My First Days in Nicaragua

So I arrived on Saturday in the morning and Mariana, the program coordinator,and Maria, the program director, were amongst the long line of people waiting outside the glass dorrs for all the peopet o come off the flight from Houstin. Right when I got off the plane, I felt the steamy humid air and had to smile, because I knew the weather was going to make it interesting while I am here. After the twelve hour journey of arriving dirty with all our bags and going through customs, waiting in line it was great to meet these two great women. Mariana is so great, she is 23 and is from Puerto Rica and went to Bard College in New York and speaks english and spanish perfectly. Though it is funny listening to her speak and not pronounce any S in her works. That is very common here. Maria has her PHD, does not speak any enlgish, has three kids and is amazing. SO we got into our Mirco bus with all our luggage and drove through Managua to our very luxurious hotel, meaing not many bugs, being served food and towels provided with actual running water that is nice and cold and a big supply of purified water. CasaSan Pedro was nice. We were there for two nights. I will write more later because I am being kicked off by Jolie, someone in my gorup who wants to use the computer. More later...

So much since then...

Wow, when is it that time doe snot fly by? Well, I took my last final May 1st, went to Kansas to visit the fam and ran back and forth from SF to Atherton to be with fam and friends and celebrate May bdays and go to Narnia with my brother and attend predeparture class for my internship in Nicaragua and help a friend move in the city. Busy Busy Busy. So I leave for Nicaragua tonight and will be there until August 2nd. I am working at a community development organization that is a non profit and will tell you more details later when I am in the country. I won't have a huge amount to access to phones or internet but I do get free text messages so...I would love to hear from you! But in the mean time...my good friend Matt graduated USF and here is a picture of us!

May 4th

So in leaving DC and deciding that a trip to Europe as originally planned would not work out especially since John and Devon's 10 day trip to Germany and the Ukraine turned into Devon's solo week trip to Germany, I thought I better wait until I graduate for a longer trip to Europe and maybe Asia. So on my way home I though I would stop in Kansas where my Mother's family is and say hello to the great granny and cousin, Sammy. However flights from Chicago, which is where I was stuck on Sunday were all full to everywhere I could think of flying. So I took the last flight of the day out to San Jose and if I did not make it, I would have had to sleep in the airport that night...no I would have gone to a hotel, but thankfully a nice United employee gav eme the last seat on the plane. Literally, the last...I was in the very back of the plane in the far left corner (at least I got on a flight and was not on the aisle where you have to turn your head away because the bathroom smells). So oddly enough John was flying from LA back to Salt Lake City but couldn't get on any flights either so he ended up flying to Oakland. Funny how things turn out and that we bnoth came home on the same night. So he got in and took the train to Atherton, luckily I get VIP private car service and someone in my family always picks me up...no public transportation when I am home! John came and got me in San Jose and then I drove him out today to SFO to fly back to Salt Lake city. That is the trick I have figured out not to be homesick...come home for visits (short enough not to get into any trouble!) Then I am flying out to Kansas tomorrow and will come home in time for our annual mothers day celebration on Sunday in Atherton with the Grandparents, Aunt Kit and Uncle Tom, MJ's mother, Mary Ellen who is in town for Callan's First Communion. Fun Fun!! will post soon...

End of the Semester

It is the last day of April, with two days left of work there is so many great memories and experiences to look back on. My Foreign Policy Professor had the class do some sort of theater works based on our internships and class sessions-- so we decided to do charades...very funny and a little awkward when Maisch went up himself and acted out a couple funny scenes we had written down. Some example were getting coffee for your supervisor on the hill or falling asleep in class or making fun of Professor Maisch and his ridiculous sayings with his peruvian accent. For example, he always called us ""sleepyheads" or "siesta monsters" and called himself "a tropical bird" or our "friendly frustrated latin american dictator." By the end, it was well, entertaining (but really annoying). His sense of humor is crazy, like the time he jumped out from a building with a mask on when he tricked us into thinking we were seeing an Ambassador speak but really we were having a picnic in the park.

