Hi Everyone! Welcome back to Astronomer in Shanghai! I hope that this latest update finds all of you having a safe, happy, and healthy start of your summer! Hopefully you’ve been able to enjoy the warmer weather! Here in Shanghai, we’re just starting plum rain season, where it’s hot, humid, and rainy almost every day for the next month (so not the greatest month for outdoor activities). That said, I still have some fun things to share with you all!

For those of you who recall my last post, I mentioned that in June, I would be traveling to the UK. This was my first time leaving China since my arrival in 2019! It was also the first time that I’ve seen my parents in person since October, 2019 (45 months), which is far longer than I ever anticipated. It was an absolutely wonderful trip to Nottingham and Bath! However, because I want this blog to focus on my time in Shanghai, I won’t go into quite as much detail about the trip, but I’ll still share some photos and highlights with you later on.

Astronomy in Shanghai

With my trip to the UK, which was basically the first extended vacation (longer than a weekend) I’ve taken since my trip to Harbin almost 2 years ago, this wasn’t quite as productive a month. I’m still continuing to make steady progress on my follow-up analysis of the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass relation of the Intracluster light (ICL) and it’s correlation with the magnitude gap. This is an amalgamation of two of my primary research areas, and to my delight, we’re finding promising results that I look forward to sharing! Additionally, I’ve also updated my analysis of the spectroscopic completeness of redMaPPer cluster members from DESI. Lastly, I’ve been continuing to work on looking at the impact of the magnitude gap on the weak lensing measurements, but am currently hitting a bug when trying to link the two sets of measurements in my MCMC code.

In addition to my own research, at the beginning of June, I did another DESI support observer shift! Thankfully the weather was pretty good this time! This is all done remotely, so it was rather pleasant to sit in front of my TV in the late morning/early afternoon and analyze the DESI data as it was observed! Scottie and Charlie also did a good job entertaining the other Astronomers (who were at the mountain) by continuing to climb on top of me while I was on the Zoom chat! You can see Scottie and Charlie trying to distract me from observing below!

Life in Shanghai

With preparing for the trip to the UK, I didn’t have quite as much free time this month. That said, I still made time to go to F45 pretty much every day. At this point in the summer it’s way too hot and humid for me to go running. I’m definitely looking forward to the much cooler, less humid, Nottingham climate.

The main highlight in Shanghai this month was a walking tour with Historic Shanghai! It’s been a while since I’ve gone on one of their tours (the tours are always fantastic, it’s just hard for me to always have time, or want to go out in the summer heat). This one focused on Huashan Rd. and the hidden gardens located there! My favorite part about Historic Shanghai tours is that Patrick and Tina do an amazing job of sharing the history and highlights of places I often walk by without even noticing. Whether it’s pointing out an Art Deco building, telling a story about a famous resident (though the residents aren’t always people I’ve heard of), or taking us down an alley that I wasn’t sure we could enter, it’s always a fun adventure on these walking tours!

Below are a ton of photos from the different buildings and hidden gardens. My two favorite things were the bridge in the middle of the pond (located in the Huashan hospital gardens) and the fence that turned into a dragon pointing toward a pagoda with a phoenix!

In addition to the gorgeous gardens, so many of which I had never seen before (and I didn’t know that any of them were there), I also saw some very cute cats that were not Scottie and Charlie! Most of these are my neighborhood cats and the F45 cats. I often bring them treats when I go to the gym in the morning.

Additionally, I also saw some cool things, including movie posters that I wanted to share (though the Flash poster was in the UK)!

Scottie and Charlie

This was not a very fun month for Scottie and Charlie. As you can probably guess neither was very happy to have me gone. Thankfully for the two weeks I was gone my friend Bec’s kids came over to clean their litter box, refill their automatic feeder, refill their water, and attempt to play with them. I say attempt because much to the kids disappointment, Scottie hid the entire time, first under the blanket and then on top of the kitchen cabinet, and Charlie was a little standoffish until the last day when he came out and said hello. Based on their behavior when I’ve had other pet sitters, this is what I expected. Though, hopefully they’ll get more adjusted to other people when I move. That said, they were both incredibly happy to have me home (they’ve basically been on top of or next to me the entire time I’ve been home), though immediately upon my arrival they were upset at me, meowing constantly for a while, especially Scottie.

