Heading to Beijing / Celebrating Rosh Hashanah in Beijing

Hi Everyone, Thank you again for reading my blog! It was really great to hear from so many of you about my first installment and I hope that if you’re reading this, you’re excited to learn about Beijing. Before I dive in, I hope you’re all staying safe and healthy! And again, if you haven’t subscribed yet and are interested in getting an e-mail when I update my blog, click the button on the right.

Taking the High Speed Rail to Beijing

After spending two wonderful weeks in Shanghai with Jesse, it was finally time to head to Beijing. For those of you who are wondering why I didn’t head directly to Beijing once I got out of quarantine, it was for two reasons. 1) I wanted to see Jesse and 2) I wanted to avoid having to do another quarantine once I arrived in Beijing.

In terms of actually traveling to Beijing, I had two options, I could take a plane or the high speed rail. As the header of this section suggests, I took the high speed rail. A lot of Jesse’s friends mentioned that planes are prone to delays due to storms and I didn’t want to get stuck in airport. Thankfully buying a train ticket online is super simple and there are high speed trains between Shanghai and Beijing that leave every couple of hours, so I had lots of options. I ended up buying a first class ticket because the online reviews implied that it would be quieter and cleaner (and boy, were they correct)! In terms of the actual train station, the Shanghai train station felt like being in an airport (minus most of the security). The station is probably larger than the Albany airport and has hundreds of trains going in and out of it during the day. You can definitely tell that China has invested a lot more infrastructure dollars in trains than the US. In terms of getting on the train, everything went relatively smoothly. The only snafu I hit was that I had two travel sized bottles of hand sanitizer that I was told I could not bring on the train because they are “alcohol”. Now given my lack of Mandarin, I couldn’t effectively argue that these are more of a soap than a beverage (and given the general state of COVID concern, this seemed a bit ironic), but thankfully I just handed those to Jesse and was able to get on to the train.

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Once I got onto the train, I found that my first class seat was very spacious and incredibly comfortable. I was able to set myself up so that I could read comics and watch tv on my iPad and be very comfortable. It was also really cool to take some pictures of the Chinese countryside as I zoomed across the region. For those of you who haven’t been on a high speed rail, the train was traveling at ~ 300km/hr (and they were updating our speed in real time). Also, one of the added perks of traveling in first class was that they gave us snacks as if this was a flight! I got cookies, crackers, wasabi peas, and some kind of dried meat (that I didn’t eat). As you can see below, the Chinese countryside is pretty remarkable. It was mostly farmland, but it was also interesting to see some of the mountains in the background. Now for those of you who might be wondering what happened to my suitcases, you’ll notice that I only have one in all of the pictures. No, I didn’t bring four suitcases worth of clothes for Jesse :). Because I knew that dealing with the suitcases was going to be a hassle, Jesse’s friend Shimi helped us to use SF (a Chinese delivery company similar to FedEx) to ship four of my suitcases. In terms of a price comparison, this ended up costing us ~ 400rmb (or close to $60) for all four suitcases and took about three days. For those of you in the states who want to compare prices, these suitcases weighed ~ 100kg and cost me an extra $700 per flight to get to Shanghai, so it was a pleasant surprise for the cost to be so low (I think a 40lb pox is usually about $60 for the same speed of shipping in the US).

I will say that the one thing that I didn’t love about the train was that when I exited the train, it seemed like literally every person had lit up a cigarette. It felt a little bit like a Doonesbury cartoon with Mr. Butts. It’s weird because although some things are similar aesthetically to the US, the cultural acceptability of smoking in public is definitely one of the things that is not similar.

Arrival in Beijing – Jewish Life in Beijing – Welcome to Kehillat Beijing!

