Hi Everyone, welcome back to Astronomer in Shanghai. I hope you are all enjoying the beginning of winter, maybe even some snow (I miss snow–unlike Beijing, Shanghai is still quite warm (mid 50s) and it never snows). If you work in Academia, I hope that your fall semester has gone well, too. I hope that all of you had a lovely Thanksgiving, whether you were able to celebrate together with family and friends or virtually. For those of you who celebrate, I hope that you had a happy Channukkah filled with latkes and sufganiyot (doughnuts)! As you read this, I hope that all of you, your family, and your friends continue to stay safe and healthy (and boosted).
This was a very eventful month for me with multiple Thanksgiving celebrations and even more Channukkah parties, as well as a few other fun things to share!
Astronomy in Shanghai
Unlike in the US, the fall semester is still going strong in China (it ends in mid January before the Chinese Lunar New Year). So, I’ve been hard at work on a variety of my different Astronomy projects. Most of my focus has been spent on what I will refer to as Project Population, my Luminosity Function project. I’ve been tinkering a lot with the different parameters and measurements in my mock and am getting close to ironing out all the nuances. I’m also in the process of building another Bayesian MCMC (markov chain monte carlo) statistical model to study the weak lensing profiles I measured as part of Project Proxy, my analysis on different galaxy cluster halo mass (the amount of dark matter in a cluster) proxies. Additionally, I’ve been working on both adjusting some of my measurements relating to Project Outskirts, my project studying the faint intra-cluster light and it’s evolution as well as beginning to do some writing! Thanks to advice from my friend/collaborator Yuanyuan, I’ve been spending 30 minutes writing for that analysis every day and am in the process of putting together a paper (even though we’re still finalizing the analysis). I’m also planning to resubmit my paper on the DES stellar mass – halo mass relation and it’s evolution (Project Magnitude Gap III) as soon as possible. Lastly, I’ve just started getting my DESI (the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument) research on massive galaxies going! So, I’m doing my best to balance a lot of really interesting research projects! So, hopefully it’ll be a very productive end of 2021 and start to 2022.
Additionally, this past month, I was featured on DESI’s website as part of the meet a DESI member feature! Check it out to learn a bit more about what I’m doing as part of DESI!
Life in Shanghai
Although most of my time was spent working on my various Astronomy projects, I also spent time doing other fun things. Over the past 14 months, I’ve been doing Duolingo to learn Mandarin. Last Spring, there was a class offered for foreign scientists at SJTU’s TDLI institute. Unfortunately, the TDLI institute moved off campus, so I’m no longer able to participate in those classes (the new location is far from by campus and my apartment). However, one of Emmet’s friends in Beijing is leading an 8 week virtual Chinese survival course, which has been a great help so far in providing me some of the key phrases that I need for simple day-to-day interactions. Emmet and I also participated in a virtual course lead by the Vegans of Beijing about how to ask if food is Vegan (which is much more complicated than it is in the US, so I will likely be mostly sticking to vegan/vegetarian/Buddhist restaurants). Though I’m nowhere near close to fluent, I can now more easily do simple things like introduce myself and buy food at restaurants, without simply pointing!
While I didn’t have Solo staying with me this month, I did go over to visit him (and feed him for a few days)! He’s so adorable, that I couldn’t resist sharing a few photos with all of you!
One of the main highlights of this past month, was Thanksgiving! This is my third Thanksgiving in Shanghai. Thanksgiving is a tough holiday to spend abroad, without family, so I’m so grateful for my friends who invited me to share the holiday with them!
On the actual Thanksgiving, I was invited to join the Potter-Lewis family (one of the families in the Kehilat Shanghai community that I’m close with, both the parents and the sons) and my friend Josh (the former KS president) at the lovely and elegant restaurant M on the Bund! Though not everything I ate was traditional Thanksgiving food, it was so much fun to join them for a festive meal!
I enjoyed a green soup, a lychee drink, sweet potato gnocchi (I had 2 servings), and a lovely trio of three lemon deserts! Though the vegan/vegetarian food options weren’t Thanksgiving themed, the sentiment and feeling throughout the meal certainly was! It was such a wonderful evening and it was so nice to celebrate on Thanksgiving, unlike in past years.
Additionally, I couldn’t help but take some amazing photos of the Bund at night. Shanghai’s skyline is so majestic!
On Saturday, my friend Kim invited me to a lovely Friendsgiving! There was so much delicious food! I made seitan to share, which people really enjoyed!
You can see some of the delicious offerings! Including a wonderful mushroom soup, many vegetarian dishes and a fantastic desert spread!
