Category: Uncategorized

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life in Shanghai! As covid-19 continues to plague the US, and you all are (hopefully) wearing masks when you go outside (I still am!) and maintaining social distancing practices, I hope that this blog highlights that there will be a recovery from covid-19 (which is sadly far away in the US). Once things improve, I hope you’ll look forward to small interactions with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find that these interactions will be highlights for you as well. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal, though new outbreaks may still occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog interesting or enjoyable, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

I hope that all of you are continuing to stay safe and healthy and remembering to continue to take covid-19 seriously by wearing masks and socially distancing. Additionally, if any of you are in the bay area of California, I hope that you and your families are staying safe and were able to be evacuated from areas of potential fires. As the summer nears its end, I hope that all of you, particularly those of you who are either professors, teachers, or those of you who have children that are students, have figured out what your plan is with regard schools and dealing with covid-19 this fall. As the recent examples of the closures of the University of North Carolina, Michigan State, and Notre Dame have highlighted, it’s necessary to make sure that you have back up plans prepared because you’ll likely need them. So, regardless of what you’ve decided to do, I hope that you have all taken the time to take as many precautions as possible, whether it’s continued social distancing or working from home.

In terms of covid-19, the situation in China has remained entirely under control. There have been more new cases this past week, but all of those have been Chinese nationals returning to China. In total, Shanghai has 82 cases (all imported), which yields a recovery rate of 90%. For China as a whole, the number of total reported cases (not those currently sick) is still only at 90,000, with a recovery rate of 93.6%. In contrast to Shanghai, Beijing has just 2 active cases. You might be wondering why Beijing’s number is again so much lower (and hasn’t increased at all). My understanding is that many of the international flights are now being directed to Shanghai and other airports instead of Beijing. This was done as a response to the recent outbreak a few months ago in Beijing.

I want to highlight that the response to covid-19 by the Chinese government, as well as similar responses in New Zealand and elsewhere epitomizes why former Vice-President Biden is absolutely correct in his assessment that if the scientists fighting the virus deem a total shut down of the country necessary that he would enforce it. China had the first massive outbreak of covid-19 and then essentially shut the entire country down for about 2 months and halted the spread within China. Moreover, when the outbreak of a few hundred cases occurred in Beijing, the city was again shut down, all visitors (and recent visitors) were required to do a 14 day quarantine, which has successfully halted the spread of the virus. The example of the success is combating covid-19 in China as compared to the chaos in the US is a clear example of what the US should have implement. In my opinion it’s the only real way forward and while I know the economic implications could be dire, it’s the only reasonable course of action going forward. That is one of the many reasons why it’s vital to have a President who respects and listens to scientists.

Additionally, on another political note, thanks to the help from my friends involved with Democrats Abroad, I requested my absentee ballot for the upcoming election. That ballot will be e-mailed to me. I then print it out and mail it back (either via DHL or the US consulate). So, if you’re planning on voting absentee, I highly recommend requesting your ballot early and voting ahead of time. If you can drop off your ballot at a drop box, instead of through the mail, that would benefit our overworked and underfunded USPS system.

On the Astronomy side of things, this was another fairly productive week. I spent most of my time (and available computing resources) working on my Luminosity Function analysis. I didn’t quite solve all of my problems, but I did realize that when generating my random positions needed for my background measurement, I wasn’t actually being random enough :), so hopefully my latest efforts (which are still running), will yield success! Additionally, I had a productive meeting with my colleagues in DESI about how to best propose for observations of the missing Brightest Central Galaxies (the big, massive, and bright galaxies at the center of clusters) as well as how to best use the DESI data to study clusters! So, this week, I’ll be running some updated analyses on the DESI simulated/mock data (it’s simulated because the observations haven’t been taken yet).

The research highlight of my week was on Thursday, when I met with my research supervisor, Ying, in person for the first time since January! As I’ve mentioned, Ying and I have met frequently via Zoom and communicate via slack and WeChat, but this was the first time that we decided to meet face-to-face. It was really nice and led to a super-productive discussion about the different research projects that I’ve been working on! Part of the reason that we haven’t met up before is because Ying and I live in different parts of the city (and neither of us live near SJTU). Moreover, he hasn’t been pressuring me to return to the office (more of the opposite). I also just learned that SJTU will be having students return to campus in the fall. It’s a phased arrival. So, this semester will be taught in person. So, in September, I’ll start making the trek out to Minhang a few days a week. One benefit of covid-19 is that I now know that I can work productively from home!

I met with Ying at a coffee shop in a Pudong (the other side of the Huangpu river, which runs through Shanghai). The malls in Shanghai are fascinating! They’re usually filled with lots of good restaurants and interesting sculptures/designs. While I don’t shop at the malls (many of the stores are super fancy and expensive), they are fun to walk around in!

Since I was only a 5 minute walk from NYU Shanghai, I met up with my friend Hannah Maia, who works there, to get a tour of the campus! I’ve heard a lot about NYU Shanghai from Heather and Hannah Maia, so it was really fun to get to see the campus!

For those of you unfamiliar, NYU Shanghai is a vertical campus. One office building houses the entire school (though a larger new campus, with multiple buildings is being built). Given everything that I’ve heard, I was kind of expecting something that felt on the interior more like a high school. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how much the interior felt like many of the colleges I’ve been at before. The modern office space/interior reminded me of West Hall at the University of Michigan! There were science labs reminiscent of both Barus and Holley at Brown and West Hall at Michigan. There were also a lot of really nice lounge/study areas for the students. Even though none of the students were there yet, I could get a feel for how the different parts of the building represented different parts of the University.

I was also impressed by the different covid-19 security protocols that NYU Shanghai has in place. There are temperature scanners at the entrances and a plethora of hand sanitizers at every door. My personal favorite was the markers on the floor of the elevator telling people where it is safe to stand!

Even though NYU Shanghai doesn’t have any Astronomers (they do have a few Physicists), hopefully I’ll be able to come back and give a guest colloquium at some point this academic year (now that the campus will be open with students)!

While I haven’t spent much time in Pudong, I did find the surrounding area to be really beautiful! So, assuming I keep meeting with Ying in person for the next few weeks, maybe I’ll do some more exploring!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

This weekend was filled with a lot of fun Jewish related activities! On Friday night, my friends at Moishe House hosted a Pizza Shabbat! I made my Mom’s delicious oatmeal raisin cookies for desert (which were a big hit)! For those of you wondering, you can get good pizza in Shanghai (though it’s mostly made by ex-pats)!

It was a lot of fun getting to catch up and hang out with some of Moishe House community friends! Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of talk about politics and the situation in the US (both the virus and the political situation), but I also got to talk about the TV show Doom Patrol with my friends, so it wasn’t always a heavy conversation. This was a very fun way to relax and spend the evening!

Additionally, I got to spend some time playing with Lucky!

On Saturday evening, the Kehilat Shanghai President, Josh, hosted a lovely Havdalah in his home! For those of you who don’t know, Havdalah, means separation. It’s a set of prayers that mark the ending of Shabbat. While we haven’t done tons of Kehilat events this summer, it was really wonderful to gather different members of community (especially some of those who live in Pudong, like Josh) and join together for the Havdalah prayers and a lovely dinner! I was also very impressed that Josh’s daughter made the braided Havdalah candle herself!

This was a nice opportunity for me to chat with and get to know some of the long-time members of the Community better! Unsurprisingly when you gather a bunch of ex-pats, there were a lot of discussions about making sure everyone was registered to vote, the recent Democratic National Convention, and fears about the situation in the US. Overall, even though the conversations weren’t always light, it made for a very fun and enjoyable Saturday evening! I look forward to attending and organizing more Kehilat Shanghai events this fall!

This was another very nice week, highlighted by spending time with the Jewish Community of Shanghai! I expect that this upcoming week will again be more research focused as I continue to plow ahead on my many different research projects! Though, I’m sure there will be some fun photos to share with you all!

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my week! I hope this update reminds you that the covid-19 situation can improve (though the process of recovery can’t be rushed) and that when it does, it’s the small gatherings that make it special! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about Shanghai or covid-19, please let me know.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life in Shanghai! As covid-19 plagues the US, and you all are (hopefully) wearing masks when you go outside (I still am!) and maintaining social distancing practices, I hope that this blog highlights that there is a recovery from covid-19 (which is sadly far away in the US). Moreover, when things improve, I hope you’ll look forward to small interactions with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find, as I have, that these interactions will be highlights for you. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal, though new outbreaks may still occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog interesting or enjoyable, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest entry continues to find all of you, your families, and your friends staying safe and healthy. I’m sure many of you are currently dealing with a hot summer (though it’s hard to find a place warmer than Shanghai :)). So, I hope that the heat has helped you continue to maintain social distancing practices. As I’ve stated continually in this blog, wearing masks, contact tracing, and following social distancing guidelines are vital to halting the spread of covid-19. So, since you can only do two of those yourselves, I hope that all of you are doing the best you can to make the situation better.

I know I’ve focused a lot in my previous posts about my fears about the covid-19 situation outside of China. I’m not going to add to that here, but I am curious if any of you have a different perspective. Being so far away, it’s hard for me to know or understand how things are elsewhere. While for the US as a nation, covid-19 is clearly not under control, what’s the concern level where you live? While I hope that people are taking it seriously, I’m curious whether you see most people wearing masks or whether that’s sadly not the case.

In terms of the situation in Shanghai and China, things have remained stabilized. Interestingly, I think partially due to the oppressive heat (Shanghai reached a high of 102 feels like 117 on Thursday), I’m seeing fewer people wearing masks. They’re still required when you go on the Metro or take a taxi. However, now when I walk outside, I think only 50% of the people wear masks. While I always wear a mask (I’m still cautious), many of my friends only wear them on the Subway. In terms of the numbers. The number of cases has increased in Shanghai. However, all of the cases are of Chinese nationals returning to China. Moreover, you are tested upon reentry into China, so these people have not actually entered Shanghai proper, which I find reassuring. However, even though I mentioned an increase, we’re still talking about a very small number of cases. In total, there are now 73 cases in Shanghai (3 in Beijing). The recovery rate is currently at 90.3% in Shanghai. However, I believe that number will rise again in the coming days. For China as a whole, the recovery rate is 93.1%.