One of the other reasons that I didn’t rush to head to Beijing was that for much of my time in Shanghai, I was incredibly uncertain as to where I’d be staying. Before heading to China, I had assumed that Tsinghua would be able to put me up in a hotel in Beijing and that I’d be able to stay there indefinitely as I found suitable accommodations, much like Jesse did when he first came to Shanghai. However, that was not the case. Toward the end of my quarantine, as I was corresponding with the secretary at Tsinghua who had been helping me get here, she informed me that because I had been in Shanghai (and although she didn’t say this, because I am a foreigner), that she couldn’t find any hotels that would take me. Although I still find this hard to believe, her recommendation of renting an apartment without visiting it and directly moving to it after I left Jesse felt both unrealistic and also just like a terrible idea. This is the part of my journey where I got INCREDIBLY lucky. As many of you know, I’m Jewish and my brother is very involved in the Kehilat Shanghai community. What many of you probably don’t know is that the Kehilat Shanghai community has incredibly close ties to the Kehillat Beijing community (and to the best of my understanding, the Kehilat Shanghai community founders included former Kehillat Beijing members who moved to Shanghai and were looking for a similar experience). As luck would have it, Jesse had met the organizers and founders of Kehillat Beijing (Roberta & Ted) some time after I had accepted my postdoc position and mentioned that I would be moving to Beijing. Roberta told Jesse that they were excited to have me join the community and to let her know when I arrived. When Jesse messaged her on WeChat to let her know that I’d be in arriving to Beijing right before the High Holy Days, she offered that if I needed a place to stay, they would be happy to host me. As such, I was able to stay in Roberta & Ted’s lovely home in Beijing and be both fully welcomed to the Beijing Jewish community, but also not be forced to spend more time in a hotel. Stepping out of the narrative for a bit, I’m incredibly grateful to Roberta & Ted for their incredibly generous hospitality! They really did a wonderful job of making me feel welcomed and wanted in Beijing! Additionally, one of the unexpected benefits of staying with Roberta & Ted is that they are vegetarian! This meant that I didn’t need to worry about whether or not something that I wasn’t familiar with in the fridge was a mystery meat product!

I arrived on Saturday, September 4 and for those of you familiar with the Jewish High Holy Days, this meant that I arrived just in time for Rosh Hashanah (it started on Monday evening). Although many of you probably were not able to enjoy in person services, it was really wonderful to get to sit and pray with people in person and hear a room full of people singing familiar melodies even though I’m thousands of miles away from my home community of Temple Sinai. Roberta and Ted hosted the entire Kehillat Beijing community (~ 60 people) at their home for both Erev Rosh Hashanah and a lovely dinner following it. It was a great opportunity to meet a ton of people! Everyone was super friendly and welcoming! I also got to connect with one of my mother’s former Skidmore College Honor’s Forum Students, David (see picture below). It was a bit surreal to be half a world away and meet someone else who spent time in Saratoga (ironically, after this, Roberta mentioned that one of her good friends from Beijing recently moved to the Saratoga area – it really is a smaller world than you think)! It’s probably also the most non-Chinese people I’ve seen in a single location indoors (excluding airports) since I was at the Jazz-Celtics game just before the pandemic started.

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We also had day services on Tuesday for Rosh Hashanah at Roberta and Ted’s home. Unlike the evening service, these were much smaller, quieter, and generally more relaxed. I really enjoyed getting to go around the circle and do English readings and having everyone participate. It reminded me of the spirit of the second day of Rosh Hashanah services at Temple Sinai. After the day service, we had Tashlikh, which is the traditional ceremony wherein one tosses their sins away (into a body of water that is moving). Because there is a park with a pond around the corner from Roberta and Ted’s home (where I went on many runs later in my stay), we were able to walk there as a group (see pictures above). It was really nice to spend some time outside and partake in another part of the ritual that reminds me of home (especially the Tashlikh at Congress Park). Afterwards, we all went to a Chinese restaurant down the block from the park and I got to try some more yummy food! As Rosh Hashanah is the celebration of the Jewish New Year, it definitely was meaningful to me to think about the start of this new adventure here in Beijing. As the new year is beginning, a new chapter of my life, both as a postdoc and an expat, is just beginning and I’m glad my time in Beijing started on such a sweet note!

Beyond being welcomed to the Jewish community, since Roberta & Ted host Shabbat dinners for Kehillat Beijing every Friday, it was incredibly convenient to attend Shabbat every Friday (I was planning on doing this anyway, there was just no commute). Because of the high holidays, the dinners and services were more intimate and smaller, but its really nice to meet more Jews here in Beijing, get challah on Fridays (Roberta makes it every week), and sit down with friends to a delicious meal! I really appreciate how welcoming everyone is and how excited people are that there are new members and that I’m an Astronomer.

