Saying Goodbye to Istanbul

Today was our last full day of meetings in Istanbul. We met with an arts an culture NGO called Anadolu Kultur, had lunch and some free time around Taksim Square (one of the most famous places in Istanbul), then met with a foundation called the Turkey European Foundation which works to better the cause of Turkey's accession to the EU. Then we came to our hotel area, did our final souvenir/gift shopping. I now have 15 minutes to finish typing this, pack my bags and get ready for dinner. We're having dinner right near our hotel with a politician from the opposition party (we had dinner last night with a politician from the ruling party, AKP). Then we're all going out for our last night in Istanbul then leaving for the hotel at 5:30am. (please note that I did not include time for sleeping).

Hope all is well with everyone and I promise to write up a really summary and some thoughts about this trip once I'm back in the US and have had some sleep.

Istanbul!

So I've gone through Cyprus and Greece and I'm now in Turkey. Istanbul is an amazingly gorgeous city and my brand new hotel room (we are literally the first guests in this hotel) has a view out the window of the famous Blue Mosque (I'd include a link here to more info but I'm beyond exhausted and trust that you know how to work Google).

We had one day of meetings here on Friday, when we met with the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox church (the equivalent of the Pope) and then an NGO and documentary filmmakers. Then yesterday we spent time shopping at the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia (for real, google these places, they're beautiful). Today we took a boat ride on the Bosphorous to the Asian side of Turkey (yes, I've been in Europe and Asia today) where we had a delicious seafood lunch. Then we came back and visited a palace whose name I won't attempt with this much exhaustion. Afterward we had some free time (gasp!) and some of us took advantage of that to go to a Turkish Bath where we sat in a hot marble room for about an hour and then got a massage. One of the most relaxing things I've ever done but also contributed to this exhaustion(sorry is this sounds like I'm complaining! I'm not!).

Funny story that I've been complaining about today though...
Last night, a large portion of the group went out to celebrate one of our classmates' birthdays. When we came back, I hopped in the shower where I barely had time to get my hair wet before the power went out in our hotel. After trying to figure out what was going on, I decided to take a dark shower anyway. Then, just after I washed the shampoo out of my hair, the water turned off. The sink in our room still doesn't work but power and most other water is back on today. Just thought I'd share a bit of what this trip has been like!

We have 2 more days full of meetings and then back to DC we go :(

Phots before I fall asleep!

Spent the day today on a Greek island exploring and enjoying the beach. Got lots of sun and loved it.

Here's some pictures of the trip so far, they're either stolen from friends who have already uploaded theirs or are from my phone...enjoy!

Me and a statue of Makarios, Trodos Mountains, Cyprus

eating fish in Paphos, Cyprus

Trodos Mountains, Cyprus

Group in the Trodos Mountains, Cyprus

Out of order, sitting on the plane in DC for our 2 hour delay

The beach in Larnaca, Cyprus

my feet in the Mediterranean

more fish with eyes!

At a restaurant in the UN Buffer Zone

Narnia! Nicosia, Cyprus

Kyrenia, Cyprus waiting for the former President of TRNC

Again, beautiful peacemakers waiting

Bus ride to Famagusta, Cyprus

Ferry in Athens, Greece

Feet again, on Agina island in Greece

Temple of a nymph named Aphia

Classmates on the beach in Agina, Greece

My friend Maya in Agina

Sam and Kristin on the ferry leaving Agina, Greece

Me on the ferry!

Cyprus kept me too busy to blog :(

I know I know I promised you all that I would blog frequently while in Cyprus and I've obviously not kept up that promise. I'm currently sitting in the airport in Larnaca, Cyprus getting ready to board my flight to Athens.


I'm copy and pasting this next section that I typed up yesterday...

So I've been in Cyprus for 10 days and haven't posted a single blog entry. It has been an incredibly intense experience and I've had little time to sit at my computer (and the short amount of free time that I have had, I've wanted to do many other things besides being stuck to my computer). I'm very sorry for not keeping everyone updated like you asked but I'll try to now!

I'm typing this on my iPhone in a note as we drive in a bus from the capital of Nicosia to Famagusta in the north. (pictures)
This trip to Famagusta is our last trip as a group before we leave for Athens tomorrow morning. I'm definitely not ready to leave Cyprus and already thinking about ways to get back here soon.