Even though I had two lovely in-person Thanksgiving celebrations, the most meaningful celebration was on Friday morning, when I got to celebrate virtually with my parents and Emmet! I haven’t been home for Thanksgiving since 2018 (I moved to Shanghai in October of 2019). Even though we couldn’t virtually run the Turkey Trot together, it was really nice to all talk together around the dinner table (though Emmet and I were eating breakfast). Since I haven’t been able to return home in over two years, family holidays like Thanksgiving and Passover are particularly difficult, so I’m grateful that I was able to virtually join my parents and brother and share my gratitude for all their love and support.
Overall, I really enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving three times this year; all very different, yet wonderful experiences!
In addition to my Thanksgiving photos, there were a lot of other cool things I wanted to share with you. First, I wanted to give you a sense of Shanghai in the fall/winter, so here are a bunch of photos of either the Former French Concession, where I live, and one of the SJTU campus, where I work!
One of my favorite aspects of the Former French Concession is that it doesn’t feel like it’s in a mega-city. It’s so much smaller and manageable. In terms of winter in Shanghai, as you can see some of the trees to change colors. However, it’s still quite warm, so it doesn’t really feel like winter to me. Most days are in the mid to upper 50s. When I go running, I rarely have to wear a jacket (or even my full length tights), which is nice! I’m usually running 2 times a week and going to F45 on the other days, so still exercising a lot!
Additionally, here are some photos of cool decorations, signs, statues, or other things around Shanghai! I love that whenever I go for a walk, there is so much cool stuff to see!
And of course, I had to take a photo of the Benjamin Bunny sweater at Uniqlo! Also, for those of you who are curious, there are Christmas decorations up all around Shanghai. Most are located at malls or in front of big foreign brand stores. However, Christmas is entirely a commercial holiday in China (it’s not a day off, though some international schools give the day off).
Food in Shanghai
At the beginning of December I went to one of my favorite vegan/vegetarian restaurants, Godly, with my friend Anton (he’s Solo’s human)!
We enjoyed kaofu (spongy seitan) with mushrooms, potato shreds, ma po tofu, sword beans (my favorite), stewed tofu hot pot, and a sweet and our soup! Overall it was another delicious and spicy meal at Godly!
Jewish Life in Shanghai
This past month was filled with so many wonderful and fun events within the Kehilat Shanghai community! While much of the month was fixated around Channukkah, one other thing that I wanted to share was that this week, I led a very interesting discussing as part of the adult education program on whether Joseph should be viewed as a role model. We focused on the forgiveness he gives his brothers (a lesson we can all learn from and applaud) as well as his actions as the Vizier of Egypt (where, to survive the famine, he creates a system of indentured servitude, which I don’t think is very good). Overall it was a really interesting and captivating discussing. I look forward to leading other discussions in the future. 🙂
Unsurprisingly, the highlight of this month was all the Channukkah parties! I went to three!! We are so fortunate here in Shanghai that we are able to safely gather with friends and as a community. Even though I know that many of you were not able to do so, I hope that you still had a fun holiday and enjoyed some delicious latkes!
To me, Channukkah would not be complete without lighting my menorah every night. Though not always in the same place, I love sharing photos of my menorah from each night!
On both the 1st and 8th night of Channukkah, I was invited by members of the Kehilat Shanghai community to their homes to celebrate Channukkah! Many of the people that I joined with are members of the Family Shabbat community, the Kehilat families with young children who gather once a month for a relaxed Shabbat dinner of Pizza, and sometimes desert made by me!). Even though I don’t have a family here in Shanghai, these people, especially my friend Ha, have welcomed me with open arms into their community to join them. Although the screaming children can sometimes be a little much (though often it reminds me of fond memories of my time in Michigan spent with my cousin Margaret and her family), I’m so grateful to be part of such a caring and warm community! There is so much warmth and kindness that emanates from that group and I’m grateful to be included.
While these Channukkah celebrations were both lovely and intimate, the most fun Channukkah celebration was our 5th annual Shabbatakkah, Shabbat of Channukkah celebration! Ha and I co-organized this party again at Tacolicious! We had over 100 community members, including many of my friends, join us for a fantastic celebration with so many delicious latkes and sufganiyot!
As you can see, the party was so much fun! It was so beautiful to see a full row of menorahs all lit up! It was so great getting to relax and celebrate with so many of my friends and fellow community members! Next year, I’ll have to remember to take more photos with my friends, too! And of course, the latkes and sufganiyot that Chef Thiis made were absolutely fantastic! I can’t wait to celebrate together again next year!
I hope that you all enjoyed hearing about my Thanksgiving and Channukkah celebrations! For all of you on the other side of the street celebrating Christmas next week, I hope that you have a lovely and safe holiday with your family and friends. As we all enter 2022, I want to wish you all a Happy and healthy New Year! I hope that 2022 is a year filled with great joy and successes for everyone as well as much improved health and safety around the world.
In peace,
Jesse
