Life doesn’t fit into boxes. August 20, 2008

Here we are packing everything that we want to bring with us out of our Seattle life and into our Denver life. I didn’t think I’d be bringing much, and I still don’t think I will. This trip was always going to be a trip I made alone, and my life was most likely going to be lived alone. The summer has given me the gift of John Eric and Miette and Bowie, and even his mother Carolyn. Now this is a life that will be lived as a family; decisions made as a team. It holds so much more promise than it ever did before, and I was so happy even then that it doesn’t seem possible to be this blessed. I am thankful.

I am still suffering physically from the Southeast Asia trip; my stomach continues to revolt every few hours and I feel weak and want to lay down constantly. Our sleep schedule is still insane; we wake up at 5 or 6 am just to fall asleep exhausted at 8 pm. What else? Owl, our smallest little grey tabby kitten, needs a checkup at the vet for her broken arm that has been healing over the last month. A few days before the trip she decided to attempt flight out of her babysitter Jonathan’s 7th floor window (did she see a bird, perhaps?) and we are lucky - so very lucky - that she survived and that we located her again. I am calling her my “mirac-owl”. I have to say that was one of the worst moments of my life, knowing she wasn’t in his apartment and seeing the window screen ajar. Even I got dizzy from heights when I looked out to try to find her. If it wasn’t for Eric running up the several blocks from his office, I would have been helpless. He spoke to the building manager and found out that she had been taken to a vet somewhere in Seattle; every friend I have who could make phone calls from work was trying to locate her all at once, and we finally found her at the same emergency vet where I took a fallen squirrel on my first week in Seattle. (It is truly amazing how things come full circle.) When I saw my little kitten, bloody and swollen, I cried for her pain, and I cried for happiness that she was going to be okay. Her several weeks in a cast are finished (thanks, Carolyn) and she is on the mend and back to normal. She only favors that broken leg a bit.

Yesterday we spent the morning at Top Pot, which is a ritual I missed intensely while we were traveling. It seemed that it was the appropriate time to say goodbye to my second home, my little neighborhood coffee shop. That was where I found out that I was accepted to grad school so many months before. It was where I said goodbye to Dave for the last time and embarked on a life that didn’t include him. It was where I answered my emails, wrote out birthday and Christmas cards, met with friends and conducted blind dates. It was home, and it will always be part of me. But it is time to let it go, now. Denver will have new little haunts that we can call our own, I trust.

The movers come tomorrow or Friday. Wish us luck.

lions and tigers and bears - oh my! August 19, 2008

So finally we have the quintessential blog post that starts out by saying “so much has happened since I posted last”! I have some excuses. Let’s see…I’ve been in Southeast Asia for a month with John Eric…he and I have arranged our future so that we can be together in Denver…we have a little house near campus that is waiting for us to arrive on Monday (this Monday!)…and so much more that I can’t even get into yet. I’m so excited about everything. School - or at least orientation - starts on September 2nd and more than anything I can’t wait to pick my classes. I learned so much on the trip about International Development and about my own areas of interest, but I can’t wait to bring it all together in the classroom.

I need to figure out how to at least link to the SE Asia pictures.

acknowledgment June 5, 2008

As I was filling out the GRE Test Taker Survey that has been languishing in my inbox for weeks, I was just filled with a heady wave of gratitude that I was accepted to one of my top graduate schools on my first round of applications just as I am graduating from college.  I feel so intensely lucky.  

