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!
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