My Week.5 at Home

I have been home since the 20th of December, a 7.5 hour turbulent cold flight from Boston on United...not fun!

Then I got back to Atherton and got right back into the old living here routine. Had some doctors appointments to get out of the way before seeing friends and hanging with the fam. Callan was so excited for me to be home, every other sentence was Love you Dev! It was cute, I think he misses having siblings around, he is getting so much bigger now, 10 and in 5th grade! The day after I got home, Tuesday, I took Bart up to the city headed to Global Exchange my old job. I felt like I was right back in the commute, about an hour usually more, there and back everyday. It was so great to see my old coworkers- everything was the same. I missed them but it made me glad to have chosen to go to school and keep learning. I had Mexican food with Beth, a good friend from DC who did grad school like me a couple years ago- it was great to hear office chit chat and talk about my experience in grad school. Then I saw some friends and had dinner on Divisidero at Little Star a yummy pizza place. Throughout the week I ate at my favorite places: the Cheese House (possibly the best sandwiches in CA!), Applewood with Lenore a family friend, and of course cooking at home in a real person's kitchen is great. I made stir fry for my family christmas eve, though I don't think they were too fond of the vegetarian tofu I put in. Christmas eve was traditional as always. We went to the our old neighbors and childhood best friend's house the Hohls. After the party with amazing appetizers and the same families each year, we catch up, they go to church, and then come back to their house and the mom of the family always reads The Night Before Christmas, even though us kids are now 27, 23, 22, and 18. Love the traditions. Christmas morning was great, we enjoyed our tree (that callan waited to decorate with me for when I was home), and did gifts with just the four of us, MJ, Dad, Cal and myself.

I also went out for drinks for the first time in Redwood city with my friend Heather, it was fun but no San Francisco, and I saw my good friend Ryan at her new apartment in San Jose. After Xmas I did some exchanging of gifts and got some cute summer tops for the GALAPAGOS! Change of plans, I couldn't get a Brazilian Visa in time for my trip so I had to change my flight and go to Quito earlier. It will still be good, but so now I will be in Quito for 5 days then to the islands for 10, then back to boston on the 16th!

You will be seeing pictures!

Goodbye to Waltham

I had a great weekend after finals. Kristina and I had our Christmas Party- a themed ugly sweater party, on Thursday night to celebrate the end of finals and a really hard and great semester. I have to say my friend Aaron probably had one of the best sweaters, then there was Julie who wore an awesome red kids sweater with her red hair, and Luke, Kristina's guy had a great grandmas sweater.





Friday night was great as well, Kristina, Sam (our other roommate), and Luke and I all watched Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation- very funny! And Saturday Kristina and I went out in cold Boston to our friend Ross's restaurant with our other friend John who are both in our program and had a drink then went Christmas party hopping. First to Ross' friends' place that had a big sign on the door- THE PARTY IS HERE, and then to a girl from CA in our program's party, Jessica. Then to another place in Cambrige. Good fun to meet new people and get out after studying hard core for two weeks straight.

Friday I went ice skating with my friend Ross at the Boston Common, it was beautiful!


Then Kristina and I flew out on United 6am Monday morning the 20th only to take a 7.5 windy and turbulent flight home to find out we missed to first snow in boston!! We were so bummed, but we know there will be plenty when we fly back mid January.

Presentations..then Finals!

This week was craziness! 15 hour days at school, presentations, papers, and bears oh my! It started on Sunday when I have 6 hours of class in NGOs: Strategic Planning because the director of SID, my program, who teaches the class was in China for two weeks so we had to make up the sessions. Then Monday I had a Geographic Information Science presentation about mapping indicators like % of GDP spent on education in peru, then Tuesday we had class and group meetings to prepare for presentations. Wednesday I worked in the morning then had our big Planning and Implementation of projects class presentations based on our group project proposals we have been working on all semester- it went really well and the donor committee evaluating us had great comments and suggestions. Then Thursday morning I had NGOs: Strat planning presentation based on our recommendations to improve an organization, we chose Akili Dada, the organization I worked for in Kenya- then I had a final in Ecology right after. Friday- was a nice break, I had a little work meeting and have been hanging out since. Now I just have to finish and Economy final, a Poverty final which are both essays, a website for GIS presenting my work/maps then a final version of our group project proposal and a speech for Communications for Impact then I can dream of Christmas, California and the Galapagos.

Yes- I am headed to the Galapagos Islands right off the coast of Ecuador with MJ's mom, Mary Ellen for 10 days! And right before I will be flying to Rio de Janeiro before for a couple days just to see it! I can't believe I studies Latin America and will be working there hopefully next year and I have never been there...crazy right!? Anyways...I gotta power through this work then I am off....

