Spring Break!

The best part about spring break is that we still have spring break - even though most of us are in our late 20's, a far cry away from being the crazy college kids somewhere in Mexico guzzling tequila and waking up with strangers on the beach. WOOO!
Originally, I wanted to go home for Spring break, but thinking (prior to the emergency trip last month) that Cali was too far too fly for 1 week, I decided to do the next best thing - Israel. It would be a cheap vacation, buying my flights with miles and staying @ my friend's place - a.k.a. Hilton Paula.

Somehow, with minimal effort, I happened to recruit my boys to come with me. Even though we spent much less time together than I anticipated, it was awesome having my favorite people in my favorite country.

I got in late at night and luckily a nice English speaking couple helped me take the right train, since its impossible to get any information from any signs about public transportation. I do love hearing Hebrew all around me, but not understanding a damn thing is incredibly frustrating. My first day in Tel Aviv I spent eating a typically huge Israeli breakfast and laying on the beach with the boys:

The next day was the beginning of Passover, and I thought it would be pretty cool to spend it in Israel. We ended up going to the parents of one of Paula's friends and having a very un-traditional Seder, with minimal reading and lots of Russian food. I think we even had bread at the table...and went out to the bars afterwards. love Israel!

I spent the rest of the week enjoying the days -well, mostly enjoying the nights. Somehow, I have much more fun going out in Tel Aviv than  I do in Barcelona. Paula and I hopped around to her favorite spots with her friends. I visited Prorok again, where I had my memorable Like A Virgin Karaoke performance.

I joined the boys again for a couple of days for a trip to the North - we visited Nazareth, Haifa, and Akko on the way to the Golan Heights. Nazareth was underwhelming, as the boys expected something special from the city where Jesus was born. The boys also wanted to visit Mt Hernon, where I froze my ass off not being prepared to walk around in the SNOW. Otherwise, the Golan Heights were green and beautiful and a complete change from the landscape we were seeing earlier in the day. On the way back, we stopped by the Kineret and I regretted not having insisted on spending a weekend camping there.

The next day, though, Elinor, Paula's friend, took us back to the Kineret and we spent my second to last day enjoying the sunshine, barbecuing, and swimming in the sea.

. And, in keeping with what is now "tradition", on my last night Paula and I once again went to Goocha, and ended up bar hopping all the way back home concluding the night at 6am, drunk, happy, and reeking of cigarettes.

I love Israel, and will definitely be back again soon!

Why did I come here? Oh yeah, a job...

The point of this MBA, the point of the TWO year MBA, was to have a summer internship. This serves both the purpose of, well, making a little money, but also of doing something NEW, before going back to where I came from if no new opportunities present themselves.
Well, after just one round of interviews with Gas Natural Fenosa, the local gas and electric utility company, they have offered me a summer position! Not only am I not really interested in the job, I didn't even apply! The only reason they even interviewed me is because I checked the box on the career services website - I didn't even write a cover letter! I took the interview because I knew I needed interview practice. And, as an added bonus, the whole thing was going to be in Spanish! It definitely helped by ego to not only be complimented on my Spanish by the HR woman interviewing me, but to also actually receive a job offer from them. It was definitely attractive - staying in Barcelona for the summer, doing something I know I can easily do, and getting to practice my Spanish all summer. On the other hand, its doing basically almost exactly what I was doing before.

Now that I had this offer, though, I figured I could look into the other option that had been made available to me. My dad's friend started up and owns a company called Newspaper Direct, better known for its PressDisplay.com service. Apparently they basically power the online version of almost every published newspaper out there, and are launching an application for smartphones and stuff too. Apparently, their problem is that they have too many brands and a little bit of an "identity crisis" and I could work on their marketing team helping them with this re-branding strategy. Well, that sounds whole helluvalot cooler than designing processes for a utility, so, I think I'll take it!