In terms of the move, I found a friend to fly to Paris with me, so we’ll all be in the cabin together. Scottie and Charlie get their rabies booster in ~ 1 week, and then I just need to do all the paperwork for having them exit China.

Even with this being a difficult month, Scottie and Charlie continue to be absolutely adorable together!

They’re also incredibly adorable on their own or when finding new places to climb on, nap, or play!

Trip to the UK

On June 6th, ~45 months after my arrival in Shanghai (and rarely leaving Shanghai during that period), I finally left China. I haven’t been on a plane since my trip to Harbin, so it was a bit surreal to actually be in an airport and get on a plane. Flying into and out of China is always a bit stressful. While the lines weren’t nearly as long as they were in 2019, the process of going through customs and security in China is long, not just because of long lines, but because of all the checks that China requires (from your fingerprints, to your visa, to the health check — a formality at this point thankfully). Moreover, it’s not ever 100% clear what you need to take out of your bags. For example, in China, my phone chargers had to be taken out, but not in the UK. That said, the Shanghai airport was just as I remembered it, even down to the panda gift shop. Since I’ll be moving to the UK in August, I brought with me three 50lb suitcases (plus my carry-on and backpack), with about 2/3 of my stuff. So, hopefully I’ll only need another 2 suitcases for the next trip!

For these flights, I splurged for the Global World Travelers Plus Level on British Airways, so I got a comfortable seat with plenty of leg room for the 14 hour flight from Shanghai to the UK. Once I was actually on the plane and knowing that I would be leaving China, it certainly felt weird. For the better part of the last 3 years, I really didn’t think I would ever leave until departing China for good. Even though it’s so close to the end of my time in China, I think having the opportunity to leave China allowed me to reflect on what I’ve enjoyed in China while also recognizing some of the differences that await me in the UK (like using paper money, credit cards, or actually having conversations with strangers). Additionally, even though not everyone was wearing a mask on the plane or the airport, I definitely felt more comfortable wearing a mask on the plane (and the trains and subways).

After arriving in the London in the evening, I spent the night in a hotel and then met my Mom at St. Pancras Train Station to go up to Nottingham for the rest of the week! It was so wonderful to see my Mom in person again! We got to spend two days together in Nottingham (before she went back to Bath, where I joined her a few days later)!

I really enjoyed getting to explore Nottingham (my first visit)! By Shanghai standards, Nottingham is not large (~300,000 people). However, having not been in the UK in over 20 years, there was still so much to explore! Even visiting grocery stores (in Nottingham and Bath) was more fun (and there’s certainly a lot more vegan food!) That said, the highlight was spending the time with my Mom walking around downtown Nottingham and exploring different neighborhoods I’m thinking of living in, and even visiting a cat cafe (I was already missing Scottie and Charlie)! I really felt like I got a good sense of Nottingham!

One thing to note is that almost nobody wears masks in the UK (it was the same throughout the entire trip). While the rate of mask wearing has decreased in China, it was almost non-existent in the UK. So, I decided to wear masks on public transportation and in indoor areas where it was crowded (which seemed to work for me as I didn’t get sick).

During the rest of my time in Nottingham, I did other activities that helped show me what my life will be like! On Thursday night and Friday, I met my new research group, led by Prof. Nina Hatch! For those of you who don’t recall, I’ll be the Senior Research Associate within Prof. Hatch’s research group, working with Euclid, a European Space Telescope that launches in ~ 1 week, to study the intracluster light at high-redshift! It was great meeting the group and since we’ll all be working on ICL projects, feels like there will be great synergy! I really enjoyed discussing future projects and am excited to officially join at the beginning of September! Plus it was great getting to walk around the gorgeous campus!

On Saturday, I joined the Nottingham Liberal Synagogue for Shabbat morning services! For those of you unfamiliar, liberal Judaism is similar to Reform/Progressive Judaism, but believes that all practices and laws need to be modernized. Given the similarities, I felt very comfortable in the service! Plus, the community members I met were very friendly and I look forward to being an active part of the community once I move! Later that afternoon, I went to a vegan market! This was so reminiscent of the vegan markets that Emmet has enjoyed in Beijing! Since I didn’t have a refrigerator at my hotel, I couldn’t buy tons of food, but there were so many amazing baked goods and dishes! I look forward to going each month! Lastly, I even got to visit the Forbidden Planet comic book store in Nottingham!