Medical Checks

With Rosh Hashanah complete, I was now able to set my sights on actually starting my postdoc at Tsinghua. Now coming into this entire process, I knew that one of the hurdles that I’d have to jump to be hired was the mandatory physical required for any foreign workers coming to China (Jesse had to do this in Shanghai, so I knew what to expect). In order for me to get my physical on Wednesday, I needed a negative COVID test (after another negative test that I thought I might need for the train, this was negative COVID test number 9). Thankfully Roberta runs a hospital (and it is more accessible to English speakers – Beijing United Family Health), so she was very helpful in my booking an appointment. With that out of the way, I set out on my first trip on the Beijing metro. Now if you’ve ever seen pictures of the subway systems in China (or Japan), you can probably guess what I experienced. It’s amazing just how many people use the subway during the day. After avoiding crowds in the US, it took a bit getting used to to not feel overwhelmed by all of the congestion. Now one thing to note is that although the subway is packed, there is a bit more of collective awareness of the surrounding passengers than on the T back in Boston. In Boston, when the trains are packed, it’s impossible to maneuver yourself to the exit. In Beijing, there’s a bit more respect placed on letting the people on the train get off first and then loading up the trains. It’s still quite chaotic, but a bit more ordered chaos. Another difference is the shear size of the subway stations. When I’ve had to change lines, sometimes I’ll walk almost a quarter mile all underground in the same station to get from one set of tracks to another. It’s almost like a little underground city.

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For those of you who’ve ever traveled in a foreign city, it’s pretty easy to get lost when you don’t know where you’re going. Thankfully the subways all have signs in English! However, this didn’t prevent me from being routed to the wrong location by Apple Maps. After a phone call to my supervisor, Zheng, he was able to send me a WeChat pin to the correct location and I was able to make it just before the hospital closed. In terms of the actual medical check, it is super uncomfortable to go to a doctor’s office and have generally no idea what is going on. Most of the doctor’s spoke little to no English and the translation of the various tests wasn’t the most obvious. I’m not sure exactly what they were checking for (I had to have an ultrasound among other things), but my understanding is that they basically wanted to make sure that I wasn’t coming to China with any serious underlying health conditions. To my extreme pleasure, I had to do this all again the following Monday because Tsinghua University requires its own health exam! Thankfully for this one, an Astronomy department secretary met me at the Tsinghua hospital and was able to translate what the various procedures were going to be, but it was still a bit disconcerting to not really know what was happening.

Visiting Gulou/The Drum Tower

After trekking out to the hospital, I decided to take some time to explore a bit of the city. A few different people that I met had recommended the Gulou area, near the Drum Tower as a place to live given its large array of music venues, cool cafes and shops, and being a bit more accessible to foreigners. The Drum Tower, along with the Bell Tower, were built during the reign of Kublai Khan and used as a time keeping mechanism for the people living in Beijing. As (spoiler alert), this is where I ended up living, it was really nice to take some time to see the area. Although I didn’t visit the Drum Tower (and still haven’t, it’s on the top of my to do list since it’s about a 10 minute walk from my apartment), I did get to see it from the outside.

The area immediately surrounding the Drum Tower has a bit of a Lake George/downtown Saratoga in the summer vibe, where the streets are bustling with lots of shops selling trinkets, food, toys, and pretty much anything you can think of. However, if you walk just a few blocks in any direction, you’re transported into the much quieter neighborhoods of the hutongs. Hutongs are one/two story large scale apartment style complexes that are the traditional apartments of Beijing. Many of them (including the one that I’m currently living in) are fully renovated on the inside, but the exterior retains a more traditional look. As you can see there’s a distinct neighbor hood vibe to many of the hutongs and there are lots of little shops in the area. I think I was attracted to the area not just because people recommended it but because it also would give me a more authentically Beijing experience, as opposed to living in a high-rise out by Tsinghua University. Gulou is also pretty near the Lama Temple, one of the holy sites for Tibetan Buddhism here in Beijing (again, along with the Drum Tower, this is on the top of my list of things to visit). Here’s just a sampling of the Drum Tower, the hutongs, and the Lama Temple.

