Summer wears on

It's 6:00 a.m. I'm heading to the gym in a minute.

The skies are grey, and it would be a perfect day for crawling back into bed and calling in sick. I've got my proposal, my baby, due today. There are phone calls to Peru to make. My iShuffle playlist awaits me, as I slowly wake up on the stationary bike. These are the summer days we would come out of Mr. Tyler's pool shivering and pretty much blue all over with purple lips. Mom would be waiting with arms open to wrap us in a towel. She'd feel so guilty throwing us into swimming lessons when we're that tiny and had so little body fat to keep us warm, we knew she'd make us hot chocolate on return. With marshmallows. We had it pretty good those days. Mid July is when you start to feel that summer, in fact, is not endless. But you rest assured that there are plenty of sunny days left ahead. More ice cream on Fridays at Smugglers or Captain Frosty's. More s'mores over the cooling barbecue coals. More sunsets at the bridge and shooting stars at midnight walks.

Summer wears on.

At this time of morning just a few weeks ago the sun would be up already. At night, it has started to get dark earlier. Hard to believe I've only three weeks left here in D.C. and just about four weeks until I'm back in Denver. I have this feeling that I'm leaving my real life here. The life that I love. The life that I went to Denver to be able to have. It's a nice affirmation that what I'm doing in graduate school will get me where I wanted (and want) to go. I just have to remember I'm not here yet. One more year. If I do land a job and get myself this real life for more than a summer, it'll all seem worthwhile. It's hard to imagine being in Denver, in school, taking exams, studying things like criminal procedure and evidence, for a whole other year. But, for now, I'll get myself to the gym, pump up my music, and move on with my grey summer day.

Summer wears on.

friends!

Just a quick update to say that mainly my time has been spent with friends, the friends' families, and friend's babies. I had such a lovely time at A&M's wedding. So cool! I was her Chumerit - Jewish guardian. I spent the entire day with her through the hair, make-up, dress, setting up, breaking down. Really, her family treated me as another sibling and were just wonderful. The wedding itself defied a lot of American traditions - bride and groom saw each other a lot before the ceremony, it was in a large loft-like space (worked perfectly!), had appetizers and a buffet, no meat, lots of vegan food (red quinoa, hummos, cheeses, veggies, salads, avocado on multi-grain sandwiches), Israeli music and other shows of their personality. Also, there were cool wedding guests who flew in from all over the world. I had a great time. I feel so lucky because I am equally friends with the bride and groom. And, after the whole shebang was over, I got to see them the next day, just the 3 of us, for dinner and left over champagne.

I've also been staying with A&U (and O and K). K is 3 weeks old and just so cuddly and cute. I don't have the goods to make him happy (milk) but I can trick him long enough until A can feed him. And, he'll sleep on anybody all curled up like a little frog. O is a good big sister. We're sharing a room so far. It's been pretty fun dancing, eating, playing, reading with her. It's constant energy and a lot of talking. I've always loved kids, but now I'm slowly feeling more confident with little toddlers, babies and newborns. I no longer have that panicky, "Ah, I have no idea what to do with a baby! What if it starts crying?" type of feeling. I definitely don't always know what to do and can't always stop the crying, but it feels less foreign now. Baaaabies are cute.

I've been outlining my exam on technology as a way toward new utopian vision of human rights. Uh huh, that's right. I don't know what it really means either, just trying to use the language I know my teacher wants us to use. Ick. Hope that gets written somehow.

It's official

I am halfway through my graduate degrees! It's 1:52 a.m. I just finished my last paper of this quarter. I'm home, safe and sound. Wish I could sleep late tomorrow, but I have class at 9 (a mere formality, no?).

I have now completed:
3/5 law semesters
2/3 masters quarters.

Woo! I'm doin' it. Making my way...

Me sleepy, time for bed.

Made it to Friday

Quick updates --

I have been laying off the running this week (and next) because my heel is sore. I'm afraid it's plantar fasciitis. This means lots of elliptical. I miss running and being outside. :( I think riding should be okay, so I'm going to head out for a ride this weekend.

I was offered my dream internship in DC! Very excited about it for so many reasons. More on that later. The jobs, the friends, the family, the new (diverse! international!) city -- cannot wait!

