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.
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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Since I discussed the topic last week, I do want to say that I’m pleased that the US government rescinded it’s restriction on foreign students, thus allowing them to stay in the US if their university is online only.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
Hi Jesse,
It sounds like you had a social week! Congrats on your trivia team win! What was the comics question? I’m glad to hear everything is still ok in China. It’s definitely still no man’s land here, though thankfully the Northeast is doing a better job. I’m glad you’re able to still work from home. Have you heard anything about a vaccine in Shanghai? There’s a Cambridge based lab that is inching closer to one, but they are still a long way away. I’m sorry you had a frustrating research week, but I think you attitude is 100% spot on! I don’t think I’ve ever made a plot where the first draft was what I stuck with/was correct. I hope you’re able to get some good results this week. The improv night sounds like a lot of fun! I’m glad you have a creative outlet. Are the other people from Kehilat Shanghai? Also, I really Miss game nights, so I’m glad you got to have one. Anomia is a fantastic game! I also really like Blokus if you can get it. Your lunch looks amazing. How did the Pad Thai compare to those we had in Ann Arbor? I’m glad you’ve found a Jewish community, too! I like going to Temple Sinai’s Zoom services for that same reason, it’s nice to see familiar faces. I do remember playing othello, but only online! That’s cool that you got to play. Those are some great pictures of Lucky, too! I hope you have a productive week! Stay safe and healthy! Also, try to beat the heat!
Love,
Emmet
Hi Emmet! Thanks! The comics question (was the first question). It was which comic character’s real name is Jack Napier. While I didn’t choose to argue about the actual name of the Joker, I clearly knew the answer. I’m glad to hear that the Northeast is doing better. Unfortunately, I’ve heard very little on a vaccine, there’s been some reports on testing, but nothing really recently. Thanks for the support on my research attitude. It’s definitely frustrating and at times very annoying. Improv is definitely a fun creative outlet! Not sure I’d ever perform, but in a friendly/supportive environment, it’s really enjoyable. Thanks for recommending Blokus, I’ll look into where it’s shipping on Taobao from, because I also really like it. The pad thai was great. I think I liked that some of the ones at the lunch room/Seva had more vegetables, but the flavors were very good. I hope that you also have a safe, healthy, and productive week!
Hey Jesse!
So glad to hear that you are doing well! We are staying healthy and enjoying the summer as much as possible here in Schuylerville. Ronen is 5 weeks old now! Can’t believe how fast the time goes. He is doing well…not sleeping long at night, but that is par for the course with a newborn.
That must have been nice to enjoy a couple of days in the 70’s. We could use some of that here! Today it is going to be close to a 100!! Thank goodness we have the pond.
All of your game nights sound fantastic! The improv games must have been a blast. I have never participated in something like that. I think it would definitely be out of my comfort zone! We can’t wait to be able to play games with you and your family again at some point (?). It is always so much fun. All of the games you played at the cafe are some of our favorites. I will talk with Avi and make a list for you of some other games we love.
That picture of you and the kids is so cute. It’s really nice that you are getting to know your community and that you have a nice group of friends there. At this point, I am living vicariously through you with your awesome social life! We hope to have something like that again here in the US soon!
I hope you have a better research week coming up. We think of you often and are sending you love and continued good health!
Hi Peri! Glad to hear that you’re all staying healthy and safely enjoying the summer! It’s hard to believe that Ronen’s already 5 weeks old (the summer is flying by). It’d be great to play games together again, though at this point, I don’t know when I’ll be able to return home (and also return to China). The improv games were a lot of fun! It was definitely a little out of my comfort zone, but once I got into it, it’s a really nice way to relax and get to know people. Thanks for sharing a list of games! A lot of the more commonly available games are easy to get on taobao (Chinese super amazon), so I’m looking forward to your and Avi’s recommendations! I’m glad to hear that you’re living vicariously through me. That’s one of the main reasons I’ve continued posting even though a lot of the last couple weeks haven’t had as many China specific activities. I hope that things do improve for you in the US. I hope that you, Kevin, Eli, Ronen, and the rest of your family continue to stay safe and healthy!
Hey Jesse!
Sorry to hear about the bug in the code :/ But as you pointed out, it’s just part of the scientific process and at least you found out now rather than later 🙂
I looove the Lucky pics! 😍
Sounds like you had a fun week! On the board game front, I played axis & allies with my roommate recently. It’s like risk but world war 2 related and it’s quite a bit more complicated.
I hope you have another nice week!
Thanks Ryan! I definitely agree that it’s better to figure these bugs out earlier on! Also, Lucky is very cute. It’s always fun hanging out with my friends with Dogs. Thanks for the recommendation of Axis & Allies. I don’t think I’ve played it, but I’ll take a look! Hope you continue to stay safe and healthy!
Hi Jesse and thanks as always for your very thoughtful and informative blog. Truly , very sad to have learned of John Lewis’ passing. He was a giant of a man and his death marks the end of an era. Hard to imagine anyone comparable to him who is working to promote the human and civil rights of underprivileged and minorities in the USA today – and today the need for such people is no less than it was 60 years ago.
Quite fascinated by your discussion about having to re-analyze data because of questions about calibrations. As a social scientist that sort of issue (at least not in any literal sense) is something we need to worry about , though clearly, we are living in times when particularly in psychology papers are published whose findings cannot be replicated which throws into question both the methodology of those researchers, their “data” and their conclusions (I’m a sociologist and good sociology tends not to make the sorts of law -like claims that psychs are wont to. (for a brilliant look at sociology by a great sociologist who turned criminology on its head by talking about something he called labeling theory which raised questions about whether “deviance and crime” were qualities associated with the social actors who “committed” such acts or with labels that other social actors had the power and authority to apply and make stick to those actors – What about Mozart, What about murder by, Howard Becker – Very readable even for physical scientists).
