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For the summer of 2001, I worked in the clinical biochemistry lab of Professor Ilana Gozes at Tel Aviv University. I rented a room in the apartment of one of her graduate students in the neighborhood of Ramat Aviv near the school. All week long, I worked very hard in the lab, learning a great deal, while on the weekend, Friday and Saturday in Israel, I enjoyed some Israeli adventures.

This is the view from my window in apartment 22 at Pasternak 2. It faces South toward downtown Tel Aviv.

Here I am sitting at my desk in my room. More than half of the volume, and certainly of the mass, of what I brought with me was comprised of electronics like my laptop and printer.

Sitting in the basement of the Sackler School of Medicine, I mix mysterious solutions all day long, most of them derived from mouse brains I've extracted.

Albert Pinhasov, my mentor at TAU, mixes a gel for electorphoresis. Albert was not only an excellent instructor, but also a very kind and caring one, making work even more enjoyable.

I spent my first weekend in Jerusalem. I visited Migdal David and other Old City sites on Friday. On Shabbat, I davened at the Western Wall, and was invited to meals by very nice families. I stayed in the Old City Youth Hostel where I also met very friendly people.

While I had visited the Jewish Quarter before this trip, I had never before seen the rest of the Old City. Here I am in the apse of the Church of the Holy Sepulcure, built on the final station of the Cross.

While walking along the Turkish walls of the Old City, I photographed the New City neighborhood of Yemin Moshe through an aarowloop formerly used by Jordanian troops to fire upon the area.

In Israel, fresh fruits are cheap and plentiful. Taking a risk, I purchased this fruit for 3.50 NIS ($0.89) and photographed its biopsy. The licci, as I later learned it is called, tastes like a SweetTart.

During my second weekend, I explored the nightlife of Tel Aviv. Bars and clubs, drinking and smoking, the city boasts a lot of bustling excitement which led to my 4 to 5 am swim in the gorgeous Mediterannean with some other English-speakers. Some overexposure makes the Ramat Aviv mall and surrounding lights beam with Tel Aviv's electrisity.

One weekend, I went to Tzfat, north of the Sea of Galilee, to meet Amir Rasowsky. Near the Citadel atop the mountainous city, we stopped to rest at a playground.

Going under the barbed wire, Amir and I explored the deteriorating ruins of the fortress.

Amir and I stayed at the Ascent Institute, a Chabad Youth Hostel. In the evening before Shabbat (two days before Gimmel Tammuz for the Chabadniks), a group from Ascent visited the mikveh and grave of the Arizal.

Tzfat has a number of famous synagogues carrying on the traditions of its sages. Amir and I visited the Joseph Caro Shul, a blue building like most in Tzfat.

After immersing myself in the purifying waters of the Arizal's mikveh, I surveyed the rolling hills of the Galilee surrounding Tzfat.

Again travelling North, I spent a weekend in Akko. I took the Israil train, which quickly took me from Tel Aviv to the gates of the city often called Acre. I was greeted by the domes and mineret of the Ottoman Al-Jazzar Mosque.

In the Lighthouse Hostel where I stayed, I met a Dutch traveler with whom I explored the Crusader fortress that dominates the city. Sitting in the Turkish bath house, we listened to our automated audio guides.

As the day warmed up, we crossed the walls of the Old City and dodged the jellyfish as we bathed in the Mediterranean.

The sun, the sea, the corral, and the sand...a perfect setting for a Calvin Klein ad.

Continuing with the art, I followed up my earlier picture of the Ramat Aviv Mall (above) with a snazzy job of the Haifa skyline across the bay.

In the evening, I continued to explore the city. Some local Arab boys were amazed by my digital camera and, after a lengthy chat with them over some dried apricots and bananas, I took a picture to show them.

When the sun set on Friday night, a beautiful Shabbat began. I prayed at the city's one Ashkenazi shul (amid 26 Sephardi ones, I was told). I was invited to lunch at the home of the most kind and gracious Anshel Vilner, and spent much of the day with an Israeli of my age, Zviel Greenberg.

One day after working in the lab, I spent the evening with the family of my scientific mentor, Albert Pinhasov. Albert, his wife Olga, his daughter Daphna, and I ate in his apartment and then strolled in the large park nearby.

Amir and I went to a concert/rally called Anashim Achim Anachnu (We People Are Brothers) in Ganei Yoshua in Tel Aviv. Religous and non-religious people heard similarly diverse speakers and musical performers including Dudu Fischer, Teapacks (Whiteout), Ouf Simchas, and Chaim Dovid.

Late on a Thursday evening, I took the bus to Tiberias from where Amir and I headed North into the Golan Heights. The moon was full and reflected off of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), so we paused for a photo before continuing on toward our weekend of hiking.

A blue Ford Fiesta without hubcaps, an Avis rental, not only taught me to drive with a manual transmission, but also carried Amir and me to the Golan. After a mellow evening in the only bar for miles, Amir and I arose early to hike in the Yehudia National Nature Reserve.

The path through the Yehudia National Nature Reserve follows the Yehudia stream down the ravine it has carved. Often the river serves as the path, providing welcome refreshment from the searing Israeli Sun. Amir and I stopped to play in one of the waterfalls along the way.

In the small Golan settlement of El Rom, there is a unique farm. For 18 NIS ($4.50), one may pick as many blueberries as one wants and eat them. If one wishes to take some home, they only cost 28 NIS per kilogram ($3.18 per pound). That Friday afternoon, Amir and I ate about a 0.5 kg each before taking 1.5 kg with us; we ate them all the next day.

