Final papers, hours and hours spent at the library, procrastinating and wasting time mindlessly browsing the internet, listening to music and trying to find anything to do but finish said final papers. That was pretty much the story of the last few weeks. It's now a few days before Christmas and I'm in Colorado, relieved to be done with my first semester of graduate school. I'm anxiously waiting to hear back on the grades for three out of my four classes as I sit here at my mom's house, exhausted. My friend Nik flew out to New York City and we drove to Colorado with my dogs. The trip went really well, car had no issues, dogs pretty much slept the whole time, and we only made one long stop, for a two hour nap at a rest stop. 34 hours or so to drive from NYC to Denver, pretty impressive if I do say so myself. Glad it's over though, my body hurts from being in a vehicle so long.

I'm looking forward to spending the next couple of weeks catching up and relaxing with family and friends, decompressing, and recharging before I head back to NYC in early January. It feels good to be home, now to see about relaxing. :)

Here's a few pictures I took a couple of weeks ago in Brooklyn when I had some friends visiting from Colorado.

Aside from Phnom Penh, I've never lived in a large city before and certainly not one even close to being as large as NYC. This city has a lot of ups and downs but has really been wearing on me lately. The noise, the people, the general hustle and bustle, it's all been contributing to a stressful past few weeks. As the semester winds down, as I scramble to finish readings, study for quizzes and prepare final papers, I find myself very much looking forward to spending a couple of weeks in Colorado during the winter break. It will be nice to spend time with friends and family, to be near the mountains, to enjoy the fresh air and quiet, and to relax a bit before my second semester begins.

I've been meaning to write a longer blog post but I don't have much time. I need to get back to reading and studying.

I posted this on Facebook so most of my friends and acquaintances will hopefully see it but I figured I'd share it on my blog as well. This is such an amazing video and song. :)

Also, just saw this video via a friend on Facebook and loved it, hahaha. Brilliant!

Still working on getting my act together as far as blog posts go but thought I'd put up a few pics I took a couple of nights ago. After class a friend and I wandered down towards Ground Zero (if we can still call it that?) to take a few pictures. Of course we ended up at Zucotti Park as well and I took a couple of pictures while we walked by.

I haven’t written on my blog in quite a while and I still need to get my final blog post up about the Kenya trip but I wanted to write about this particular topic while it’s ‘fresh’ in my mind and I suppose in the minds of anyone who pays attention to current events. The ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests, or movement, began a few weeks back and being a current resident of New York City, I had to get down there to check things out. The protests had been going on for probably a week and a half or two weeks before we made it down so I’d had plenty of opportunities to read news articles, opinions on facebook, blog posts, and the media’s variety of coverage on OWS.

Last Friday I was in the downtown area to meet with my advisor and afterwards I wandered in the direction of the World Trade Center where I planned to wait for my girlfriend and a friend before we went in search of the protests. Being unfamiliar with the downtown area and not really knowing where I was going or where Wall Street was, I walked right into Zuccotti Park and the main group of protesters on accident. I had my headphones on but my attention was drawn to the loud beat of drums and I looked up to see a crowd formed around some musicians and a group of young men dancing. Admittedly, it took a few minutes to register that I had found the protesters. I started noticing signs, flags, a variety of political t-shirts, tarps, and as I began walking around more, laptops, cameras, tarps, tents, air mattresses, and enthusiastic people opening up to anyone willing to listen. I stood off to the side of the park for a while, taking things in and it wasn’t long before I was approached by a young man, maybe a few years younger than me, who asked if I’d sign a petition in support of a single payer healthcare system for New York. I’m cool with that so I signed his petition and chatted with him for a minute, and then wandered further up the sidewalk along the park. The further ‘up’ I went, the louder it got and the more signs I saw. I also started to notice a number of reporters and news vans around and even a lady who appeared to be ‘dressed up’ as Sarah Palin, interviewing protesters. I checked out some artwork on the corner and continued to people watch. I noticed economist Jeffrey Sachs standing a few feet away talking to some of the protesters and a couple of reporters. I had to do a double take but later confirmed that it was him. In my Global Civil Society course we’ve reviewed some articles by Sachs on development and aid and his work has come up in couple of my other classes.

I eventually met up with Hanna and Erica at the other end of the park and we walked towards the center of the park where Sachs conversed with a number of protesters via the ‘human microphone’ method. We listened for a bit, took a few pictures, and wandered around some more. We didn’t spend much time there but I observed enough to know that sometime soon, I’d like to go back with my camera, take more pictures, and talk with some of the protesters (perhaps my first foray into journalism?). Here’s some of what I noticed and some of my thoughts on what I witnessed: A variety of flags, from pink and rainbow heart designs declaring love for all and peace to red flags with Che Guevara’s likeness, upside down American flags, flags with whatever message the creator was trying to portray. Signs, cardboard, poster board, notebook paper, posters, drawings, cartoons, caricatures, hastily scrawled messages of anger, frustration, calls for justice, demands for jobs, frustration with Obama and other elected officials, support for universal health care, ending the multiple wars we are currently engaged in, protecting the environment, ending global warming, and so on and so forth. I also saw a number of signs and t-shirts expressing support for presidential candidate Ron Paul, which I found rather interesting. I didn’t get a chance but the next time I certainly will, but I wanted to ask some of the Ron Paul supporters about their thoughts on other protestors’ calls for universal health care, free education, student loan debt relief, etc. A part of me wanted to laugh at the irony but my idealistic side found appreciation in the diversity of these protesters, in the fact that though many have called them disorganized, delusional, and misguided, there were a lot of different people from different ends of the political spectrum putting their differences aside to basically tell Wall Street and the world, they are pissed off with the way things are and they want change. Real change I’d imagine, not the bullshit many were sold on three years ago.