Each day we've been here, we've met with multiple people from all different parts of society. We've spent time on both 'sides' of the island and even some time in the UN buffer zone (there's a picture of me in a UN blue beret on someones camera!). Most of the people we've met with are either pro-peace activists, NGO workers and other community organizers or political elite. The past few days especially have been mostly political leaders of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The TRNC is a government and country recognized by only 1 other country(Turkey). Currently, the president of TRNC, Eroglu, and the president of The Republic of Cyprus (the officially internationally recognized government of Cyprus), Christofias, are participating in closed door negotiations with a UN appointed mediator to figure out a settlement of the 'Cyprus Problem'.




Now back to the current moment, sitting in the airport typing this up and Skyping with a friend from home.


I'm not ready to leave Cyprus. I've absolutely loved the country and learned much more about lots of things than I ever expected to. I'll write a more reflective post when I get a chance in Athens, or on the plane ride possibly.


Love to all!

Cyprus!

So after over 24 hours, all 27 of us (my numbers were a bit wrong earlier) made it to Cyprus. We got delayed sitting in the airplane at Dulles airport just outside DC for a solid 2 hours. We had exactly 2 hours from our original estimated arrival time in London until our connecting flight to Cyprus. Which we obviously missed. Thankfully, we were able to get all of our group onto the next flight out of the London Heathrow airport on a Cyprus Airways flight to Larnaca, the major international airport in Cyprus. Of course, one of the flight attendants on the Cyprus Airways flight was our professor's brother-in-law.

Over 24 hours of airplane air, airplane food, airplane seats, airport seats and airport food made all of us a bit delirious but we all remained in pretty good spirits for the elongated trip.  We all made it sore and tired to Cyprus where we took about a 45 minute bus ride into the capital, Nicosia. Over the hills of Nicosia, which is a divided city, you can see a light up flag of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (our first sighting in the darkness of night of anything about the conflict). We checked into our hotel which is really nice and in the Old City that is surrounded by Venetian walls then most of the group headed out to dinner around 11:30pm. Its now 2:35am, I've just showered and I cannot wait to go to bed.

Tomorrow we'll be attended the parade and festivities celebrating a Greece Independence holiday and talking to students about our research and other things.

Paripatetic Life

Today is the day that I leave with my 27 classmates and 1 awesome professor for 3 weeks in the Mediterranean.

I am traveling tonight on a red-eye flight to London's Heathrow airport then onto Larnaca, Cyprus! I'll be in Cyprus for about 10 days, then head to Athens, Greece for about 6 days and then finish up the trip with about 6 more days in Istanbul.

In total, this 21 day trip will have us meeting with at least 56 speakers who will tell us about themselves and where they fit into "The Cyprus Issue". (which I realize I still haven't talked about in here, oops).

As I've gotten a few phone calls expressing concern over where I'm headed to and the fact that I'm going to learn about a conflict in the conflict zone, let me assuage your fears. Cyprus has been a divided island since 1974. The UN Buffer Zone, or Green Zone, divides the island in half; the north is administered by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a country recognized by just one other country (Turkey), the south is administered by the Republic of Cyprus and is internationally recognized as the sovereign government of the island. The north identified as the Turkish Cypriot community and the south as the Greek Cypriot community. There are some on the island who identify solely as Cypriot, Greek or Turkish, and many foreign nationals as well. While the UN Buffer zone has been monitored by a UN peacekeeping force since it was created in 1974, there has been little, if any, violence at the border.

About the current situation in the Middle East and North Africa: Cyprus is home to British military bases which may be utilized during the current strikes on Libya even though the Cypriot government has expressed that they do not wish for the British to use these bases for this purpose.


I'll try to update this as much as possible during the trip!

T minus 14 days!

My trip to Cyprus is so soon! I'm so incredibly excited and starting to get anxious. I'm focusing my research paper on education in Cyprus so I have to do tons of research before I get there so I am able to ask the right questions and can get as much out of my interviews in the field as possible. I've already contacted a few people in Cyprus (!) who I'm going to have some one on one interviews with.

I honestly don't remember all of the things I've done since the last time I posted a real update here so I'll just mention a couple of things that have been happening.

I haven't been doing any tourist-y sightseeing things at all. I have been to 2 DC eateries that I had been planning on going to while here, Ben's Chili Bowl and Busboys and Poets. Both restaurants have connections to history and delicious food. Ben's Chili Bowl has been around for many, many years and usually has lines out the door. The walls of the restaurant are filled with famous people who have enjoyed the chili (beef or veggie!) and there are signs proclaiming that the Obama family and Bill Crosby both get to eat for free. Busboys and Poets is named in honor of Langston Hughes and is a bookstore, restaurant and fair trade market. I'm pretty sure I had the best veggie burger of my life there.