On the Astronomy side of things, this was another productive week, particularly in my research on the Luminosity Function. After spending the first couple days running a new analysis only to find a bug in my code, I was able to quickly recover and find extremely promising results for measuring the background. We are close to reaching convergence on our best estimate for a completely uniform background across all halo masses. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to reach a final solution for a uniform background in a few days, which will allow me to start phase 2 of this project! For that, we’re planning to redo this same analysis on the data set we’re interested in, the SDSS-redMaPPer data, which is a data set of massive clusters at low-redshift (nearby). Other than that project, most of my other time was spent revising the latest draft of a paper I’ve written comparing my work on the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass relation with the magnitude gap to other parameterizations of that same relation. Additionally, we’ve continued to have our meetings on the tencent meeting platform, which works really well for our purposes. In more exciting news, Ying, my research supervisor has discussed plans to hold in person meetings again! There’s now 4-5 group members in Shanghai, so we’ll likely meet (possibly off campus) for a group meeting this week or next week!

Before I tell you about all the fun activities I did this week, I thought I’d share some photos of cute cats that I saw in Shanghai! There are a lot of pet stores and I like to look at the cats in the windows.

I also saw a lot of really cool advertisements/sculptures/paintings as well this week!

This was another fun and social week!

On Tuesday, Kehilat Shanghai and Moishe House joined together for our monthly Trivia Night! For this one, the organizers all wrote one category of questions (I did sports!). While I thought my questions were all fair, the attendees had some trouble with them. I’ve provided them below (answers provided afterwards), so let me know how you do!

1. Hall of Fame Pitcher Sandy Koufax made national news when he chose not to pitch in the Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it was this Jewish Holiday?
2. Recently, this 5 time gold medalist became a viral sensation with a video of the athlete balancing a glass of chocolate milk on their head while swimming laps?
3. Prior to Michael Phelps record setting performance in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, this Jewish athlete held the record for most medals in a single Olympic game?
4. Jesse Owens rose to prominence for defying Hitler and winning Gold in the 1936 Olympic Games.  However, Jesse was not the only black American to medal in that race.  The brother of this famous baseball player won Silver. 
5. This tennis legend became the first and only athlete to win the Golden Slam, all four grand slam events and the Olympics in 1 calendar year.
6. This Soccer player and Winner of the Golden Ball in the 2019 World Cup also became nationally recognized for her social justice activism and anti-Trump rhetoric. 
7. In this upcoming years NBA draft, Israeli prospect Deni Avdija is expect to be drafted high in the first round.  However, he would not be the first Israeli man to be drafted into the NBA.  That honor belongs to this player.
8. List these currently active professional athletes in order from Youngest to Oldest: Roger Federer, Lebron James, Tom Brady, Serena Williams, Lindsey Vonn
   

The Answers are:
1). Yom Kippr 2). Katie Ledecky 3). Mark Spitz 4). Jackie and Mack Robinson 5). Steffi Graf 6). Megan Rapinoe 7). Omri Casspi 8). Lebron James (35), Lindsey Vonn (35), Serena Williams (38), Roger Federer (39), Tom Brady (43)

In addition to trivia, on Wednesday night, my friends and I gathered for another Improv Jam Session! This is a wonderful way to relax and serves as a great change of pace during the middle of the week! We played a bunch of different games, including one where two people had to do synchronized talking (which was really hard) and another where one person has to determine who the other three guests are at a party, based on what they say and what their actions are! I’m really enjoying this as a creative outlet!

On Friday night, a few of us went to a Improv Show! The performers were all Shanghai residents, but clearly more experienced than me. They did different improv games (many of the ones that we’ve played ourselves). After their show ended, they let members of the audience come and participate, which was a lot of fun! My favorite was a game where a group of 4-5 people are telling a story 1 person at a time. However, the order is chosen at random by another person and if you continue talking after the person then you have to act out your death. Overall, the entire evening was filled with lots of laughs and great fun!

As many of you know, I’ve been a huge fan of The Beatles for as long as I can remember. The venue for the improv show was a bar/restaurant called Abbey Road! So, I couldn’t resist taking photos of the decorations at the restaurant.

The highlight of my week was on Saturday when I got together with my friends Heather and Hannah Maia (as well as a new friend Daniel) to make Fig Jam! As many of you know, my Mom is a prolific jam maker and makes tons of delicious flavors (basically any kind of fruit you can get in Saratoga). Her jam is probably the food that I miss most. However, my Mom doesn’t make fig. So, I was excited to try making it!

We made two types: fig with ginger and orange and then fig with apple and orange. We added different spices such as cinnamon, star anise, and fresh vanilla as well! We lucked out and the figs Heather ordered were super ripe and soft, so perfect jam making!

Above you can see me cutting and mashing the figs as well as both pots of jam that we had going! Overall, we ended up with some really delicious jam! The fig/ginger jam was spicy, in a good way (in the silver metal pot) and the fig/apple/orange jam was sweet (in the red pot)! So, it’s a really nice combination of two distinct flavors. Though maybe it’s because we split the jam among four people, but it always feels like we never get enough jam once we’re done. I guess we’ll just have to keep making more jam! I think marmalade (using citruses such as pomelo, orange, lemon) is up next!

Food in Shanghai

I didn’t try any new fruits or food this week. However, I did cook for myself. This week I made mushroom tacos (for the Improv group) and then made black bean and corn enchiladas and vegan mozzarella cheese for myself!

Even though I didn’t go out for any meals this week, I did have a pretty amazing meal on Saturday. Following our epic jam making, Hannah Maia and Daniel made vegetable risotto for dinner, while Heather and I made fried green tomatos! So, we had a delicious meal afterward!

Overall, it was a wonderful evening filled with good friends, interesting conversations, and delicious food!

Overall, this was another eventful week, highlighted by making more delicious jam! I’m really glad that I’ve found friends to make jam with, since it reminds me of being home in Saratoga during the summer and helping my Mom pick fruit (wish I could do that here) and make jam! This week will be more research focused. However, I’m sure I’ll have more fun stories and pictures to share.

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about the different highlights of my week! I hope this update reminds you the covid-19 situation can improve (though the process of recovery can’t be rushed) and that when it does, it’s the small interactions that are most special. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about Shanghai, my jam making, or covid-19, please let me know.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life in Shanghai! As covid-19 continues to ravage the US, and you all are (hopefully) wearing masks when you go outside (I still am!) and maintaining social distancing practices, I hope that my blog illustrates that once the world begins to recover from this outbreak (which is not now in the US), things will improve. You should all look forward to small interactions with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find, as I have, that these are the interactions you will cherish. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal, though new outbreaks may still occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog interesting or enjoyable, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

As the summer continues to roll on, I hope you are all continuing to stay safe and healthy. While I’m sure many of you are frustrated with the lack of improvement of the situation in the US, I hope that all of you are still following social distancing guidelines and wearing masks. Since I know many of you work in Academia, I’m sure you’re also starting to get anxious about the thought of schools and colleges/Universities reopening in the fall (hopefully most will be digital), which I’m sure has made the summer more stressful than it already is. Regardless of whether your job is back in person or you’re still working from home, I hope that all of you have been able to find some pockets of joy during this week!

Before talking about my life or covid-19, I need to address the continued tensions between the US and China, which took another turn for the worse this week when our current President used an executive order to attempt to ban Tik-Tok and WeChat in the US. While I have never used Tik Tok, banning WeChat would be horrible. WeChat is the primary application that I use to communicate (via text message) with my parents and brother. For those of you unfamiliar, WeChat is an all-in one messaging app that I use to pay bills, give money to friends, and can even make calls (as well as a lot of other stuff). Moreover, banning these two apps, which in my opinion are only the actions of a weak president trying to prove he’s tough on China, will only further heighten the tensions between the two countries. WeChat is the primary method of communication here. People do not use e-mail! So, banning WeChat will likely result in a decrease in US/China business, which would likely be much more problematic on the US end. Hopefully, these orders will not be enacted.

In terms of covid-19, I know I’ve stated this many times before, but I continue to be increasingly worried about the situation in the US. Based on the latest numbers I can find, there are almost 5 million reported cases in the US. Only Brazil and India have over 1 million reported cases. While it’s somewhat reassuring that new cases are low NY (where my parents live) and MA (where my brother lives), given the notion that schools are and will continue to reopen, I remain skeptical that even the states with the best of intentions can keep the virus under control. As I’ve stated before, the best way to combat covid-19 would be to shut everything down in every state for a month and then slowly open up only essential businesses. However, I find that solution to be unlikely to be implemented given the current administrations continued inaction and general lack of empathy for the plight of the non-billionaires. Moreover, given the obscene number of cases in the US, it’s clear that even if a vaccine is discovered for covid-19, it will take a very long time for the virus to cease being a problem in the US.

In China, the covid-19 situation has remained under control. There are still outbreaks in Xinjiang (though that is now reported as being contained) and in Hong Kong. In Shanghai, there are 31 cases, all Chinese citizens who are returning to China. Beijing has just 6 cases now, so that outbreak was essentially squashed in less than a month. The recovery rate in China remains very high. In Shanghai, it’s 95.1% and in China as a whole it’s at 92.4%.

On the Astronomy side of things, this was a productive week. I spent most of my time re-analyzing how we calculate the background measurement for the Luminosity Function analysis that I’m working on (an in depth explanation of what a Luminosity Function is will be at the end of this post) in order to best measure a uniform background measurement. I also may be making a little bit of progress on my DES SMHM results, but I have a few more tests to run to be sure. So, fingers crossed that will allow me to move forward. In the digital news, we’ll be switching most of our meetings from Zoom to Tencent video. Unfortunately, Zoom is no longer providing unlimited meeting accounts to Chinese universities. Thankfully, even I could figure out how to setup Tencent video (all the words were in Chinese, so I call that a win!). So, we’ll be using that going forward.

The highlight of my week was that very early Tuesday morning (at 1am China time), my brother Emmet successfully defended his Ph.D.! So, join me in congratulating him! Congratulations Dr. Emmet!!

