A few photos

On the right is the CRS office in Mitrovica, our office is on the second floor. On the left is my apartment building… convenient, huh? I live on the third floor. Directly across the street are the offices of the local police and the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). Finally, behind my apartment are the local KFOR headquarters for the NATO forces from France. So you could say that I’m in a very safe location.

 

Some initial Deep Thoughts

As I sit in the CRS office on my first Sunday in Mitrovica, I have to smile at the bellowing chorus of car horns outside. They are sounds of celebration, mostly proclaiming birthdays or the weddings of the Albanian young-adult diaspora, returned refugees having the freedom to honor traditional ceremonies.

Across the bridge, just a few blocks to the North, members of the Serbian community have few reasons to celebrate. The tables abruptly have been turned for them in little more than a decade. With Kosovo’s independence expected to be agreed upon or imposed by next summer, the Serb minority are now the ones possibly needing to assume refugee status elsewhere, for soon they will face the official reversal of the socio-economic and political dominance they possessed under Milosevic.

I struggle to understand the complexities of this conflict, its hereditary nature and deeply historical roots. The human element of the conflict is different from most conflicts experienced in the Americas… for example, I find it hard to distinguish, at first glance, a Serb from an Albanian. Neither of the groups are very religious, they have similar culinary and other cultural traditions, and any economic imbalance between the two groups that may exist is not visually perceivable. Plus it’s almost impossible to take sides, to easily shake a finger at the group that clearly are “the bad guys.”

But enough deep thoughts for now… things are going really well so far, besides being confined to only exploring within the area that’s easily accessible on crutches! Next post, I’ll go into more detail about my work here. As well as post some pictures.

 

I’m in Kosovo!

It’s been almost a year since I’ve written anything, I guess I kind of lost steam amidst the challenges of my internship. But here I am now in Kosovo, living for the moment in Pristina before moving into an apartment in Mitrovica on Monday. Of course I have lots to say, but I’m going to the house of one of our head honchos here for dinner. More later.

 

First week in the DR

To travel and live abroad can often be a long, self-reflective therapy session, through which a person is constantly reassessing and questioning oneself, one’s own culture and country, almost like looking in the mirror. Why do I do things the way I do? Why are the different people from my country the way we are(when suddenly there’s people all around me that act and do things differently)? And how is it exactly that people in different countries decide that the styles and ways of living of another culture are better than those of their own culture?

There ya go, my deepest thoughts of the moment, por el momento. In less intense commentary, I was thinking as I was running this morning that wow, this must be what it feels like to be a supermodel. I never feel more like I’m on stage or on a reality TV show or something than when I run through the streets here (or when I was in Bolivia) with a chorus of hoots and whistles trailing behind me. But then I thought, hmmm, I’m definitely not glamorous nor beautiful enough to be a supermodel, even in my sexy running shorts and pink tank top. It’s more like I’m a walking (running) 100 dollar bill or something. Like I’m the embodiment of a US bank account walking through the streets of the DR.

So I’m generally really psyched to be here. My first week has been a little crazy, since the consultant for the project of my internship, who thereby is my direct supervisor, has been out of town. But she’ll be back today, and I’ll have more direction in my work here at UN-INSTRAW.

The folks here of course are super cool, as I expected. Language hasn’t really been a huge challenge, even with the majority of everyone in the office being from either Spain or other countries in Latin America. Thus I communicate in Spanish almost all of the time, although pretty much everyone also speaks English, so I can switch back and forth if I need to. I can’t quite just be myself, however, when speaking in Spanish, which as always is really frustrating in trying to get to know people… Although as compared to when I was in Costa Rica or Bolivia or even Spain more recently, the transition back into the language has been relatively easy.

My living situation is pretty cool… The Dominican woman, Doña Ireny, who owns the house where I live, has two of my fellow interns living with her on the first floor, then there’s another intern and a Belgium dude (the boyfriend of an INSTRAW Program Consultant, who also has a husband!) that live with me in the apartment on the second floor. Our apartment has an awesome balcony that looks out onto the main street of the neighboorhood, making for some fantastic people-watching, let me tell ya.

Enough rambling for now… I hope all is well back in the U. S. of A… Did you know that Michael Jackson made it on the front page here in the Santo Domingo newspapers? Man, I was so proud.

No really, I’m serious, hehe.

 

Viva la Republica Dominicana!

I’m here and doing well! I’ll write more soon!

 

End of the School Year

I’m sitting here at the Cornell library, about to finish the final few pages of my last paper of the semester. Next Wednesday I’ll be back in Omaha, flying out of New York City in the evening on Southwest. Anyone want me to bring them back something from NYC? Or Ithaca for that matter? Because Ithaca is Gorges, doncha know.

http://www.visitithaca.com/
http://www.t-shirtexpressions.com/gorgestshirts.htm#

Then I’ll be headed to the Dominican Republic on June 4th. Here’s a link to the UN project with which I’ll be working as an intern:

http://www.un-instraw.org/en/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=954&Itemid=209

 

Ridin on the bandwagon, yee haw!

My first post, just giving this a try. A fully self-centered venture it is, this blogging crap, and I gotta admit that I just really like seeing my own thoughts on the screen. But I also like knowing that there’s folks that I love out there that know what I’m up to.

I’ll be headed to work for an office of the UN in the Dominican Republic this summer, INSTRAW (Institute for Training and Research for the Advancement of Women, www.un-instraw.org). Anyone headed to Santo Domingo any time soon? Pretty exciting, I’ve been assigned to work with a policy analyst that is studying Gender, Peace and Security, I’m so pumped!

Before the DR, I’ll be in Omaha-ha for the first week in June, and then maybe I’ll make it up later to the Rierden family gathering up in Canadia, as well…? Hopefully.

I’ve had an amazing first year at Cornell, I’ve never loved studying and felt like such a nerd in my whole life…

A golden-oldie pic of Erin and I:

Backyard

And some of my coolest Cornell friends and I chillin on a Thursday night:

Maxie’s