Botany 100

I really don't think I can keep any of this to myself any longer...

Yesterday was my first day of summer school and we did these things:

a) planted beans in a paper cup
b) were asked why we need plants (not sarcatically or rhetorically though I should add)
c) learned what a hypothesis was
d) measured plant heights in the woods in the most imprecise ways possible

Today was my second day of summer school and we did these things:

a) walked around a garden to find a plant to describe to our classmates but just in terms of does it have flowers, do we like it etc
b) received a 25 minute lecture on how scientific names must be written in a different script than the surrounding verbage. This means we can underline or write in bold or use a different font or write in italics or write in regular font if the surrounding text is italics or....yes I think we got the idea after the first 30 seconds

To top it all off I also received a sticker on my quiz for a job well done...seriously...I can't imagine what we will do tomorrow maybe a tape of Bill Nye the science guy? Maybe a sing along?

I wanted an easy science class to fulfill my bio requirement but this may be something else...at this point the only ways I can tell this college course from the 3rd grade science class is that we drink coffee and when the professor says the word "sex" no one laughs...too loud anyway

No Turning Back

I officially purchased my plane tickets to India and started working on my visa application... I should perhaps have done those two things in the reverse order but too late now I guess no worries!

So an ungodly sum of money later, its official on September 21 I leave O'Hare and on September 23 I arrive in Chennai... I'm really going

and I have the credit card bill to prove it.

Woo hoo!

A Loverly Week

Tuesday: Chicago and the Hudson Valley-broken up by drinks with Arnaub at an airport Chile's at 4 pm. Who knew I'd run into Arnaub at O'Hare and who knew you could make so many words out of Ketel One Vodka
Wednesday: Hudson Valley with the rents and the cousins
Thursday: Albany with Grandma and half the New York family whilst my date for Friday's wedding gets wasted in Madtown
Friday: Wedding!!! And trying to figure out if this kid would make it there in time
Saturday: Trains, planes and automobiles to the city, to Jersey City where Volver proved to be an excellent movie to get sloshed to
Saturday/Sunday: Sort of foggy but it definitely took us from 4am to 6am to find our way from the upper west side back to Jersey-riding the subway whilst obliterated takes its toll
Sunday: sleep and city and rain and good times till 4am again
Monday: Jersey to Chicago to Madison by 3pm and its time for summer!!!!!!!

Summation: I bought a looooot of metrocards this weekend

I was taking a glorious post-finals nap during which I dreamed that my roommate Christy who has been in London for 6 months, was talking to me. Then I woke up and realized it was Christy in our living room. Woo hoo for homecomings!

Impatience

Impatience. I'm realizing that might be my tragic flaw. Not impatience with getting things done, but with people, with time, with relationships. Impatience with feeling or not feeling, impatience to resolve any conflict as fast as humanely possible, impatience with realizing its still early and I have to be patient and hold on if I want to stay with this ride.

Madison Exchange + Econ = No studying

After sitting at college with a couple cool chicas last night, I realized the sheer impossibility of getting work done when you and everyone around you will be leaving for a traineeship or a trip or a study abroad or a job soon. Soo cool and so unproductive

Perhaps there should be some sort of fine print at the bottom of the AN form: Warning: accepting a traineeship, especially in the company of other people going on traineeships will cause a severe decrease in ability to concentrate on econ and an intense preoccupation with all matters remotely related to one's destination of choice.

I feel like I must be overexcited given that I am not leaving for another 3 and a half months but I don't think I can help it. I've put off traveling and doing a traineeship long enough, trying to be a good kid and save money. Finally, finally though I get to say and and get to know that I'm actually leaving and better yet, I am going to a country that I have only studied and dreamed about working in for the last two years. I know there is a lot more to leaving and working in India than the simple satisfaction of getting to do it, it might suck, it will rain, I might get lonely etc etc. But at least I get to go do it and experience it and for that I am so fucking excited and grateful.

two hours until my last final today, third to last of my undergraduate career, six hours until I'm most likely intoxicated, four days until I leave for New York, four months until I leave for India

So much happening, so little time, who wants to spend the rest of the time we have playing outside and drink on the terrace?

Reading for thought

"What has sustainable development to do with human rights?" Zimbabwe's ambassador to the UN told the BBC.

Good question if two parties are in disagreement over the definition of sustainable development which seriously if you are the UN and an ambassador from Zimbabwe you shouldn't be.

Also interesting how in this quotation the ambassador does not even deny human rights abuses but merely asked why they should matter in development. Why do they matter? I don't know??? Where should we start??? Its a question that is so wrong on so many levels

Here's the article lest I come off too harsh. Perhaps it was a slip of the tongue by the ambassador or perhaps its a good pro-Brit slant that makes this latest UN news seem so rediculous: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6645715.stm

For some more uplifting and encouraging (and completely detrimental to my would-be thesis) reading look here

Sentiment and Serendipity And My Chair is Broken

In my typical approach to paper-writing, I spent a good deal of last night reading blogs, the news and basically every piece of literature completely irrelevant to the topic of my paper. I read a lot of stuff about this whole moving on and graduation thing going on right now. Never mind that I graduate in August or that many people I know now have come into my life so recently, (in combination with my desire to procrastinate a mere 4-6 hours before my paper is due) reading and pondering all of that stuff made me sort of nostaligic and sentimental.

