New Adventures in Boston

This three day weekend was awesome! It started out meeting a group of friends in the program at this horrible restaurant like Applebees called 99 right near campus, but we wanted somewhere a little more original so we went to Main and Moody to a pub called Mad Raven and had about 12 of us sitting around a table with the typical sports playing around us on the screens. Good fries and Hefeweisen! Then we headed to play pool on Moody street, the main street by our school and checked out the dance scene at Club Waltham nearby! I tell you those Africans from my program are good dancers!

Then Saturday, Kristina my roommate and I went to our place at 81 Cushing (because we are still subleasing) and met our other roommate! His name is Sam Slater and he is super nice, from Baltimore, and likes camping, exploring cities, skiing and sports- so we are happy! His family moved him in which is really cute too! So we met all of them and our landlord is really a nice guy, in the army reserves and super accommodating. After unloading Ktina's car into the basement (yes, the first place I have lived with a basement!!!) we picked up some friends- Ellen and Lindsay in the Coexistence and Conflict / Sustainable International Development program and headed into Boston to meet my friend Vessi. Vessi is from Bulgaria and has a great accent, and we studied together at American University in DC three years ago! So she showed us around and we walked from Park Street around the Boston Common and the State House to the main touristy street to the wharf and then to the North End where an awesome Italian festival was going on. We had really yummy pizza at this corner place then went out to see the night life back near Harvard!
It's fun too because Kristina is all about taking jump shot pics (she did it all over the US on her road trip a few weeks ago) and its fun...when we are settled in our apartment you will see them when I have time to put them up!

Then today, Sunday, I just read and applied to some jobs- just part time! Though I have to say, I am subleasing an apartment where 3 chinese ladies who go to Brandeis live and it is quite entertaining- well I don't know if that is the right word. One moved out at 9am this morning- not cool! Another has long black hair which ends up all over the apartment and I never know when I will hear them yelling at each other in Chinese- which sounds very angry as it is.....yes, entertaining!

My first week in Boston

A lot has happened since I arrived a little more than a week ago when i arrived- its seems like ages since that flight got in and my roommate picked me up! We had Orientation from Friday to Sunday all day, then academic advising from Monday to Weds. and have been into Boston a couple of times- once to Charles Street and another to walk around and explore Campbridge and do some work at a cafe near Porter Square. Thursday was my first day of classes, I had Rights Based Approach to Development from 9-12 and really enjoyed it, especially after working at an International Human Rights organization for the last 6 months. My classes next week are: Gender and Development, Threats to Development: Climate Change, Poverty Inequalities & Development, and Planning and Implementation. I am really excited to be taking a full load of 16 units and I am going to try and audit an undergrad Spanish conversation class if there is enough space! It is awesome being in grad school which such interesting people from all over- Nigeria, Kenya, Belize, Peru, Mexico!

Boston, Brandeis, and Beyond

I arrived Wednesday night and my housemate Kristina picked me up from the airport, and this was the first time I had seen here since we met in March at the interview at Brandeis and it was sooo good to see her again. We drove around (getting a little lost here an there) saw davis square and Waltham and by the time we got home, we were so hot- it was in the 90s or so, so we decided to get fans at the 24 hr CVS. Our first investment for our apartment!

Then we hung out on Thursday getting groceries, new beds since our apt is unfurnished and running around getting to know the area. Kristina is from San Diego and did a cross country trip with her older brother from NYC who is an actor and they had a blast in the car, which I am super glad especially since she has it with her now and it makes life that much easier. Then we met up at a mexican (I know its hard to compare to CA mexican food but it wasn't horrible I suppose) place called Margaritas for dinner with some Americans in our program- John, Travis, and Lauren. They are great and surprisingly there are already about 6 people from CA in the program out of about 25 Americans while the other 80 or so are International.

Then orientation began on Friday and we met everyone in the morning and took our lovely student ID card pics- its soooo good to be a student again, I just missed that. We had a welcome speech by the founder and director of the program Larry Simon who is an awesome older jewish gentleman (yes, Brandeis is historically jewish but the graduate school program at the Heller school is nonsecular and actually a lot of people are muslim in it!). He gave some great advice and guidance for this upcoming year and each day my goals and work path motivation are renewed being with such likeminded people! Everyone in the program- people from Ghana, Jamaica, the Congo and Gambia, the Phiipines, Cambodia, Uzbekistan, Mexico, Vietnam, the US, and India are so interesting, just to be surrounded by such great cultures and people- it will be hard to get to know everyone but I definitely want to. It's natural for me to group together with all too similar individuals so I look forward to branching out and learning as much as I can about other people.

The second day of orientation was good too. We did an NGO creation project based on my groups skills (there is going to be a ton of group work in the next year since development is so much about relationships and working together) and then we also did a case study analysis of a development project and are getting into some good surface level issues this week. We met our Advisors and also were spoken to by second year students in the SID (Sustainable International Development program- my program) about advice for this year and they were a funny, close, corky group which made me look forward to growing and learning with my classmates- who range from me, most likely the youngest, to 45 or so in age.

Tonight we have a program party with teh second years full of fun and dancing and chatting where everyone will be wearing their traditional dress- which for me is jeans and a shirt and a bunch of jewelry!

Classes start the 26th and thats when it all begins!!!!!

Kenya and Beyond...

Well I am definitely taken with Kenya. I cannot say I am in love- I don't know if that's possible in ten days, but I am definitely taken with the country and now by default the continent. A whole new work has been opened up for me and I am excited to see what my future brings as far as working in either Latin America or Africa....