As someone who’s had difficulty finding a job over the past few months, I can sympathize with those who are coming out of college or graduate school and are unable to find work. There are plenty of jobs available, argue some of my friends. There may be jobs available in a number of fields but some of us either just aren’t qualified for those jobs or we just aren’t getting hired. As someone who’s applied for hundreds of jobs over the past few months and only landed three interviews with no job offers, again I can sympathize. The same friends who argue about all these available jobs say that people shouldn’t go to school to get ‘worthless degrees’ or should go learn practical skills in order to get jobs in skilled labor. As someone who tries to remain realistic and firmly grounded, I can appreciate that more people need to be willing to go into blue collar jobs, skilled labor, and jobs that will help our infrastructure and economy to grow. I have applied for jobs in manual labor, jobs that have nothing to do with my education, entry level jobs in a variety of fields and done my best to express to potential employers that I am willing to do almost any type of work and that I am not ‘above’ or ‘too good’ for the jobs that some may turn their nose up at. I’ve considered pursuing a number or qualifications and skills in order to make my resume more practical and diverse all while trying to keep my goals and dreams in mind and focus on my studies. These cost money of course and given the cost of my current degree program, it might be best for me not to take on any more debt. People are quick to call the protesters lazy and tell them there are plenty of jobs available and it’s very easy to criticize when you have a job, when your industry hasn’t suffered as many cuts. Is the U.S.A. not supposed to be the land of opportunity? Why criticize and make fun of those who can’t find jobs in the fields they’ve put years of study and work into? I don’t appreciate free loaders or those who abuse the system but when qualified, educated people are unable to find work, why bash them?

Sure I’d be as cynical as anyone if I had a friend pursuing a higher education in underwater basket weaving but isn’t part of the American dream (if it still exists) being able to pursue your dreams, to do what makes you happy and make a living? I admit I was moved by Mike Rowe’s (host of Dirty Jobs) message on CNN i-report about how there are a few hundred thousand jobs in skilled labor that can’t be filled because there just aren’t people with those skills. Yes, we need people with more diverse and ‘practical’ skills but when millions of Americans are out of work and unable to find jobs, EVERYONE should be concerned. Whether you believe that unemployment is the often touted 9 percent or as high as 15-16 percent, American citizens should be concerned and more sympathetic.

When I sat at my cousin’s graduation earlier this year and watched hundreds of graduate students receiving their diplomas at the University of Denver, the majority of which were in International Studies, Psychology, Sociology, etc. the question ‘what the hell are these people going to do now?’ kept running through my head, a great thought given that I had just recently decided to pursue my M.S. in Global Affairs at New York University and would be starting in three months. My misgivings and second thoughts about whether this expensive degree program is a smart move have continued as I’ve applied for jobs and heard nothing back, as I’ve watched the progression of the angry, unemployed masses at Occupy Wall Street and as I’ve tried to picture the knowledge I’m currently acquiring into a future career. I’ve considered looking into the possibility of pursuing a dual degree, pairing my MS with a Masters in Public Health (in hopes that the practicality and diversity will offset the costs in the long term), I’ve considered pursuing an EMT certification, trying to land a job with a construction company and pick up some more hands on skills, learn to use some different equipment, and even the possibility of going back into the military as an officer, though I have my misgivings and anticipate an ideological struggle in that option.

I have always been good at adapting and adjusting to changing conditions and I know I’ll figure things out eventually. While I will hold on to my cynicism, realism and my constant questioning, I will still have sympathy and concern for those who (provided they are putting forth the effort) are unable to find work or get by in these increasingly tough times.

As mentioned above, I hope to get down to the protests again soon and do some more ‘investigating'. In the meanwhile, here's a cartoon I borrowed from a friend on facebook that I found pretty relevant:

http://i.imgur.com/FIZuV.png

Thanks for reading, more to come!

Ok I've procrastinated long enough on writing this blog post and seeing as how I started my first semester of graduate school this week, I figure I better get this done before I get too busy.

At Fisherman's Camp we were a hundred feet or so from Lake Naivasha, which was beautiful, and we were surrounded by massive trees, which were full of monkeys and large, rather evil looking birds. I wandered around the camp site a bit, took a lot of pictures, and enjoyed the view of the lake from the dock. We enjoyed a delicious and nutritious meal of tuna sandwiches, peanut butter and nutella sandwiches, and chips. In the evening we hung out at the camp bar/restaurant and enjoyed a few beers. As I was getting up to hit the bathroom, an Australian traveler pointed out to me that a hippo had come up from the lake. I probably did a quadruple take as I stared at the massive gray beast moving around near the electric fence. I quietly made my way closer to the tent and viewed the animal while slightly hidden behind a tree. I was standing fifteen feet or so from a hippopotamus in the wild. The only thing separating me from this small car sized animal was a thin electric fence, maybe four and a half feet high. I stood and watched the hippo as it walked up to the fence, tested it a little bit, and then lay down in the dirt. I tried to take pictures but it was too dark and I didn't want to freak the hippo out with my flash. After watching it for about 10 or 15 minutes, I made my way back to the bar with a huge smile on my face. I probably haven't mentioned this on my blog but hippos are one of my favorite animals. :)