Apparently my chair was feeling sort of the same way. In a sort of fitting environmental reflection of my state of mind, the back of my desk chair broke off last night as I read blog posts and wrote what could be my second to last paper of my undergrad career.


Nevermind that I actually need to use this chair until August or that it came into my life such a short time ago, the truth of the matter is, the chair is done for and so, it seems, is my back. This damn chair keeps poking me in the back and, perhaps ironically, is making the conclusion of this paper very difficult.

While conclusions are always hard to do and often rushed and jotted off with the assumption that more can be said later, I'm thankful that at least in my life, and in the conclusions to this chapter (shit this metaphor works on so many levels) of both my life and the lives of people I care about around there are no broken chairs breaking backs and that I think everyone truly will make the opportunities to say more and do more later.

And if anyone wants to donate a lovely cushy armchair to replace the debilitated remains of this one, I'm all for it.

WOO HOO!!!!!

Its a BEAUTIFUL SPRINGY SUMMERY DAY AND I AM LEAVING FOR CHENNAI INDIA IN SEPTEMBER!!!!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!!!! Can't wait!

Note to self...

I zoned out in my gender and development class today, as I have in all my classes for the past week and a half and was enjoying my mental escape when I caught the tail end of a conversation about viewing gender relations and the goal of gendered planning vs working in the context of gender relations to tackle bigger (or less private perhaps) community issues.

It hit me that distinctions like the one above and indeed the various nuances to development and good intentions and politics and communities and the like that I have tucked away into various corners of my brain over the past couple of years are not only interesting or intellectual but they seriously fucking matter, starting for me (Hopefully hopefully) in September when all I will be doing is working with gender issues and the shitty awful results of bad gender relations

How successful I am at adapting my expectations to local culture, and in turning those expectations into meaningful and productive programs will no longer be an intellectual exercise but one that actual matters in the lives of people around me. Its humbling and scary, and exciting

But I think most importantly I need to remember to never tune out and assume I know what's being said but rather learn every little thing I can possibly cram into my brain in the hopes that it makes me a better person to do my job

ps. a bug flew in my eye today and now I can't really see out of it. My official diagnosis: bug eye

I have to Praise You

Its always great when bystanders you don't even know film you and your friends and post you on youtube. Best Mifflin ever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPs_fRSJero

Foundation

I apologize for the lame rantings of these posts, I would normally be more thoughtful, find more sweet links (like to 102 year old women who swear by no-vegetable diets) hopefuly however these are soc-y enough posts since I am being so lame and multi-tasking

But here is a sweet clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1svHTrgAtE

"rejection never sounded so sweet"

On a more positive note

Just sent my acceptance note to work in Chennai for six months after I graduate. Realizing that I might not get the traineeship (someone might have beat me to the punch) made me realize how much I am freaking looking forward to going and how excited I am about the opportunity.

If (IF IF IF) I get the traineeship I would be overseeing the strategy and implementation of programs for domestic violence crises management at the International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Protection. Am I qualified right now? probably not. But I look forward to a whole summer of learning everything I can about Chennai, about domestic violence programs, about what works and what doesn't. I want to go in for a challenge, but I certainly don't want to put in place shitty programs or ruin people's lives doing it.

Its interesting to me how often in government, in development, the poorest, the most marginal, be the subject nations or people expertise, while sought, is not always vindicated. How often does the US government shuffle people around in the state department, assigning people to regions of the world they don't know anything about rather than their area of expertise? How often do poorly funded organizations have to take whatever they can get? People like me for instance

Encouragingly though, I feel like I am surrounded by a group of people who know a shit ton, but even more importantly are willing to learn even more to use the skills they have in unfamiliar areas. I hope that's true and I hope I turn out to be one of those people

INDIA WOO HOO I CAN"T WAITTTTTTTTTTT! :)

Diwan? Jiihad? and "The poor don't understand..."

It is always striking to me here at arguably one of the more liberal universities in the US how uncultured, ignorant, and just plain arrogant people can be. Maybe it shouldn't surprise me, this is after all Wisconsin and we are after all mostly upper middle class white kids but these two anecdotes from recent classes are perfect examples of times I cringe in both agitation and fear, wondering what the hell will happen to the world when these people go off and get jobs with their college "educations"

1. In a discussion about Rai music from Algeria our professor presented an album by a famous (not quite) Rai musician entitled "diwan" (my Arabic is not so good) Knowing only that Algeria is predominantly Muslim and learning from class that fundamentalists Muslims have sought political power in the country a kid asked, "So his album is called diwan, like the Muslim holy war?'