Tsinghua University

On Thursday, September 9th, after being in China for over five weeks, I was finally able to visit Tsinghua University, my academic home for the next three years. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Tsinghua, it is one of the two premiere universities in Beijing (the other being Peking University) and is often referred to as the MIT of China. As one of my professors at BU used to refer to MIT as the trade school across the river, I want to note that aesthetically, Tsinghua looks nothing like a trade school. As you can see the campus is enormous (it takes about 20 minutes to walk from the entrance to the Astronomy Department building)! Because of COVID and my not having a Tsinghua University ID (I still don’t by the way, there’s lots of necessary paperwork to do that takes a lot of time), I’m required to enter the campus through the Southeast Gate. Unlike most universities I’ve been to in the US where pretty much anyone can wander onto campus, Tsinghua requires you to scan your ID to enter the campus. Because I don’t have a campus ID, I have to use my passport, which works fine except there is generally some confusion as the campus security guards aren’t the most familiar with US passports and where the passport number that is my de facto ID number is.

Aesthetically, Tsinghua reminds me of a hybrid of Brown University – with its large green spaces (although nobody is sitting on the greens or playing frisbee), the University of Michigan Ann Arbor – because of the sheer city-esque size of the campus, and Skidmore College – because one second I’ll be walking in what looks like a traditional campus building and the next second it’ll feel like I’m in a manicured park. The campus is really quite stunning. As you can see in the first picture, Tsinghua celebrated its 100th birthday this summer, so I just missed the celebrations. Beyond the amount of green space and gardens, the number of seemingly random pieces of modern art really caught my eye. The Tsinghua University Art Museum is on my walk to the Astronomy Department, so I’m excited to visit that once I get my ID. Additionally, it’s really interesting to see the architectural dichotomy of the campus. In the area where the Astronomy Department is (I realized I don’t have any great pictures of the building, I’ll try to remedy that this week), most of the buildings look similar to typical academic buildings. However, on my walk to the University Hospital for my second medical check, I walked past more of the residential areas on campus, where the traditional Chinese aesthetic (both in garden styles and in having older temple-esque buildings) becomes dominant.

Beyond visiting the campus and taking pictures, much of my time in my first few days at Tsinghua were spent meeting Zheng’s group and talking to Zheng about my research and how I was adjusting to China. Everyone in Zheng’s group has been incredibly friendly. We went as a group to one of the University canteens for lunch and it was nice to talk to all of the grad students and other postdocs and find out that there are some anime fans in the group. In interacting with the group, I’ve noticed a few things that are pretty different from US institutions. For one, at BU, there was a large degree of departmental community and cohesion. Here, everything is divvied up into little fiefdoms, so I really have only interacted with the students working with Zheng. I have gotten a chance to meet some of the other postdocs who are working in the department, but that’s mostly because we share an office (see my desk below). Also, some eagle-eyed Brown Physics alumni should recognize two names/pictures on the below Physics poster!

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The other difference that I’ve noticed is that all of the faculty seem to eat at the same canteens (or at least Zheng does) as grad students and undergrads. Now I spent seven years at BU and beyond grabbing a snack at the student union I never ate in the dining halls. As someone who likes to cook, it’s a bit different to me that basically nobody cooks their own food. I was told that in general the food is so inexpensive that most people choose to eat there. As someone who eats almost entirely vegan, the cafeteria isn’t the ideal setting for me. Maybe it’s just that the few times that I’ve been have been a mad house, but the one section that I was told was vegetarian basically has single vegetable dishes (i.e. plates of sauted onions or carrots). You can see below that the food definitely doesn’t look as yummy as some of the restaurant meals I’ve posted before. Although it was incredibly generous of Zheng’s students to treat me and welcome me, I’m not sure how often I’m planning on going to the campus canteen. Also, one of the other differences (at least from when I was an undergrad and ate at the Ratty at Brown regularly) is that I usually talk to the people I’m eating with. Most of the lunch was spent eating in silence, which is a bit different.

Much of the rest of my first few days on campus was spent answering questions for the secretary who was helping me with the vast mountain of paperwork that I needed to do to be officially hired. Unlike in the US (at least I think this is the case), basically none of the paperwork had been given to me to fill out ahead of time. Despite my filling out various forms when I was in the US and sending them to Tsinghua, it seemed like nobody had kept those forms or remembered my answers. This was definitely a bit frustrating for me. Particularly, I was a bit dismayed by the lack of understanding that I’d like to be able to open a bank account sooner rather than later because much of the Chinese economy uses WeChat Pay and Ali Pay and both of those only work with Chinese bank accounts (you can add a US credit card to WeChat Pay, but the business has to be willing to accept that type of payment and most do not). The secretary that I was working with tried to tell me that I’m just not used to China and that’s why I’m frustrated. While I do agree that there is still a lot for me to get used to, I would just like to be able to pay for things like everyone else. Because I am a foreigner, I cannot open a bank account without proof of employment (i.e. a work contract). Unfortunately, Tsinghua requires a completed worker’s and resident’s permit to officially hire me, which means I’m still waiting to do this. Additionally, because I started working remotely in November 2020 and a Chinese University paying a US bank account is not allowed, Tsinghua still owes me quite a lot of back pay that I need a bank account to be able to get.

