There's Never a Good Time to Get Food Poisoning...

But there are certainly better times than others.

For example, spending the entire night before you're supposed to go meet potential PIs and try to register for classes at Ben Gurion University.  I spent from 11 pm to 5 am writhing in agony and alternating between crying in the fetal position and projectile vomiting.  I'm sure my parents appreciated that call around dinner time in California...

At 7:30 am, it didn't matter that I still felt like vomiting every time I took a step, I had to go to Sede Boqer.  An hour to an hour and a half away via winding desert highway.  The conversation with my potential advisor and tour around various greenhouses also probably didn't help my stomach.  So by the time we got back to Idan, instead of packing up my stuff, I was back to hugging the toilet.

Another car ride in a completely full truck with Jehonathan and his friends to Be'er Sheva, two trains (one in which I accidentally called for emergency staff help when I tried to flush the toilet), and I'm finally at Ben Gurion Airport.  The original plan was to stop off in Jerusalem first to go to the Kotel in case I didn't get a chance and really left on August 7.  However, the idea of puking on the holiest Jewish site in the world deterred me.

I board a plane to Istanbul at 4:30 am and then will head on to Berlin after a stopover.  After a short bus to Dresden I should be able to take some time to recover at Keki's before we start hitching to Frankfurt to meet up with brodre.  I couldn't be more excited!  Well I probably could be if I could keep food down....

So here's what I found out at my meeting this morning regarding the likelihood of me just not leaving Israel for a couple of years.  Today was the last possible day for me to submit my application (over two weeks after the deadline).  The admissions woman is going to wait to make decisions until she has my recommendations and such.  It turns out that the board of education is almost sure to admit you if you have an advisor already willing to take you into their lab.  My potential advisor (Shimon Rachmilevitch) has already agreed to take me on and to fund 25% of my work.  The work would be collaborated with Gidon who I met at the pool at the Arava R&D Center and he would fund another quarter of my fees with the University matching their contribution and offering housing and a 3000 nis a month stipend.  So really I just have to get everything in and it's almost a sure deal that I could start classes in October.

In the meantime, Ruth is looking for someone to cover her job managing the dairy while she is visiting the US.  Apparently they're looking at someone else who has less of a time constraint than me (classes would start on October 21st but Ruth won't get back until the 24th or 25th) but if they don't take the job then I might spend August training in the dairy and the September and October running it.

If neither of these work out.... well then I guess I'd be coming home.  But it seems fairly lifely.  I don't want to jinx it though since I've clearly got a bad track record for that!  So keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck!  If this goes through I will have a masters in Agriculture and Desert Biotechnology from Ben Gurion University's Albert Katz International Institute for Desert Studies and be debt free from undergrad and grad school in two years.

Oh did I mention I might be looking at root morphology and modeling of Acacias and tree crops? Root physiology and respiration in extreme water deficit would also be an option.  And the institute is trying to open up a developing country sustainable agriculture program thing.  Which would be pretty cool for me.