After a night of cramped, uncomfortable attempts at sleeping, We woke up early the next day, took a boat ride out onto Lake Naivasha and saw a group of wild hippos relaxing in the water. We couldn't get too close but it was pretty cool seeing hippos again in the wild. After the boat ride, we rented bikes from the camp site and rode a couple of miles to Hell's Gate National Park. Previously I had seen CTG’s pictures from Hell’s Gate and it had looked impressive but biking into the park in person, seeing sheer rock walls climbing hundreds of feet, fields of zebras, and just a vast, rugged but beautiful stretch of land in front of me, it was breath taking. We followed the dirt road through the park and rode past herds of zebras, warthogs, and gazelles as we made our way to the spot we’d be camping at for the night. After enjoying the ride to the site, taking a few hundred pictures, scarfing down some pb and chocolate sandwiches, we hopped back on our bikes and made our way to the Hell’s Gate gorge. On the way down to the road we spotted a giraffe wandering around amongst the zebras, so naturally I rode closer to take some pictures. Jordan and CTG rode ahead and when I got on my bike to catch up to them, I had one of the most amazing experiences of my life. As I was quickly pedaling down the road, a couple of zebras were crossing into the road. As they saw/heard me coming near, they stopped in the middle of the road, when I was about 20-30 feet away, the trotted out of the road. As I started to pass them, they both went into a full sprint, running in the grass next to the road, maybe 10 feet away from me. I rode next to these galloping wild zebra for close to a hundred feet before they turned off into the field. I can’t really find the words to accurately describe the feeling but I know that I had the biggest smile on my face and it just felt so surreal. It was definitely one of the most memorable moments, not only of the entire trip, but of my life.

Moving on from my amazing zebra race, I caught up to CTG and Jordan and we eventually arrived at the gorge entrance. The site, which consisted of some picnic tables, bathrooms and a ranger building or two, was crawling with large baboons. Baboons were constantly coming up to where people were, trying to snag a snack, then the rangers would chase them away, only to have them reappear soon after, a little further away. We spent a few hours walking down through smooth rock walls, streams, water falls, pools of water, past large groups of Kenyan school children, and multiple hot sulfur water streams dripping down from the tops of the canyon walls. The gorge was really nice and in spite of getting stuck in the middle of a few groups of kids trying to climb down the steeper ledges, we had a good time exploring. We made our way back to the camp site, slept the night, and woke up to a gorgeous sunrise peaking around the hills into the entrance of the park (look at the pictures!). On the way out of the park we saw water buffalo, more zebras, and warthogs trotting around in the grass.

From Hell’s Gate, we made our way back to Fisherman’s Camp, returned our bikes, and then made it to the city of Nakuru, after one bus and one matatu ride. In Nakuru we sampled more Kenyan cuisine, which mostly consisted of fried chicken, brown rice, and little fried, triangle shaped dumplings called samosas. It was pretty good and at the little café/restaurants, you get a lot of food for very little money. Cold cokes or sprites were almost always the beverage of choice. We set up a safari tour of Lake Nakuru and spent the evening relaxing in the hotel room. Early in the morning our guide picked us up in a small jeep like vehicle that kinda looked like a Suzuki Samurai and we made the 15 minute or so drive out of the city, towards the park. I’ll try to finish the last blog post about the Kenya trip as soon as possible. In the meanwhile, here are a few pictures from Fisherman's Camp and Hell’s Gate and if you haven’t looked at the Kenya photo albums, be sure to take a look!

Also, I changed the layout and the main picture on the blog. The pic I took in Nakuru on the way back from the park. I switched it to sephia on the camera and I thought it came out pretty good. Let me know what you think, thanks!

On August 1st, my good friend Jordan and I arrived at JFK international airport to embark on a two week journey to Kenya. In true American fashion, we decided to hit the McDonald's for a late pre-flight lunch. From the U.S. to Frankfurt, as well as from Frankfurt to Addis Ababa, we were on Lufthansa Air flights, which was really nice for the most part. I'd definitely fly with them again internationally. We did end up with some slight delays because of the weather but we were lucky enough not to miss any of our connecting flights. En route to Kenya I finished a really interesting book titled "Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower", by Michela Wrong. It was a fascinating though disturbing book about corruption, inequality, tribal/ethnic differences and how they've tied into Kenyan politics over the past few decades. Perhaps I was immersing myself in cynicism prior to even entering the country?

After taking an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, we deboarded the plane and went in search of passport control and my checked bag. As we were attempting to enter immigration/passport control to officially enter the country, we were stopped by a lady who asked to see our vaccination records. Jordan had researched necessary vaccinations months prior to our trip and on the website, it says nothing about needing to present vaccination records to get into Kenya, unless you are coming directly from a country where Yellow Fever is a problem. It also said that Ethiopia is one of those countries, but if you are only going into the airport, you don't have to get the vaccination or have your vaccination records. Jordan, who is course always more prepared than me, had her records and presented them to the lady. The lady turned to me and asked me about mine. I explained to her that I didn't have them but I had not come from a country that had Yellow Fever. We politely argued with her over what she was telling us versus what's actually on their website and after a few minutes she basically told me to go ahead but next time I come to Kenya I should have my vaccination records. Needless to say, I shook my head in amazement as I walked on to get my visa stamped. It didn't take long for me to revert to 'in developing country' mode.

Chris, better known as CTG, was waiting for us at the airport but before I could greet him with a glorious embrace, I had to find my checked bag. I stood at the luggage carousel and waited...............................and waited, for a good 30 minutes or so before I started talking with a few other people who I noticed also anxiously waiting, about the fact that our bags appeared to be nonexistent. Eventually we were helped by somebody who worked for one of the airlines or the airport, and we filled in paperwork for missing luggage. The gentleman assured us the luggage was not lost, it was just missing and that it would turn up. Luckily, I had brought most of my expensive and important stuff in my camera bag, as well as a change of clothes in my extra small backpack. I reunited with CTG and Jordan and before hopping into a taxi, we exchanged some money.