Welcome to the Ph.D. club! Emmet gave a very interesting and thorough presentation on his research focusing on high-redshift galaxy clusters (I study low-redshift galaxy clusters). For those of you interested, Emmet will be joining me in China this fall (or as soon as he can get a visa to come over)! Emmet has a post-doctoral fellowship at Tsinghua University in Beijing. So, I’m very much looking forward to having my brother and best friend much closer here in China! I’m excited to collaborate and go on some fun adventures together!

While it was lovely celebrating with my brother and family virtually, it really highlighted to me just how long it’s been since I’ve been home and how much covid-19 has continued to impact my life even though It’s no longer a dominating presence here in China. I left the US in October and always planned on coming home for Emmet’s defense (if not sooner). Sadly, covid-19 obviously prevented that from happening. Moreover, the lack of recovery in the US, has made me realize that it’s unlikely that I’ll be allowed to travel to the US (and then return to China) until the Spring of next year at the earliest (or at least until a vaccine becomes available). While I’m grateful for the digital technologies that allow me to remain connected with my family and friends back home, I miss having the opportunity to see them in person.

Along with Emmet’s Ph.D. defense, I had a few other fun activities this week. On Tuesday, I got together with some of my friends for our now weekly/bi-weekly improv group! I’m getting much more comfortable with acting/reacting without thinking, so it’s definitely getting more fun for me!

As you can see, we also had a potluck dinner! I made the lemon/blueberry cake on the right! My favorite activity was one where two of us had to act out a scene (selected randomly by one of my friends) in 1 minute, then 30 seconds, then 15 seconds, then 7 seconds, then 3 seconds, then 1 second. It was great fun!

In contrast to Tuesday’s shenanigans, on Wednesday, The Moishe House hosted their second Black Lives Matter discussion. This discussion was focused on confronting your biases. I’ve attached the powerpoint that Clem, my friend who’s leading the series, put together for us.

Most of our discussions were about how people react to being confronted with their own biases and racism. A lot of it was spent identifying the different ways people tend to avoid discussing their own biases and racism, what that means and how to respond. We also spoke a lot about the semantics of being racist vs. being biased. One key takeaway was that even if we were to start saying people were biased instead of rascist, that word would become the new trigger word. We also had a long discussion about how to react/respond to people who are being racist, whether it’s supporting the all lives matter movement or supporting the blue lives matter movement. Both movements which clearly and intentionally misunderstand that the purpose of BLM is to fight the systemic oppression of black people in the US and abroad. It was a very powerful and thought provoking discussion that I’m happy to be helping to organize.

To transition back to the more fun activities, on Saturday, I had my friends Heather and Shimi over for dinner! My current apartment doesn’t have a very large living/dining room, so this was actually the first time I’ve had friends over for dinner (though I have cooked a lot for my friends 🙂 ). I even had to rearrange my furniture to make sure there was enough room! 🙂 I made Walnut “meat” tacos, with corn and black beans as well as fresh pico de gallo and a salad. For desert I made Chia seed pudding with granola and roasted peaches! Unfortunately for you, I forgot to photograph the meal. However, more importantly, it was a wonderful evening filled with great food and even better company! I also introduced Heather and Shimi to Anomia! I look forward to playing that again sometime soon.

In addition to these fun activities, I saw a few interesting highlights, as well as a very cute cat this week! For those of you who are curious, it’s still oppressively hot here, mostly in the mid 90s every day, so I’m staying inside and working from home as much as possible. Basically after going outside, I have to immediately shower when I return home.

Food in Shanghai

I didn’t have any exotic meals this week, but I did try some new fruits! I finally (purely by luck) ended up getting a purple/pink dragon fruit (or pitaya)! I have no clue how to tell the white and purple dragon fruits apart (though they taste very similar). Additionally, I bought a green mango for the first time, which was fantastic!

Astronomy Lesson

In last week’s post, my friend Bernard asked if I could explain my Luminosity Function analysis, so ‘ll attempt to make this accessible to those of you who aren’t familiar with Astronomy.

A Luminosity Function, in it’s simplest form, is a measurement of the number of galaxies with a given measure of brightness (Luminosity) that are within a fixed radius from the center of a galaxy cluster. So, you can think of it as a histogram that is plotted as number of galaxies in bins of brightness. Since faint galaxies are increasingly more common than bright galaxies (galaxies grow hierarchically by merging with smaller galaxies), this is a decreasing function as you move to the bright end.

To measure this, we start by measuring the Luminosity (or intrinsic brightness) of a set of galaxies within the projected or 2 dimensional radius of the cluster. However, since we are looking at all galaxies within a cylinder on the sky, we need to account for the background (i.e., the galaxies that are in our cylinder, but not associated with the cluster). So, we also have to measure the number of galaxies within a much larger radius, generally far enough away that we aren’t looking at the cluster itself (we measure the number within a disk with radii of 2.5 and 3 times the radius of the cluster). Once the background is measured, we need to scale the number of galaxies to account for the difference in area searched. After that, we subtract the background from the number within the radius of the cluster!

So, in simplest terms, measuring a Luminosity Function is relatively straightforward. Unfortunately, there are a lot of nuances that make this measurement more complicated, such as different ways of measuring a uniform background and whether the field your looking at is completely observed. It’s those nuances that I’m currently working on.

A Luminosity Function can then be used to understand how galaxies grow and evolve. Particularly, my interest is using it to understand the evolutionary history or the most massive galaxies (by looking at how the Luminosity Function evolves with time). My research will be focusing on the bright/massive end of the Luminosity Function and whether this is dependent on the magnitude gap, a tracer of cluster age, which is the difference in brightness between the central galaxy and nth brightest galaxy, a parameter that much of my research focuses on. Additionally, you can use a Luminosity Function when you are generating simulated galaxies and aiming to recreate a simulated version of the real universe.

I hope that this Astronomy lesson made sense! Feel free ask any clarification questions!

Overall, this was another eventful week, highlighted by Emmet’s defense! Though Emmet’s defense made the first half a little more exhausting than normal. 🙂 This upcoming week should be a little more work focused, with a few fun events as well!

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about what I’ve been up to this week! I hope this update reminds you that things will improve (though the process of recovery can’t be rushed) and that when they do, it’s the small group interactions that are most special. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about Shanghai, our BLM discussion, the current US/China tensions, or covid-19, please let me know.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 continues to plague the US, and you all are (hopefully) wearing masks (like me) and maintaining social distancing practices, I hope that my blog illustrates that once the world recovers from this outbreak (which is not now in the US), things will improve. You should all look forward to small interactions with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find, as I have, that these are the interactions you will cherish. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal. The recovery timeline for Shanghai is not applicable to the US and new outbreaks may still occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog interesting or enjoyable, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

As the summer continues to heat up (at least here in Shanghai), I hope that this latest post continues to find all of you remaining smart and vigilant while following your social distancing guidelines and wearing masks when you go outside. As I’ve said before, I know wearing a mask isn’t always comfortable, especially when it’s brutally hot, but it’s the best way to help prevent the spread of the virus. While I’m sure all of you are doing this, please kindly remind your friends and neighbors to do so as well. It’s only by doing our best for the good of the whole that we will be able to recover from the virus.

While I don’t want to spend too much time voicing my frustrations about the situation in the US, I do want to say that over the past few weeks, it’s become increasingly clear how different the reality is for me in China than it is for you in the US. In China, when Beijing had an outbreak of a few hundred cases in a few days, the city went into lockdown and all visitors were required to do 14 days of quarantine. In the US, the cases continue to skyrocket with no such restrictions in many of the key hotbeds. It’s troubling and disheartening that we have an administration that refuses to acknowledge their faults and failures and the fact that over 150,000 Americans are the result of their inaction. Hopefully the US will finally stop making decisions based solely on the economy and will instead allow science to dictate our response (maybe once we have an election).

In terms of covid-19, here in China, the virus remains under control. There are concerning outbreaks in both Hong Kong and Xinjiang (this is hundreds to thousands of cases). However, those cases appear to be localized. In Shanghai, there are just 17 cases, while in Beijing there are now only 7! All the cases in Shanghai are imported cases. As a result, the recovery rate remains remarkably high, at 96.8% in Shanghai and 92.1% for China overall. So, as I’ve already emphasized in previous posts, clearly this virus can be controlled if strict practices are implemented.

On the Astronomy side of things, this was a very productive week! I made a lot of progress on my Luminosity Function analysis. We’re now working on modifying some of the parameters in order to determine any small-order differences. This is the first original project I’ve worked on as a post-doc, so it feels great to be making headway! Additionally, I’ve been involved in telecon discussions (with Ying as well as many US collaborators) about using secondary DESI fibers (that currently have no targets) to apply for DESI observations to create a spectroscopically complete sample of BCGs for DESI, which should yield some great science projects in the future. Unfortunately, I’m still having some struggles with my analysis of the uncertainties associated with the DES SMHM relation. So, hopefully I’ll be able to make some progress on that project soon. In addition to my work, all my meetings are still on Zoom, where we have our group meeting as well as our AstroCoffee meetings.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s super hot here! Every day the high has been over 90 and with humidity, the feels like temperature is well over 100! So, I’ve been spending a lot of time indoors. Even when I walk to the subway (~5-10 minute walk), I’m usually dripping with sweat by the time I get back inside where there’s air conditioning. However, when I spoke with my research supervisor, Ying, he commented that it’s pretty mild this summer, so the next few summers could be brutal! 🙁

Despite the heat, I still made time for some fun things this weekend. On Friday, I got bubble tea with Heather! For those of you who are unfamiliar, bubble tea is a tea/smoothie with tapioca balls (that look like bubbles) at the bottom. I got a mango smoothie with pomelo and tapioca balls! It was a very refreshing way to beat the heat!

There were also a lot of cool signs and displays in the nearby shopping complex that we met at. Unlike in the US, in Shanghai, there are tons of malls that are almost exclusively restaurants. And unlike the restaurants in US malls, these are generally good!

I love seeing panda advertisements!

As some of you are aware, the NBA returned to action this past week. While I don’t believe that the US has done enough to earn the return of sports, it is a welcome break from the monotony of my mornings. With the return of the NBA, I thought I’d share the advertisements I saw for Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell’s new shoes at the Adidas store near Jing’an Temple!

