A Range of Activities: Kaia's Life in the World

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I was cleaning my computer desktop and realized I neglected to send this out to everyone. So it has become my Valentine’s Day Newsletter. Oh, well. Better late than never, right?

This past year was amazing. I started the year off in DC to witness President Obama’s inauguration then headed to Santiago Chile for a semester. In Santiago I stayed with a host family, did an internship at an NGO, traveled to Patagonia to see the glaciers and to Easter Island to see the Moai heads, and had a wonderful time. While I was there, I also met my current boyfriend of nine months, Antonio, when he happened to be my first salsa dance partner in salsa class.

In June I went to my cousin Kevin’s wedding in LA then headed to Perú with my brother and parents for a week before giving my parents a tour of Chile (my brother Nigel had to return to the US to be a camp counselor). My parents enjoyed meeting my host family, internship supervisors and coworkers, and Antonio and his family. Unfortunately our trip was cut short when we found out that my dad’s father, my Granddad, had passed away in a car crash. It was quite a shock for all of us and we hurried back to Portland to be with family and deal with my Granddad’s estate. I really miss my Granddad, but I like to think that he is with me whenever I travel or make a new friend. He was one of the people who first encouraged my traveling and international education and was infamous for making befriending strangers (don’t worry, I only befriend friendly, safe people).

Mid-August I returned to Washington, DC to start my junior year with the Washington Semester Program, a special program that brings undergraduate and graduate students from different universities all over the world to Washington for a semester to study one subject. I enrolled in the Peace and Conflict Resolution class and was one of 19 students including two students from Colombia, one from Norway, one from Germany, and one from Denmark. We focused our studies on the war in Bosnia (1992-1996) and had sometimes up to nine speakers per week who came in to talk to us including Ambassadors, NGO directors, survivors, politicians, and peace activists. To enhance our understanding we took a 21 day trip to Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Austria to talk to all sides of the conflict there.

I also did an internship at the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, an organization that works on the campus of the Foreign Service Institute (diplomat school). They interview past foreign service workers on their experiences working in different countries.

My job was to sit in on interviews for personal knowledge, type up the oral histories into manuscripts, edit them, and make collections for certain countries from the interviews of all the interviees who had worked there and mentioned it in their interview. I also wrote the index (just the numbers) for a book, “The Unofficial Diplomat,” a memoir by a diplomat’s wife, and transcribed and edited interviews with PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) members in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of the congress-mandated study. It was very interesting work and I really enjoyed working there. I learned exactly what it might be like to work for the State Department. The most important thing I learned is that working for the State Department is something you can do at any time in life – all you have to do is take the test (and pass it, of course). We’ll see if I take it someday.

Winter break I spent with Antonio and his family in Santiago, Chile. I had an amazing 28 days laughing, swimming, eating, and enjoying the Santiago sun (it’s summer there). It was definitely the best winter break I have ever had. Antonio and I get along stupendously and always have fun. It was extremely hard to leave Antonio and Chile but we are hoping that Antonio will be able to come visit me in the US in July. Yay!

Currently, I am in Pune, India, studying abroad until May 13^th. I am living with a host family very similar to my Chilean host family: a 64 year old host mother and her 42 year old son. My host mom, Rajani, is an excellent cook though her English is a bit broken and we often have an exciting time understanding each other. Her husband died in 1995 of a heart attack so now she takes care of her son (and me). My host brother Rajesh has an import-export business but mainly occupies his time with social activism: his latest success has been to halt construction of a pedestrian underpass which the community protested as being a project whose costs were to exceed its benefits. He is quite the character and treats me just like a real sister (aka jokes and teases me like a real brother).

I am studying at our program center which operates in cooperation with Fergusson College (we are located next door to it and use the classroom of its Alumni Association Building). I am taking courses with the other students from the program on Contemporary India, Social Justice, and Gender and Social Caste in Film, a class that looks at how India’s problems have been expressed through films. Thus far we have seen Sant Tukaram, Pather Panchali, Awara, and this weekend are to watch 36 Chaoringhee Lane. I also will start Indian dance class this week (Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 – 8) and would like to do some yoga. But we’ll see what happens. =) The last month or so of my time in Pune I will do a research project that will involve me talking with NGO’s, politicians, professors, students, and community and social activists. I will look at the methods being used to resolve or attempt to resolve the Hindu-Muslim/India-Pakistan conflict. Should be interesting.

After I return from India in May I will most likely be in DC for a few days before returning to Portland, Oregon for the summer. I am hoping to find a job and/or a paid or non-paid internship, preferably related to International Relations, Latin America/Spanish, or Japanese. If everything works out, Antonio will be able to come for a few weeks and then mid-August will find me back in DC sharing an apartment or house with some friends for my last year at American University. I will finish my International Relations major and am planning on doing a Spanish minor, as well. I shall graduate in June of 2011!!! Wow, I can hardly believe it! Time sure flies when you are having fun. Currently, the plan is that after graduating I will look for a job in Chile, but I have to see how student loans will affect things.

Besides my busy, crazy-fun, and exciting academic and social life, I do keep in touch with my family: my dad, Eric, is teaching at a K-8 school in Portland. He did well enough on his spelling tests that he moved all the way up to sixth grade!! =p He is enjoying teaching and acting my Granddad’s estate as he is the Executor of his will. My mom, Janet is finishing her first year of teaching. She is a middle school Social Studies teacher for a Spanish immersion program, and also teaches Language Arts. Although my mom loves Spanish, teaching is turning out to be quite the challenge for her but she is hanging in there. My brother, Nigel is finishing his last year at Grant High School. He is the President of one of his choirs and is in a men’s dectet outside of school. And if all goes according to plan, I should get to see him graduate in June. Yay!

So that is my life in a nut-shell. India has definitely proven challenging at times, and I am still adjusting to life here. But in general I am very happy, very loved, and continue to carry out my email address: being a “world girl.”

I will continue updating my blog and sending my latest posts out to everyone. For those who do not already receive my blog update emails and would like to receive them, please email me and I will add you to my list.

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Love, Kaia (^_^)