Our taxi ride to the hotel wasn't too long and we were pretty tired from 24 hours or so of traveling. We caught up with Chris a bit and discussed our options and concerns over the missing bag (which in addition to my clothes, sandals, toiletries, etc. also held two liters of oh so delicious root beer, root beer which poor CTG hadn't had the pleasure of tasting in a long time). CTG had our trip planned out day by day so we made some adjustments and decided to do a few things in Nairobi the next day, that we originally weren't planning on doing until right before we flew back to the U.S. The early part of our day on August 4th was spent wandering around the city, lookin for food and drink, and searching for a local airline office where we could purchase tickets needed towards the end of the trip. We ate lunch at an upstairs cafe overlooking the street. Lunch consisted of beef stew, rice and some vegetables. It wasn't spectacular but it certainly wasn't terrible. Kenyan food has a lot more flavor than Mongolian food but not quite on the same level as Khmer food. :)

Moving on, we managed to land our plane tickets, just barely and soon after we received a phone call that my bag had arrived at the airport. Needless to say, we were all relieved. After picking up my bag from the airport we had dinner at what is apparently one of the most famous restaurants in Nairobi, called 'Carnivore'. Carnivore is set up similar to a lot of Brazilian meat/steak houses in the U.S. You pay for your dinner, sit down, and they bring you skewer after skewer of different varieties of meat and you eat as much as you can. The meal was a bit pricey (for us at least, I think it was somewhere between 20 and 30 bucks) but we wanted to see what the hype was all about and it came highly recommended by my friend Jessica, who had traveled in Kenya previously. The restaurant was full of tourists/foreigners and was bustling. After having some beers at the bar and waiting a bit for our table, we sat down, ready to gorge. Over the next hour and a half we were served some salad and side dishes, bread and some potatoes, and then tried a variety of different meats and cuts, including crocodile, ostrich, bull balls (AKA rocky mountain oysters, which oddly enough I never tried in Colorado), camel, lamb, and different cuts of beef, pork, lamb, and I believe goat. The majority of the food was delicious and we left satisfied, but we planned to eat the majority of our meals at cheaper establishments for the rest of the trip.

The next day, CTG let us know he had a surprise for us. After securing our plane tickets we hopped in a cab and went for a ride. After driving around for a little bit we made a stop at a giraffe preserve outside of Kenya. Depspite the school bus full of obnoxious tourist kids (and by kids I mean, these kids were probably all in high school) throwing food at one giraffe's face and repeatedly screaming it's name while trying to get a picture of it licking them, it was a nice experience. After the giraffe visit we had the pleasure of visiting an elephant/rhinocerous orphanage. The elephants, of which there were many, were obnoxiously cute and fun to watch. Here there was also an obscene amount of tourists, hugging the rope to get up close to the animals and pretty much ignoring the workers who were trying to explain a little bit about the orphanage and the animals. Basically the orphanage rescues baby elephants and rhinos whose parents have been poached or hunted and takes care of them until they are old enough to be out in the wild on their own. There was also one rhino but he was huge, not quite as small as most of the elephants. Below are a few pics of the elephants. The rest of my Kenya pictures can be viewed at these links:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.633251806863.2125758.72206395&l=a83178afd5&type=1

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.633430773213.2125820.72206395&l=2d77a737f1&type=1

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.634112102823.2126064.72206395&l=b56d541d94&type=1

After enjoying part of the day with awesome animals, we took a matatu (large van with a crazy driver, stuffed full of people and stuff, very similar to our mikr vans in Mongolia) to a campground called Fisherman's Camp right on Lake Naivasha. More on that and the rest of the trip as soon as I can get through my notes and pictures. :)

I'm sitting at home, AC on full blast, pretty tired after a fun but exhausting weekend, mostly spent drinking beers, catching up with friends from Peace Corps and making new friends and acquaintances. It's been about two weeks since we moved into our apartment in New York City and I'm about to leave again, this time for a two week trip to Kenya. Like most of previous travel experiences, it never really hits me that I'm going somewhere until I'm on the way there. Right now, I'm sitting here thinking 'I'm going to Kenya tomorrow. Cool." but tomorrow when I'm on the plane it's going to be more like "Holy crap! I'm going to Africa! To Kenya! Awwwweeeesssoome!".

I've lived in Asia for over two years, been to the Middle East briefly and I've traveled extensively around the continental United States. I've never been to Africa but so many countries on the continent have interested me, have made we want to go. I think that as I've spent the last few years working in development and education, and as I've decided to make the transition into human rights, humanitarian assistance and conflict resolution, I've always known that I'd end up in the Middle East or Africa at some point. This is only a two week trip, mostly for pleasure, to visit a friend who's there with Peace Corps, to experience something new and different for a short time before graduate school starts but in a lot of ways I feel like it's just going to be a preview, a small view into a country that I could end up working in sometime in the not too distant future. I'm reading a book right now, called "Our Turn to Eat", about Kenya, which came highly recommended by Chris, my friend who is there now. It's pretty interesting so far and it's helping to educate me on some of the current woes Kenya is facing, perhaps to understand the root causes of many of the country's struggles with corruption, before I arrive there.

I've been back in the U.S. since September and I've been itching to do some international travel for the past few months. My bags are packed, I've finally got a a nice camera with which to document my trip and my friend slash traveling companion Jordan is here. Jordan has never been to Africa either but has traveled in Europe. We're both nervous and excited and we're both happy to know that we have a good friend and a great host/travel guide to show us around the country he's been living and working in for almost two years. I have about 40 gb worth of memory cards in my camera bag so you can believe I'll be taking and posting up a lot of pictures of this adventure.