Food in Shanghai

On Saturday, I got a dim sum brunch with my friends Hannah Maia and Clem! We met up to discuss the planning for our next Black Lives Matter discussion event (which is Wednesday). So, I’ll update you all on that next week! For those of you, like me, who have never had a full dim sum meal before, dim sum (at least to my understanding), is different baozi (bao buns) and dumplings as well as noodles. We went to a vegetarian dim sum restaurant and enjoyed a feast!

We ordered vegetable and tofu stuffed baozi, Shao mei stuffed with rice and mushrooms, honey sponge cake, gluten with mushrooms and bamboo, tofu knots, lotus roots stuffed with glutinous rice, and dry noodles with fermented tofu. My personal favorites were the tofu knots (which is basically knotted tofu skins–So Good!!!) and the baozi!

I’ll definitely have another dim sum brunch (though hopefully less brown colored next time!). 🙂

In addition to all the yummy dim sum, I also did a lot of cooking for myself. This week, I made black bean burgers, roasted broccoli, and Mediterranean Quinoa salad!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

On Friday, the Moishe House hosted a Shabbat dinner! This was a very relaxing and fun way to spend my Friday night with friends! We had a delicious meal prepared by Hannah Maia along with my Quinoa salad! I’m really glad to be such an active member within the Moishe House Community here in Shanghai!

The highlight of Shabbat this week was getting to play with Lucky! Lucky is the dog that the Moishe House residents are fostering for two of the community members who are stuck in Israel. She’s super friendly (as you can see from the pictures below)!! It’s always fun to get to hang out with my friends who have pets for me to play with!

Overall, this was another fun week even though it was a little bit quieter than the last few! This upcoming week will be a little busier, another improv game night on Tuesday and the BLM discussion on Wednesday. So, this will should be another fun and social week!

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about and seeing some of the things that I did this week! I hope this update reminds you that life really isn’t that different here in China (though the food is :)) and that things will improve (though the process to improve life can’t be rushed). If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the current covid-19 situation, please let me know. If you want to talk about how to stay positive and productive, reach out. I want to help support you and assure all of you in any way that I can.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my adventures in Shanghai! As you continue to wear masks (like me) and maintain social distancing practices, I hope that my blog illustrates that once the world recovers from this outbreak (which is not now in the US), things will improve. You should all look forward to small interactions with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find, as I have, that these are the interactions you will cherish. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal. The recovery timeline for Shanghai is not applicable to the US and new outbreaks may still occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog interesting or enjoyable, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

I hope that you all continue to remain safe and healthy. Hopefully, you, your friends, and your family are all taking covid-19 seriously and are continuing to maintain social distancing practices and wear masks when you go outside. It’s regularly hot and humid in Shanghai, so I understand that wearing masks in this weather can be uncomfortable; however, you all need to wear masks to help slow the spread of covid-19. One thing I hope that you’ve learned from this blog is that despite covid-19, you can still do some fun activities (including while wearing a mask). Whether it’s running, hiking, going for walks, or finding ways to connect with friends and family in a safe manner, I hope that all of you are able to find some moments of enjoyment this summer.

For much of this blog, I haven’t discussed a lot about the relationship between the US and China. Although, I have discussed how the foreign student ban will likely lead to fewer scholars and educated workers coming from China to the US. I’ve avoided this topic, mostly because I don’t have any valuable insights to share. However, the relationship appears to have further deteriorated in the past week, with the closing of the Chinese consulate in Houston, which was then followed by the closing of the consulate in Chengdu (where the Panda reserves are). From my perspective, the inconsistent messaging from the current administration is problematic. They seem to jump around on which issues they care about deems important and remain unaware that the US is no longer able to boss China around. Furthermore, the trade war cannot be won and is only negatively impacting both countries. However, if you want an educated discussion of the topic, I highly recommend listening to a recent episode of the Make Me Smart Podcast from Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal and Molly Wood (linked below). They interview Jennifer Pak, a marketplace reporter based in Shanghai. While much of what was discussed was troublesome, I greatly appreciated learning their insights and opinions.

U.S.-China relations are bad, but are they ‘new Cold War’ bad?

As reassurance for you all, I don’t believe that this will impact my work (and none of my expat friends, particularly those who have lived here for a while, seem super concerned). In terms of my work, China is heavily invested in growing it’s scientific research (with international scholars), particularly in Astronomy with the upcoming launch of the Chinese Space Station Telescope.

In terms of covid-19, I continue to remain concerned about the lack of improvement I’ve seen in the US. There are now over 4 million cases in the US and I can’t understand why both governors and the current administration aren’t taking this more seriously. Not everyone is as lucky as my parents in NY to have had the firm hand of Gov. Cuomo. In stark contrast, the situation remains stable in China. There are cases on the rise in Hong Kong and in Xinjiang (but these are only on the range of tens to hundreds, not millions). In Beijing, there are now only 42 active cases, so that outbreak has been effectively contained. In Shanghai, there are just 18 cases (all imported from people returning to China). The recovery rate in Shanghai is at 96.6% and the recovery rate for China as a whole is at 93.1%. So, the situation appears to be under control.

On the Astronomy side of things, this was a relatively productive week. I spent most of my week working on my Luminosity Function analysis, where I finally solved why my results didn’t match the previously published results (there were some nuances to the evaluation of good and bad data that we were doing differently)! So, it feels great to have finally made some tangible progress on that front. Unfortunately, I still am working on solving the bugs related to the calibration of my DES SMHM relation analysis. Somewhat unsurprisingly and weirdly normal at this point, I have multiple Zoom meetings at different times each week, including our AstroCoffee presentations (morning), Zu Group meetings (afternoon), and a very late night DES telecon. Overall, I definitely have enough projects and meetings to keep me busy!

It is now the start of the real summer weather in Shanghai, which means it’s hot and humid (but not rainy). Most days it reaches about 90 (or hotter), but with high humidity, so it gets pretty uncomfortable. Despite that, I still went for two runs (when it was a little cooler) this week! Even though it’s so hot outside, Shanghai is still very beautiful!

Additionally, I saw lots of cats this week! Sadly, there are a lot of strays in Shanghai (although, I’m never 100% sure if cats are strays or just outdoor cats). The one in the store is not a stray.

I think I can now say, that I have a pretty active social life, which is very nice (and a pleasant change from my pre-covid normalcy)! I’m really happy to be part of a few (intertwined) friend groups! On Wednesday, my group of friends got together again for another improv game night! For those of you who are unfamiliar with improv games, they’re basically acting/theater games where you act out different scenarios, mostly trying to be funny. I’m having a lot of fun with it and slowly getting better! It’s a great opportunity to be silly.

The highlight of my weekend was making Cherry Jam with my friends Heather and Hannah Maia! Unlike my Mom’s cherry jam (which is great), we made sweet cherry jam, which turned out fantastically!

As you can see, we had a blast! From pitting the cherries (which was much less messy than when Emmet and I would do it and cover the whole dining room table with cherry juice) to juicing the lemons to smushing the cherries, to cooking the jam (and boiling the jars to sanitize them), we were able to make some delicious cherry jam in a few hours! I also used some of my previously made peach jam to make jam squares (my Mom’s signature cookie) for the first time in Shanghai, which were a hit!

Overall, we had a fantastic afternoon! I think this may be the best jam yet! We figured out that the liquid pectin we got wasn’t actually 100% pectin (it had sugar and water as the primary ingredients, unlike certo, which is what my Mom uses), so using the powdered pectin (and knowing how much to use) made the consistency of the jam much nicer! I look forward to enjoying it more in upcoming weeks! Also, we’re going to be making fig jam as well as citrus marmalade later this summer/fall!

To follow up such a fun Saturday, on Sunday, Heather and Shimi organized a board game afternoon! We played Cards Against Humanity, which is always a little more interesting when everyone is from different places (our group included Americans, Israelis, Chinese, and French people), Codenames, and Bananagrams! It was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed playing codenames again, since I have fond memories of playing with my friends in Ann Arbor during my last night in Michigan. 🙂

Throughout my week, I also saw a lot of other cool things I wanted to share! I love the Shanghai skyline!

Food in Shanghai

In addition to the delicious food that I made this week, which was General Tso’s chickpeas, vegan mozzarella, and roasted chickpeas, I had two fantastic meals out!

On Monday, I was invited to a dinner for Community Leaders who are working on topics related to social justice and Black Lives Matter. I am as part of the leadership for the Moishe House BLM discussion series and organizer of the Kehilat Shanghai/ Moishe House Solidarity Shabbat. It was very interesting meeting different leaders from many different communities, and hopefully we can do some activities together. Most are associated with business or US political groups. The dinner was at an amazing vegetarian buffet! So, I had to take tons of photos of the fantastic food (most of which I tried).

In an attempt to summarize everything, there was fruit juices, grilled mushrooms and eggplant, different types of seitan (gluten, including delicious gluten balls) and tofu dishes, sauteed mushrooms and other vegetables, greens, cauliflower, bamboo, pineapple rice, different dim sum (dumplings and baozi), as well as beautiful deserts (mine was a raspberry tart)! This was a vegan/vegetarian heaven! It was located right behind the Jing’an temple, so I’ll definitely be back!

On Friday, we had our Community Shabbat (more on that later). We had a delicious Chinese dinner! We had tofu, fruit (the purple fruit is dragonfruit or pitaya), smoked tofu (which was funky), amazing eggplant, and tomato with tofu skins! The eggplant was my favorite!

As you can see, there’s tons of amazing vegan and vegetarian food in Shanghai and I look forward to trying more! Additionally, although I forgot to take a photo, Hannah Maia made an amazing marbled red bean and black sesame flavored challah!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

This week, we had our second joint Kehilat Shanghai/Moishe House Shabbat! We had 15 people and one dog 🙂 come for the dinner and service! I had the pleasure of leading services again! I lead services with Emmet while we were seniors at Brown and I really enjoy the opportunity to lead the community! It was great to gather members of the community (including some new faces) to celebrate Shabbat and enjoy fascinating conversations ranging from the situation in the US, to a discussion of cosmology and life in the Universe (since generally everyone loves asking the Astronomer questions!). A special highlight for me was that my friends Kate and Ilan brought Pina!

Overall, this was another really fun week! I’m so glad I’ve found such a wonderful friend group! This upcoming week I think should be a little bit quieter (though I’ve been wrong before). So, I hope to make more progress on my research, too.