Pictures from Latin America and Caribbean Cultural Night!

This is my friend in the program Binta's daughter, Binta is from the Gambia.




A group of us students who worked in Latin America.

The Last One...Then Finals Nov. 30- Dec 4

What a week! Four great days so far. I will have to do a breif recap from the week trip home next post.

Monday: I worked on a policy memo on how to conduct a Sustainable Livelihoods Approach to a project on rural irrigation in Africa. Then did some computer research on community partners for an Aging in Society undergrad class for work at the Office of Experiential Learning. Then did some reading and writing for other classes catching up still from the week before. And checking emails- I swear we get so many emails from our program Heller. Then I took the bus to school (I live about a mile and half away), froze my butt off, and had class from 6:40-9:30 with Kristina- Geographic Informations Science- basically using computer software to visually map data about anything I choose. Dean Ravi (from India) teaches the course and it is great- he is passionate about data and displaying information to persuade the audience about your message and he is funny (and bring us Dunkin Donut holes every class!). Then I came home and worked on stuff for Tuesday- reading for class and whatnot.

Tuesday: I had Climate Change (which consists of economics and ecology) from 9-12. Then from 12-2 I had meetings with my colleagues for class projects. From 3-5 I had Poverty, Inequalities, and Development where the ending of the class went over how we need to decide where we stand on all the issues we covered in class (like labor trends, globalization, the Human Development Index, and Washington Consensus and structural adjustment all impacting development) and how to be innovative in our approach to development in our projects being leaders in the field.

Wednesday: My supervisor picked me up on by my house and we drove to work (its the new Mandel Humanities Center across from Heller where my classes are) and we did a brainstorming marketing meeting with stakeholders involved in our office like students, community partners, and faculty at 8AM!!! Then I worked until 12 and had an NGOs and Strategic Planning meeting for my group presentation for class. Then I went to a student presentation for work of undergrads who did sustainable campus and community projects- very cool to see a great/close student teacher relationship in the class with an amazing professor Laura Goldin. Then I read and caught up with Kristina- we always have stories of the day to tell each other- great fun! This includes anything little from Kate if dating Dan to this is what we discussed in class and what is your theory of change or development. We are so on the same page, actually hoping to boost the education emphasis in the program, in which we are both interested, and work together to bring a course to heller on Education and Development. Then I had planning and implementation from 6-9 and did group work with 2 Indians, a Ghanaian, and myself- a funny mix. We definitely laugh and have fun together. I also had a nice conversation with some second year students who made me realize the positive and negative aspects of the Heller school and our program. (one good thing is the free beer and wine they give out on the first Friday of the month in the on campus bar!)
Then I came home and did work on a group project to submit the draft on Thursday. And 1:30am comes around and I am off to bed...

Thursday:
A great day that started with a class with the Director of my program, then I went to a work meeting to talk about research on community partners and it was great to meet with the professor and make that connection (she is really big in a consulting firm that touches on development work which I would love to be a part of!). It was so great being with Audra my supervisor and Lexi the other undergrad assistant who is a senior and super cute. I am definitely glad I have this job, even though it is only 10 hours a week. Then I had a great meeting with the Dean of the school who is also interested in education like I am so we talked about past students who have the same interests and I do. Then I had lunch with Kristina at my office (they always have leftover catered food for us poor grad students!) and talked about what we like about the program. Then I had my climate change lab where we talked about global hegemony of the US in the context of the economy and then we talked about green leasing.

Friday:
I worked in the morning at the EL office then went to the Poverty, Inequalities, and Development lecture we have every week by an outside lecturer. Then I had a Planning and Implementation group meeting for my class, reviewing our proposal to address malnutrition in Peru where I went straight to a Heller event called the Philosophy Cafe where a professor leads an informal discussion on some development topic like the role of institutions in development at some bar. There were about 12 of us from the Conflict and Coexistence and Sustainable International Development program, it was great. From there I went home to meet my couch surfer who stayed on my couch for 2 days, he was from France and we met some friends at a bar for a beer! Very fun.

Saturday
What a day- after such a long week, I woke up early to do Yoga with my supervisor/friend Audra, but it was cancelled- so I did a little work in the morning then went grocery shopping for rice, beans, cilantro, onions, and peppers to make Gallo Pinto. I made Gallo Pinto (black beans and and rice) for about 40 people and was cooking all day until the Latin American Cultural night at school where we celebrated the region, which was put on by people who worked and are from LA. It was a great night and we all danced and had a great time.

The typical week of a grad student in Heller...