending! This time, the theme was A Whole New World. There were some very moving stories of people having life changing experiences as well as stories about looking at aspects of their lives from different perspectives. The highlight was my friend Clem sharing a story. Clem is an captivating storyteller, so it’s always a highlight getting to listen to him!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

The primary highlights of the last two weeks were the Passover Seders that I attended. For the first night of Passover, I was invited to a Seder hosted by my friends John and Alex (both new to Shanghai in the past year)!

As you can see, John and Alex hosted a lovely Seder. One highlight for me was getting to use the new Mishkan Haggadah (the reform movements new haggadah). I hadn’t seen them before and I really enjoyed the modern and updated readings and reflections on the Passover Seder. I was also really grateful that John and Alex made me my own personal serving of Vegetarian Matzo Ball soup! While I made my own soup to eat during the week, I was convinced that neither Seder I attended would have Vegetarian Matzo ball soup, so this was a pleasant surprise. Additionally, (though not pictured) Alex even made a vegan desert with vegan marshmallows! Overall, this was a fun first night Seder and a really lovely experience getting to celebrate with many new friends.

For the second night of Passover, Kehilat Shanghai hosted a community Seder. Josh (the president of Kehilat Shanghai) and I co-lead the Seder for 158 people!

If you recall, last year, I led the Kehilat Shanghai Seder for ~ 45 people. This year, without the covid-19 restrictions, we had a gigantic group, which was fantastic! While it was stressful and exhausting getting everything organized and set up (though I didn’t have to manage that, I was just helping the other board members), leading the Seder was a lot of fun! While it was weird leading from a lectern instead of from a table, I think that overall, the Seder went very well. Josh and I incorporated some fun activities, including the youngest children singing the Four Questions and the teenagers doing a play for the story of Passover. While most of the evening was fun, the entire Passover Seder isn’t just a fun retelling of the Exodus from Egypt. During the solemn memorial that is the 10 plagues, given the makeup of our community, I also decided to honor the memory of the victims of the Atlanta shooting by marking the plague of racism (particularly that against Asians and Asian-Americans) that’s been plaguing the US, a sentiment which was broadly appreciated by many members of our Kehilat community.

Overall, this was a wonderful evening. I received so many compliments from people who were so happy to be able to celebrate together and who had really enjoyed the Seder! It’s experiences like these that make me feel rewarded for all the time that I invest in the Kehilat community!

One other Seder that I wanted to mention is my family’s Zoom Seder. For the second year in a row, I was able to join my family for their Seder (early in the morning). When I moved to Shanghai, I assumed that I wouldn’t be able to celebrate Passover with them, which made me sad, since I really enjoy the Seder that my Dad leads every year. So, even though Zoom Seders may not be as fun as in person Seders, to me, it’s been a really lovely way for me to connect and celebrate the holiday with my family!

This was a productive Passover week. This upcoming week will be largely work focused, though I’m sure there will be some fun things to share with you (and hopefully more flowers). For all of you who celebrated Passover, I hope that you had a meaningful Passover and wonderful Seders. For those of you who are celebrating Easter, I hope that you are also able to celebrate safely (and socially distanced).

I hope that you enjoy seeing all the photos I shared with you from my Seders and that you all continue to stay safe and healthy!

In peace,
Jesse

Trivia

PASSing & OVERtime

1). The immaculate reception was a touchdown thrown by Terry Bradshaw that bounced off safety Jack Tatum’s hands as well as those of running back John Fuqua, but was miraculously “caught” by fullback Franco Harris who ran it in for the winning touchdown for this NFL team?

–Pittsburgh Steelers

2). In the NBA, the primary role of the point guard is to facilitate the offense, which usually results in this player having many assists. No point guard was more prolific than this NBA legend, who leads NBA history with 3,000 more assists than any other player. Many of his assists were passes to his longtime teammate, who was nicknamed the Mailman.

–John Stockton

3). Which of the four major professional sports leagues has a Sudden death overtime?

— NHL

4). Starting in 2020, during extra innings in baseball, a runner starts on which base at the beginning of each inning?

— Second Base

5). In both of the Super Bowls that Tom Brady and the New England Patriots lost to the New York Giants, this Giants quarterback was responsible for throwing miraculous passes that led his team to late game scores.

— Eli Manning

6). This NBA legend is now one of the most thoughtful writers about race and race relations in America is best known for his signature shot, the sky hook. However, he is also the center, with the most career assists.

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

7). Like in basketball, passing is a fundamental part of hockey. Similarly, passes to set up goals are recorded as assists. Name this GREAT ONE who has over 700 more assists than any other player?

— Wayne Gretzky

8). Though tennis doesn’t have a traditional overtime, the result of each set must win by 2 points or go into a tie-breaker. However, at some tournaments, the final set does not feature a tie-break. As a result, the longest tennis match in history was a 5th set victory by John Isner over Nicolas Mahut 70-68 at what Grand Slam Tournament.

— Wimbledon

9). This type of acrobatic kick can be used to either pass or score a goal in soccer/ football. In this action, the player kicks an airborne ball rearward in midair.

— Bicycle Kick

10). This prolific NFL quarterback, who also is known for his funny commercials, threw for the most yards in NFL history in a single season, 1 yard more than the recently retired Drew Brees.

— Peyton Manning

Passover

1). In the Passover Seder how many cups of ceremonial wine are drunk before the dinner.

— 2

2). For the karpas blessings, you eat greens dipped in what?

— Salt Water

3). Which is not one of the Four Sons:

A). The simple son B). The wicked son C). The greedy son D). The wise son

4). When the pharaoh ordered that all male Israelite children be killed, what did Moses’s mother do to save him?

— She put him in a basket in the Nile

5). What is the first of the 10 plagues

— Blood (Dam)

6). Which two store cities were mentioned as Pharaoh having forced the Israelites to build?

— Pithom and Raamses

7). A Hillel sandwich consists of what ingredients?

— Matzah, Maror, Charoset (sometimes)

8). A cup of wine for this prophet is kept at the center of the Seder plate

— Elijah

9). How much was chad gad yah purchased for?

— Two Zuzim

10). Which of these is not one of the four questions:

A). On this night, why do we eat only leavened bread B). On this night, why do we eat only bitter herbs C). On this night, why do we dip herbs twice D). On this night, why do we lean