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my week and seeing the delicious food I enjoyed and the fantastic jam I made! I hope this update reminds you that life really isn’t that different here in China and that for you as well things will improve (though the process to get there can’t be rushed). If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the current covid-19 situation, please let me know. If you want to talk about how to stay positive and productive, reach out. I want to help support you and assure all of you in any way that I can.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my adventures in Shanghai! As many of you are hopefully continuing to socially distance, I hope that my blog illustrates that once the world recovers from this outbreak (which is not now in the US), things will improve. You should all look forward to small interactions with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find, as I have, how much more you appreciate those now. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal. The recovery timeline for Shanghai is not applicable to the US and new outbreaks may still occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog interesting or enjoyable, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest entry continues to find you, your family, and your friends all staying safe and healthy. Hopefully, you’re remaining vigilant and continuing to cooperate with social distance guidelines and wearing masks. I’m sure that this has been a difficult summer so far. Unlike past years (if you’re being safe and smart), you haven’t been able to go on vacation, visit friends and family, and do normal summer fun. However, I hope that even while taking social distancing seriously, you’ve been able to do some fun activities. Whether it’s going for hikes, picking fruit, social distant gatherings, or getting ice cream to beat the heat, hopefully you’ve found a few ways to brighten your days.

Since I discussed the topic last week, I do want to say that I’m pleased that the US government rescinded it’s restriction on foreign students, thus allowing them to stay in the US if their university is online only. However, I still maintain that the current nationalist (and racist) rhetoric emanating from the White House will likely have long term ramifications on the US. I believe that many scholars, scientists, and other skilled workers may choose to either go to more welcoming countries or remain in their home countries because they feel that the US no longer welcomes them. Thus, further emphasizing the importance of changing the leadership in this November.

I also want to take the time to mark the passing of Congressman and Civil Rights Activist John Lewis. I first became familiar with Congressman Lewis’s life story through his powerful graphic novel autobiography series March. If you haven’t read all three volumes, I highly recommend them (they’re accessible for all ages). March provides insight into Congressman Lewis’s actions throughout the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Congressman Lewis was a titan in the Civil Rights movement whose actions left a lasting imprint on America. I hope that we can all continue to work to make a better more inclusive world to honor his legacy. Congressman Lewis may you Rest in Power!

Before I discuss the covid-19 situation in China, I want to remark at how demoralizing the situation in the US has become. It is utterly ridiculous that wearing masks and listening to scientists has become so heavily politicized. Moreover, it was just 11 days ago that the US hit 3 million cases of covid-19. Since then the situation has only worsened and there are now over 3.7 million cases. Only Russia, India, and Brazil have had more than 0.7 million cases. This is not good company to keep. Though you can see similarities in the current leadership. It’s high time that everyone in the US stop acting selfishly. Americans must realize that the benefit of the whole far outweighs any personal benefit. The economy should not be a priority. The situation will only improve if everyone takes social distancing and mask wearing seriously. I fear that the situation will not improve without drastic, harsh, and draconian action.

In China, the situation has remained stable. There are reports of a small outbreak in Xinjiang (where the Uygur’s live), but that outbreak appears to be contained. In Beijing, the number of cases is down to 132, while in Shanghai the number is at 25 (all imported). For Shanghai, the recovery rate is at 95.6%, while for China as a whole, the recovery rate is at 93.7%. So, as I’ve previously stated, the spread of the virus can be quenched if strong and swift action is taken.

On the Astronomy side of things, this was a somewhat frustrating week. I spent a lot of time working on different aspects of my DES stellar mass – halo mass relation analysis only to realize that the calibration that I was using was incorrect (so I have to redo things). However, from experience, it’s better to realize that now and not once the paper’s been submitted. Also, this type of thing happens a lot in science. Over the years, I’ve come to realize that I rarely do any of my analyses only a few times, most things are done multiple times, not only to verify results, but to remove bugs in our code. Along with meetings with colleagues/collaborators/friends in the US, much of my work interactions have remained via Zoom. We’ve continued having AstroCoffee and Zu Group Meetings. For those of you who are curious, I’m still working from home (my research supervisor is fine with that) and many of the grad students have not been allowed back on campus. It’s still unclear whether students will return in the fall.

This was a fairly rainy week. Although, unlike previous weeks, the weather was cool! It was in the 70s for a few days, so in between the rain, I was able to sneak in 3 runs, which were great! This week also appeared to mark the end of the Plum Rain season. This year was the longest Plum Rain season on record in over 20 years! Sadly for me, the end of Plum Rain season means hot and slightly less humid weather for the rest of July and August.

Following up last week’s very social week, this week I also did a lot of fun things with friends. On Tuesday, I organized the Kehilat Shanghai and Moishe House Trivia Night! My friend David served as the quiz master, covering a wide variety of topics from history, mythology, and music, to current events, movies, and even a comics question! This time, my team won! I had a fantastic time and helped contribute to my team’s win! My best categories were mythology and history. And of course I got the comics question! Still waiting on some more sports themed questions though!

On Wednesday night, my friend Heather organized an improv games night! Heather and some of her other friends had taken an improv class in the fall, so this was an opportunity to practice and relearn (or learn in my case) some of the techniques they had learned. I was very intrigued to try improv since I find lecturing (when I give a presentation I don’t write out a talk, I just prep slides) and teaching to be very improvisational, so I thought that these kind of activities would make me better at thinking on my feet. Overall, this was a fantastically fun evening. I haven’t laughed this much in a long time. This was a really nice opportunity to relax with friends and have fun!

Lastly, on Saturday evening, I got together with my friends Heather and Shimi to play games at a cafe near where I live. In China, all the fancier shopping areas are still lit up.

We played backgammon (Heather and I did much better against Shimi this time), Quirkle, and Bananagrams! Game nights bring back fond memories of playing games with my fellow Michigan grad students Juliette, Ryan, Ben, Juan, Paco, and Gillen as well as game nights with my family and Lollie, Peri, and Kevin in Saratoga. So, I’m really glad to be doing them here! Also, one benefit of being in China, is that it’s really easy to get new games. I ordered Anomia via Taobao this morning and it’s already shipping. So, if anyone has any great game recommendations, let me know!

Food in Shanghai

On Saturday, I got lunch with one of my friends at a newer Vegan restaurant near Xujiahui. This restaurant had very pretty and delicious food!

We had a salad, tofu pad thai, pesto zoodles, and an acai bowl! Everything was really delicious. My favorites were the Pad thai and the Acai bowl (which was really refreshing on such a hot day).

Additionally, I’ve continued to do a lot of cooking. This week, I made vegan brownies, walnut “meat” tacos, and vegan cashew cream cheese. As a note, if any of the things that I make sound interesting to you, let me know. I’m happy to share recipes!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

On Friday evening, I joined with members of the Kehilat Shanghai community for Family Shabbat! This is a smaller Shabbat gathering hosted at one of the members homes mostly for families with children (though other members without kids are welcome and invited). I wanted to join since as a Kehilat board member, I’m trying to get to know members of the community better. Here you can see me distracted playing Othello with two of the hosts’ children. This brought back a lot of fond memories. One, Emmet and I used to play Othello on the computer all the time when we were younger and two, this reminded me a lot of visiting with my cousin Margaret and playing with her sons before dinner while I was living in Ann Arbor. While most of the night was spent talking with the parents, I really enjoyed the opportunity to play with the kids! It’s really nice to feel like I’m part of the larger Jewish community (and not just the community of 20s/30s living in Shanghai). Also, the brownies I made were a hit!

On Sunday, Moishe House hosted a bagel brunch (I made vegan cream cheese). There’s something very comforting about enjoying a good bagel, so I’m glad I get to do it here in Shanghai! This was a great opportunity to relax and chat with friends as well as getting to spend some time with Lucky!

As per usual, there was a lot of commiserating about the situation in the US. Many of the sentiments I mentioned earlier, such as the frustrations about the lack of effort to take this seriously or trust scientists were echoed this afternoon.

Overall, this was another very fun week! I’m very happy to say that I’ve settled into a routine and have a nice diverse group of friends that I get to hang out with! This upcoming week I’ll have a few more fun, social, and Jewish events as well as hopefully making some headway in my research (I should have some new results on my Luminosity Function analysis!).

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my week! Overall, I hope this update reminds you what a normal and social week looks like (though the process to get there can’t be rushed). If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the current covid-19 situation, please let me know. If you need to talk about how to stay positive and productive, please reach out. I want to help support you and assure all of you in any way that I can.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my adventures in Shanghai! As many of you are hopefully continuing to socially distance, I hope that my blog illustrates that once the world recovers from this outbreak (which is not now in the US), things will improve. You should all treasure the small daily interactions. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal. The recovery timeline for Shanghai is not applicable to the US and new outbreaks may still occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog interesting or enjoyable, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest entry finds all of you continuing to be safe, maintaining social distancing practices, and healthy. As I’ve done before, I want to emphasizing the importance and necessity of wearing masks. Masks are one of the few effective methods to slow the spread of covid-19. While they are not a 100% guaranteed solution, they have been proven to effectively limit the spread of covid-19. Moreover, masks alone are not enough, it’s important to continue to expect the government (particularly in the US) to mandate increased testing and tracking of people who are sick. While tracking may seem like a violation of privacy, it’s done here, and I feel a sense of ease knowing that everyone has a green QR code indicating that they’re healthy. So, I again ask you to continue to take covid-19 seriously and demand the same of your friends and family.

The current number of cases in the US has now hit over 3 million. Therefore, I remain increasingly concerned about my family and friends (as well as all of you) who are in the US. I hope that this concerns you as well. Unfortunately, it seems as though the US is too late to effectively halt the spread of covid-19 without immediate, unilateral, and potentially draconian action (regardless of the impact on the economy). However, I grow continually pessimistic that such action will occur because all the current administration cares about is money.