This past week for class, we visited the Embassies of Cyprus, Greece and Turkey.

 

At the Embassy of Cyprus, we met with the actual Ambassador which was pretty exciting. He told us all about the history of Cyprus according to the Republic of Cyprus (I just realized that I don't think I've said much about the conflict in Cyprus on here yet so I'll explain it in a later post). He also told us about lots of places in Cyprus that we need to go to and got us all very excited for our trip.

 

The next day, we went to the Embassy of Greece where we spoke with a woman who is a political adviser to the Ambassador. There, we learned more about some of the other things that continue to strain relations between Greece and Turkey.

Then, on Friday, we went to the Embassy of Turkey which was a brand new, very swanky building with some of the prettiest light fixtures I've ever seen. There, we spoke with 1 political adviser and 1 spokesperson. The embassies of Cyprus and Greece were both very diplomatic and didn't really tell us much that we didn't already know. The two guys at the Turkish embassy seemed to actually treat us like intelligent human beings and spoke somewhat openly with us (as much as any diplomat could). The political adviser is currently studying International Conflict and Resolution at George Mason University, a program that my professor here used to teach at. Because of this, we had a common language and lens to look at the Cyprus issue through. The spokesperson was actually a Turkish Cypriot, who grew up in Cyprus and is actually the grandson of the man who was the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community on the island from 1974-2003.

My classmates and a political adviser to the Turkish Ambassador

On our way back from the Turkish Embassy, we found this! And I look like a crazy person in my excitement.

This week is Spring Break at American University so the dorms are pretty empty. This past weekend I went out to celebrate a friend's birthday and learned how to say happy birthday in Norwegian (gratulerer med dagen!). Yesterday and today I went to my internship at ILRF. This has been a pretty exciting week in the office- the new Executive Director is really starting her work, the invitiations for the organization's big fundraising event just went out and today, Killian from the Not For Sale Campaign was in the office to meet with a staff member at ILRF whose office I work in. It was a good surprise to see a familiar face from San Francisco. Not For Sale and ILRF have a joint project, Free2Work. This week also saw the launch of The CNN Freedom Project, an initiative by the media organization to bring attention to modern day slavery.


I know that the work I'm drawn to doing leads to me asking you lovely family and friends for help every once in a while. This time, I want you all to enter a contest! ILRF and its partners at the "Raise the Bar, Hershey!" campaign are hosting a Brand Jamming Contest until March 24th. So create a mock tagline, print ad or commercial to encourage Hershey to raise the bar for responsible cocoa sourcing! While come chocolate companies have taken steps to rid their supply chains of forced and child labor, Hershey's is lagging behind its competitors.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Williamsburg, VA to visit with my Dad and broski for the rest of Spring Break (and to work on my research paper). I'm excited to see them and get out of this dorm!

Hope everyone is doing well, I'll have free time for the rest of the week and will welcome distractions from my research so give me a call this week, I'd love to hear from everyone :)

I'm a lucky girl.

I know, I know, it has been too long since my last post. It has also been too long since I got more than 6 hours of sleep in a night or went a whole day without at least one cup of coffee. (But don't worry, I'm taking care of myself I swear!)

This semester has been full of reading about, talking about,  and researching about some depressing topics. Wars, genocide and the failures of peacemakers around the world are daily topics of conversations and readings. My classmates and I are pretty cynical about a lot going on in the world, especially after visiting the State Department but that's another story all together. However, whenever this all gets too depressing and all of the work gets too stressful, the universe steps in and makes me realize how lucky and loved I am. So this post is really dedicated to you, whoever you are reading this; THANK YOU! I am extremely grateful to have such wonderful people and opportunities in my life.

I'll update soon with some more about what I've been up to lately but this week alone I'll be visiting the embassies of Cyprus, Greece and Turkey.

