October: It’s Finally Fall in Shanghai

Hi Everyone! Welcome back to Astronomer in Shanghai! I hope that all of you are enjoying the start of fall and a return to cooler temperatures and crisper weather (it’s finally fall in Shanghai, too!). Unlike September, which was a whirlwind month, with the High Holy Days and Emmet’s arrival in China, this past month has been much quieter and calmer, more work focused for me. Since my last entry, Emmet started his own blog. I know many of you have taken a look at it and subscribed and gotten to start seeing what Beijing looks like, but if you haven’t I encourage you all to check it out!

Additionally, I hope that you all are continuing to remain safe and healthy. While I know that many of you are vaccinated (if you aren’t and are able to, please consider doing so), from talking to my parents, I can understand how stressful this time is in the US. Like in the US, in China, there is ongoing debate about whether people need to get a booster vaccine shot (some provinces have started to do so for the at risk and elderly). However, because of the Chinese government’s strict quarantine policies for incoming travelers and responding to outbreaks, the situation here remains under control. While these policies can only really happen in China, they do allow me to be at ease going about my life here in Shanghai.

During the past month, China celebrated the national holiday, something akin to the Fourth of July, which celebrates the founding of the People’s Republic of China. This holiday is celebrated every year on October 1st and then for the first 7 days of the month. Other than some decorations and a lot of flower displays marking the holiday, there weren’t any events to celebrate that I was aware of. I did get a box of goodies (cookies, nuts, dried fruit, candy) from SJTU! Additionally, the University was closed for the holiday and many people traditionally travel (though do to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, SJTU discouraged us from traveling, so I chose not to).

Since I spent the holiday working from home, this month allowed me the opportunity to get caught up on a variety of different projects. Though I won’t go into much detail (since that would take up a lot of space), I will say that I’m making great progress on my research on the Luminosity Function as well as on the evolution of the Intra-Cluster Light. I’ve even started writing up a paper about the ICL! So, hopefully I’ll have some new results and papers to share with you in the coming months!

Currently, Astronomy and space are very popular in China! As I noted in previous blog posts, the Taikonauts, the Chinese astronauts, have been getting tons of media attention for their exploits. Recently a crew of three Taikonauts (including a female Taikonaut) were sent to the Chinese Space Station for a 6 month shift. There was a lot of news because this is the first female Taikonaut to be sent to the Chinese space station and also because this 6 month mission will mean that the Taikonauts will celebrate Chinese new year in space! Almost every few days, one of my friends will share a news article on WeChat or I’ll see a news article on some of the English language news feeds that I follow. When talking to my Dad, it seems like a lot of the excitement that existed in the US around the Apollo missions is what we are currently experiencing in China. As an Astronomer, I love seeing the public’s fascination with space! Moreover, Shanghai even recently opened a new Planetarium (very excited to go once tickets become more easily available — it’s in high demand right now).

Outside of my research, the primary highlight of this past month, especially the October holiday, was that my friend Anton’s cat, Solo, got to stay with me for a few weeks. Anton was traveling during the national holiday and asked if Solo could stay with me. I haven’t had a cat live with me since I was staying with my parents for a few months before moving to Shanghai, so it was a fun experience for me, and one that I really enjoyed! Thankfully, Anton and I have similar apartments, so Solo was able to adapt to his new/temporary home easily! Here you can see a massive gallery of Solo exploring my apartment, coming to say Hi when I was using the bathroom, finding new places (mostly sunny ones) to nap during the day, and new corners to squeeze himself into as well!

As you can see, it was a lot of fun having Solo stay with me! Solo was a very good roommate! 🙂 While I wasn’t used to a cat bounding across my bed in the middle of the night or bolting around my apartment then jumping on top of the fridge, it was certainly a fun experience and made the holiday, which I spent working from home, more enjoyable!

One fun thing that I did this past month was more jam making with my friend Hannah Maia! This time, we made persimmon jam and fig jam! We made fig jam last year, so I was excited to make that again. However, I was hesitant to make persimmon jam. The only time I had ever eaten a persimmon was when I did birthright in Israel. On the first night in Israel, there was a bowl of fruit on the dinner table, so I tried a persimmon. However, nobody told me that I wasn’t supposed to eat the outside of the persimmon. Thus, my lasting memory of persimmons is what I can only describe as eating a sweater surrounding a peach. Thankfully, to my surprise, the persimmon jam was much more delicious! As you can see, the colors of both jams are lovely!

Additionally, these are two flavors that my Mom has never made, which given her mastery of so many flavors of jam is rare!

As I previously mentioned, it’s finally cool here in Shanghai (mid 60s). So that means I’m finally able to run again!! I’m currently running 2-3 times per week and going to F45 4-5 times per week (weather dependent for running). So, I’m still able to make time for lots of exercise and take advantage of the great running weather!

Like always, there were also a lot of really cool things that I saw around the city that I wanted to share with you!

As well as some cute cats and dogs! Including my friend’s Kate and Ilan’s dog Pina and cat Maguey and Hannah Maia and Sydney’s cats Friday and Lilo!

And if you’re wondering, Maguey did join Kate, Ilan, Pina, and I outside (on a leash) for ice cream!