I nearly hit myself in the forehead and nearly punched the kid in the face

Jihad? Is that the word you were looking for? And do you have any clue that its an expression for personal conquest and challenge which may or may not have anything to do with "terror" or "9/11?" Jeez...

2. In some thought experiments in my developmental economics class, a class where you would assume people to have some level of development background or savvy perhaps? Here is a sample of the uninformed highly prejudiced things I heard:

"We have to teach Thai girls about sex education so they don't become prostitutes" (yes because I am sure all Thai prostitutes would all of a sudden renounce prostitution in favor of starvation and homelessness after learning about HIV-yes that has been proven to work)
"Poor people don't know how important education is for their children so they have to learn" (Once again, do you know any poor people? Do you have any idea what uniforms and fees cost? Do you think parents can't see that education is the only way out of poverty)

More positive post next time

Soc tme

So apparently I owe one of my professors quite a few "journal" entries relatedly marginally to our classwork. In the interest of expediency, and efficiency, and with some general enthusiasm for showing my professor what sweet things AIESECers are doing all over the world I hereby subject my infant blog to my soc topic grade. Woo hoo but onwards to the stuff I have to write about
(in a side note, the space bar on this memorial lab computer is stuck so if I resort to typing without spaces between my words, I blame the person who spilled froo froo juice or latte all over the freakin keyboard)

Ummm, the oil and energy crises...yea...I'm a complete cynic but also amazed at how much could be productive discourse on the political impetus of American access to cheap oil and how our society has been constructed to support an insatiable demand and blah blah blah always tends to stop, at least in my limited reading, at the greed of some CEOs and the politicians who depend on their money and the maintenance of the American dream for votes. Seriously? We are fucking over the world because some people want to get rich and every politician is just an evil person for wanting to get votes? I think we are very much letting a massive group off the hook.

Today in Prof. Lehney's class we talked about mistaking influence for control, especially in the realm of corporate and political relationships. Yes the media can project what we feel we should want for the profit line of corporations. Yes, the auto industry can supress cleaner technology, Yes every elected politician depends on Americans maintaining their lifestyles and lifestyle aspirations but its not like we live in country where a gun is put to our head if we choose to not support a certain candidate.

We allow ourselves to be affected by the media by the politics, by the corporations. No one is forcing us to purchase magazines that imply the necessity of buying every cosmetic product in the universe. No one makes us buy cars instead of dealing with the inconvenience of transportation (and indeed as long as only the poor or the hyperurban rely on it, no one will give a shit how inconvenient it is) No one forces me to buy grapefruit in January instead of some freakin 4 month old potatoes. These are not super veggie hippie choices to make. But why aren't they mainstream (discounting the almost nauseating chic green movement going on)

Because frankly I like having my computer on all night to save 5 minutes in the morning. I like driving to a grocery store or a mall to buy things I probably don't need. I like wearing make up and clothes and eating fruit and petrol-processed shit and as much as I don't want to give up all these things, there are a lot of people who are even less prepared to give them up than I am.

Its hip to talk about the small ways we can buy green or live more greenly or what not but when it comes down to it, we still want to buy we still want to make waste and we still like to enjoy the luxury of living highly materialistic lives without having to feel guilty for it. We can blame corporations and politictians for influencing our desires for this way of life but when it comes down to it, they don't control us and saying they do is not only a huge insult to the dignity and intelligence of every American, but allows us to continue our comfortable existences without major changes because after all, its really not our fault.

Love ranting for class, 1 down, 6 to go (sorry kids)

I noticed the day the leaves changed

Spring is fucking awesome and timeless. As I walked under arching branches of lilac-like trees, looked up through the green and purple to see blue, smelled intoixcating flower smells mixing with the scent of vegetation coming alive underfoot, felt a cool breeze on my face but the warmth of the sun on my back and I realized I've been in this exact moment before, last year and the year before that and the year before that until I can barely remember.
For people like me who don't do religion, don't sit still, who suck at holding onto friendships and generally live with a sense of anxious restlessness, sometimes its good to know that there are things that don't change and don't require change or thought, Some things for which simple awareness and appreciation pay great dividends of contentment.
Change is progressive and great, and challenging and wonderful but sometimes
sometimes its good to know that unlike friends, or parents, or aquaintances, or cities, or ideologies, there are some things that don't change and don't go away and don't need to go away.
There are somethings that always come back, always remind you that there are things eternal, and that our lives are a rythym of sun ups and sun sets, of seasons and experiences. Breaths in and out.
All this jumping around and trying to be better and trying to do more, know more, understand differently is of course great but sometimes its nice to know that there are things that even the most skeptical among us can know are just true and beautiful and beautiful in their truth and truthful in their beauty. Like Spring.

Its so not the time to talk about global warming...