2008 - 2009 Academic Calendar June 5, 2008

September S M T W T F S   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30		AUTUMN QUARTER 2008 (50 class days + 4 Day Examination Period)   September 1-5 Monday-Friday   New Student Orientation and Registration September 8 Monday   Classes begin; late registration for continuing students; Late Registration fee begins September 12 Friday   Last day to register without approval
October S M T W T F S       1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31		October 17 Friday   Last day for Automatic W (6th week)
November S M T W T F S             1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30		November 14 Friday   Last Day of Classes November 17-20 Monday-Thursday   Final examination period November 27-28 Thursday-Friday   Thanksgiving Holiday Observed November 24- Monday-     December 23 Friday   WINTER INTERTERM 2008
December S M T W T F S   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31		December 25- Thursday-   Winter Holiday December 31 Wednesday               WINTER QUARTER 2009 (47 class days + 4 Day Examination Period)
January S M T W T F S         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31		January 1 Thursday   New Year’s Holiday Observed January 2 Friday   New Student Orientation and Registration January 5 Monday   Classes begin; late registration for continuing students; Late Registration fee begins January 9 Friday   Last day to register without approval January 19 Monday   Martin Luther King Holiday
February S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28		February 13 Friday   Last day for Automatic W (6th week)
March S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31		March 11 Wednesday   Last day of classes March 12-15 Thursday-Sunday   Final examination period March 16-22 Monday-Sunday   SPRING INTERTERM (Break) 2009                 SPRING QUARTER 2009 (49 class days + 4 Day Examination Period)
April S M T W T F S       1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30		March 20 Friday   New Student Orientation and Registration. March 23 Monday   Classes begin; late registration for continuing students. Late registration fee begins. March 27 Friday   Last day to register without approval.         May 1 Friday   Last day for Automatic W (6th week)
May S M T W T F S           1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31		May 25 Monday   Memorial Day         May 29 Friday   Last day of classes
June S M T W T F S   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30		June 1-4 Monday-Thursday   Final examination period June 5 Friday   Graduate Commencement June 6 Saturday   Undergraduate Commencement June 7-14 Sunday-Sunday   SUMMER INTERTERM (break) 2009         SUMMER SESSION 2009 (43 class days)
July S M T W T F S       1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31		June 12 Friday   New Student Orientation and Registration June 15 Monday   Classes begin June 19 Friday   Last day to register without approval (9 week courses)         July 3 Friday   Independence Day (observed) July 24 Friday   Last day for automatic W (9 week courses).
August S M T W T F S             1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31		August 13 Thursday   Last day of classes August 14 Friday   Commencement August 14- Friday-   AUTUMN INTERTERM 2009 August 30 Sunday

Tying up loose ends May 29, 2008

I guess you could call me a planner. That’s my personality. That’s how I got this far, and it seems to be working for me. But some might find it vaguely amusing that I have more than three months before the first day of school, and almost three months before I move to Denver, and I have already a) rented my Seattle place out for the school year, and b) found an apartment in Denver that I’m ready to put a deposit down on. I like having things figured out, though…I like that certainty. That’s always been the problem with me with dating, because in order to be good at dating you have to let go and let things get figured out in time, and for me it’s either black or white. I know it’s right, or I know it’s wrong and there is no reason to go on. 

Now the summer is all about making and saving money for the fall, continuing to improve my credit score for the graduate plus loans, finishing my undergraduate thesis and graduate pre-requisite classes, studying, reading, and absorbing as much information as possible, and then spending time with my friends and enjoying the beautiful Seattle summer. What’s on the menu for non-work, non-school activities? Sailing on the new boat, golfing with Jonathan, reading in the park, and the quintessential summer barbecues that seem to happen almost every weekend.

This should be fun.

May Days May 20, 2008

I can’t believe it’s still May.

Don’t get me wrong- I am excited to have the summer in Seattle, and I hope to able to spend the summer in Seattle each year while I am in school.  But I am so very excited to be sitting in my seat on the first day of classes, and to know what it is like to truly be a graduate student, to be in Denver, to give my all to what I am learning and contributing.  This is, however, what life is…not to be trite, but it isn’t each milestone that I should be yearning for solely.  I should also be savoring each step that I have to take to get there.  I have the big one out of the way, since I know that my goals are not only reachable, but barring some major mistake, almost inevitable.  I now have no questions about my ability to go all the way to a PhD, and believe me, that seemed like a complete pipe dream not too long ago.  Now I can just enjoy the summer, and writing my thesis, and preparing myself for fall.  There is so much going on this summer that has nothing to do with school, and although at times it is difficult to pull my head out of the clouds and deal with everyday life, it is so breathtakingly beautiful right now that I have a moral responsibility to truly experience every moment of it.  

Things are hard in Russia sometimes. May 20, 2008

Fall class descriptions May 20, 2008

Statistical Methods I

An introductory course featuring statistical reasoning, probablity, sampling, statistical inference, nominal and ordinal measures of association, and correlation.

 

Economic Development

Deals with financial and economic problems faced by developing societies. 

 

International Political Economy

The course examines 3 contrasting visions of international political economy: economic security, trade and finance.

 

Rich States, Poor States

Why are some nations rich and others poor? In the early 19th century, the economic gap between Switzerland and Mozambique was 4 to 1 and now it is 400 to 1. Are what we like to call developing countries really developing or being left further and further behind? This course looks at a variety of variables to explain this disturbing situation. We examine culture, religion, invention, geography, disease, imperialism, values, and political systems in an attempt to answer this timely question. 

 

Political Economy of Human Rights

What does one mean by human rights? What can be the political economy of such rights? These are the two central questions that we will explore in this course. The goal is to understand the underlying social, political and economic processes that led in an evolutionary sense to the present human rights discourse. The nature and implications of economic rights will be given special attention. In particular, the implications of such rights for human wellbeing in both advanced capitalist and developing economies will be studied. The social capabilities approach to rights developed by Amartya Sen and others will be extended to the understanding of human rights.