Lastly, I know that in the US, electric cars are just starting to become popular/more common place. However, here in China, especially in Shanghai, they are incredibly popular. All motor scooters are also electric, too! The government does subsidize electric cars, but even in small neighborhood compounds (that are not modern) like where I live, we now have electric car charging stations!

I hope this is the case in the US by the time I return!

Food in Shanghai

During the October Holiday, I got lunch with my friend Ha at Duli, one of my favorite vegan restaurants in Shanghai, which does a Chinese/Western fusion! We enjoyed a roasted cauliflower curry, a farro salad, pad thai, and I had an iced bubble tea!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

After an month of leading the High Holiday services in Shanghai, it was nice to have a quieter month of Judaic activities. One of the Kehilat community members hosted a lovely Family Shabbat in the Sukkah to celebrate Sukkot! Sukkot is always tricky to celebrate here, since few people have yards/porches that allow for a Sukkah, so it was really nice to get the opportunity to celebrate in a real Sukkah!

Additionally, we also continued our monthly community Shabbat dinner and services in October. I got the chance to lead the service, which was fun! As we’ve continued to do these with regularity, it’s been really nice to see more people come and return each time! As someone who finds Shabbat a relaxing end to the week, I’m really glad that we restarted these. 🙂

Also, today, I got to lead a discussion on Judaism and Astronomy for the first Kehilat Shanghai Adult Education discussion of the year! I focused mostly on the creation story in Genesis and how it compares to our current understanding of modern Cosmology and the creation of the Universe. From my perspective, Astronomy/Cosmology provides a quantitative viewpoint of trying to understand how the Universe forms, not why we are here, while Genesis takes an antrocentric viewpoint in it’s mythological explanation of how the earth was created. The goal of Science is mostly to address how the Universe was formed and how life started while religion is attempting to understand the why. We had a really great discussion and I really enjoyed getting to discuss this topic, something I’m often asked about, with the other attendees!

Additionally, we also had another fantastic trivia night! This time, trivia was “High Holiday” themed, so I wrote questions on categories including Rosh and Fasting! I hope you enjoy them below.

I hope that you all enjoyed hearing about and seeing the highlights of last month (namely Solo). 🙂 This upcoming month should be a nice balance of work and fun with a Kehilat Community retreat as well as my first opportunity to do remote observing for DESI! So, there will definitely be a lot to share with you all! I hope you all continue to stay safe and healthy!

In peace,

Jesse

Trivia

Rosh

1). This Batman villain’s name translates from Arabic to “The Demon’s Head.”

2). In the legend of Sleepy Hollow, this protagonist is haunted by the Headless Horseman?

3). Rokurokubi and Nukekubi are both types of these creates from Japanese folklore one of which is characterized by a neck that stretches and the other has a head that detaches freely.

4). The Phrase “Heavy is the Head that wears the Crown” appears in what Shakespeare drama?

5). To within 5, how many bones are there within the human head?

6). The head of this British monarch appeared on the world’s first adhesive postage stamp, the penny black.

7). Rosh Hashanah is the New Year celebration what is Rosh Chodesh

8). How many NFL teams have human heads in their logos

9). Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, and Philip Selway made up this band?

10). In this sport, Head races are time trial races over a set distance. Famous examples include Head of the River Race (on the Thames) and Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston.

Fasting

1). On Yom Kippur we traditionally fast for how many hours?

2). Jews also traditionally fast on this holiday, which commemorates the destruction of the temple.

3). This celebration marks the end of the month of Ramadan and an end to this period of fasting in Islam.

4). Baha’u’llah is a 19 day period each year during which adult members of this faith fast from sunrise to sunset.

5). Members of this branch of Christianity traditionally fast multiple times of the year, including the Great Lent, every Wednesday and Friday, the Nativity Fast, the Apostles Fast, and the Dormition Fast.

6). Fasting is often practiced in Buddhism during periods of intensive meditation. Though not the same as some of the other fasts, during these time periods, followers avoid eating animal products and processed foods as well as the five pungent foods. Name them:

7). Throughout his life Gandhi undertook many fasts or hunger strikes as part of his non-violent philosophy. His longest fast was 21 days, which he did 3 times. Once to support Hindu/Muslim unity, Once in objection to being detained without charges by the British, and a third time in an attempt to improve the conditions of this lowest caste in India.

8). In Daoist philosophy, The Bigu, practice of avoiding this type of food was known as a technique for becoming transcendent/immortal?

9). The Irish Hunger Strike (this is the second one during this time period) of what year was the culmination of 5 years of protest during the troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. This strike was highlighted by Bobby sands who was a member of British parliament

10). As part of this ancient religion of India (that preaches non-violence) as part of a fast, a person must make a vow, a formal statement of intent, prior to the fast.

Answers for Rosh: 1). Ra’s al Ghul 2). Ichabod Crane 3). Yokai 4). Henry IV 5). 28 6). Queen Victoria 7). Start of the month 8). 4 9). Radiohead 10). Crew/Rowing

Answers for Fasting: 1). 25 2). Tisha b’av 3). Eid al-Fitr 4). Bahai 5). Eastern Orthodox 6). Onions, Garlic, Scallions, Chives, Leeks 7). The untouchables/Harijans 8). Grain 9). 1981 10). Jainism