Signing Off

It's been a few good years here on the blog, but it's finally time to move on. Or at least that's what my wife tells me. But seriously, it's on to bigger and better things as my blog and Michelle's blog combine (much like Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, and Heart) to form a new blog: Shainkeit.

What does this mean for the average reader? Not so much. Just that you'll now get my posts sandwiched around to multiple posts from Michelle. And let's be honest here, is there anyone out there who wasn't reading Michelle's posts anyways?

So update your links! Rebookmark your bookmarks! Subscribe to the new RSS feed! And learn how to program that danged VCR!

Because a whole new Shain thing is coming your way.

Disclaimer: "Whole new Shain thing" may bear striking resemblance to old Shain thing.

More on Babson

Many of you might not be familiar with Babson, so I thought I should explain a little bit more about the school.

The campus is located in Wellesley, Ma. The MBA program has two very distinct features. First, it is a very international program, with nearly half of the students in the program coming from outside of the US. Second, the program is highly focused on entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship saturates all elements of the school. The idea is to instill a mindset that will prepare you to innovate whether you are starting a new company or working for a large corporation. A byproduct of this emphasis is that the MBA program is very hands-on and disciplines are often integrated.

Babson also excels at its chosen field. For the 15th straight year, Babson was ranked the #1 MBA program for entrepreneurship by US News and World Report.

Like I said before. Go Beavers!

No Harvard For Adam

The other day I received the official notification letter from Harvard informing me that, though they appreciate my application, they cannot offer me a place in their incoming class. The rejection wasn't especially surprising given that I was not invited to interview. The best I could really hope for was to be wait-listed without an interview.

What does this mean for me?

In truth, not a whole lot. In my best case scenario I was hoping to be have decide between attending Harvard at full cost and attending Babson with a scholarship. I can't honestly say which school I would have picked, but now I don't have to worry about making that decision.


Who needs Harvard? Let's go Beavers!

Uncle Sam Thanks You

Tonight Michelle and I filed our yearly taxes online. It was the first year that either of us has filed (as opposed to somebody else filing for us). Everything was going great until we got the end of the form. We owed the government money! What's up with that?

We're coming back to America. Uncle Sam should be paying us for our troubles. Not the other way around.

Sheesh

Deposited

Two posts in one day! This has got to be some kind of record.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I just paid the deposit to enroll at Babson. I'm (technically) still waiting on Harvard, but as of about 3 minutes ago, I will either be studying at Babson next year or be $1000 poorer.

Time Is On My Side?

Well...I'm caught up. Not really. But I've decided that instead of trying to back-post and re-create the magic that was Boston/Italy/Jerusalem Ball, I'm just going to move forward.

Something that I have realized recently (as noted by an earlier post) that my time in Israel is quickly running out. It's reached the point where I have begun to think about things that I want to do in Israel before I leave. It's hard to believe that I can now measure our time remaining in months as opposed to years.

I guess for the next few months I'll try to reflect on my time in Israel and my quickly approaching future in America.

Just thought that I would give everybody a heads up.

PS If people are interested in one of the aforementioned February activities, post a comment and I would be happy to post something.

Oh Me Oh My

How quickly a month goes by. Of course, the time does tend to fly when you yourself are flying...to Milan...to Boston...to Milan...to Florence...to Rome...to Israel. OK, so we might have taken trains to Florence and Rome, but believe me, the time still flew by. And we got back to Israel just in time for good friends to fly to us for their vacation!

There is so much to talk about that I almost don't know where to start. I would promise to start blogging about it every day, but hey, I'm no Lex Friedman. Let's just hope that I can post two to three times a week (already a stretch) until I'm caught up.

I do want to update everybody about one thing though. I have been accepted to the FW Olin School of Business at Babson College. I am still waiting to hear from other MBA programs, but I am very excited about this opportunity.

If you have any experience with the Babson MBA program, its graduates, or MBA programs in general feel free to share your stories with me. I would love to hear them.

Also, if you haven't already seen the link on Michelle's blog, check out our photo album from Italy!

And So It Begins

Tonight Michelle and I bought packing boxes as we begin hauling our belongings back the US. We know that we'll be moving back to the States in mid-July, so we are taking advantage of our trips next week, in April, and May (only me) to schlep as much stuff back as we can.

Right now we are focusing on books. With a little luck, we'll be able to bring back ~130 lbs of books next week. As packing material, we'll use all of the linens and pillows that we can spare.

On an aside. I just learned that the term "linens" encompasses all of your fabric home goods except clothing. That's your towels, sheets, tablecloths, and napkins (if you are fancy shmancy like us :) ). Who knew? Answer: Probably everybody else except me.

Anyways, as we begin emptying our apartment we can no longer avoid the fact that we'll be leaving Israel in less than 6 months.