So, in my short time in Nottingham, I got a sense of how four things that are very important to me (Astronomy, Judaism, veganism, and comics) will fit into my life in Nottingham. There is also an F45 in Nottingham, so I’ll definitely check it out once I move and the weather is perfect for running!

Following my trip to Nottingham, I went back to London, where I picked up Emmet, and then went to Bath, where we spent time with our parents, the first time together since 2019!

I had a wonderful time in Bath! For those of your who don’t know ~ 22 years ago when Emmet and I were in fourth grade, we spent ~ 6 weeks of the summer in Bath (my Mom taught a summer school course then, this time my Dad was teaching a course), so Bath is a special place for our family! After seeing my Mom in Nottingham, it was so wonderful to see my Dad in person and for the four of us to be together after far too long!

Aside from spending time together and enjoying each other’s company, some of the highlights include visiting the Roman Baths, going to the Herschel (Astronomy) Museum, visiting Cardiff (Wales), and many walks in nature! As an aside, I love that in both Nottingham and Bath, there is so much green space that is secluded from the city. While Shanghai has tons of parks, they all still feel like you’re in the city.

Here are some photos of Bath!

Some of the Roman Baths!

Some from the Herschel Museum (this is the house of Astronomers William and Caroline Herschel)! William improved telescope designs allowing him to resolve stars in Nebulae and discover Uranus, while Caroline discovered many comets and was the first paid woman scientist in England!

Some from Bristol (including a Banksy piece)!

Some photos from our visit to Cardiff in Wales!

And lastly from some of our trips to parks in Bath!

Another highlight was also getting to have my Mom and Dad try my strawberry (both white and regular) jam! After such a wonderful trip it was sad to depart the UK. However, I know I’ll get to see my parents soon (either at Thanksgiving, New Years, or both)!

Overall, the trip to the UK was fantastic! It was a wonderful family reunion. After not seeing my parents for almost 4 years, I’m so grateful that we could finally be together! The trip also gave me insight into what my life in Nottingham will be like for the next three years! I’m excited to move in August with Scottie and Charlie and look forward to more UK and European adventures!

After such a wonderful trip, the flight back was not quite as exciting (though I was anxious to get home to Scottie and Charlie)! On the way back, I was surprised by how few people were wearing masks on the plane (or in the Shanghai airport), though it was certainly nice during the second flight to have a row entirely to myself on the plane!

Food in Shanghai

Although not shown here, I had fantastic vegan food throughout my trip to the UK! It is so much easier to get vegan food (both at restaurants and at grocery stores)! Nottingham and Bath have many vegan restaurants, and vegan food is far more accessible, which is definitely something I’m looking forward to!

While I didn’t eat out much this month in Shanghai, I did enjoy the last Jiashan Market of the season (they’re not happening in the summer, so it’ll likely be my last Jiashan Market). I enjoyed vanilla gelato, a refreshing lychee drink, and vegan dumplings!

I also did some great cooking! making my own vegan duck (made of tofu skins). Kung Pao lentils, dan dan noodles, and a mushroom sandwich (made on my Mom’s homemade sourdough bread), jam squares, and a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie!

Additionally, Emmet and I made Chinese food for our parents! It was so fun to cook together with Emmet and to share some of our favorite recipes! We made tofu with mushrooms and baby corn, eggplant and green beans, potato with peppers, cumin mushrooms, and sword beans!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

With the school year wrapping up, and many Kehilat Shanghai members traveling for the summer (and a few moving out of Shanghai), things are starting to wind down for me on the Kehilat front. That said, we’ll still have smaller Shabbat’s throughout the summer! This past weekend, we had an end of the year/beginning of summer/farewell & thank you to Jesse Shabbat! It was so nice to be recognized for all of the hard work and leadership that I’ve provided the Kehilat community over the past four years. As many of you know this community has been so important to me throughout my Shanghai experience, providing so many friends and wonderful memories. I don’t think my time in Shanghai would have been nearly as enjoyable and comfortable without the community! So, it was wonderful to see so many friends (especially since some will be traveling for the summer)! Although, I’m glad we will still have a few more Shabbat gatherings for me to enjoy before I go!

