A few little updates...

Well, summer has come and gone again. It seems like I just came home from probably one of the most challenging semesters of my life, forgot my purse at Arby's in Mohomet, and then went out to dinner at Clocktower. I can remember everything vividly, yet that day is farther away now than the time that I will be living in Washington, D.C. So much has happened this summer: Cubs games, Barnes and Noble trips, college visits, lots of work at HS, Lollapalooza (PV, my feet still ache and my ears still ring. Best weekend ever :) ) and so much more. But still, as always, it seems like so many things that I planned on getting done just did not. Nevertheless, I am now three weeks away from move in. Scary and sad though it may be, the thought of moving away has yet to cause a breakdown on my part--perhaps this is due to lack of acceptance on my part...(Kins, I'm still banking on the fact that you are going first so after you leave, it's all over). Anyway, sentiment aside, I've found out a little more about what I will be doing this fall for those of you who keep asking me and getting an empty response from me (not for lack of wanting to tell you, but simply because of my sheer lack of knowledge up to this point...)

My daddy and I will be leaving the morning of Sunday, August 27th. He will come back Thursday...and I, of course, will not be back until December 16th...!

I will be living in the Meridian at Braddock Station (http://www.meridianbraddock.com/) apartment complex in Alexandria, VA with three other girls. From what I've read, I am supposed to be treated to "sweeping views" of downtown and the Potomac during my stay. However, since 4 of us will be living in a two bedroom apartment, I am back to having a roomie (and I thought I survived that already!). Hopefully, everything will work out with that (though I will not know anything about my roommates until my arrival on the 30th) Still, I am optomistic that the students on this program are as enthusiastic about this experience as I am and we hopefully will share many of the same interests. (or maybe I will get a creeper from the Bible belt but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it).

I will be taking a 3 credit hour course (not for credit at u of i but hopefully interesting)... here's a little information on it...


PEACEFUL SOLUTIONS: AN ALTERNATIVE TO VIOLENCE
Instructor: Colman McCarthy, D. Humane Letters

A violent crime is committed every 17 seconds. The leading cause of injury among American women is being beaten at home by a man. More than 35,000 people are killed in wars every month. Forty thousand die of hunger-related diseases every day. The U.S. military budget is $700 million a day, three times the Peace Corps budget for a year. Those are the problems. What are the solutions? This course offers the study of the writings of past and current peacemakers, including Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, Leo Tolstoy,
Jeannette Rankin, Gene Sharp, and others. Studying peace through nonviolence is to give one's mind and soul a chance to develop a philosophy that resists the force of fists, guns, bombs, and armies, and embraces the force of restorative justice, truth, love, and organized compromise.

Instructor: Prof. McCarthy, a Washington Post columnist for 28 years, is a Washington journalist and author of five books on social justice. He directs the Center for Teaching Peace and teaches courses on nonviolence at Georgetown University Law Center, the University of Maryland, and two Washington public high schools. American University twice voted him Professor of the Year. He is a regular speaker at U.S. colleges and universities across the nation. In 1999, the Washington Center named him Faculty Member/Lecturer of the Year.

Education: D. Humane Letters, St. John's University, Minneapolis, Wheeling Jesuit University, Walsh University, Belmont Abbey College, and Spring Hill College; B.A. Spring Hill College (English)


This was noted as an extremely high demand class and as only 17 kids are typically in a class, I was pretty excited when I got placed into it. Hopefully it will be as wonderful as it sounds.

Internship:

I found out yesterday that I will be interning at the Department of Homeland Security in their Office of International Affairs which I'm pretty excited about. I don't know which area of the office I will be working in yet but needless to say, the experience should be a good one and I'm happy that I get to work somewhere fairly prestigious rather than a smaller non-profit organization that may not focus as much on my interests.


Other than that, not too much to report. Just biding my time until departure day... getting more and more excited by the moment :)


Take care,

aim