Me outside the Embassy of Cyprus

Killer Jeans (what I've been researching for a while)

Check out my most recent blog entry at ILRF's labor rights blog about sandblasted jeans. If you've got some time, look at some of the other stuff on the blog and ILRF's website. As you may or may not (but hopefully are) aware, some crazy stuff is happening around the world lately and a lot of it is intimately linked with workers' rights. The political unrest shaking things up in the Middle East and North Africa was sparked by a man in Tunisia who set fire to himself after he was refused the right to sell vegetables on the streets. And closer to most of your homes, thousands of protestors in Wisconsin have been flooding the capital opposing cuts to workers' benefits and the rights of unions. It is quite an interesting time to be working at a labor rights organization!

p.s. We got up to about 75 degrees the other day. It is now hailing. wah.

Baklava and Post-Conflict Education

Disclaimer: I'm writing this entry for the sole purpose of procrastinating working on my research paper.

I have had baklava at least once for the past three days. This week we officially began our case study of the Cyprus Conflict, with readings, lectures, and guest speakers. On Friday, our guest speaker was a former PCR student (from this point forward when referring to my seminar class I will refer to it as PCR [Peace and Conflict Resolution]) named Ruya of Turkish origin who grew up in Germany. She had taken the class one year ago and went on the Cyprus/Greece/Turkey trip so she shared with us her research project, some pictures from the trip and told us about her current job-working at the Permanent German Mission to the UN. Her pictures were absolutely gorgeous and it was interesting to hear about the trip from a perspective other than our Professor's.

In the afternoon on Friday, Ruya taught us a few words in Turkish (which I already forget) and our Professor gave us homemade baklava.

Homemade Baklava and Turkish Language Lessons

On Friday night, lots of people from my class hung out outside of class. We have a really great group of classmates and its nice to step out of the classroom/group project/ stressful environments and just relax together. Its also great that for the most part we're all getting along really well so far seeing as we'll be spending 3 intense weeks traveling together.

On Saturday I went on a book chase around the city, to 2 libraries and 2 bookstores. I got my DC public library card and then found out that the libraries we went to didn't have the book (don't believe everything you read on the internet!). Then the bookstores we went to only had 1 copy each. The book that we were in search of is We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families, a book of stories from the Rwandan Genocide.  After the search, I had my second helping of baklava in 2 days at Zorba's Cafe in Dupont Circle. I cannot wait for the immense amounts of fresh seafood, falafel and baklava that await me in Cyprus, Greece and Turkey.

Today has been spent in AU's School of International Service building "doing work" on my research project. (The third serving of baklava was left-overs that my classmate brought with us to help with our studying).

The Post-Conflict Education part of the title of this blog post is about my research project. By the end of the semester, I will have a very large research paper on the current state of Post-Conflict Education around the world and in Cyprus specifically with recommendations for how the development of the education system in post-conflict areas (particularly history curriculum building and teaching methodologies) can contribute to peacebuilding measures). Yay! If you know of someone who happens to be an expert in the field of Post-Conflict Education or a specific conflict or you come across books/articles about the topic, please share!

Love to all!

I'm bad at this whole blogging thing.

It's been almost two weeks since my last update and I sincerely apologize. If you've talked to me since I've been here you know that I'm a bit of a busy, tired, jumbled mess right now. Transitioning to a new city, new school, new type of program, meeting so many new people and trying to coordinate and meet up with friends from home who I'm closer to this semester than usual have all been exhausting. Don't get me wrong, I'm also really enjoying all of this. (this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, I would get bored if I didn't have so many things going on)

So some updates on what I've been up to these past two weeks:

It has only flurried once or twice and most of the snow has melted. According to the little weather widget on my computer's dashboard this week is looking very nice (the lowest temperature being 46 degrees on Wednesday and a high of 69 degrees on Friday!). The nicer weather has definitely made me happier.

We've continued to have really exciting guest speakers. 2 weeks ago was an exploration of Peace with guest speakers from the Fund for Peace , The Alliance for Peacebuilding , and the Minorities at Risk Project at the University of Maryland. Then this past week we spent on our first case study, the Bosnian Genocide. We read the book, Love Thy Neighbor and then skyped with the author, Peter Maass who was in New York. Then we skyped with Elmina Kulasic, a survivor of the Bosnian Genocide who is currently a Master's student in Hungary and met with Ajla Delkic , another survivor and current Executive Director of the Bosniak American Advisory Council. Elmina and Ajla are both in their 20s and were children during the war in the Balkans. It was a nice change of pace from the mostly older white men that we've been meeting with. A couple of people in my class were talking about how it was much easier for us to relate to Elmina and Ajla than most of our other speakers. Then we skyped with a couple in Sarajevo, Vjeko and Azra who were the kind of people that you feel immediately comfortable around and want to spend lots of time with to learn all about the amazing things they've done in their lives (they started out as architects and have done projects ranging from education initiatives to women's empowerment and employment and so much more). At the end of our discussion about Post-Conflict Bosnia, our professor asked them to show up the puppies. They had week old multi-ethnic (in keeping with the peacebuilding process in Bosnia, of course) ADORABLE puppies that they showed us.