 

Very tentative fall schedule May 20, 2008

And yes, this means (if I get these classes) that I will have Monday and Friday free! It ALSO means, however, that I will be taking 25 credit hours, and I’m not sure how functional that is in reality. I won’t be working very much or at all (if I can help it), so maybe it’s doable. I’m curious if any grad students out there have advice about class load? Can I drop classes if I need to or is that too undergraduatesque?

 

China: Honor for Dalai Lama by Paris a provocation April 22, 2008

  

     By Steven Erlanger

     Tuesday, April 22, 2008

PARIS:

China stepped into an internal French political spat Tuesday, fiercely condemning a decision by the Paris City Council to make the Dalai Lama an honorary citizen of the city.

“China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the decision, said the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu. “This act of crude interference in China’s domestic affairs has seriously damaged the Sino-French relationship, and in particular the existing friendly ties between Paris and Beijing.”

Jiang added that making the Dalai Lama “an ‘honorary citizen of Paris’ now can only be considered as another grave provocation of 1.3 billion Chinese people, including the people of Tibet, and it will further encourage the arrogance of the Dalai and Tibet independence elements.”

The attention Beijing is attributing to the matter will no doubt please the recently re-elected mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, who is trying hard to become the next leader of the French Socialist Party, which is in disarray since having lost the presidency last May to Nicolas Sarkozy and his Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, conservative party.

The gesture by Paris allowed Delanoë to distinguish himself from Sarkozy, who has waffled about whether he will attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing on Aug. 8, or boycott it in protest.

Sarkozy is under pressure from French business executives who are deeply involved in the Chinese economy and who are concerned by protests in China over the past few days aimed at French companies, and by calls on the Internet for a boycott of French goods.

The Chinese have disseminated photos of Jin Jing, a one-legged fencer from Shanghai who endured anti-Chinese demonstrators on April 7 as she carried the torch through Paris. Jin was reportedly unimpressed by a letter of apology from Sarkozy, who has not been in the front lines defending the Dalai Lama - unlike Delanoë.

On Sunday, the Chinese ambassador to France, Kong Quan, tried in vain to dissuade the Paris City Council, saying that the vote could “damage the trust, friendship and cooperative relations” between the two countries and “worsen the situation in Tibet.”

Pascale Andréani, a spokeswoman for the French Foreign Ministry, was quick to issue a statement Tuesday saying that Paris had acted on its own. “It is not our place to interfere with a decision taken by the City of Paris,” the statement said. “The local authorities are fully independent, and therefore what towns and municipalities do is their own responsibility.”

In an effort at diplomacy, Sarkozy is sending three emissaries to China: the president of the French Senate, Christian Poncelet, who delivered the letter to Jin in Shanghai on Monday; Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a former prime minister and diplomatic adviser to Sarkozy; and Jean-David Levitte, a former ambassador to Washington and the United Nations.

The Chinese traditionally see such emissaries as a form of tribute.

But China may have another motive, which is to send a strong message more broadly. France will take over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union on July 1 and will be in charge of diplomatic relations between the 27-country bloc and China during the Olympic Games.

“Increasing the pressure on France is a way for China to warn Paris against any temptation of taking a bold stance during the French presidency,” said Valérie Niquet, director of the Asia Institute at the French Institute of International Relations.

Delanoë defended the city council’s vote. “If Paris doesn’t express its attachment to values, it’s too bad,” he said. “Between a good conscience and cynicism, there’s defending one’s convictions.”

Katrin Bennhold contributed reporting from Paris and David Barboza from Shanghai.

Torch relay reaches JakartaThe Olympic torch was paraded through a heavily guarded stadium in Jakarta on Tuesday after the police stopped about 100 anti-Beijing protesters from disrupting the latest leg of the torch’s fraught journey around the world, Reuters reported from Jakarta.

Taufik Hidayat, an Indonesian badminton star and Olympic gold medalist, lighted a caldron in front of a cheering crowd as about 2,500 police officers and 1,000 troops guarded the relay, which has attracted anti-China protests in Europe and the Americas since Beijing’s crackdown last month on protests in Tibet

The relay had originally been scheduled to pass through large stretches of Jakarta, but sports officials later announced that the route would be restricted to the vicinity of Bung Karno Stadium.

About 5,000 guests and accredited members of the media were invited to watch the relay inside the stadium, and about 80 athletes, officials and television and movie stars took part.