What I’m Reading and Watching

Despite my travels, I still managed to finish reading a lot of things. Somewhat ironically, a few days before Cormac McCarthy passed away, I finished reading The Road, which was fantastic! Set in a post-Apocalyptic America, a father and his son travel the road in search of food, life, and hope. Though grim, it’s an excellent read. I also finished the fantastic manga series Haikyu!! This is a story about the Karasuno high school boys volleyball team and their two star players Hinata and Kageyama as they compete for the National Championship! Unlike US comics, manga often delves into slice of life comics and sports! This is an excellent example of that (and unlike other sports manga doesn’t devolve into a battle manga nearly as much)! It’s a great story of hard work and overcoming adversity! I’d definitely recommend this to any sports fans! Additionally, I finished the comic series (by reading the graphic novels) of Jack of Fables! Since this is part of the Fables series (that I’m still reading), I won’t spoil much beyond saying that this is the story of Jack of Tales (from the fables we all know) and his mishaps and adventures.

Prior to my UK trip, I also finished quite a few TV shows. First, I finished Ted Lasso season 3 on Apple TV, which was fantastic! I’ve loved every season of Ted Lasso. Maybe there’s something about the fact that I’ll be moving to the UK (unfortunately, Richmond is not a real team – I’ll definitely go to a few football matches, though – and maybe visit the real place, too), but I found that many of the life lessons throughout the show and this season really hit home for me. I loved how the dynamic between Roy and Jaime evolved from antagonists to best friends over the three seasons and I really enjoyed seeing how all the characters grew from Ted’s wisdom. While I hope there’s more, I’ll definitely rewatch it again! I also finished the 5th and final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime! Unlike season 4, which I was very disappointed in (outside the finale), I found this season to be much more enjoyable! While I didn’t like the time jumps (especially at first), I enjoyed getting to see where the creators wanted Midge’s life to go. I also loved seeing Midge finally get her big break and shine in a real spotlight in the finale! Next, I finished the fourth and final season of Titans on Max. This season follows the adventure of Nightwing (Dick Grayson), Starfire, Beastboy, Raven, Superboy, and Robin as they battle with Brother Blood! I’ve loved Titans from the beginning, the costumes are great, and the team dynamic works really well! As a huge Nightwing fan, I think that Brendon Thwaites has done a fantastic job capturing different aspects of Dick Grayson. I really enjoyed how they explored the Red with Beast Boy and also throughout the show exploring Dick’s identity as separate from Batman. I also finished watching the Jeopardy Masters tournament! Since Jeopardy isn’t on any streaming services, these tournaments are all I get to watch, so it was great fun watching James Holzhauer dominate again! Additionally, I finished the final season of The Flash on the CW. As a DC fan, I’ve watched all the Arrowverse shows, and it saddens me how mediocre they’ve become for the better part of the last five years. While The Flash started strong in its first few seasons, this season (like the last few) repeated so many themes and arcs that it hardly felt new or interesting. So, even though the final arc was better than the rest of the season, it still wasn’t great. Additionally, after my trip, I finished the final season of the anime Food Wars, which tells the fun (albeit sometimes ridiculous) adventures of culinary student Soma Yukihira and his friends and his quest to become a world class chef! While at times over the top, Food Wars is definitely fun and highlights all the different genres that anime and manga can encompass!

In addition to the TV, during my flights (they were 14 and 12 hours and I didn’t sleep much), I watched a lot of movies: Booksmart, Black Panther, Contact, Elvis, Ocean’s Eight, King Richard, A Man Called Otto, Zodiac, The Woman King, and Kimi. My favorites were A Man Called Otto (a fantastic performance by Tom Hanks), Contact (as an Astronomer, I’m not sure how I hadn’t seen this before), and King Richard!

Lastly, I just saw the new DC Comics movie, The Flash! I had wanted to see it with Emmet in Bath, but we didn’t have time. That said, I thought it was a fantastic and fun movie! It’s a great time travel adventure, with awesome superhero action, and a ton of heart! I loved the way that they showed the Flash run and move. Ezra Miller gave a fantastic performance as The Flash/Barry Allen and it was fun to see Michael Keaton return as Batman! I really enjoyed seeing it in an IMAX theater, too!

Thank you so much to all of you who’ve gotten this far. I hope that you enjoyed hearing about what I’ve been up to in Shanghai this month and seeing some of the highlights from my trip and family reunion in the UK! It certainly made for a memorable month and hopefully our next family reunion will be much sooner! This upcoming month, I’ll be starting to wrap up my time in Shanghai, but I’m planning a few short trips around China with Emmet as well! So, there will still be more fun things for me to share with you all! If you have any questions about anything that I shared or anything else about my time in Shanghai, please let me know!

In peace,

Jesse