Then all the funny people in my class- the foreigners...the three Germans with their thick accents, the frenchman who thought France was the best, the funny Bulgarian, the innocent and sweet guy from Sweden who always sought peace, and the quiorky guy from Afghanistan and the amazing politician from Senegal. Everyone was so genuine and really made this semester interesting and spicy.

From Obama speaking at a rally at AU and Ashley Judd at the Women Development conference, Richard Gere at the Tibetan hearing on the hill and with Ricky Martin, who I saw yesterday, launch a campaign against trafficking in DC and in Latin America, at the Inter-American Development Bank-- I am so lucky to see so much excitment.

What a great end of the semester...there are so many opportunities and great things about DC..I will definitely return!

My great Roomates!

It is funny, a student's life...eating, sleeping, going to class, and studying in our room and reading...that's about it. So sometimes we go a little crazy in our rooms...

But, I so lucked out with such great roommates, this year and the last two years...here are some funny pictures of us...such good memories:






Noemie and Ashley in NYC

Nostalgia

I was reading an article about Spain in the Eagle, American University's newspaper, and I got sooo Spain-sick...here is the article and some random pictures from Spain..a little recap if you will:

There's no real taste like home
Cross-Cultural Dispatch: Madrid, Spain

By Carolyn Phenicie on 4/24/08

The easiest way to sum up the wave of feelings I've had here is to describe my relationship with Spanish food.

It begins much the way standard "culture shock" does - with excitement about all the new possibilities and opportunities in the host country. Chocolate and churros all the time! The world's best oranges grown nearby!

And, for a while, that's what it was. I rejoiced in trying all the new foods presented to me: Croquettes and Spanish tortilla - an omelet with potatoes, not a flour cake in the Mexican sense of the word - were culinary adventures to be enjoyed.

Once I got used to the food, however, the second stage, a relationship of almost anger, set in. Along with "Oh my God, why won't someone speak to me in English?!" and "Why is no one ever on time?!" came "I would kill for a turkey sandwich right now."

Other members of my program and I would compare the meals our señoras had prepared, becoming visibly jealous over reports of salads, particularly when they included more than iceberg lettuce, oil and vinegar. Vegetables, other than potatoes and beans, aren't common in Spanish cooking. Anything that arrived grilled, baked or not covered in a heavy, oily sauce was also given high marks.

After a few weeks of usually fruitless hunts for former staples of my diet like baby carrots and peanut butter, I grew to accept the food. Just as I got used to making my everyday dealings in Spanish, despite the frequent frustrations experienced by both myself and whatever poor soul had to deal with my occasionally mangled excuse for the language, I grew to accept Spanish food. I accepted my usual lunch of chorizo on white bread and days with far less produce than I would like.

Now, however, as my time in Spain draws to a close, I'm having conflicting feelings toward Spanish food and, consequently, Spanish culture. I know I'll never again have as good a tortilla as my señora makes, nor will the paella in the States ever taste as amazing as it does here. And I know I'll never again live in a city with as much amazing art as Madrid can claim, nor is it likely my nights out will begin at 11 p.m. and end around 6 a.m.

Yet as I try and make the most of my last few weeks here, I'm increasingly excited about going home to a land of Diet Coke (Coke Light isn't the same, no matter what anyone tells you), pretzels and readily available bad Chinese food. I'm thrilled that I will soon be back in the land of culture as high as the Smithsonian and Kennedy Center and as low as "America's Next Top Model."

Whether I ultimately yearn to return to the land of ham and paella remains to be seen, but, undoubtedly, any future culture shock will be reflected in my attitudes toward food.



I miss my friends from Spain, the ones who I studied with- the Americans and the Spanairds and especially my Spanish Mom's cooking...ohh Crazy Conchi....