24 hours from now we'll be on the first of three plane rides that will take us to Kenya. I can't wait. :)

Just under a week ago, Hanna and I signed our lease and began moving into our new apartment, in Washington Heights, upper Manhattan. The first few days I walked around our neighborhood, I heard a lot of Spanish being spoken. By a lot, I mean I heard significantly more Spanish than English. Our friends Dylan and Elaine, also former Mongolian Peace Corps volunteers, took us to a great Dominican restaurant a block away from the apartment and told us that our neighborhood is known for being predominantly Dominican. Interested in learning more, I hit the always reliable and informative Wikipedia :D and read a bit more about Washington Heights. Here's one tidbit that seems to accurately describe my new hood:

"Today the majority of the neighborhood's population is of Dominican birth or descent (the area is sometimes referred to as "Quisqueya Heights"), and Spanish is frequently heard being spoken on the streets. Washington Heights has been the most important base for Dominican accomplishment in political, non-profit, cultural, and athletic arenas in the United States since the 1960s. Most of the neighborhood businesses are Dominican owned, driving the local economy. Many Dominican immigrants come to network and live with family members. Bishop Gerard Walsh, former long-time pastor of St. Elizabeth's Roman Catholic Church, located in Washington Heights, said that many residents go to the neighborhood for "cheap housing," obtain jobs "downtown," receive a "good education," and "hopefully" leave the neighborhood."

If this isn't the perfect opportunity to pick up another language, I don't know what is. If every minute of my time is not taken up by my graduate studies, I'll have to see about getting some lessons in Spanish.

It's been obnoxiously hot in NYC the past few days. By obnoxiously hot I'm talking Cambodian hot. It's been in the high 90's, hovering around 100 degrees and higher some days and of course, it's incredibly humid. NYC is already humid enough but we live between the Harlem and Hudson rivers so I can't imagine that helps. The dogs are doing well for the most part, adjusting to the craziness of living in the big city. We have a park right down the street, which is pretty nice. I'm pretty sure that we are the only people in our neighborhood with dogs other than chihuahuas and pit bulls, so Zack and Jack get a lot of looks from the neighborhood kids, some excited and curious, some terrified.

I had a ton of thoughts I wanted to write down in more detail as part of this blog post, thoughts and observations from living here for the past (almost) week, walking around my neighborhood, the madness of driving in the city during rush hour, etc. but I am experiencing a serious brain fart and I really need to eat dinner. More profound and thought provoking blog post coming very soon. In the meanwhile, here's a few pictures from the past few days.

After two and a half days of driving, we arrived in Pennsylvania to spend some time with my mom's family. Nebraska, Iowa, and Indiana were obnoxiously hot. Zack was my copilot, he was pretty calm for most of the trip but didn't do a whole lot of driving, mostly sleeping in the passenger seat. :) The cool water of Fairview Lake in Paupack was a welcome change from being couped up in a vehicle driving across the torrid midwest summer.

The last two weeks or so have been interesting and fun. I was able to spend time with aunts, uncles, cousins, my siblings, my grandma and my mom. Hanna met almost all of my mom's side of the family, we spent a lot of time by and in the lake, swimming, boating, relaxing. Zack seems to be enjoying PA for the most part. The humidity seems to have helped keep his nose from getting too dry and he seems to have an extra bounce in his step when we go for walks. The first day we had him at the dock, he launched himself into the lake in pursuit of my aunt Cathy's dogs at the next closest dock, seemingly not realizing that once he fell into the water, he'd have to swim to get anywhere. He looked panicked for a second, swum in a circle, and turned right back around, the terrified look in his eyes screaming at me "MATT MATT MATT GET ME OUT OF THIS WATER HOLY CRAP!!!!". It was surprising and amusing to witness.

I came into New York City last week to meet Hanna, meet up with some of my good friends from Peace Corps, and check out an apartment that we are trying to get into. Hanna found a nice place in upper Manhattan that we put in applications for and we've got our fingers crossed that we can possibly move in sometime this week or weekend. I've been spending a few days in the city, going back and forth between a friend's place and my aunt Peggy's house in Long Island. I'm a nomad, vagabond, call me what you will, at the moment and really looking forward to getting settled into an apartment in the city so I can do some more exploring and hopefully find some temp work.

New York City is, in one word, crazy. There are people everywhere, there's something going on on every street corner, there is so much to see, so much to listen to. It's so much louder and more fast paced here than in Colorado. I take the subway everywhere so I'm constantly watching people, wondering about them. There is so much diversity here. It's so amazing to me how many different ethnic groups have such a large presence in this city. So many people from so many different walks of life, all living crammed into one city. It's incredible.

I've taken a lot of pictures, I've asked a lot of questions, I've eaten a lot of good food, I've caught up with friends from Peace Corps Mongolia, I've been lost, I've gotten on the wrong train, I've met some new and interesting people and it's only been a few days. I'm doing my best to stay optimistic and curious. I'm here for at least two years, going to make the most of it.

18 days until my trip to Kenya. Can't wait. Here's a few pictures I took over the past week.

Driving across the country. Sunset in Ohio.

