Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Fall in Minnesota


September 16, 2008


Well as every fall rolls around, every year I look at the beautiful trees along the Mississippi change from shades of green to beautiful yellow, reds and oranges and say to myself, "I should bring my camera down and take photos of this beautiful sight!" Finally, after six years living in Minneapolis (can you believe it has been that long? I sometimes can't!!) I finally brought my camera along with me to rowing. As I am literally on the Mississippi three times a week, there is absolutely no excuse not to bring it with me to practice. So, here are my first photos of the fall foliage. I will try to add a few throughout the fall....




One of the colleges practicing sweeping on an 8- September 16,2008

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Beijing Olympics



So, once again after eight years of very very patiently waiting, I ventured back to China to attend the 2008 Summer Olympics!! While my plan had been to have this as a graduation present, I couldn't quite get it done before and ummm my good excuse was that the Olympics were not going to wait for me to finish my dissertation to happen. I will say that it was well worth a little hiatus from the writing and after writing this blog I will be well on my way back to the writing.
I arrived in Beijing a few days after the start of the Olympics (the flights were cheaper that way). The friends I would be going to events with were also arriving on the 14th of August, so it all worked out quite well.
The first Olympics I was at was Sydney and while before Sydney I was always glued to the TV watching as much of the Olympics as possible, I never really thought that it would be possible to go. I guess I always thought tickets were impossible to get, they would be too expensive etc.. Come to find out, tickets (that is if you aren't going to the opening or closing ceremony, swimming or diving) are quite reasonable and getting them either takes a little planning in advance or a little savvyness (sp??).

Why do I like the Olympics?

One reason I like the Olympics, you get to travel to a different country (nope, don't like doing that:))In addition, the country of course gets to showcase it best aspects. Example, the great wall..... Absolutely amazing!!!

Well there are many reasons why I enjoy the two week long celebration, sporting events (some of which I never knew existed, let alone how they worked) and just plain Fun. While in recent years the Olympics seems to carry with it an assortment of political and social upheavels, those who attend and host the games seem to have an amazing ability to superseed all the political contentions, disputes, and chaos. Individuals come to honestly enjoy sports of all kinds in a different country. If your country isn't competing in one event, you grab the flag (not literally:) and support that country. Or as we did in the gold medal match arbitrarily pick a team and start to support them, find out they aren't the "nicest" team and decide to switch sides and root for the underdog.
Having arrived for the very first time in China seven years ago on July 13th, 2001 the day the IOC announced Beijing as the host of the 2008 Olympics, I was definitely welcomed by millions and millions (literally) of Chinese who were beyond absolutely ecstatic about hosting the 2008 Olympics. And true to their word they worked extremely hard, while I can't say that I agree with all of their practices over the last seven years, it is amazing how the international community is so quick to judge and look at the negative and I feel that credit should be given to all of those who worked so hard to not only provide an amazing Olympics, but to improve the lives of millions within China. Their efforts to reduce the pollution were extremely successful as evidenced by the blue sky every day I was there. I really couldn't believe it, it was amazing!! This is really something that I hope citizens of not only Beijing, but other areas of China really take note of.
Here are some photos. As you will see from the photos, for some events, we were quite far away and others a little closer. The bird's nest which was an absolutely amazing architectural design allowed for everyone to have an unobstructed view. So, regardless of your seat you had a great view. The people were just a little smaller if you sat higher up:)
Baseball Game- China vs. USA

From Left to Right- Aaron, Adam, Me, Eric and two Chinese girls who wanted to have their photo taken with us:)

On Monday of the second week of the Olympics I was able to meet up with a CIDE friend, Shane. Shane is now living in Beijing with his wife and had three tickets to beach volleyball (which I love to watch)and it was the quarterfinal match with Roger and Dalhausser (USA)!! So, when asked if I would like to go, I couldn't refuse.
Dalhausser spike the ball


It was a beautiful, maybe slightly humid (of course after Manila in June and July, I have learned to use the word humid with certain qualifiers before it) day!! And the two matches we watched were awesome! The second match was between Georgia and the Netherlands. I later come to find out that one of the "Georgians" was Brazilian. Never the less it was amazing to see them play. And at the end when they one, Gia (who I assume) was from Georgia ran to the top of the bleachers and stood right under the Georgian flag. This was only two days after the beginning of the Georgian conflict between Russia and Georgia.

Shane and me after the beach volleyball match



To see the rest of the photos, or to at least peruse through them, just click on the left icon, MY photos.

Monday, February 4, 2008


Well... its been so so long since I have written!! But as I was looking at friend's blogs, I was yet again inspired! And since in a month or so, I will be deeply in bedded analyzing and writing up my findings I think synthesizing a few of my thoughts maybe helpful.

First of all, THANK YOU!! I will miss you all! Here are a few memories written down so that others may start to see and understand a little more about the Philippines and the multitude of people that live in the beautiful country.

I decided to upload this collage of the Philippine children I have met while conducting research in Manila and Antique. They are beautiful to say the least, as are their parents and friends. Curious, always intrigued (or as mentioned before, occasionally scared:) of this strange visitor in their classroom. While at first, I always was looking at their classrooms and lives and seeing what they didn't have (of course material wise), I soon came to my own conclusion that these children and their communities had so so much to offer. To be honest, I don't think that I have ever met such dedicated individuals. People who would give so much of their time to find solutions to improve the lives of individuals within their community.
International Development, I have come to question more and more how exactly I fit wwithin this world. So far as I think of the word, development, it implies that what one starts out with is underdeveloped or not complete.

As much as I have had the privilege to travel, each place, every person I meet, I still have to work within myself to understand that there are millions of ways to achieve goals or future ideals. And more importantly, similar to myself, I don't like to have someone telling "advising" me what I should do or work towards.