I went to PILG Auction last night. Open bar (which I can never seen to get my money's worth), fun mingling, dressed up fancy, and had a good 80s cover band. I thought I was going to get pulled over when I was driving home because I was so tired I was driving terribly.

The quarter ends next week. I have 1 15 page paper; 1 10 page paper/final exam; 1 25 page paper; 1 presentation; 1 20 page paper. I'm sleep deprived and my head is spinning. Spring break is coming up!

Um, hi. It's March. Can't believe that.

Week in review

Wow, I can't believe the last time I wrote was Monday! And here we are, Friday already. *Shakes head.* I've been thinking of meaningful posts I want to do, but now I'll just write a post about the week...

I turned in a bunch of assignments this week: an editing and citing assignment, a midterm, a draft outline and bibliography. The midterm was actually fun to write! It was about how states are the principle implementers and enforcers of human rights.

Other going-ons this week? I had fun at my internship and worked on a project in Colombia. A Colorado company who makes prosthetic limbs wants to export there, so I was trying to figure out how to do that. What are the local laws, customs, duties, registrations and tariffs? Is there a potential market and who are the competitors? With whom might they work as a local middle-man? Pretty interesting and I was happy with the report I put together. I went to lunch at a new Thai restaurant with two other girls who work at the WTC with me - fun!

I work at the tallest building on the left.

I also had a killer run that night at Niketown. I was psyched - kept up with the guys. Their fancy Garmin watches said we were cruising along at a 6:20 pace. Woo! I was definitely hurting the next day. I also went to a Penn alumni fundraiser event last night. It was at the Ritz Carleton downtown with nice nibbles, cheese, and wine. It was all pretty posh, I got dressed up and had a good time. I'm reading (slowly) Dubliners by Joyce. Good writing and good stories about people accepting - choosing? - the inevitability of their place in society. Another thing that strikes me as I reflect on the week is all the beautiful sunrises and sunsets I have seen. There is something about the snow, the mountains and the dry air in winter here that reflects the sun in such beautiful ways. It's one of my favorite things about living here.

One last thing - I love puns. I heard a cool news piece about bilingual puns. Brilliant! The puns were in the context of restaurant names. Pho-Shizzle, Juan in a Million, Mmmmpanadas. Ha! I think it's great. I know, I'm a dork.

Bear with me

Hi, there!

I am tossing around an idea for a short (12-15 pg) paper. The class is International Development with Cross-Cultural Perspectives. The professor is an Anthropologist and focuses on the Andes (como yo!). In hopes of clarifying what I want to do, I'm testing it out in writing. Right here. For the first time. For you. Lucky you.

What's the deal? I want to write about incorporating culture into legal frameworks, national policy/procedure, and official government documents. For example, last year, Bolivia had a referendum to amend its constitution. A referendum is a direct electoral vote (one person, one vote) to determine whatever issues are brought up. In that election, the people voted to amend the definition of "property." Rejecting the old notion of property as a right held by an individual, Bolivia's constitution now defines property as a right to land held communal or by a collective group. Felicitaciones!

What does that mean for indigenous peoples of Bolivia? It means that indigenous people feel like their constitution represents them. Their government - finally - recognizes their way of living, their connection to the land, and the way they use the land as legitimate. Not only is there acknowledgment and understanding of the way indigenous peoples have lived for hundreds of years, there is an enforceable, legal mechanisms for indigenous people to continue living as they want in relation to their land. That is pretty darn cool.

What does that mean for Bolivia, the nation as a whole? It means good things and also opens up an unknown that could be potentially good or bad. The good is that there is democratic representation. It's good that by a democratic, majority vote, the people are getting what they want. It's good that there is greater unity in Bolivia - at least nominally - in that indigenous people feel included, acknowledged and represented by their government's guiding official document, legal mechanisms and official decree of the nation. It is also good that indigenous people can live the way that they want to and have lived previously for hundreds of years. Equally, just as people may exercise their right to hold property right individually, now people are also free to hold property rights collectively. Perhaps there is true unity in that each is allowed to live her life as she would like.