My life here is full of these little 'how in the world did I get here?' moments. Skyping with multi-ethnic Bosnian puppies, meeting with a speaker who almost single-handedly ended a border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, hearing stories from my professor about how he had a personal meeting with Nelson Mandela (in Swahili, which is one of about 5 languages that he speaks).

I've done some more museum-ing(not enough though!) and been trying to experience DC food. I went to Ben's Chili Bowl which was recommended to me by a foodie friend from USF  and also accomplished my goal of trying Ethiopian food last night!

Now that I'm about 5 weeks into my semester (HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!), 2 weeks away from Spring Break(during which I'm going to Williamsburg, VA to visit with my Dad and brother, and about 4 1/2 weeks until I leave for Europe, I've started getting more serious about my research project. I'm looking into Post-Conflict Education and how it can contribute to the peace process, focusing mainly on Cyprus(since I can do research in country by talking to students, teachers, and academics working in field). I'm actually really excited about the project and will probably use this paper as a starting point for a Senior Thesis next semester at USF. Its actually kind of funny how perfect the topic is for me even though I've never really considered it at all. Growing up, I was convinced that I wanted to be a teacher. Then, for the past few years I've been really interested in aid and development work. I almost haphazardly chose my major's concentration as Peace and Conflict studies just because I knew I didn't want to focus on government and politics(the other popular concentration within my major at USF). However, I'm realizing now that I'm so intensely focused on Peace and Conflict Resolution this semester that it actually is what I feel very passionate about. Education kept popping up in my interests and work (through a job as a literacy tutor in San Francisco, an internship with an NGO focused on girls' education, etc) and then I got here and kind of fell into this research project that perfectly melds together Peace studies and Education. Who knows where this is all leading but hopefully it leads to more travel!

I know its still only February but I've been starting to consider what I'm going to be doing this summer and I still have no clue where in the world I will even be. So, here are some options and if you (I don't even know who reads this) want to lend a vote/suggestion, I'd love the advice...
1) Move back to SF early in the summer and work as a tour guide at USF and hopefully intern somewhere. (pro: make money giving tours, con: fog. fog. fog.)
2) Stay in DC and work/intern here. (pro: gorgeous summer weather/free fun things to do in DC, con: expensive to live in DC, lots of competition for work/internships)
3) Live somewhere in CT and attempt to get an internship in NYC. (pro: get to spend time with lovely CT friends, con: expensive living/commuting)
4) Live with Dad/broski in VA. (pro: spend everyday at the pool, con: no internship opportunities)
5) Do something completely different like this trip to Israel/Palestine. (pro: continue learning and traveling, con: $$$)

Love to all!

I miss San Francisco. A lot.

This semester is flying by already. It feels like its been forever since my last post (which was Friday) but also like I just got to DC a few days ago.

Here's a little update that I started 2 nights ago and never posted...

On Thursday night two WSP (Washington Semester Program) kids and I went to Georgetown to celebrate a Connecticut friend's birthday.

Me and the Birthday Girl!

In front of the White House, right after the police tape was put up.

Saturday some friends and I wandered around DC in search of a protest in support of the Egyptian protests. We got to the Egyptian Embassy too late so we just wandered and checked out the other embassies near it and then decided to randomly head downtown. We ended up finding the protesters at the White House just as the group that had started at the Embassy finished its march to the White House. It was one of the first times that it actually hit me that I was in DC.

Sunday I went and saw The King's Speech which was amazing. I normally don't really like going to see movies in theaters because I think its too expensive and that I should be doing other adventure-y things, especially in a new city but its really freaking cold and if you haven't noticed yet, I'm really, really busy so its nice to just sit in a movie theater and watch a good movie.

Yesterday and today I had my internship which was tiring. Exciting, yet tiring.