On the not so fun side, I did get to experience racial profiling first hand. As I was walking to a vegetarian restaurant just outside of Tsinghua’s campus, a security guard started yelling at me and pointing at a bike that was left on the street. Since I don’t speak Mandarin it sounded to me like he was scolded me about something and I just kind of stood there and tried to figure out what he wanted (was I going down a street I shouldn’t, did I do something wrong?). I tried to use my phone to translate what he was saying, but he didn’t seem to quite understand what I was trying to do. Thankfully as I was typing in my phone that I don’t understand what you’re saying and saying this aloud as I typed, a couple of students walked by who knew English and helped me out. Apparently, a bike had been left in the wrong spot and for whatever reason (I’m not Chinese, that’s the reason), the security guard decided I must have left the bike there. I told the students that it was not my bike and I was walking and they relayed this to the guard who let me continue on my way. Although I’ll never understand what it’s like to be stopped by the police in the US for my skin color, I can say that it was incredibly unnerving here and generally left me feeling a bit rattled.

Although very little academic work was done in the first few days on campus, it was still really nice to be back on a college campus as an employee and be surrounded by students. Ironically, the department seminar on the Thursday I arrived was on galaxy clusters, my specialty, so I was able to very actively engage with the speaker and ask lots of probing questions. Although the Tsinghua Astronomy Department is primarily populated by Chinese nationals, the other non-Chinese postdoc, Paulo, has been incredibly friendly and showed me around campus and has just been a great person to chat with about the various hoops to jump through in terms of getting hired. A lot of the pictures (including the ones of the outside of the observatory – apparently, I can get access to it if I want) were taken when Paulo showed me around. I’m definitely excited to get started working at Tsinghua.

Wandering Around Beijing

Beyond exploring Tsinghua and Gulou, I also saw a lot of other cool and interesting things in Beijing. Because they don’t quite fit into the narrative portion of the blog, I’m planning on having this section (along with the other sections below) as parts of every blog post so that you all can get a better sense of Beijing.

The first group of pictures are all from the Wangjing Park, which is where we did Tashlikh and is right by Roberta & Ted’s house where i was staying. I really loved the marshy pond at the center of the park and lion statues at the front of the park.

I also saw a lot of cool buildings near malls and other places that I visited. As you can see, at night a lot of the buildings are illuminated and make the skylines look really cool! One of the things that I’m still in awe of are the number of bicycles that are around Beijing. A lot of people use the rental bikes to go from place to place and as a result, you get large lots of bikes where people have them parked. Although a lot of people have recommended that I start biking places, I’m still a bit hesitant to do so. It isn’t just that I don’t know Beijing, but rather I still don’t know the traffic laws. While cars generally follow the traffic lights (the right hand on red is a bit more loose here than in the states), basically anything with three or fewer wheels (there are lots of motorized bikes that look like mini cars because of an exterior shell) follow their own rules. You’ll see scooters/bikes on the street, on the sidewalk, zooming down one way streets in the opposite direction, and going at seemingly any instance when there isn’t traffic.

I’ve found that basically anywhere I go there’s interesting signs and statues, whether it be Subway stations, outdoor mall, indoor malls, or just walking around on my way to other places. There are so many cute statues of cats, astronauts, cartoon kids, and interesting creatures. You just have to know where to look (or wander into the right place)!

Food

As I was exploring Gulou and Tsinghua, I also got to try a few different vegan restaurants. All of the food was really yummy and the menus were pretty expansive. I definitely missed having Jesse with me to share food. Happy Cow for the win! At the first restaurant that I went to, which is right by the Lama Temple, I was only able to order cold dishes (likely because it was pretty late for lunch). I got tofu skins filled with mushrooms, a mushroom “abalone” dish, and kaofu. The cold food was rather refreshing on a hot day! The kaofu was really similar to what I’d gotten in Shanghai and really yummy, but I also really liked the tofu skins! Since this place is pretty close to where I now live, I’ll definitely be back!

