שלום

Shalom lekulam!

Hope everyone is doing well. Almost the end of January 2010! Unbelievable how quickly time passes no? I haven't written for a while because not a whole lot has been going on. Still working at MEMRI and am really enjoying it. Most of my time is split between two things: doing transcripts/clips in English with MEMRI-TV and researching Jihad in the Caucasus (for the Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor).

For those of you who are not so familiar with the Caucus region (I sure as hell wasn't before MEMRI) - it is comprised of a various republics which are technically part of Russia and are not independent (i.e. Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Ossetia, and so on). Sounds crazy? that's because it is! Most people have never really heard of these places, much less considered that there are Muslims there, or even radical Islam and terrorism! It's a total mess over in that part of the world, there is not a whole lot of scholarly writting about it --- and it's MY job to figure out what the hell is going on! Along with researching the historical context of the situation, I am also reading daily the Caucus-Jihadi websites (in Russian) and trying to figure out if there is any relevent/interesting information that MEMRI might be helpful to MEMRI. I never thought my my Russian skills would be put to such use ahha! But it's great, I am learning a lot, and it is pretty interesting (as long as you're a safe distance away) ;-)

I have also decided to move out of my apartment and move in with my friend Karen and her two flatmates. Despite giving up a wonderful apartment, having to share a room, living in a smaller space, and moving (which is always a pain in the ass) - I really think it's going to make me happier and (hopefully) bring my experience full circle. I love my flat, but the honest truth is that it's not my home , it's just a place where I sleep. I still feel pretty isolated and lonely at the end of the day. It's just not worth it for me to be paying so much and not feeling fulfilled. So, instead I'll be living with 3 really great girls, who will be speaking Hebrew, and are sweet and caring. if worst comes to worst - it's only for 4 months. I'll survive :)

In other news - I've kind of started running again. It's time for my fat lazy ass to make an attempt at getting into (some kind of) shape. Probably not the best time to be doing so, seeing as how its FREEZING here right now! There were serious thunder/lightning storms for a couple of days too. But I'm trying to make it out as long as there isn't any rain. brrrr

Oh, and one other thing - I'm starting private Hebrew lessons!!! YAY! I know it sounds really lame and ridiculous that I haven't really learned any hebrew - but jerusalem really isn't the 'all immersion' environment you would expect. everyone speaks english, many speak russian, and meeting israeli's isn't as easy as one would think. (that is - getting hit on/picked up on isn't a problem - it's actually making israeli friends that's a bit more challenging) haha oi! so hopefully these lessons will help me develop my Hebrew. better late than never right?! ;-)

that's really the most of it folks. nothing too exciting. don't have any adventures to really write about - it's simply been too cold to do anything extremely interesting! hopefully that will change soon

Lots of Love!
<3