Today while I was working, I legitimately almost broke down in tears. Which, if you know me, shouldn't be too much of a surprise. Except that it surprised me because it was brought on my an extreme attack of homesickness for San Francisco. I share an office with a staff member at ILRF and today he had a conference call with someone that I know in San Francisco at the Not For Sale Campaign and they were talking about how the person in my office is going to SF sometime soon. Then, I was listening to music on my computer and a song came on that reminded me of that amazing city by the bay and that is when my homesickness hit. I'm pretty sure all of my friends here are sick of hearing about SF so I'm going to go on a little rant here to express my extreme love for the city.

I knew from the beginning of high school that I wanted to go to school in SF, even before I knew what schools were there. I distinctly remember a conversation with someone when I was in my sophomore year in which I talked about moving to SF for college. Then, I remember doing my first google search of Jesuit colleges (with FordhamU and FairfieldU so close I had heard many great things about those pesky Jesuits). When I saw USF on the list, I was excited. When I saw USF's website, its mission, its program offerings, I was positively giddy. The day I got my acceptance letter to USF, I had to babysit for a high school teacher, I told him about it and even though I said that I would wait to hear back from other schools, I knew in my heart that I was going out west. For the past 2 and a half years I have lived in San Francisco and loved every single thing about it. One of my roommates this past semester, Kate, and I have had many, many conversations about our love for San Francisco.

I came to DC this semester for a few reasons. One of those reasons was to figure out if I could come back to the East Coast after graduation. I've been here for not even a month and I've already decided that I'm moving back to San Francisco ASAP and, most likely, never moving back. When its Spring here and I talk about how much I've started to love DC, please remind me of this post.

I have a long 3 days of classes coming up with lots of reading and writing and researching and meetings, yay! I feel like I've done a bad job of keeping in contact with all of my amazing family members around the country, I hope you're all reading this and know that I'm thinking of you always and love you all!

P.S.

If you want to hear more about my semester, you can follow Kim's blog here. I spend quite a bit of time with her and she seems more reliable with the whole blogging thing (she already did it well for a semester while in Spain).

Copy and Pasted from my friend Kim's Blog (with some changes)

Quick updates!

• We got our power back late last night! Heating is fantastic.
• We had our first class to discuss our trip to Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus today, and we are all deliriously excited. And no big deal, I officially know that I'm going to be in Istanbul for my [friend Kim's] birthday. Sounds miserable, no?
• It snowed again today. I swear, it's a winter wonderland here - way too pretty.
• I still really, really like Washington.

Thanks Kim!

There's hot water! :)

Snow Angels, Civility and No Hot Water

I am currently sitting on my bed in a sweatshirt and scarf under my comforter without heat or full electricity. We'll be getting to the 24 hour mark soon. And here I am, in the capital of the nation that "does big things". Lots of students on our program from other countries have been joking about this idea. It also kind of felt like summer camp last night. All of us 20somethings were forced from our computers and TVs for a little while and out into our hallways where there was light from the generators and we actually got to talk to people! Sadly, we all stayed up way too late hanging out hoping for a snow day and woke up groggy to find out that we indeed had classes today.

I was just informed that my electricity won't be coming back on until about midnight tomorrow night! (I keep saying there's no power but I do have one outlet in my room that works, what I'm most concerned about is the lack of heat and hot water.)

Since my last post, I've had more amazing guest speakers, including a former US ambassador to the UN and the director of Nonviolence International. The director of Nonviolence International put into words something I've been thinking about quite a bit lately; about living peacefully, and not just in the sense of being nice to people, but also being nice to the planet and making sure that all of my actions don't have a negative effect on someone or something else. Mr. Beers, the director of Nonviolence Int'l spoke about his vegetarianism, his limited use of electricity, the fact that he rides his bike all of the time(even in the snow!) and his pledge to give as much of his income to charity as he can. One of my assignments due next week is 1 page about my definition of peace and I'm pretty much going to write about this same idea.  In class we had to come up with a short definition of peace and mine was 'respect'. Respect for others as human beings no matter who they are, respect for the planet we live on, respect for everything and everyone. We also have to write about how we actually live our definitions of peace and I've decided that my goal for this semester is to live as respectfully as possible. I'll update more about this as the semester goes on.

Tonight (if I can get a warm shower soon) I'm going to a birthday party for my friend Alyxie, who I've been lucky to know for many years. I also went out to dinner with her, our friend Julie, and Alyxie's friends from Georgetown. It was nice to get to see another part of the city and meet new people but, it being the night of the State of the Union, the group of Georgetowners made me a bit homesick for San Francisco. Don't get me wrong, they were all lovely, kind, fun people, I just really miss San Francisco. I'm pretty sure everyone here is sick of hearing about how amazing San Francisco is. Thankfully, as I've mentioned earlier, there are a few other Bay Area kids here who I can commiserate with.