The Field School next to Kibbutz Sneer provided beautiful Shabbos accomodations for Amir and me. When we weren't praying, eating fresh vegetables, or drinking Golan wine, we were again hiking. We followed the Hermon River to its source at the Banyas, freshwater springs named for the Greek god Pan and site of an ancient Greek temple. Nearby, we saw the ruins of the surrounding Greek city, founded by Alexander the Great. Along the path, we found a deep, clear pool in the Hermon to use as a mikveh.

A portion of my work involved testing the ability of mice to learn and remember. I used a Morris Water Maze to assay this.

I rented a room for my 2.5 months in Israel in the apartment of Roy Zaltzman, an MD/PhD student also working in Dr. Gozes' lab.

My friend Keren Levy, whom I had met in Basel the previous summer, was in Tel Aviv for 2 weeks. We met for dessert at Yotvata BaIhr, the best dairy restaurant on the Planet.

I spent a Friday exploring Tel Aviv's sister city, Jaffa. From the fortified citadel's gardens you can look down on Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean Coast.

As I searched for ripe mangos in the Jaffa shuk, I came across a booth that made me stop and laugh. There sat an Arab with his blanket of wares full of monitors, network cards, and microprocessors.

I spent a Shabbat at Moshav Meor Modiin, the R' Shlomo Carlbach Moshav. Visiting the most gevalt place in the world, I really felt an incredible spirituality. The Frumin family was gracious enough to host me for the experience.

After a good American pizza dinner, Keren and I again headed to the beach. We got ice cream at Ben and Jerry's; I couldn't resist buying a T-shirt in Hebrew. We then got some drinks at a bar along the water. I had a "Sex on the Beach."

I spent a weekend in Haifa. Thursday night, Amir joined me and we visited the local Yotvata Ba'Ihr. Friday, I explored alone. First, I visited the Bahai Shrine of the Bab and the surrounding gardens, a horticultural wonder built into the side of Mount Carmel.

The prophet Elijah took shelter in a cave from the wrath of King Ahab, and I too refuge from the midday sun in Elijah's cave. Jews, Christians, and Muslims pray side by side in the dim light.

From the beach near Elijah's cave, I took the cable car up to the top of Mount Carmel where a beautiful monestary honor Elijah.

On Shabbat, I prayed at a very poor, run-down, Arab-hating, Sephardic shul in Haifa. It was a growing experience, but not so pleasant. In the afternoon, I spent a number of hours exploring the Carmel and Hadar sections of the city. Touring Haifa on foot is indeed good exercise.

In my 18 hours in Tiberias, I saw pretty much all there is to see. After a night on the town, Amir and I got up at six o'clock am to say our morning prayers. We began at the grave of the sage Rambam and finished at the grave of Ben-Zakkai (shown).

We caught a ride up out of the Kinneret valley to visit the grave of Rabbi Akiva on the overlooking mountainside. This grave stands near the site of Saladin's victory over the Crusaders at the Horns of Hittin.

It has become my practice in Israel to mikveh each Friday. In Tiberias, I took the opportunity to do so in the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) before rushing to Jerusalem for Shabbat.

I spent Tisha B'Av mourning the destruction of the Temples in their city of Jerusalem. After reading Eicha (Lamentations) at the Western Wall, I joined tens of thousands of Jews in the traditional march around the walls of the Old City. The march was sponsored by Women in Green to support Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish people.

Amir and I spent most of Tisha B'Av at the Western Wall with more than a hundred thousand other mourners. At midnight, there was hardly room to breathe, and we joined thousands in sleeping at the Wall and praying at sunrise. With the help of Heaven, we were not at the Wall during the Palestinian stone throwing, but returned after it for Mincha.

A train to Be'er Sheva and a bus to S'deh Boker brought me to a weekend in the Negev with Amir. Arriving very late, we built a campfire and relaxed in the desert night. Our first night's only expense was the cost of a blanket that I used to keep warm while sleeping on the roof of a bomb shelter at the Kibbutz.

Anyone who knows Amir would expect to see him on the roof something. Playing with my digital camera to photograph me under the full desert moon, Amir climbed to the roof of the kibbutz hostel kitchen.

If the desert moon gleams with the power of midday, then one cannot but fear the desert sun. I woke up at first light, and as I davened Shacharit, the fiery sphere came above the horizon. Again, if you know Amir, you can bet that he was a little bit harder to awaken, but we began our first hike by 6 am.

Amir and I hiked along and out of the canyon formed by Ain Avdat, an ancient desert spring. Here, we began working toward the 30+ ibex we saw over the weekend.

At the end of the trail, a Bedouin tent provided welcome shelter from the sun, already searing by 9 am. Its proprietor, a Bedouin named Taleb gave us water to cool ourselves and served us sweet tea.

The emptiness of the desert has a unique beauty, like stepping into a black and white photo album. Amir and I spent Shabbat in Mitzpeh Ramon. On Shabbat morning, we rose at 5 am and hiked toward a cooled magma rock formation shaped like a carpenter's tools in Machtesh Ramon (a giant crater).

Israel is one of the world's only countries that is completely covered by cellular reception. I spoke with Mara on the phone as I surveyed the vast machtesh (crater) that draws many hikers to Mitzpeh Ramon.

On my last day of work in the lab, the crew and I had a little party. I brought in a cake, and they gave me a beautiful book about Israel.

I spent my final weekend in Jerusalem. On Thursday, I had dinner in a really neat Morocan restaurant with Amir and Rachel Glaser. On Friday, I shopped for souvenirs to take home to people. On Shabbat, I davened at two Carlebach shuls: Beit Simcha for the two evenings and Yakar for the morning. Amir and I sponsered a seudah shlishit at Beit Simcah to end a truly spiritual Shabbat experience.

The night before I left, I had dinner with Haim and Roy Alcalay and Albert Pinhasov.

My parents and Mara came to greet me at Boston's Logan Airport.