The unknown/bad: Perhaps unity is only a farce because the new definition inevitably affects more than just indigenous people. National policy and law affects a nation, even if some are affected on indirectly. Perhaps, in practice, collective property becomes an impossible mess. Look at what happened to American Indians who share parts/plots/the whole of reservations. Present possession and future interests get ridiculously difficult to determine and parse out. Even worse, the economic and material interests connected to land are quite complex when they are communally owned. Consider the added complication that much indigenous land is on natural resources like oil. Consider the added complication that oil and gas industries were seized by the Bolivian government -- nationalized -- in 2006. Opa. Problems abound or am I being too pessimistic?

What does it mean for other indigenous groups or people who want their culture to be reflected in the national definition of property? This decision may not much or set a precedent for other indigenous groups looking to get legal right and recognition to collective property. Here are some reasons I think this: Bolivia has indigenous president. The indigenous group (unlike most places) actually makes up the majority of the country, not the minority. In conjunction with the way the referendum was set up, this meant majority actually had the chance to put forth its agenda. But, not all democracies have constitutional amendment by referendum. In the U.S., for example, we don't hold a popular vote. The Constitution can only be amended in one of three ways:

• The new amendment may be approved by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, then sent to the states for approval.
• Two-thirds of the state legislatures may apply to Congress for a constitutional convention to consider amendments, which are then sent to the states for approval.
• Congress may require ratification by special convention

The point is, lots of things had to fall into place at the same time in order to integrate the indigenous culture into the mainstream government policy, written documents, and law. It's not likely that these factors will all come together for other indigenous groups.

The larger point, though, is that in theory it sounds good to integrate the indigenous culture into the national constitution. But, I think we need to be wary. I only hope that in practice, the economic and social consequences are positive for both the indigenous groups and the non-indigenous Bolivians. I suppose only time will tell -- I'll be watching.

First Day of School!

Back in Grad classes! I just had two classes today. The first was better than the second.

First, Jack Donnelly's Intro to Human Rights. That guy is a riot. He does this weird pretzel thing with his legs under his desk, makes dry jokes as he runs out of breath, and breezes his hand (pinkie ring and all) through his white hair while talking. But, boy, is he brilliant. I had him for Int'l Political Theory last summer and basically hung on his every word. I'm looking forward to this class, too!

Here is the quick question I asked him after class. The basic concept of today that Donnelly lectured on is that while human rights norms are accepted pretty much across the board on the international level, the enforcement and implementation of human rights is done on a national level. In other words, all countries basically agree what are human rights, but not all countries believe they are improperly enforcing/implementing those human rights in their country to their citizens. So, I asked if this base premise (that nations enforce human rights) presupposes another "human right," the right to belong to a nation. Basically, this "human right" would be less of a universal right conferred from the fact that a being is human. Rather, it would be actually be a precursor to exercising one's human right that is due only because of our social-political constructs, namely, the way we have organized the world to be full of countries that have (1) territory and (2) sovereignty. Donnelly seemed pretty interested in this idea. He said that it was one of the weakest areas of human rights theory because it's unclear which takes precedent -- state territorial sovereignty or individual human rights -- and because not all people have membership to a state (refugees, asylum status immigrants, etc.) . True, true. Those reasons are what motivated me to ask the question in the first place. While I am interested in the strength (analytical logic) of the human rights theory, I actually was most curious about indigenous and minority groups that had/want their own territory, self-determination and self-governance within the dominant state.

Call me a groupie, but I am also going to audit Donnelly's other class - Ancient Political Theory.

Second class is Politics of Development. I was not as impressed. We watched some video clips, had some power points that made vast generalizations under poor logic. Worst of all, the professor posed some pretty scattered and unimpressive (hackneyed) questions in an attempt to generate discussion. Meh. We'll see how that goes.

Also - I applied to 13 internships today! Pick me, pick me! Must. Sleep. Now.

Swine flu-y November

Poor Dinta Bint is sick. She has swine flu. Even worse, she had it over her two auditions in Toronto. A week with swine flu, alone in Toronto. She said the B&B she was staying at didn't even give her breakfast. bed and BREAKFAST, people! Couldn't they bring it to her? She said they finally agreed to give her a banana. Sigh. Hope she feels better

Otherwise - it's November. Crazy. The end of the semester is coming, the marathon is coming...Thanksgiving is coming! I signed up for classes for Winter Quarter at the grad school. Here is what I'm taking:

Intro to Human Rights Lecture & Lab (What is Human Rights lab??)
Politics of Development
International Law and Human Rights
International Development with a Cross Cultural Perspective

and, I might audit Ancient Political Theory. Can't wait!