Barcelona:

Bike riding on the beach


My best friends in Spain

My school in Bilbao

Northern Spain and the Church Island we hiked to



Toledo, Spain

Everyone in front of the Gernika tree

My 9-5 Day on the Hill

I spent all day yesterday on the hill, attending three hearings. In the morning I went to a press release and a panel discussion with Representative Carolyn Malony who has done a lot of work in the House for labor trafficking and child labor in the shrimp industry. Also the US Ambassador for Human Trafficking, Mark Laygon, who heads the trafficking office, spoke and the Executive Director from the Solidarity Center all spoke about a new report released on the shrimp farming industry and what countries the US buys tainted shrimp from. For example, Bangladesh and Thailand. I hear about all these great events from Polaris Project, they have so many connections and resources it is great.

Then the next event I attended was on NATO and the Bucharest Summit last week. There were a bunch of Eastern Europeans there speaking all sorts of different languages, it was great. So i had to leave early to make a hearing on Tibet, called a Path Towards Peace, and of course there were a bunch of Tibetans there. For people who don't know, there have been huge peaceful protests in the last couple of months in response to the increased Chinese oppression in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. CHina claims a One Country Policy, claiming right to govern over and control Tibet, but they have been infringing on Tibetan rights and sovereignty for years and today is the outcome of this. So Barbara Boxer was the Chairwoman holding the hearing and it was so great to see her in action asking strong questions to the panelists, such as the Undersecretary of State, Mr. Negroponte who is Under Secretary Rice. Then to my surprise, wondering why there were forests of press, Richard Gere came in and was nother one of the Panelist members to talk about Tibet. He plays a major role in calling attention to abuses in Tibet and winning their freedom. He is a Chairman on the International Campaign for Tibet and does a lot of work with the Tibetan Autonomous Region with the Gere Foudnation, of which he is the President.

So it was a great day. Last night I also had my last International Children's issues course. It is wierd to think my semester is almost over. I am so comfotably settled and like DC and am left with the yearning for more. Maybe I will haev to move back here one day. There are so many opportunities and NGO headquarters here...it is like a candy store for me.

USF in DC

Last Thursday night I met the Director of the McCarthy Center at USF who was putting on a dinner for the USF students in DC and the recent alums of my school. So I met my friend Laura, who I went to Cambodia with last May- we were in Erasmus together, and a couple other kids from our program and went to Dupont circle to meet everyone at Bucca De Beppos. Of course our dinner is at this funky Italian restaurant with weird pictures on the wall. Only in conservative DC would people from San Francisco socialize and meet new people in a crazy setting here. To my surprise the President of the University came too! Father Privett is awesome- I must have met him three or so times, but I shook his hand and talked a little with him. He was called here to have a private audience with the Pope- I guess all the Presidents of the Jesuit Universities were. Pretty cool- I told him to tell the Pope I say "What's up!" He just laughed.
It was so great to meet people who had just graduated in DC and see what they are doing now...they are going to be great connections. There was this one couple, Tom and Dedra, about thirty years old at my table telling us about their kickball league here- called NAKID (No, Adult Kickball Isn't Dumb) and the stories they were telling were hilarious. The website is great- I think there is a little game that goes on and a lot of drinking. Then there were two other women who have done a lot of traveling who were great to talk to, Kate and Hilary. It is always great hanging out with older people to hear their stories and to see what they have done knowing it is always an option for me in the future.
Check out the NAKID website: www.playnakid.com
So here are some pictures of the dinner with Patrick Murphy- the Director of the McCarthy Center (which is actually sending me to Nicaragua this summer too) and the students with Father Privett (Laura is the one next to the short Father Privett)
First of all, it was such a beautiful day in DC!

Here is the Director of the McCarthy Center speaking to the group, his center sent us all here to DC.


Father Privett is the second one from the left and my friend Laura who was in Erasmus with me last year in in between he and I.