I went to this next vegan restaurant in the middle of a long day of both exploring Beijing and going to Zheng’s group meetings (which are at 9am on Saturday morning). It turned out to be one of the hottest days that I’ve been in Beijing, so I downed about a liter of water during the meal, but the meal was amazing! This is a Yunnan restaurant, which is a region is Southwestern China that specialize spicy food and mushroom dishes. Here, I got a crispy tofu (the tofu was soft as silk on the inside), an eggplant dish, and a fried mushroom dish! Each dish was amazing! This is probably my favorite meal in Beijing so far!

Lastly, I went to a vegetarian restaurant that’s right by Tsinghua’s campus. I thought this place reminded me a lot of the restaurants I went to with Jesse in Shanghai. I got a cauliflower dish, a mushroom dish, a seitan stir fry, and watermelon juice. Everything was really great, especially the mushroom dish! As a big fan of mushrooms, it’s really great to see so many different types of mushrooms and mushroom-centric dishes. One of the coolest non-food things is that they used a robot (see below) to deliver the food!

Although not a full meal, at Zheng’s group meeting, two of his graduate students were celebrating their birthdays. Apparently, it’s a tradition (at least in Zheng’s group) to bring cake for your birthday. We all sang and the cake was super cute! This is my first experience with Chinese desserts and I thought the cake was very tasty. The texture was pretty fluffy, but the flavor was pretty mild, so I’m not actually sure if it was chocolate or not. Also, American cake is definitely a lot sweeter, so I did miss the sugar content.

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Animals of Beijing

Unlike Shanghai, where I saw a ton of cats, in Beijing, I’ve seen a few different types of animals. Most surprisingly, the in the park by Roberta & Ted’s house are a pack of miniature horses. To allow the horses to graze and to keep the grass trim, the horses are used as a lawn mowing service. Thus, throughout my times in the park, I got a ton of pictures of them! I don’t know if I’ve seen miniature horses before, but it was definitely a bit surreal to turn the corner and see them there (although I did need to watch my step when I was running in the park).

Outside of the park, I also got to spend a lot of time with Roberta & Ted’s two dogs Mimi and Honey. They are both really friendly dogs and spent a lot of time with me on the couch. They are very comfortable with crowds and paraded around the services, making it very clear who’s house we were really in. Here are a few cute pictures of them!

I also did get a few pictures of some cats and dogs that were wandering around Beijing, including two beautiful white cats on Tsinghua’s campus. I don’t know if there are fewer stray cats here than in Shanghai because it does get cold, but it’s always nice to see a cat.

East Meets West

Like in Shanghai, I’ve seen the influence of the West creep into Beijing. Specifically, Disney is still everywhere! Lots of Mickey Mouse and the gang. Harry Potter figurines also made another appearance. Given that the movies are a decade old at this point and there haven’t been any new books, I’m surprised to see so much HP! I also spotted a Gal Gadot ad on the subway and the most Chinese looking KFC I’ve ever seen. At one of the malls I went to, I spotted a LEGO store and saw some cool Chinese lego sets. I think the most unexpected thing was a figurine of the Utah Jazz Jazz Bear mascot. As a Utah Jazz fan, if it hadn’t cost almost $100, I’d have bought that in an instant.

Anime and Comics

No post could be complete without a view of all of the awesome anime figurines, posters, and apparel that I’ve seen in Beijing. Again, the primary focus on the anime/manga side is Dragon Ball Z, but I’ve also seen One Piece, Naruto, Slam Dunk and a little bit more Astro Boy. On the comics side, I saw some cool Marvel and DC figurines and some more Peanuts stuff. I really love wandering around Beijing and seeing the pop culture characters that I grew up peaking out of shop windows!

I hoped you enjoyed seeing and reading about my first week and a half in Beijing! It’s the beginning of my journey to be an Astronomer in Beijing and I hope you’ll be back for more. As a teaser, next week’s post will feature my trip to the Great Wall, so you don’t want to miss that one! Again, please feel free to comment, I’d love to hear from you! Don’t forget to subscribe (it’s the button on the side).

In Peace,

Emmet