odds and ends update

Yom Kippur yesterday - fast was hard! I was doing fine through about noon. Then I started to get a headache. Then I started to feel reeeaally bad. Then I broke, went to a quirky little break fast. Ate. Then my stomach just hurt. Ow. I knew it was coming. I don't even think I ate that much. I think the whole thing about going to temple the whole day isn't the best way to spend it. You don't actually get time to think! I don't think I reflected enough :/ but I feel like life is already moving on (without me!). You should have seen the scene at Temple Emanuel, though. Everyone all done up. Moms who are all put together with the fancy suit, the bleached/blow-fried hair, bright power-red nail polish, skinny-as-anything. I seriously wondered if some of them actually were sick and that was why they were so thin.

I got a call from Ms. Ariel and am very excited to be one of her bridesmaids at her upcoming wedding in Nashville. Hurrah! It will be so fun.

I am desperately trying to work on a first draft but it's not going so well. I have a meeting tomorrow at 11 so I am getting up at 5 (ha, a mere 7ish hours) to get working on it. Sigh. It shouldn't be this hard. Grad school is so much more fun than law school, I hate to admit.

Oh yeah, can you believe (1) it's almost October and (2) it stays dark so long! Almost until 7 a.m. Sigh, and it's dark when I get out of class at 7:15 p.m. Fall is here; winter is coming. The amount of people working out/running/biking in Wash Park is diminishing considerably. Soon, I will be able to bike the wrong way around the park and see the sun rise from my favorite angle. I had to stop doing that once spring hit because people (ahem, who had NOT been out biking through the winter as I had) decided to come out and tell me what not to do. It's not like I hadn't biked the wrong way through the park, in the dark, early morning all winter long! Sigh. A slave to society.

g'night!

A friend!

I have a friend in town! I feel like this whole past year I've had to repeat, "You have really good friends, they just don't live here." And now one is visiting! Hurrah! I worked last weekend to get things done so I could play. We talked until 1:00 a.m. last night. This morning was a leisurely 8:00 a.m. wake-up, went for a run (I got us a little lost - oops!), breakfast and then coffee/chatting on the outside patio at Pablo's. Pablo's has these free little stickers. One says "Danger monkey." The one I love most says "Small but Mighty." As Andy says, "I am Camgi, hear me roar!"

Anyway, it's been great to chat with my good friend, feel connected and calm, hear about how great she's been (post PhD comp. exams). It's inspiring and invigorating to talk ideas, about gaining control of one's own studies, getting past the hump of learning what other people want you to learn. She's now at the point where she is learning what SHE wants to learn. I have high hopes that my MA thesis will be the chance for me to be creative, actually pull together the J.D. and M.A. One day I'll get there, too...

She's here until Thursday, so I'm making myself scarce around school until then. It's lovely.

Last Day of Summer

Sunday, August 16, 2009. Second year of law school starts tomorrow.

Tonight I did everything I could think of to procrastinate: laundry, deep cleaning of entire apartment, dishes, put laundry away, caught up on messages and e-mail things, made lunch, put out my clothes for tomorrow (yes, I do that every night). I think I'm procrastinating going to sleep, even though I'm super tired, because I'm not sure I'm ready to wake up and have it be tomorrow. I just can't believe it. If I were on Cape Cod, I'd be going to Four Seas for one last summer ice cream on the beach/skinny dipping.

I remember what I wore to the first day of first grade. My favorite grey and pink stripped dress. I actually think I wore that for a few years in a row, I loved it so much.

I'm half dreading this because last year was so crazy and busy. I felt like I was working 12-15 hours a day, 7 days a week. Running at 5 a.m. Pack lunch and dinner, or eat dinner around 11 p.m. But, half of me is hopeful - maybe my classes will be more aligned with my interests. Maybe I won't have to put in so many hours. Maybe I will learn "the system." Maybe it will be less stressful. Maybe I'll have less anxiety about the whole thing? Maybe.

No call to wish me luck on the first day. I guess that's what happens when you grow up.

IN it

That's right, I'm IN it. Grad classes end Friday. Law school classes start Monday. This is seriously the end of the summer I never had. I am very much in the thick of it - 2 papers, 1 take-home exam, advance assignments for the first day of law school, scrambling around to rearrange my class schedule and hoping to get at least 1 day off without school work. Oh yeah, and finishing up with internship stuff. Hah!