Due to other recent news, this week, I’d like to share my views about the recent policy by the current administration to not allow international students to remain in the US if their universities remain on-line only. This is a senseless action taken to punish students for a global pandemic, which is no individual student’s fault. While I think that this is a harmful decision by the US government, I believe that the long-term implications may be more profound. Having both grown up in an academic environment and began my own journey in Academia, I think it’s abundantly clear how beneficial it is to have both a racially, ethnically, and geographically diverse set of students, faculty, and staff. Moreover, the message that the US is currently sending to the world is that they disagree with me and that the US does not want you here. I believe that such a position will eventually lead to many leading scholars and scientists choosing to not pursue degrees, faculty positions, and jobs in the United States because they do not feel welcome. Having spoken with my research supervisor about some of these issues, I’m aware of how much more difficult it has been (in the last year) for students to come from China to the US to get their Ph.D. This action is the latest in the racist and xenophobic actions taken by the current administration that in my opinion leaves the US in a precarious position, not just for the future of academia, but for how it’s viewed by the rest of the world. This action, on top of the continued systematic oppression and racism towards black people that exists in the US continue to emphasize the long term problems caused or enhanced by the current administration.

Now, lets transition back to discussing covid-19. The situation has continued to improve here in China, particularly in Beijing. The number of active cases has decreased to 240 (down from 328). In Shanghai, there 28 active cases (all imported from returnees to China). The current recovery rate in Shanghai is 95.2%, while the rate for China as a whole is 93.9%. In comparison to the US, I think this emphasizes that it is possible to control the spread of covid-19, when swift and scientifically backed actions are taken. Hopefully, smarter heads at the state level will prevail.

In terms of research, this was a fairly productive week. I had the 300 Project collaboration meeting every afternoon. This was a very interesting opportunity for me to learn a lot about the different research that members of the 300 collaboration are working on. It also allowed me to present some of my previous work and explain how I plan to use these simulations, which should hopefully lead to some interesting papers in the coming years. Other than the meeting, I spent a lot of time working on my DES stellar mass – halo mass relation research as well as on some of my research on the spectroscopic completeness of DESI clusters. Given the collaboration meeting, it’s unsurprising that I spent a lot of time on Zoom. In addition, I had our SJTU AstroCoffee as well as our Zu Group meeting. Since the semester is over, we no longer have weekly colloquiums.

The combination of the collaboration meeting along with mostly miserable weather (either very humid, hot, or raining), unfortunately led me to only go for 1 run this week. It’s supposed to be a little bit cooler during this upcoming week, so hopefully I’ll be able to go for some nice runs then (even if there’s some rain)! Additionally, Sunday was the hottest day I’ve experienced in Shanghai. It was 100 degrees (feels like 118), with ~60% humidity. Apparently, this is the type of weather that is typical of Shanghai in the summer (so I guess it’ll be a very hot summer). Despite spending a lot of time inside, I still saw some beautiful flowers and paintings.

Overall, this was an incredibly social week. I had events every day from Wednesday through Sunday.

On Wednesday, Moishe House hosted the first of a series of discussions on Black Lives Matter. I helped organize the series with Hannah Maia and the discussion was led by Clem, who is a member of the black community as well as an educator who’s lived in Shanghai for 15 years. The discussion focused mostly on definitions of terms relating to racism, prejudice, and discrimination, particularly in US. I’ve uploaded the slides with the definitions we discussed so that you can see what we talked about. I found the discussion to be very honest and interesting. We had a long discussion on what racism means and who can be racist. One concept that I’ve struggled with is whether their is a difference between systemic racism and someone being racist. I personally think that there is, but it’s a very nuanced and complicated argument. We also spoke about intersectionality and how we choose to identify ourselves. I found the discussions to be very informative and this was a great way to make everyone in the group comfortable with one another so that we can move on to discuss some more difficult topics. I’m very much looking forward to continuing this series and to gain greater insight into how I can become a better ally.

In contrast to Wednesday’s heavier discussion, on Thursday, I had dinner with my friends Kate and Ilan and got to meet their new dog, Pina! They think Pina is a Samoyed breed.

Pina is beautiful! She’s very soft and fluffy. More importantly, she’s super friendly and calm. It was a lot of fun getting to play with her! She’s one of the most beautiful dogs I’ve seen in Shanghai.

On Friday, I had dinner with my friends, Heather and Shimi. Heather made a fantastic pasta salad with artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, basil, and goat cheese and I made a roasted vegetable salad. Then for desert, Heather made a delicious vegan banana cream pie!

Heather is a fantastic cook! I always treasure getting the opportunity getting to enjoy her cooking! Afterwards, Shimi taught Heather and I how to play Backgammon. I learned the basic rules when I did Birthright, but unsurprisingly Shimi knew all the key strategies (and how to roll doubles or maybe that was just luck) and won. I look forward to trying to win next time, though! 🙂

After dinner, the three of us (as well as some of my other friends from the Moishe House community) went to Casey’s (one of the Moishe House residents) farewell comedy show. It’s been a very long time (I think since I was at Brown) since I’ve seen any live comedy. While the acts may have been a little more NSFW than I was expecting, I still had a lot of fun and we all had a lot of laughs!

Following the comedy show, on Saturday, Moishe House had a farewell party for Casey, who’s moving back to the United States. To give her a proper sendoff, I baked a vegan lemon cake, topped with a blueberry compote! It was another successful new recipe and I was thrilled with how lemon forward the cake was!

Lastly, on Sunday, my friend David (from the Moishe House community) invited friends to go GoKart racing for his birthday! Despite the brutal heat, I joined in for a fun afternoon. I think the last time I went GoKart racing was when I was 4-5 in Lake George (but my Mom can probably actually remember, since it was not a fun experience for her). This time, I got to drive, which was a lot of fun! It was pretty stressful though, with lots of bumping into other riders, cars stalling it, collisions, and a lot of slamming on the brakes.

Overall, it was still a lot of fun (though I am not very good at it).

Jewish Life in Shanghai

On Saturday, Kehilat Shanghai hosted a summer Taco Party! This event was designed to bring members of the community (both those with kids and those without) together! As you can see, the event was a huge success! We had about 50 people come, which was fantastic. It’s great to know which community members are still in Shanghai and for me, it was a really nice opportunity to meet some of the community members who I’d only briefly met. I also met the founders of Kehilat Beijing, who were visiting from Beijing. Kehilat Beijing has been around for much longer than Kehilat Shanghai. I’m looking forward to visiting Beijing once the 14 day travel restrictions have ended. Overall, it was really nice to see the community together, especially since other than Passover, we haven’t really done this in a long time.

This was a very fun week, filled with with lots of time spent with friends! This upcoming week should be a little bit quieter, and without the conference, hopefully I’ll be able to make some more headway on the many different research projects that I’m currently juggling.

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my fun adventures this week! Overall, I hope my update reminds you that eventually things will return to normal (though this is not a process that can be rushed). If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the current covid-19 situation, please let me know. If you need to talk about how to stay positive and productive , please reach out. I want to help support you and assure all of you in any way that I can.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 hopefully continues to keep many of you socially distancing, I hope that my blog illustrates that once the world recovers from this outbreak (which is not now in the US), things will improve. You should all treasure the small daily interactions. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal. The recovery timeline for Shanghai is not applicable to the US and new outbreaks may still occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog interesting or enjoyable, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

I hope that all of you reading this continue to remain safe and healthy. Regardless of where you live I hope that you’re wearing masks when you’re outside and are following social distancing guidelines. If you chose to do anything to mark the 4th of July, I hope that you and your family were smart and stayed safe. Please continue to take covid-19 seriously and remain vigilant.

Even though Saturday was the 4th of July, it’s hard to feel proud about being an American right now. I don’t know if it’s a combination of living abroad or the multi-national diversity among my group of friends, but it’s becoming exceedingly difficult to view the current situation in the US with any sort of hope or positivity. The combination of events over the last few months have led to the point where I (as well as some of my other ex-pat friends) feel shame to be American. It’s increasingly apparent that the current administration has failed to protect the health and well-being of the American people and that instead of admitting their failures, they’ve chosen to give up in hopes for a magic cure. Additionally, instead of trying to unite the country the current administration seeks only to incite division. Being in Shanghai, I don’t access everything that’s happening in the US at the same time (due to the time difference); however, it’s very concerning that every time I wake up I see reports that the number of cases is continuing to rise in many states and that those states and the government are doing little in response. While I’m heartened that my family and friends tell me that they’re wearing masks and remaining socially distant, it’s very scary to know that this is not the case for the majority of people in the US. While I know it seems draconian to enforce mask wearing (which was done in Shanghai in January, February, and March) I feel like unless either states or at least businesses insist on people wearing masks nothing will change. It’s also incredibly embarrassing when I hear people complain about being told to wear a mask. It’s so easy and does not impact your ability to breath (I do it when I run). Even though I’m sure many of you are approaching this situation with extreme caution, I implore you to talk to your friends and neighbors and try to convince them that the only way things can improve is if we as a country take this seriously and start wearing masks, actually following social distance guidelines, and stop being selfish and acting with only our interests in mind.

The situation in China has continued to move in the right direction. While Beijing is still shutdown and 14 day quarantines are required for anyone who travels to the capitol, over the last week, there have been very few new cases. In Beijing there are now 328 cases (up just 17 from last week). In Shanghai, there have been a few more imported cases and the total is currently 28. This makes the recovery rate 95.1% in Shanghai and 93.9% in China as a whole. So, as you can see from the example in Beijing, if the government chose to take strict and swift action, the outbreaks can be quelled and reduced in a matter of weeks.

In terms of my research this was a productive and eventful week. I spent a lot of time working on my DES research and on the Luminosity Function Research. I finally solved part of the bug with the Luminosity Function, so I’m now working on running/implementing the solution. But, progress is good and it feels great to have figured out why the shape I measured wasn’t correct. I also have begun doing more DESI research identifying the clusters whose central galaxies are not covered by DESI as potential secondary targets. So, I’ve had my research focus split in multiple directions. On top of that on Tuesday, I had the opportunity to present at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics’ Galaxy Cluster group meeting (via Zoom). It was great having my brother in attendance! I thought my presentation went very well and it was really nice hearing positive feedback and thoughtful questions about my research. 🙂 This week I’ll have another presentation as well since I recently joined the 300 collaboration (a team that uses simulations to study galaxy clusters and other astrophysical phenomena) and they’re having a group meeting all week. Thankfully, the 300 collaboration is based in Spain, so my talk is at a comfortable 4:45 pm China time! 🙂 On top of all that, we had our regular Zu Group meetings, SJTU Colloquium, and AstroCoffee. So, it was a very eventful week.