Fairview Lake, Paupack PA, view from my aunt's dock

Few random shots in New York City

I'm sitting in my old room at my mom's house looking at piles of boxes containing all my stuff while I try to find the words to express my feelings about leaving Colorado again. Tomorrow is my last day working at Mission Possible, my last day to spend time with friends, my last day in Colorado until who knows when. I've been in Colorado since September and it's been nice. I've enjoyed being able to spend quality time with friends and family, showing Hanna my favorite places in Colorado, introducing her to my friends and family, and just being home. There have been ups and downs but I'm glad I stayed as long as I did. Colorado will always be home for me, though I foresee a future of lots of moving and traveling around the world. I get stir crazy often and I think between spending time in Pennsylvania with my family, exploring New York City, traveling to Kenya, and starting school at NYU, I will have more than enough to keep my stir craziness in check over the coming months.

The past few weeks have flown by but it's been nice. I was able to catch up with a lot of old friends, spend quality time with close friends and enjoy Colorado's beautiful summer. Whenever I'm driving and I look at the mountains, I realize how much I'm going to miss it here. It's funny how we take certain things for granted and don't really appreciate their significance until we don't have them anymore. I have no doubt that I will visit Colorado as often as possible while I'm living in New York City but there's so much I'm going to miss. I'll admit I'm a bit nervous about living in a city as massive and fast paced as New York City, but I'm trying to be as optimistic and open-minded as possible. There will be new people to meet, places to see, foods to eat, experiences to have and it will be nice having Hanna show me all of her favorite restaurants and spots, introduce me to her friends and family, and show me how to get around the city. I'm anxious but excited for this move, for this new experience.

Tonight I'm hanging out with friends, tomorrow I work my last shift and I will be having dinner with some of my friends, then Friday morning we venture east. We'll be staying at my sister's place in Iowa Friday night, then driving as far as possible on Saturday and barring no problems, arriving in Pennsylvania on Sunday. It will be nice to see a lot of my mom's family since the last time I saw most of them was on my break from Mongolia two years ago. I'm excited to go swimming in the lake, enjoy the summer and catch up with my grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins. It will be a great segue from Colorado to the east coast. Hopefully next week I will be able to venture into New York City and take a look at some apartments with Hanna. Ideally, I'd like to find some temporary work so I can make a little bit of money before I leave for Kenya, but we'll see what happens when I get there. I will probably start putting in applications for part time work and go wander around NYU's campus to see if there's any leads there. 12 credit hours as a graduate student will be very tough, no doubt, but I'd like to work while I'm in school. Fingers crossed.

More blog posts to come as I move forward on this next journey of my life.

The Peace Corps has three main goals. Straight from the Peace Corps website, here they are:

The Peace Corps' mission has three simple goals:

Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.

Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.

Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.returned.thirdgoal.whatis

Third goal activities are basically meant to educate Americans about the peoples, cultures, etc. of the countries that we served in as Peace Corps volunteers. On a small level, I've engaged in this goal by talking about my experiences, telling stories and educating friends and family about Mongolia and Kazakh and Mongolian culture in short exchanges. Up until recently though, I didn't do anything official or on a larger scale to educate Americans about Mongolia and Peace Corps in Mongolia. A few months ago, my best friend's sister, who works as a teacher and also works with a Girl Scout troop after school, asked me if I'd be interested in helping her Girl Scouts earn their World Citizens badge by teaching them a little bit about Mongolia and what I did with the Peace Corps there. Of course I agreed and Hanna agreed to help me out.

We prepared a short presentation with some activities and brought some of our souvenirs from Mongolia to share with the girls. I prepared the information and slides anticipating that the girls were mostly in fifth grade. To my surprise most of the girls were quite a bit younger so I had to make some adjustments in how we presented the info. Despite the confusion, the presentation went pretty well. First we talked a bit about Peace Corps, its history, its mission, where volunteers work and what they do. Next we asked the girls if they knew where Mongolia is or if they knew anything about the country. None of the girls had ever heard anything about or knew anything about Mongolia but we were pleasantly surprised when one of the girls was able to point out Mongolia on an unmarked map. :)

We let the girls check out our Mongolian schwag, out of which the Mongolian wrestling hat and the Kazakh caps generated the most interest. We provided them with some basic information about Mongolian demographics, cultural norms and differences and even taught them some Mongolian numbers and phrases. At the end of the session, we played a 'Jeopardy' style game and quizzed the girls about information we provided on Peace Corps and Mongolia. The girls did well and seemed very pleased with themselves.

Overall the presentation and activities went well, though in the future I'd like to be better prepared. The girls seemed to enjoy meeting with us and hearing what we had to teach them and it felt good to finally engage in a more official third goal activity. I'd like to do some more of these in the future and of course, Peace Corps or not, I'd like to teach Americans about other countries I plan to travel to and work in, in the future.

Here are a few pics from our session with the Girl Scouts:

Shaq announced his retirement today, after 19 seasons in the NBA. I grew up watching Shaq in Orlando and Los Angeles and from when I first saw him play, he was my favorite player. I followed him from his rookie year until his last season with the Lakers. For a few years I didn't really pay attention to basketball but I always remained a Shaq fan and loved it when even as he was moving out of his prime, he won his fourth NBA championship with the Heat and had some incredible games with the Suns. Though I'm not a Boston fan, I was hoping he'd have one more solid season and help them win a title but it appears as though injuries and so many years in the league have finally caught up to the Shaq Diesel. He'll always be my favorite player and in my opinion, the best and most dominant center in NBA history. Here's a cool video tribute with some great Shaq hightlights:

I am a little disappointed that I allowed myself to be sucked into a ridiculous, unnecessary war of words with a hypocritical shit talker so I won't be posting any more about this troll nonsense after this. I made a few derogratory, stereotypical comments about the Middle East and according to the troll, who made NUMEROUS derogatory, hateful and vitriolic comments about myself and American people, as well as America as a nation, I showed my true colors. She can rip on me, rip on Americans, rip on America and talk all the shit she wants but as soon as I dish it back (did it to prove a point) I'm suddenly the hateful bigot. *rolling my motherfucking eyes* Again, I'm no nationalist or super patriot wannabe but I can only tolerate so much shit talking directed at myself, other Americans, my country, and the men and women of the military, especially from someone who hides behind the anonymity of a keyboard.

