...I devoted all of my spare time to my staj....

Many of my friends, and my roommates especially, think I am a bum.  On most occasions, when I am not at work or at the gym, I can be found in my bed, under the covers.  Sometimes I am sleeping (I really push for 8 hours a night), but a lot of the time, I am working like a busy bumblebee.  Between grad school apps, my staj (internship), staying in touch, and blogging, I am always on my computer, and in the cold Jerusalem winter, my bed is the warmest place to work.  There are the nights I prefer my desk to my bed, but really, what's wrong with wanting to be cozy while I work?

Why am I so busy, you ask?  I'm not in school, and I work an 8-4 job.  Why am I not out exploring the country?  Well I will give you a short run-down of my busy bumblebee antics, and then I am to finish a few more pages before turning in for the night.  

First and foremost are grad school applications.  Applications just came out, and I am currently communicating with admissions offices at three universities.  I have decided to which three programs I would like to apply for the coming year, and I have completed various parts of the applications for each school.  Hopefully by the end of March I will be finished with all of the components: interviews, research proposals, meetings with advisers, Hebrew tests, etc.  I am applying to the Grand Technion Energy Program at the Technion,  a program in Desert Studies at the Arava Institute in conjunction with Ben Gurion University, and the Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior program withing the School of Biology at Hebrew University.  Each program is a bit different, and I still have not narrowed down a first choice, but hopefully the application process will go well and I will have a few options!

My internship probably takes up the largest chunk of my time.  I am doing research with the Green Zionist Alliance.  The focus of my research is environmentally sound development in the South of Israel.  Through this research, I have been building on my biology background and my environmental and ecological studies, but I am also learning so much.  I am learning, amongst other things, about the ecology, history, and geography of Israel, about new green development methods, and how to effectively research and write scholarly articles.  It is really refreshing after being out of school for a year and a half to focus on a new, intellectual project that I am passionate about, and I hope that this staj will help me in my grad school decision.  If you want to know more specifics about the project, shoot me an email, and once I finish my article, I will make sure to upload a copy!

Aside from the serious things that keep me clicking away on my keyboard, there are the not so serious but equally important things: the blogging, the skyping, the news reading, the emailing, etc.  Although I am living in a country far away from so many of my friends and family, I try to stay connected.  I really appreciate the gchats, the emails, and the facebok posts.  Snail mail is fun too!! Stay in touch!