One paper is drafted. It's on the recent trend of Latin American constitutional reforms of presidential term limits.

Another paper I am working on as we speak. It's on ethics of health development with a case-study of a non-profit doing work in Haiti.

Back to it ...

Monday Musings

So, had a surprisingly somewhat-relaxing day working on my paper (though it's still not done and due in 11 hours), hanging out with Melanie and then taking a break to get a 4:00 p.m. mojito at the place that play really good salsa music. I also decided that I needed more than just the 2 pairs of running shorts I've been wearing for the past 2 years. And, I committed to the idea that I think it's okay to run in a skirt by buying my first official running skirt. I had reservations and it's way shorter than my running shorts (grr) but I ran in it tonight and love it!

I took Melanie to the airport, always sad, and now am having alone-time for the first time in awhile. Went for a run when I got back and it was good tonight. Felt quick and pretty light. I had a good mix on my iShuffle and it felt nice to run in the evening for once. I've been running morning (eeaaaarly) before the heat and before the craziness of the day. Tuesdays and Thursday I've been getting home at 10 p.m., so I obviously can't really run then. Anyway, time to finish writing my paper. Here's a parting picture I took in San Francisco and a poem I love.

Seeker Of Truth
e.e. cummings

seeker of truth

follow no path
all paths lead where

truth is here

Onward and upward

Hurrah!

In the past few days I was accepted onto the Denver Journal for International Law and Policy. Technical law-loser talk is "I wrote on the journal." This is great news for me after the hassle and complete agony of the Candidacy process. The whole process felt like self-induced anxiety, bewilderment and always feeling like I didn't know what on earth I was doing or supposed to be doing. Stumbling through the legal way to cite and teaching myself from The Bluebook for hours on end was not exactly fun. Then, I wrote a "survey" paper that had an argument. Again, not my best work. I once laughed aloud while writing when thinking about how badly I felt for the poor soul who had to read my paper. I was a goner, sure not to pass. I had already convinced myself that I was just happy to have had the willpower to get through it without giving up. (It's not required to do a journal and it's easy to push off until the next round of Candidacy.)

I really liked my topic, though, and I hope to develop it more in the fall. I chose to write about protecting traditional medicinal knowledge of indigenous people. The issue is that big pharmaceutical companies are going to third world countries and getting patents on things indigenous people have known/been using for hundreds of years. Once the pharm companies get patents, the indigenous people no longer have rights to keep doing their own cultural, every-day-knowledge practices. More than that, though, the pharm companies are making a big profit with no benefits to the indigenous people who told them about the medicinal uses of plants.

As I had such limited time to write the paper and the paper was no more than 12 pages including footnotes, I had to drastically limit my argument. So, I argued that the legal framework for protecting traditional medicinal knowledge is a bad way to try to protect it. Right now, people consider TMK as a form of intellectual property. So international lawsuits over rights are over property rights. I suggested in my paper two alternatives. First, stronger domestic law would avoid some conflicts because there would be state-backing for indigenous people, rather than pitting indigenous people against big 1st world corporations. The second suggestion was that instead of thinking of TMK as property, think of it as some sort of human right or indigenous people's right. This would solve a lot of problems because TMK doesn't have a lot of the characteristics of regular property. It's hard to protect something as property when it doesn't fit into the accepted legal definition of property. Anyway, it was pretty cool to read about different plants and herbs that indigenous people have been using for medicine for hundreds of years. It's kind of the fusion of my interest in indigenous rights, international things, love of knowledge (philosophy!), health and law.

The other big thing this week is that I finished my first grad class toward my masters! I took a 9 hour (2 question) essay exam today and e-mailed it in. Hurrah! It was International Political Theory and I gobbled that stuff right up. I loved it. Hope the exam turns out well. It's amazing how much less stressful exams at grad school are than law school exams. And, I had so much more confidence that I could do well. Law school is such a downer - always feeling like you have no idea what to expect, purposefully unreachable standards ("It's impossible for anyone to get near a perfect score on my exams"), and stupid curved grading. Loving grad school. :)

Oh yeah, AND, I did my first Side Crow in yoga. I've been trying to do it since January!

Onward and upward...