I'll leave you with some pictures of me out in the snow with those who were way more excited about it than me. I do admit that it is beautiful out there. Just a bit cold.

By the way, these pictures are courtesy of Lopo De Castro Neto. 

Making my first snow angel in a long time

Marshmallow pants

My friend Kim and I

So pretty

Quick Update

I know its been a while since I last updated this and I'm hoping for a snow day tomorrow so I have time to write a longer post. However, I thought it would be nice to tell you all that there is currently a power outage in my dorm and that there has been for about 3 hours(no heat!). There's tons of snow(for DC standards) and there was thunder and lightening before. We also heard something that sounded a bit like a transformer explosion. Don't worry, we still have internet for as long as our computers will last.

Hope you all are enjoying whatever weather you have (SO jealous of the gorgeous weather in SF right now!)!

Old Friends, New Friends and Genocide Museums

I'm going to start out by saying that I've attempted to write this entry about 4 times now and I keep getting distracted. I apologize if ends up being difficult to follow.

I've been in DC now for 2 full weeks and I've already gotten to spend time with 4 great ladies that I went to high school with. Unfortunately, going to school 3000 miles from home keeps me pretty far from the people that I spent so much time with for the first 18 years of my life. Thankfully though, 2 awesome ladies, Julie and Alyxie go to school in DC and 2 others, Hayley and Madeline have come to visit. Even though Hayley came by accident due to weather, its been great to see all of these wonderful people.

Not such a great picture; Madeline and I and, of course, Lincoln.

Speaking of wonderful people, the other students participating in the Washington Semester Program are all incredibly interesting and friendly. This past weekend I got to meet a lot of students from outside my particular class and get to know some from my class much better. It is definitely going to be a fun semester.

Now I realize that the title of this post might sound a bit odd, but last week we began to go on our field trips. (I feel like calling something a field trip makes it sound like elementary school but I do get to go to really awesome places all the time with my class). So last week we went to the Library of Congress which was a much more interesting and beautiful building than I was expecting it to be. Then on Friday we went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. Now, I have been to 2 genocide museums in the past 8ish months--this this one in DC and the Tuol Sleng Museum in Cambodia. I've been talking with one of the girls in my class about how my favorite thing about museums and really old buildings is the history of them and the fact that the object I'm viewing or the place I'm standing experienced that history. I was much more emotionally moved by the Tuol Sleng Prison Museum in Cambodia as it was the actual site of Khmer Rouge violence. Conversely, the Holocaust Museum, which has every kind of media imaginable and was obviously well thought and planned out. The most affecting part of the museum tour for me was our afternoon meeting with a Holocaust survivor.

My class and Professor with Henry, a Holocaust Survivor

[between that last sentence and the next I had class]

I just had my first class of the week and it was wonderful. I love when I do things or meet people and feel an immediate and deep connection to the project or person. Today, Dr. Abdul Aziz Said, who pretty much brought Peace education to the US and is all around an amazing person, came and spoke with us. He has a really interesting way of teaching--through story telling and metaphors. I wanted to write down every single word that he said because it all resonated so strongly with me. I will share two things that he shared with us. 1) He said that the ecological function of humans is LOVE. think about it. 2) He gave us a few poems/prayers and I want to share this one with you...

Prayer of Remembrance 

Let us remember

the children, women and men everywhere

who live with injustice and disease

as their constant companions.

Let us connect with our sisters and brothers,

who spend their lives

establishing equal protection of the law,

and equal opportunity for all.

Let us celebrate all the people

who have spent their lives

helping make the world

a community of justice and peace.

Let us do what we can

that all creatures

may enjoy a fair portion

of the riches of our planet earth.

Let us honor our humanity

and ourselves.

-Abdul Aziz Said

So go and be peaceful today please! 

 

1 Week Already

It's been almost a week since I moved down to DC and so much has happened already, I felt an update was necessary.
So last Friday was spent with some orientation stuff for our internship class. Like I mentioned earlier, I am getting class credit for doing an internship and doing a bit of coursework related to it. Friday night I spent with some other girls at Starbucks sending out resumes and cover letters, what fun! On Saturday my roommate Allie and I ventured out into the freezing cold to the National Museum of Natural History which was really cool.  They had an entire coral reef display that was crocheted and called  the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef. Interesting.