Much to my surprise, on Tuesday and Wednesday we had low humidity! Which was amazing!! It was warm, but it was so comfortable to go running when I wasn’t dripping with sweat after the first mile. Overall, I was able to go for 3 runs this week! I am going to start looking for a gym soon, since it’s pretty clear that this is not the norm (this coming week is thunderstorms every day). Below you can see some of the highlights from my runs and walks this week, including some very cute cats!

Additionally, I also wanted to share some photos of neighborhoods near where I live. If you look closely at the food market, you can see a humongous zucchini/cucumber! I have no idea how you would cook or eat that! These photos highlight that there are still parts of Shanghai that feel small and less like a cosmopolitan city.

Despite all of my work, this was a very fun week! On Wednesday, my friend Hannah Maia and I made Lychee jam! While it was lots of fun making Peach jam with my friend Heather, this was a completely new experience, since it’s something I’ve never had before and a flavor that even my Mom hasn’t made (and she’s made all the good flavors!).

To make lychee jam, we first removed the skin from the outside of the lychees (you can’t eat the skin, it’s spiky) and pitted them. Then we smushed the lychees and added some lemon juice. Lychees are very juicy, so the mixture was much more liquidy. Then we began cooking the jam, adding sugar and pectin. Lychees have no natural pectin, so we had to add a ton of pectin to get the jam to solidify. We ended up reboiling it, since we realized after we initially jarred it we needed more pectin.

Overall, we were left with some very pretty and yummy jam! While it may not look like much, those are 2 500ml jars. My Mom’s normal jam jar is 100ml, so it’s a good amount. My main conundrum is what to do with lychee jam. Lychees are a very sweet and interestingly textured fruit that definitely wouldn’t work on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich so, I guess I’ll be experimenting with some deserts!

On top of jam making, I had a very social weekend! On Friday night, Heather organized a surprise birthday party for Shimi (which was great, because he was actually surprised!). Then on Saturday, Heather and Shimi organized a 4th of July vegetarian potluck! I’ll save a discussion of the amazing food for later. While I don’t think any of the three Americans in attendance felt particularly patriotic, the 4th of July was just an excuse to get together and enjoy each others company. It was great spending Friday night and Saturday hanging out with friends and having interesting conversations on topics ranging from Black Lives Matter and the covid-19 situation in the US to improv comedy, tennis, music and food! I continue to be grateful to have found some a warm and fun-spirited group of friends!

Food in Shanghai

On Friday (before the surprise party), Hannah Maia and I ordered vegetarian Chinese food. Hannah Maia taught me how to use the Chinese app Elema, which is kind of like Postmates (but you can also order groceries through it). I haven’t done food delivery before and I was surprised by how quick it was (our food came in less than 30 minutes!). I continue to be amazed by how seamlessly technology is integrated into all aspects of life here.

We had eggplant (which was so soft and delicious), sauteed greens, seitan, rice noodles with veggies (which were fantastic), and mountain yam! It’s great to know that i can get yummy vegetarian food without even leaving my apartment!

As I mentioned earlier, on Saturday Heather and Shimi hosted a 4th of July potluck! I arrived early and made Tempeh Burgers and Buffalo Cauliflower (using the Lunchroom’s recipe from Ann Arbor), with Heather! It was a lot of fun cooking together and definitely helped get all the amazing food done in time. In addition to what I made, we enjoyed homemade seitan sausages, chana masala, and asparagus salad as well as Blueberry pie, watermelon, and chocolate/peanut butter/date protein balls! Here’s the amazing spread courtesy of Shimi, who’s a very talented photographer!

I hope that these photos make you both jealous and hungry! There was so much delicious food! You can see how much I’m enjoying it as I’m mid chew in the photo above. 🙂 It’s great fun to share homemade food with friends and it’s always a treat when people enjoy what you make (which they did :))! Even though I’m not feeling patriotic, it was really nice having the opportunity to spend the day with friends and brought back fond memories of 4th of July barbecues with my fellow grad students and postdocs at Michigan!

Overall, this was a fun week filled with friends and lots of delicious food. This upcoming week, I have the 300 conference, so I’ll be trying to get as much research done as possible in the morning/early afternoon. Hopefully my presentation will go just as well! Additionally, the Moishe House is hosting a Black Lives Matter discussion/learning night, which should be a very important and powerful discussion (it’s the first in a series of events).

I hope that you enjoyed seeing and reading about my culinary adventures this week! I hope that it made you hungry. Overall, I hope my update reminds you that eventually things will resemble what you’re used to (after the covid-19 pandemic ends, not in the middle). If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the current covid-19 situation, please let me know. If you need to talk about how to stay positive and productive , please reach out. I want to help support you and assure all of you in any way that I can.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 keeps many of you sheltered in place or working at home, I hope that my blog illustrates that once the world recovers from this outbreak, things will improve. You should all treasure the small daily interactions. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal. I emphasize that the recovery timeline for Shanghai is not applicable everywhere and that new outbreaks may occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog inspiring or helpful, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

As you’re reading this, I hope that all of you as well as your family and friends are remaining safe and healthy. I really hope that all of you are still taking covid-19 seriously. Despite the relatively small number of cases in Shanghai, many of us here are still wearing masks. So, I implore you all to continue to be cautious and vigilant. Please stay safe and do your best to remain healthy.

I know I began last week’s post by emphasizing my growing concern about the covid-19 situation in the US; however, I feel it’s necessary to do it again. While it’s comforting to hear from many of my family and friends that they continue to wear masks and socially distance, this past week has really done nothing to help assuage my concerns about the US as a whole. It seems like every day I awaken to reports of the number of cases hitting record highs all throughout the country. The continued disregard by the current administration to do anything to alleviate the situation or even attempt to flatten the curve is incredibly frustrating and also rather humiliating. I often talk with my ex-pat friends here in Shanghai about the situation in the US and there’s a general shame that many of us feel to be American. The sheer level of disregard for public safety is staggering. Having worn masks every time I’ve gone outside since January (even when I run), I don’t understand the insistence on the public to not wear masks. This is not a political issue. So, I implore you please don’t be selfish. Wear a mask or a bandana over your face. It shows that you think it’s important to keep your neighbors healthy and that you care. While I know many of you are already doing so, please continue to encourage your friends and family do wear masks every time they are out in public. This is the only effective way to slow the spread of covid-19.

For the most part, the situation here in China remains in check. While there have been additional cases in Beijing, all reported information that I’ve seen suggests that that secondary outbreak is relatively under control and that the number of new cases in continuing to decline. In total, there are 311 cases in Beijing. I’m lucky, that outbreak has not spread at all to Shanghai, where there are just 25 cases, all of which have been imported. The recovery rate in Shanghai is 95.5% and the recovery rate in China as a whole is 93.9%. So, the situation remains stable here in China. However, there remains a fear of a secondary outbreak and travelers returning from Beijing are required to do a 14 day self-quarantine.

In terms of research, this week was fairly productive. I had a very productive and insightful meeting with my Ph.D. supervisor/mentor Prof. Chris Miller and spent a lot of time this week improving and strengthening some of the analysis in our SMHM relation paper for the Dark Energy Survey. I think we’re both trying to make this paper as airtight as possible, which hopefully will help reduce any difficulties in the referee process. Additionally, I’ve continued to be somewhat stumped by the inconsistencies between my measurement of the Luminosity Function and prior measurements, so I’m sure I’ll be spending a lot of time on that in the near future. Along with a lot of time spent running computer code (which is really what most of my research is), we had our normal Zoom AstroCoffee, Zu Group meetings, and SJTU Astronomy colloquiums.

Much to my personal uncomfortability, it’s continued to be hot, humid, and rainy here in Shanghai. I think I’ve reached the point where the humidity bothers me a lot more than the heat. I can run in heat, but it’s so uncomfortable to run when it’s excessively humid (which is frequent). Despite that I took advantage of a few breaks in the weather and got in 2 runs this week. While I’d love to run more, it’s difficult when the weather is working against you.

Due to the overcast weather, I didn’t get as many great photos of flowers, however, I did see a lot of cute cats this week!

Additionally, I saw some very interesting and beautiful sculptures, paintings, statues, and buildings as I walked around Shanghai (Yes, even in the heat, I still try to walk most places).

As I mentioned in last week’s post. This week was the Dragon Boat Festival Holiday. Unfortunately, most of the large events and actual Dragon Boat Races in Shanghai were cancelled due to fears of large crowds due to covid-19. So, unfortunately, I didn’t do anything special to mark the holiday. So, I know I have a few things to look forward to for next year!

Overall, this was a much more low key and relaxing week, compared to last week. On Tuesday, I attended a lecture on rural education in China with my friends Heather and Shimi. The talk was given by an educator who has built an international network using the Chinese version of Zoom to teach students in the most rural regions of China. A lot of the topics covered via the online education are related to the arts, which are generally not as well taught be rural school teachers (since they lack the training). The talk focused on some of the difficulties of online teaching as well as how it’s been successful in enhancing students educational opportunities, since it’s often difficult to convince teachers from Shanghai or Beijing to move to rural China. It was very inspiring to hear how teachers from around the world use the internet to enhance the academic experiences of those students. Given the proliferation of online teaching due to covid-19, I wouldn’t be surprised if this kind of thing becomes more common.

On Saturday, my friends Kate and Ilan hosted a lunch party to show friends their new apartment. Given that it was a rainy, hot, and humid day, it was very relaxing to enjoy good food, company, and conversations ranging from covid-19 to Mrs. Maisel! I made my now famous sticky sesame cauliflower, which was again a huge hit!

One thing that I really like about living in Shanghai is how internationally diverse my friends are. Maybe it’s because ex-pats are all drawn together, but it’s really interesting learning about the cultures and experiences of my friends. I have friends from China, the US, Israel, Ukraine, France, Mexico, Argentina, the UK and many more. I feel like it’s been a great way for me to grow as a person and become more cognizant of the world I live in.

Food in Shanghai

I cooked most of my meals this week, but I still had some interesting food to share with you. In terms of my own cooking, I made orange tofu, roasted broccoli, vegan mozzarella cheese, roasted chickpeas, tahini sauce, and orange-pineapple popsicles! So, plenty of good stuff to eat this upcoming week.

