Highlights and Future Excitments

Mayor Tom Potter, Karin, and I in DC.

The highlight of this month by far has definitely been getting the chance to spend the afternoon and evening with my friends; the current Portland Mayor Tom Potter and his wife Karin Hansen. They are extremely kind, and wonderful people and were here for the national mayoral conference. I first met them through my position as a Multnomah Youth Commissioner at City Council meetings, and then as I worked with Karin to get the Youth Bill of Rights passed by the Portland City Council in August 2006. Because of the Mayor's strong advocacy for youths' rights, I interviewed him for my senior thesis and then was invited to present my findings to City Council last January. As a Princess, I got to eat breakfast with them when we visited City Council, and then I seem to keep running into them around Portland.

Anyway, when they heard I was going to AU they mentioned they would be coming to DC for the conference, and I hoped I would get to see them but never thought that I actually would! When I went home for Winter Break Karin found me on Facebook, and then when I went to see Tom at a City Council meeting earlier this month, sure enough, they were still coming to DC and were hoping I would be available some evening. So, Thursday evening they invited me to come with them to Tom's meeting with Congresswoman Patty Murray of Washington State and then to dinner after. It was so cool! Tom introduced me to her and then he talked to her about Portland issues that concern Washington for which he was hoping for funding and support. It was very interesting although I wasn't always sure what they were talking about exactly. It was only about 15 minutes as then she had to go, but after she said farewell to Tom, she turned to me and said with a smile, "And good luck to you in your studies. I hope you do well," or something like that. It was quite the honor.

It was still early for dinner so I went back to their hotel with them and Karin and I decided to go and see the Jefferson and FDR memorials. Karin has been to DC several times, but never had the chance to do the site-seeing. It was freezing! But we enjoyed our long walk around the lake and made it to the restaurant where Tom and Dan, their DC expert and master scheduler/escort/cool guy (not quite sure what his official title is, but he's from Portland but does a lot in and with DC), were waiting for us. It was a great restaurant with delicious food, and we had a fabulous time talking and laughing all throughout the evening. Tom and Karin were extremely kind to invite me to dinner. Oh, and on the way out, Tom gave me his stretchy gloves, as I didn't have any myself! I thoroughly enjoyed every second of my time with them and learned a lot in the process. As Dan says, I only had one class at AU, but then Tom, Karin and Dan took me to "Lobbying 101" from the Mayoral prospective.

I am still enjoying my memories of that night, but also am starting to look forward to all the other excitements I have in store. Time is moving so fast! First of all, Granddad has been very generous and made it possible for me to attend this year's National World Affairs Council meeting at which Vicinte Fox will be one of the speakers. Unfortunately, I will be unable to make it to all of the days as I have classes Friday, but I will still get to hear Señor Fox and attend Thursday's conference so I think it will be worth it.

Secondly, for those who have not yet heard, I will be in Japan from February 29th to March 6th so that I may attend the graduation of the group of students who welcomed me into their classroom and group of friends while I attended High School with them. I have always wanted to go to their graduation, so am extremely excited to have that opportunity. Even though I will be missing 2 ~ 3 classes for each subject, my wonderful professors are being very supportive of my trip and have made it clear that it will not be a problem.

After returning from Japan March 6th, I will be back at school for Friday, and then the very next day I will fly home for Spring break! I was not planning on returning home, but the Rose Festival Princess Coronation for Grant happens to fall right in my spring break! Yay! So this means that I will be crowning the next Grant Princess Ambassador on Monday, March 10th around 3:30 pm!

A week after I return to DC, Nigel will be coming here to spend his spring break at AU. Then there is the end of the year and I will be coming home sometime after May 8th (the last day of finals). So, as you can see, I shall be busy, but will have a blast in the process!

Well, I have probably rambled on for far too long. Forgive me for these two lengthy posts, and thank you for your patience and long attention span. One of my resolutions is to update my blog more frequently with shorter posts, so we'll see what happens.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Love, Kaia

A Year in Review and a New Semester

Christmas Morning with the Snow at Aunt Lory and Uncle Don's house with my family, Oma, Opa, Granddad, Aunt Karen, Uncle Jesse, Cedar and Sage, and the dog, Emily.