Coral Reef replicated in crochet

 We also saw the Hope Diamond...

 

 

 

 

Hope Diamond

On Sunday my roommates and I went to Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond to get stuff for our room. We spent a really long time and got quite a bit of stuff.

Yesterday morning everyone in the Washington Semester Program was invited to an Internship Bazaar. Almost 100 organizations, over 300 students, lots of fake smiling and fancy clothes. Then on Monday afternoon I had an interview for an internship and and this morning I started my internship there!

I am officially an intern at the International Labor Rights Forum whose offices are 2 blocks away from the White House! I'm not exactly sure about what my position and responsibilities are going to be but ILRF is an advocacy organization dedicated to achieving just and humane treatment for workers worldwide. Coincidentally, I started work today on the National Human Trafficking Awareness day. I learned about ILRF when I was involved with the Not For Sale Campaign last year in San Francisco. I'm already published on their blog talking about their Valentine's Day Chocolate Campaign. Go here to see the blog post and send the CEO of Hershey's a Valentine or host a screening of the Dark Side of Chocolate. Valentine's Day is coming up and lots and lots of chocolate will be purchased; much of that chocolate comes from farms in West Africa whose workers are often forced or trafficked child labor. I'll keep this blog updated with more of my ILRF work throughout the semester but you should also read their blog and possibly follow them on Twitter to find out more! 

This evening on my way home from my internship I got a phone call from a friend from home who was stuck at a DC airport because of the weather and after some negotiation with her airlines and figuring out the metro, she's now sitting right next to me! When I left my dorm to go meet her at the metro stop it was raining. By the time she got to the stop and we walked out, the ground was covered in snow. Snow day on my first real day of classes? I hope so. 




I hope the bad weather isn't negatively affecting you! Love to all!

Hello D.C.!

As you probably already know, I've left foggy San Francisco for our nation's Capital to participate in American University's Washington Semester Program this Spring. I moved into my dorm at AU's Tenley Campus yesterday afternoon and will be living here through early May. After a long day of orientation and initial class meetings today I'm exhausted and excited for what the semester has in store. I'll try to give a little overview of the program and what my semester is going to look like...

The Washington Semester Program has different programs of study and about 360 students this semester. I'm going to be studying Peace and Conflict Resolution with a little under 30 other visiting students. The program is about 1/3 international students and I know that we have students from Germany, Colombia, Brazil, France and Georgia(the country not the state) in the Peace and Conflict Class. There are four components to my semester. I will be getting credit for the (1)Peace and Conflict Seminar class, a (2)Research Class and an (3)Internship/Class and do (4)field research in Europe.

I will have an internship that I will work full days at on Mondays and Tuesday (much more about that later). Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays will be full of seminar meetings. Because the Washington Semester Program is an experiential learning program, none of my weeks will look the same and I will be spending very little time in actual classrooms. My professor, "Lefty", is going to give us the following week's schedule each Thursday. Next week, Wednesday will be spent with separate morning and afternoon classroom sessions broken up with a class lunch. Thursday morning will be spent at the Library of Congress where we will meet with our first guest speaker (1st of about 90!) and the afternoon will hold a meeting for the Research Class. Friday morning our class will be going on the tour of the Holocaust Museum and in the afternoon a Holocaust survivor will tell us her story. And that's just the introductory week! 

I will talk more about the Research and Internship components in later posts as I learn more about them. Now onto the best part...

From March 23 until April 12 I will be traveling to Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. As a class, we will spend 10 days in Cyprus in a couple of cities, 5 days in Athens, and 5 days in Istanbul. I am extremely excited for the trip for many reasons; I've never been to Europe before and have always dreamed of going to Greece, I spent a great deal of time last semester in a class at USF learning about the conflict in Cyprus and am excited to take some of that learning outside the classroom, my professor is of Greek and Turkish origin(among other things) and grew up in Cyprus, and we've already been promised that there will be belly dancing in Istanbul.

I'm sorry that this post was a little all over the place, but that's kind of how my brain is working right now. I am so excited for the rest of this semester and I doubt that I will be able to do all of the things I want to do (have a mentioned yet that I'm in DC?!). I'll leave you now with a picture of what my little corner of DC looks like so far...