Broken Window Theory?

On a fine Monday morning in DC I walked briskly down the street rocking out to my music in the sweet sunshine without a care in the world.

I then stepped into a cross-walk moments before the little man showed up on the "walk" sign and next thing I hear..."Mam!! Please show me your license!"

5 Minutes later I proceed again down the street again a little more cautiously having just received my first moving violation in years. A TICKET FOR JAY-WALKING!!! I am twenty dollars poorer for having stepped into a crosswalk 5 seconds too early.

Must be sort of the broken window theory for white-collar crime...they start with jaywalking and end up in tax evasion?? I don't know...

Spring Break!!

I miss it...

But mostly I am just excited for spring :)

Back to India...for a little while at least

New Job: Integrator for Asia/Knowledge Team of Ashoka

Role: Coordinating and facilitating communications between the Global Office and the Country Offices in:

India
Pakistan
Indonesia
Sri Lanka
Thailand
Singapore (coming soon)
Japan (coming soon)
China (coming soon)
Philippines
Malaysia

I'll be in Goa at the end of April and, with some luck, in Hong Kong in May

...If I could have to be in Malaysia at the end of May to check up on our programs there and partake in a little bit of Nomadfest that would be sweet too...

Women of the Working World

Its unlikely that anyone who knows me could call me a feminist without laughing...I like women, I think we are great and I think there are issues but I'm not generally one to "get my panties in a twist" as they say.

But I've had some realizations today about how working in an office of predominantly women has changed a lot of unconcious stereotypes and expectations I may have had about the working world

While its true that there are more women in college than men, the idea of women in the working world always seemed like a source of mysticism and conflict to me. Maye because I know too many girls from high school going for the Mrs. degree, maybe I know too many people who hate their jobs, I don't know but in any case; I had no concept of what female leadership looked like outside of AIESEC and no concept of what working with a group of women more talented, successful and ambitious could be like. (AIESEC aside here)

Today as I power-walked to work (the buses were still not running due to an explosion...long story) I suddenly found myself hitting my stride among a group of five or six girls all just a few years older than me. Some were obviously corporate with flashy leather portfolios and fancy shoes, some were obviously non-profits with hemp bags and big rings, some were like me- probably indistinguishably social sector. It struck me that for the first time in my life I'm living in a place where almost all of the women around me have lives like mine or lives I aspire to.

Some are single and happy, some are married with kids while doing insanely brillant things at work, but no one is just working to work or pay the bills. These are girls with dreams, girls with careers, girls who want to go somewhere or who strive to be the most inspiring sorts of moms a kid could ever have.

Made me realize how much I've internalized over the years, how much I've associated men and work with power, leadership and success. This isn't a rap against dudes at all-I love dudes and I love how they work but at the same time I'm gaining a whole new appreciation for how women work and how kick ass they can be at it.

This whole post is making me feel a little cringy like I should throw in some sexist joke or something but I have to admit DC is rocking my world in more ways than one...

Next Post: The drugs, the 20% poverty rate and other such fun issues in the District

A Day in the Life

Its been requested that I start providing some background to what I blog on the rare occasion I do. So here it is:

A Day in the Life of an Intern...

7:15- Wake up early because I share a bathroom with 3 boys all of whom are more metro than I am girlie...gotta be out by 7:30....

8:00 Walk to the bus stop or all the way to the metro station at McPherson's Square. The bus is usually full of cute little kids and their parents at this hour of the morning-a nice change from the night

9:00 Get to work say Hi to Francisco from Brazil who gets in when I do and to everyone else in the office, start in on all the emails that always pour in during the night due to both our workaholic-ness and the fact that we have fellows in over 60 countries around the world. Typical requests involve researching fellows, attempting to decipher espanol, etc

10:30 Make the rounds around the office to say hi to everyone and keep the channels of communication open, get coffee with Leah and whoever else is feeling the pain. Try to learn about what everyone else is doing so I know when to integrate them into our plans

11:00 Phone meeting? Updating the volunteer website I set up? Other random requests from people everywhere in the world? Research on fellows? Emailing country reps to find out what fellows are doing, updating our information and writing up documents for our volunteer writers

Noon: Work through lunch reading profiles of fellows to nominate for strategic awards

Afternoon: A combination of meetings, strategizing our volunteer program, emailing with fellow's whose visits I'm working on, emailing volunteers, writing, and playing with all the toys in Greg and I's office. Also eating all of the hershey's Kisses Greg keeps at his desk and bouncing on the posture ball in Leah's office...these are all integral parts of the day

5:00 Tiny break to say hi to people again and eat a cereal bar then back to writing and researching and emails as the other half of the world is waking up with questions and requests

7:00 Ten Hours after arriving at the office we start trying to kick each other out, or rather everyone tries to kick me out since I really am only interning and overtime is generally frowned upon

8:00 Get home or end up out to dinner or hanging out with co-workers putting off important laundry, grocery shopping and relaxing yet again...

10:30 Walk home past the drug deals on my corner and pretend I don't know what's going on...jump in the shower, catch up with people I miss and maybe check work email so its not such a shock in the morning

And by 11:30 I'm usually done for the day having yet to do my laundry, take my clothes to the dry cleaners or eat a real dinner...its a great life though...we'll just have to wait and see what comes next

Makin' This Place Home

Tonight is the inaugural housewarming party for the most interesting bunch of roommates I think I could ever live with.

The tastes are a little different among this bunch than those I've lived with in the past (Grape Smirnoff Ice anyone?) and the concept of "its just flavored tobacco" doesn't translate quite as well as I thought it would across some cultures.

In any case, there will be people, there will be adult beverages and there will be music courtesy of files from the best dj I know. There's a hobohookah ready to be rocked with sheesha straight from Cairo and hopefully there will be plenty of jiving and flagrant gloriousness to be had by all...