I know, I know. I'm a terrorist coward and a war criminal, a sheep, just like all other Americans. The troll from the Middle East hates Americans so much that she applied to study Global Affairs at New York University. Makes perfect sense.

On to more important things. One month left in Colorado, heading to Pennsylvania to visit my mom's family in early July, will be looking for temporary work in New York and a place to live. Then it's off to Kenya for a couple of weeks in August, then school starts in September. Very excited to start a new chapter in New York City and to study Global Affairs at New York University. :)

Dear anonymous troll, if you admit you're an asshole, I'll admit I'm a terrorist.

I would normally expect to hear these words directed at someone like Osama bin Laden (typically by somebody on the right) or someone like George W. Bush (typically by somebody on the left) but I was a little surprised to find them directed at me by my favorite anonymous internet troll. When I called him/her out on their anonymity, I was met with the response that they are from the Middle East (I guess I should have known?) and that it's easiest to post anonymously on blogger (because they can't figure out how to log in from their google account and I'm supposed to be concerned with this) . Because I won't admit that I'm a war criminal and a terrorist for being part of the invasion of Iraq, I am a coward. That's the latest gem from my middle eastern troll. I have commmitted atrocities and crimes that no amount of Peace Corps service or volunteer work overseas will ever erase.

Let's clear the air on something here. I was a member of the Marine Corps Reserves from 2000 to 2004. In 2003 my unit was activiated and deployed to Kuwait to work in Mortuary Affairs. I was in and out of Iraq a few times, worked in collection points, processing remains, in both Kuwait and Iraq, and spent a lot of time reading books, writing letters and playing gameboy. I'm not proud of the fact that my country invaded Iraq for questionable reasons and it's frustrating that I was a part of it and didn't know then what I know now, but I committed no atrocities. I killed no one, I shot no one, I stabbed no one, I never even fired my weapon once during my deployment, which lasted about five months by the way. I can't help but wonder if my middle eastern troll gets this bent out of shape about people like Ratko Mladic, Saddam Hussein, or Moammar Gadhafi, people who have actually committed atrocities and killed thousands to hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

I figure I will entertain this troll for a few more days, then just ignore him/her and hope they find a job or move on to some other 'war criminal's' blog. Terrorist fingers crossed.

I don't want to 'feed the trolls' as the internet saying goes but comments that have been recently posted on my blog have provided me with so much entertainment, I just had to bite the bait this time. A few months ago I posted about my excitement at being accepted into the Global Affairs program at NYU. About a month ago, I noticed a comment from 'anonymous'. Here's where it started:

I have also been accepted in this program but I still have my doubts. Mostly because I don't want to study in the US. I'm anti-troops and don't support soldiers' works. I'm wondering how happy I'll be living in the US and having a classmate who is an Iraq vet, who invaded a country of innocent people.

I found it interesting that this person, who had taken the time to read my blog and made note of the fact that I was a member of the military and had been in Iraq, was concerned about studying in the same program as me, based on that fact alone. I've made it pretty obvious to most people who know me that despite the fact that I served in Iraq, I don't support our reasons for invading Iraq. Keeping that in mind, I recognize that we can't go back in time and reverse or undo things, all we can do is make the best of a shitty situation and move forward, or at least that's what I believe. Again, I don't believe that we (the U.S. led coalition as a whole) invaded Iraq with the best intentions (personally I believe greed and the potential for profitable contracts played a significant role), though I do think that many men and women in the armed forces believed that we were going there for the right reasons (as did I many years ago) and that most of them wanted to do good things to help Iraq, on an individual basis. Whether or not you agree with me on this, the fact of the matter, the reality of the situation, is that we are in Iraq and we've been in Iraq for over 8 years now. At this point, all we can do is hope for the best outcome. Hopefully the best outcome involves the least amount of people dead, a more stable poltiical and economic situation in Iraq, and eventually their own independence and future prosperity. I believe this could have been achieved on their own (possibly as part of the Arab Spring?) and that our invasion was unnecessary, that far too many lives were lost, far too much money was spent, far too many mistakes were made, and far too many people went unpunished for orchestrating the invasion and occupation and misleading Americans and the world about the Iraq war.

Anyways, moving on. I responded to this troll's comment, explaining that I don't support our reasons for going to war in Iraq and that there are many other Americans who feel that way as well. I said that if he or she was open minded and willing to recognize that just because I served in Iraq in the past, it doesn't mean I support the war or our politicians and elected leaders who take us into wars such as this. I am always open to differing view points and I'm usually not one to shy away from a debate or discussion, espcially if its something I'm very interested in or passionate about. 'Anonymous' responded with this:

The government, the guns, the weapons, the bullets and the bombs and the rockets and the policy makers-they are all nothing, they are all harmless when people refuse to use them. Bush's and Obama's decisions to go to war would have been harmless words if there was no one to turn them into reality. The guns and bombs would be as harmless as flowers if there was no one to use them. The citizens and soldiers themselves are the ones who made those crimes a reality-not Bush or any of his people.