On Friday, the Moishe House community did a Taco Shabbat! I got mapo tofu and buddha’s delight tacos! I find the Chinese-Mexican fusion very interesting!

On Sunday, I got breakfast with one of my friends and had a delicious chia seed porridge with pepitas, coconut, dragon fruit, and blueberries!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

As I just mentioned, on Friday, Moishe House hosted a Taco Shabbat! In contrast to last week’s very moving Solidarity Shabbat, it was nice to have a relaxing and fun Shabbat spent with friends. While we didn’t do a Shabbat service, we still gathered to say the Shabbat blessings and enjoy some delicious challah baked by my friend Hannah Maia. I’m really happy to be part of the Moishe House community here. It’s been a great source of fun and friendship during my time in Shanghai, and particularly since covid-19 began.

This was a calm and more low-key week. This upcoming week should allow me to focus a lot of research. I’m also going to be presenting some of my research at the Zoom Galaxy Cluster Seminar for the Harvard Center for Astrophysics on Tuesday (thanks to Emmet for setting it up :)), so that’s exciting!

I hope that this update about what a new normal week looks like here in Shanghai reminds you that eventually things can and will resemble what you’re used to. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the current covid-19 situation, please let me know. If you need someone to talk to about how to stay positive and productive while you shelter in place, please reach out. I want to help support you and assure all of you in any way that I can.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 keeps many of you sheltered in place or working at home, I hope that my blog illustrates that once the world recovers from this outbreak, things will improve. You should all treasure the small daily interactions. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal. I emphasize that the recovery timeline for Shanghai is not applicable everywhere and that new outbreaks can still occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog inspiring or helpful, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

I hope that all of you are staying safe and healthy while continuing to wear masks and socially distance. Before beginning, I do want to acknowledge that I’ve chosen to drop the Life in Quarantine title this week. I’ve realized that even though I’m still working from home, I’m lucky enough to be in a situation where covid-19, while still a major concern, is no longer a dominant aspect of my life. Despite that, I still will continue to update you on the situation here and share my thoughts/opinions on the situation in the US.

Over the last week, I’ve grown increasingly concerned about the covid-19 situation in the US. It’s undeniably clear to me that as a whole, the US has given up on trying to halt or slow the spread of the virus. While some states are following CDC guidelines and using science to make their decisions about reopening, it’s disheartening to see how cases are spiking in Florida, Arizona, California, and so many other places. This is even more troubling given China’s swift and effective reaction to the spiking of cases in Beijing (more on that later). So, I implore all of you to continue to work from home (if possible), to always wear masks when you go outside to public places, and to maintain social distancing protocols. If the Federal government is too cowardly to admit that this situation won’t magically go away and attempt to deal with a response, then I hope each of you will act smartly instead.

While last week definitely served as a reminder that the covid-19 situation can change rapidly, this week offered much more stability. There have continued to be more cases in Beijing, but so far this appears to be a localized outbreak. Reports I’m reading suggest that this outbreak is under control, with fewer cases being reported each day. In response, the Chinese government effectively closed parts of Beijing and are now requiring 14 days of self-quarantine for all people who visit Beijing (as well as a few other parts of China). So, I’m not sure how much traveling I’ll be able to do this summer. In total, there are 228 active cases in Beijing. In Shanghai, there are just 23 (all imported). The recovery rate in Shanghai is 95.7%, while for China as a whole, the rate is 94.1%. I will reiterate that while these numbers are promising, the situation in Beijing has raised a lot of fear of a second wave here, so, I don’t see travel restrictions being eased in the near future.

In terms of research, this was a fairly productive week. I spent a lot of time working on my research related to the Luminosity Function of cluster member galaxies. While I’ve made some progress in matching the desired figures, there still a few sizeable differences I’m working to resolve. Additionally, I’ve continued to make progress on finalizing my DES paper on the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass Relation. My goal is to get that submitted next month. Other than my own research, we had another successful week of AstroCoffee. I also had more Zoom telecons, one for the Zu Group and one late night meeting for DES.

As I mentioned last week, it’s Plum rain season. Thankfully, it wasn’t quite as hot this week (though there were a few brutal days). However, we’ve had lots of rain/thunderstorms/and high humidity. Despite all that, I was able to make time for three runs this week! Even with the weather, there’s still lots of Beauty in Shanghai (both flowers and a cute cat)!

This was a jam packed weekend. While the main event of my week was the Solidarity Shabbat (more on that later), I also had a fun Saturday! My friend Heather and I made white Peach jam! As most of you know, my Mom makes tons of Jam all summer! Since I haven’t been able to go home since arriving in October (and I won’t be returning home anytime soon), I’ve been craving my Mom’s homemade jam. So, Heather and I decided to try to make it ourselves!

It’s been a while since I’ve gone through the whole jam making process with my Mom. Thankfully she shared her recipe as well as a few insightful tips and tricks to help make delicious jam! As you can see, the process went really well! Surprisingly, getting jars in China was actually really easy. The primary difficulty was finding pectin (and making sure it was the right thing). This was a really fun way to spend the afternoon! Plus, we ended up with beautifully colored and tasty jam! I can’t wait to start enjoying it and to make more jam later this summer!

Following our jam making adventure. Heather, Shimi, and I attended Matter is the Minimum, as storytelling fundraiser organized by members of the Black community in Shanghai (including Erica Switzer, who led the Solidarity Shabbat discussion) in support of Campaign Zero. This was a very moving and thought provoking event. 7 storytellers shared with the audience their own experiences through either stories, songs, or dramatic performance about dealing with systemic racism and racism by police in the US as well as racism that they’ve faced in China. Each performance was powerful. While I don’t think I can adequately describe each story, my primary takeaway was how pervasive systemic racism is in all parts of the US and how often white people downplay the mistreatment of Black people. I’ll discuss more about these issues later, but I think it’s important that each of us continues be be anti-racist and a vocal and supportive ally to the Black community.

Food in Shanghai

This week, I had two delicious meals out. On Friday, our Solidarity Shabbat was catered by a Black owned caterer/bakery, Suga’hai. I enjoyed a delicious meal of okra and cauliflower gumbo, red bean and rice balls, blackened tofu, and a delicious oreo brownie!

On Saturday, I went to lunch at one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants in Shanghai!

I had a delicious meal of vegetable wontons; shredded zucchini, carrots, and mushrooms; tofu with bamboo and mushrooms; edamame with a green vegetable I can’t remember; and tomato with broccoli. The tofu, wontons, and carrot/zucchini/mushroom salad were my favorites!

Additionally, I did a lot of cooking this week. On Saturday night, I made a sweet and sour tempeh stir-fry with Heather for dinner. I also made a Mediterranean Quinoa salad as well as Pra Ram Tofu (tofu with peanut sauce). So, lots of good eating this week!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

This week was the joint Moishe House/Kehilat Shanghai Solidarity Shabbat that I co-organized with my friend Hannah Maia. The two of us put a lot of time, effort, and energy into the event, so I’m pleased to report that it was very successful and meaningful evening. The event began with a service that I led. To keep the service in line with the theme of discussing how to be better allies and ending systemic racism, I incorporated different readings into the service, which added an additional and necessary weight to the evening. If you’re interested, I uploaded the Supplement below.

Following the service, we had a moving and interesting discussion, led by Erica Switzer, a secondary English and Drama teacher from Chicago, who is also a story teller and comedian. Erica’s leadership and guidance really carried through the evening to make the event as impactful as it was. Our discussion began by talking about why people are uncomfortable talking about racism (whether it’s shame, embarrassment, or feeling it’s not your place to bring it up). We then discussed what we as a community believed are the underlying root causes of systemic racism in 2020 (including economic inequality, which traces to slavery and scapegoating/fear of the other). Our discussion ended by talking about what it means to be an ally. As part of this, we heard from some members of the Black community who joined us and shared ways that we can be better allies. The primary takeaways for me is that it’s important not to be just a social media social justice warrior. We need to do more than post a black square on Facebook and Instagram. Whenever possible we need to support Black owned businesses and Black students. We also must listen when Black people explain what the problems are and not write them off as complaining.

This event was very well attended! The organized discussion led to many lively and interesting smaller discussions. Overall, I felt that this was an incredibly important event. I was honored to have helped organize it. This event raised a few hundred dollars that will be donated to the Campaign Zero and to Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.

I know that I’ve spent a lot of time in the last few weeks posting about the systemic racism and injustice that exists in the US. I hope that you’ve used these posts as a springboard to have your own discussions. I want to let you know that this won’t be the last time that I’ll be posting about these issues. I’m helping to organize a discussion series at Moishe House about racism, racism in the Jewish community, and what we can do to be anti-racist and end systemic racism.

In addition to the Shabbat on Friday night, as a change of pace and lighter event, I went to Moishe House’s bagel brunch on Sunday! I made vegan cashew cream cheese and my peach jam! Both were a hit. After a weekend filled with heavy and impactful discussions, it was nice to relax with friends on a Sunday afternoon.

Before concluding this post, I want to take the time to wish my Dad, and all the other Fathers reading this a Happy Father’s Day! As I said when I wrote on Mother’s day, it’s been very difficult being so far away from my parents for such a long time (and the prospect of not seeing them soon makes it more difficult). However, I want to thank my Dad for being such a wonderful, loving, and supportive Father. Whether it’s talking about different readings for Shabbat services, helping me to plan the Passover Seder, checking in on how my research is going, or just chatting about what mediocre TV we’ve been watching, I’m so thankful that we’re so close. I love you so much. Thank you so much for being the best Dad I could ask for.

This was a really eventful week! This upcoming week is the traditional Dragon Boat Festival. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if they’re will actually be Dragon boat racing (due to covid-19 concerns), but if there is, I’ll try to see it. Next week should be a bit more relaxing. However, I’m sure I’ll have plenty of interesting stories to share with you.

I hope that this update about my life and the covid-19 situation in Shanghai is both enjoyable and impactful. I hope that my actions taken to have a dialogue about systemic racism here in Shanghai remind you all that wherever you are, you can do something to improve the situation. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the current covid-19 situation, please let me know. If you need someone to talk to about how to stay positive and productive while you shelter in place, please reach out. I want to help support you and assure all of you in any way that I can.

In peace,
Jesse