My Research

Many of you (but primarily my mom) might be wondering, "so what is Nina actually doing with her time?...What research is she doing exactly?"

This is a good question, and I will do my best to answer.

As you might remember, in my last post I mentioned that I decided to stay in Israel for an additional year, after my Fulbright scholarship is over, to earn my Master's degree in Hydrology. In order to join the Hydrology program, I had to find an adviser who was willing to take on an extra student, in the middle of the semester, with no previous plans on doing so. 

Finding someone to take me under their supervision was relatively hard. All the professors are busy with their current work and they plan each semester accordingly with the current students that they have. 

The reason why I found Shai Arnon (who I had already asked multiple times and he had firmly said NO multiple times) is because one of his students dropped out - a Palestinan student named Ameen who was also a part of my Fulbright research project on EDCs in the water. Shai was out of luck because Ameen was going to do all the water sampling in the West Bank, since there are areas where Israeli's are not allowed to go. This is where my American citizenship stepped in! I am now the student responsible for taking water samples in the West Bank! But I will still be involved in the Israeli water sampling as well.

The Israeli side is my Fulbright research project and the West Bank side is my Master's thesis project.

So what do I do exactly?

After taking the water samples, I bring them to a lab in Tel Aviv run my the Ministry of Health. I will work with a scientist there to separate all the EDCs from each water sample. This process includes special technologies used only in this lab (out of all of Israel), and takes a few hours per sample - adding chemicals, rinsing with water, vacuum filtration through a fibrous disc, etc, etc. After I get all the water separated from the EDCs, I hand the EDC sample to the scientists for analysis. 

Once we get the EDC data back from the scientists, I will look at the data and analyse it for public health issues.

Hope that provides you all with some guidance on what I am doing!!

Two Months Past?! Email Blast #3

Beautiful faces, hello!

It’s somehow December! I don’t know where the time goes, but at least a lot has happened since I last wrote you!

I have officially decided to stay here for my master’s degree! So instead of being in Israel for one year, I’ll be here for two years. My Fulbright research will directly cross over to be research for my thesis. This past week I gained a second advisor – a research and thesis advisor in the Hydrology Department (my Fulbright advisor is in the Environmental Studies Department)  – and I will be earning an M.Sc. in Hydrology. Very exciting!

My finals schedule was recently announced (end of January through mid February), so my classes just got ten times more intense. The two hydrology courses that I am taking are way over my head because my USC degree wasn’t very science heavy.To compensate, I’ve been spending hours on tutorial websites and with my head buried in text books, trying to teach myself the physics of wells and aquifers. If you know of any good resources, let me know...

OH yes, and how could I forget – the small “war” happened. I stayed very safe, here in Sde Boker because I am just barely out of rocket range from any of Israel's borders and because our population here in this quaint little town would be a waste of ammunition for Hamas to even think about. I did travel twice – one time to visit a friend of a friend on a Moshav and one time to Tel Aviv for Thanksgiving. I took the train to the Moshav and during the ride there was an announcement to get on the floor, under the seats. I did as told, but nothing happened – just a precaution because there was a rocket in the distance somewhere and we had to get away from the windows in case the glass broke. So, I can’t say I was affected much by the Pillar of Defense. Plus, I even got to play Frisbee twice because my Ulpan class (which is at the same time as the weekly Frisbee game) was cancelled due to it’s location in Beer Sheva (hit by over 200 rockets). Life is good, no?


I recently went through another wave of culture shock and missing home – the reality that my friends here are not of the same caliber as my friends from home/USC hit hard. As you all know, I am a social person. I can’t deny that I’m surrounded by amazing people here, but it really takes time and effort to create close bonds with people who speak a different language and who grew up with a whole different lifestyle. And until I can achieve that kind of friendship here, it's hard not to have someone's shoulder to lean on. 

That’s the end of my saga for now! Wishing you all a Happy Hannukah and Merry Christmas!

Until next time,
“Ninush” (my new nick name in Hebrew)

Time for Hannukah!

Visit from Ethan!

Last weekend Ethan Levy came to visit me! My first friend to visit me!

I finally had a real shabbat (first one so far)- Ethan and I did close to nothing! It was amazing. I was in my pajamas until at least sunset! He got me hooked on Game of Thrones because he sat down and took the time to explain all the families and the incest and the background, so that when we watched the show, I wasn't as lost with what was going on.



Most beautiful sunset so far - with a rainbow thingy on the right! WOW eze yofi!!!

Tel Aviv - desert girl goes wild!

A few weekends ago I spent some time in Tel Aviv! I went for Thanksgiving on Thursday, and then stayed through Sunday for a long weekend.

I saw my friend Bluth, whom I met on Year Course, and I stayed at Noah's place with Ethan (Camp Kee Tov friends).
I spent lots of money all weekend, but had a flippin awesome time eating good food and stalking up on goodies to take home to my kitchen. I bought a measuring cup (which is in mililiters, and I have to do conversions whenever I'm baking/cooking).


I got my hair braided at an ethiopian hair shop! When a desert girl goes to the big city..... things happen.

And Bluth and I explored her neighborhood (Florentine) and walked along the Jaffo seaside.