The photos of food are mouth-watering. I am particularly intrigued by the last image with the purple or mauve sauce. Was that a desert? It looks fabulous.
Yesterday as Lisa and I walked through the state park here in Saratoga we spotted a large branch of a sumac tree that had been felled by the wind in the last day or so and the branch was covered with clusters of sumac berries. Today, I brought a backpack and some snips and I cut off about 3.5 lbs of berries. If you crush the berries a little and soak them in cold, never hot water and add sugar you can make a very citrus flavored drink and if you add wine yeast and you’ve added about 2.25 lbs of sugar you can make a very delightful wine. – and making this wine is another of my July projects.
Hi Bernard! I completely agree with your thoughts on the passing of John Lewis. I hope that leaders today can find a way to honor his legacy. Also, thanks for your insight into social science! I hadn’t thought about how difficult it must be to both reproduce results as well as how crucial the interpretation is. On the Astronomy side, generally there’s enough data (and usually it’s public) so results can be reproduced, but there’s always nuances in how results are interpreted, whether due to differences in statistical approaches or different physical understandings.
The purple/mauve dish was an acai smoothie bowl, which was a dessert. It was really good (and vibrant!). Acai is a berry from a South American palm tree that’s become very popular as a super food. I don’t think I’ve ever had sumac berries before. What’s the taste like? It does sound like you have plenty of great options for them though! I hope you and Lisa continue to stay safe and healthy!
Dear Jesse,
Thank you for another great post. I really enjoyed seeing you have so much fun at the quiz bowl and learning that this time, your team won. Of course, you got the comics question. I know you took a lot of History as electives at Brown, but I am intrigued by your knowledge of mythology. And I hope there will be some sports questions next time. I found myself waxing a tad nostalgic about your quiz bowl team in high school–you always were great with trivia. Is Jeopardy in your future someday?
As you note, it is best to find the bug with the calibration now rather than later. I am wondering how the paper you have been working on with Chris is coming along. And is the Astronomy paper you are working on now the one with Ying? I hope this will be a very productive week for you in terms of your research.
It was nice to see you with children and to see the dogs and to know you are getting to spend time with people of all ages and animals in your new community. Does anyone you know have a cat?
I have been picking fruit in our backyard. This is another banner year for raspberries. I have made red raspberry, red raspberry red currant, raspberry medley (gold, red, and black), and raspberry currant medley so far. I almost have enough gold raspberries for a batch! I still have lots of currants and rhubarb in the backyard, too. I made a new recipe for a raspberry shortbread bar that uses both fresh raspberries and raspberry jam–the perfect recipe for me since I have loads of both. I am sad to say that I noticed our peaches were disappearing, and now they are all gone–squirrels! Next year, we will have to work on some type of netting to put on the tree to keep the peaches away from the squirrels. I wish they had left me one!
The kitchen renovation is ongoing as you know, and we are getting used to living in a bit of a chaotic house. But it will be worth it. I miss you and love you and am so glad to see you enjoying your life in Shanghai.
Mom
Hi Mom! I think my knowledge of mythology has come from a lot of different things that I’ve read. Many different comics touch on or cover mythology, plus we read a lot of different myths when we were growing up. Maybe Jeopardy will be in my future. In terms of cats, some of my friends do have cats, but I haven’t been invited to their homes yet.
I’m glad to hear about all the fantastic raspberries and currants that you’ve picked in the backyard. I’m sure you’ll make some fantastic jams and cookies! I hope that you can figure out a way to protect the peach crop from squirrels next year. I’m glad to hear that you’ve been able to start your kitchen renovations. I’m sure that’ll be lovely once it’s done. I miss you too! I hope that you have a safe and healthy week!
Hi Jesse,
Looks like you had a great week!
It was funny, I’d just had a fresh lychee … revealed from under its hairy/ spiky shell.., and you were writing about making lychee jam…..
I liked it a lot… but each “berry” cost $1….!!!
I imagine they are more affordable there?
I just got home from Wiawaka…, stopping onthe way there to see your folks … and bring the much beloved jam your mom donates to the place….
Great to see them.., had tea in the garden with Cat.,,,kitchen renovations looking good!
Wiawaka was wonderful!
So fabulous to be able to swim in Lake George!
Good luck with your research!!
Hope you have another greet week!!
XoxPam
Hi Jesse,
Looks like you had a great week!
It was funny, I’d just had a fresh lychee … revealed from under its hairy/ spiky shell.., and you were writing about making lychee jam…..
I liked it a lot… but each “berry” cost $1….!!!
I imagine they are more affordable there?
I just got home from Wiawaka…, stopping onthe way there to see your folks … and bring the much beloved jam your mom donates to the place….
Great to see them.., had tea in the garden with Cat.,,,kitchen renovations looking good!
Wiawaka was wonderful!
So fabulous to be able to swim in Lake George!
Good luck with your research!!
Hope you have another greet week!!
XoxPam
Hi Aunt Pam! Thanks! Lychees are much cheaper here. I think I can get ~30 for about $5.00 or less. So, it’s a much better deal! I’m glad to hear that you were able to enjoy Wiawaka and Lake George and visit my parents. I hope you have another safe and healthy week.