Andrew and Abdul at Abdul's first AU basketball game.

One of Abdul's amazing snow pictures.


Happy New Year Everyone!

Yes, it has been two months or so since I wrote, but a lot has happened! Finals came along and I was sick for a while before that, but I made it through my first semester in college and enjoyed a nice and relaxing three weeks at home. It was great to see my family and friends, and nice to have NO HOMEWORK over break -- the first time in my entire life!!!

I had my wisdom teeth removed, went back to Grant High School and got to play in the Winter Concert with Wind Ensemble, played in the snow on Christmas day (YAY!), had fun in San Fransisco, and ended the year with a Pink Martini concert that had my bro and the Royal Blues and Jane Powell (actress and singer from "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," and "Royal Wedding" with Fred Astaire). It was a great way to end an AMAZING year.

And I seem to have started the year off right, as well! This semester I am taking quite a lighter load compared to last semester (thankfully), which gives me more time to do the multitude of other things I am planning on doing.

Here is my schedule:

Mon: 8:30 - 9:45 am Finite Math (algebra, the easiest math - yay!)
10 - 2 pm Work (at the Children's Development Center, the on-campus childcare for 2.5 to 4.5 year olds)

Tues: 8:30 - 9:45 am Literary Imagination (hereafter called LI: English class where we learn to interpret and and read lots of cool books)
12:45 - 2 pm Living in the Environment (also known as LITE: an Environmental Studies class)
3:35 - 4:50 pm Spanish (a MUCH better teacher than last semester: I am doing SO much better in this class this semester)

Wed: 10 - noon Work
3:35 - 4:20 pm Spanish
8:10 - 10:40 pm Gospel Choir (YAY!)

Thurs: 8:30 - 9:45 am Math
10 - noon Work
7 - 7:55 pm Samba Class (at the campus gym - really fun and a great workout)

Fri: 8:30 - 9:45 am LI
12:45 - 2 pm LITE
3:35 - 4:50 pm Spanish

Sun: 11 - 2ish pm Choir practice, Mass, and Starbucks afterwards with the choir. Yes, I am going to church on Sundays now, and yes, it's a Catholic church. But it's all in the name of music. I am playing my flute there (and singing) with the choir. I found out about it and was invited by my friend Myonnie who I met on the plane coming home. She lived went to Japan with the JET program (so we practice Japanese together), plays flute, and lives in DC so we have a lot of fun together. Yet another learning experience for me.

Another exciting thing for this semester is that Andrew (the computer guru and fellow UC bio student) has a new roommate! His name is Abdul and he is from Kuwait. He is a senior, studying business information systems and is really cool! He has already become a part of the family! His English is perfect and he's quite fond of meditation, photography, and puns. (^_^)
It was so cute to see him when it snowed! Apparently it doesn't snow much Kuwait, so when it snowed here the other day, Abdul's face lit up and he was outside and taking pictures in a second. Here is one of the pictures he took. Some of the snow is STILL here, sitting on random lawns or patches, much of it iced over as it is FREEZING here.

Other excitements: the other night I was almost asleep when I was awoken by what at fist smelled like cologne. But then it got increasingly nasty smelling so I got up to find that it was coming from my heater! I ended up having to sleep in my friends Blair and Alisa's room on the floor. Shirin's grandparents from Iran are in town so she has been gone frequently (they are very nice, by the way. I had the pleasure of meeting her Grandmother when they came to pick Shirin up), so she was not here. It was only yesterday that the fix-it people finally got to my request and came to clean my heater out. They don't know what caused the smell: after a night with the window open, there was no scent in the morning, but they did a much needed clean out anyway. The best part is that they found two very nice necklaces in there as well! I checked with the previous occupants of this room and they don't recognize them so I now have two new pieces of jewelry!