Being "open minded" is realizing that you've been duped into thinking that crimes you commit don't count because they've been ordered by the government, and that in reality there is no war without warriors. There is no such thing as not supporting the war but supporting the people who fight in it. However the US has brainwashed you enough that even in your own mind you are not free to think otherwise. If you do dare to go against that mainstream though, that is when you'll be "open minded." The US is really for people who want to live under the guise of freedom (freedom of using guns and such) and supposed freedom in opinions. It keeps the people happy and silent under those guises as long as they remain sheep to the other things that are most important things which have the most effect-which is that, especially in the US, they the people are the biggest policy makers and that all crimes can be stopped if they choose not to engage in them.

This is one of the most important steps the people make in placing the blame on the faceless government and deciding that they are free from those crimes, and hense not acting against them. So those people will then kill, rape, bomb, invade, and will still think that they are not to blame because in their head they don't agree with what they're doing. They will commit all crimes and still think they are innocent, still support their people who commit those crimes, and on top of that do it with a free conscience-for they believe they are not to blame. And when people reach that dangerous stage of not feeling responsibility for the people they invade, when they put the blame on others, who is there to stop those wars? The war won't st except if the soldiers refuse to fight, and because they don't the wars continue. You do belong in the US but not because you're open minded, but because you adhere to the general mentality that you're supposed to adhere to to be accepted in that society. I've read your blog and serving years in the Peace Corps will never free you of crimes you've committed, especially when you fail to admit you've played a big role in them. There is no war without warriors.

Now I'm not doubting there is some truth to some of these words. Of course the weapons, bombs, etc. are all useless if people refuse to use them. If there was no one to turn President Bush's and President Obama's words into reality, what would that entail exactly. Perhaps in fantasy utopia land, when the president decides to take the military (provided there is a military in fantasy utopia land) to war, all of the soldiers immediately recognize that they should not fight in this war. They all put down their weapons, refuse to fight, then the president says 'Hey, wait a minute, these soldiers are right. We shouldn't fight this war. It's all good mah peeps, forget about it, nevermind, no wars. My bad yo.' In fantasy utopia land, there is no legitimacy to the order, to the government structure, to the chain of command, and somehow it works. Don't ask how, it just does.

In the real world, the world that most of us live in (and let's be honest, I'm an idealist, a liberal, often called a hippie by my more conservative friends) there must be order, there must be structure and in order for there to be security and order, there must be a chain of command, there must be organization. Keep in mind again, this is coming from a liberal hippie who thinks that the United States spends far too much on defense and gets way too involved in other countries' business in pursuit of our own interests and greed) I would love to believe that somehow world peace is achievable but all that I've read and witnessed so far in my 29 years tells me otherwise. Human beings are too flawed, too greedy, too closed minded, too ignorant, too divided by things such as religion, and in many cases, far too evil, for world peace to ever be a reality. So with that in mind, in this world of nation states, borders and boundaries, and geopolitics, we must work within certain realistic constraints. I'm no nationalist but I recognize that many other people, in the U.S. and all over the world, are. Even with minimal levels of nationalism, the citizens of nation states must protect themselves and look out for their own interests at times. National security, economic security, political and economic stability, human rights (though I believe the U.S. and many other nations are ripe with hypocrisy on this particular concept), indiviudal freedoms, etc. etc. etc.

'Anonymous' troll states that its the citizens of the United States, as well as the soldiers, who are to blame for the crime of going to war with Iraq. Is that a possibility? I guess the simple response would be that our elected leaders utilized their power and influence, as well as the mainstream media, to dupe the American people into believing that the Iraq war was a good idea and the soldiers, well they were just following orders. From what I recall, the protests during the buildup to the Iraq war were some of the biggest the United States has ever seen. Even with those protests and a lot of criticism from around the world, we still went to war with Iraq, invaded, took over and have been occupying the country for 8 years. Is that simply because the American people are all sheep, as 'anonymous' would like us to believe? Or is there more to it? Are Americans all just brainwashed, as 'anonymous' claims?

I have more to write on this but it's time for bed. I'll get back to this with a continuation or two when I have some more free time. Trust me, it gets even better.

http://politicalwire.com/images/5-30-11.jpg

Couldn't agree more. Happy Memorial Day to those that have served and to those that continue to serve. Here's to hoping that those who choose to serve are taken care of and not sent to their deaths for questionable causes. Remember that Memorial Day is for more than just barbecues and days off of work.

Hanna and I spent the weekend in Denver and Boulder, visiting some friends and enjoying a lot of great food and drink. We had some delicious pho with our friend Lisa, who just returned to Denver from Cambodia. If you are ever in Denver, Pho 95 off of Federal is a great place to get some good Vietnamese food. It sucks that we have nothing like that in the Springs.

After spending a few hours in Denver and me getting an MRI (left knee, as always) at the VA hospital, we headed up to Boulder with our friends Ridge and Anna, who were both Peace Corps volunteers in Mongolia as well. No need to go into the details of a hard partying weekend in Boulder but here's a few pictures I took while we were walking around.

Every day since I started working at my new job, on the way home I see graffiti on a large warehouse looking building near Bijou and I-25. I always thought it looked pretty interesting and wanted to stop and get a closer look, maybe take some pictures. A couple of days ago I had some free time so I decided to stop by and take a look. I looked around, snapped a few pictures, and it seemed like the building used to be some sort of art gallery or studio. It looked a bit abandoned and run down but there were signs that it was maybe still in use. Anyways, here's some of my favorite pics of the graffiti artwork on the building.

I really enjoy graffiti style artwork, especially when it's very detailed and intricate, not just 'tagging'. This is some of the best I've seen in Colorado Springs.

Here's a few shots I took over the last couple of days. They come up pretty small by default on the blog but if you click on each photo, you can see a slightly bigger version. Nothing spectacular but I thought they came out pretty good.

For the readers who don't know, yesterday was my birthday. I don't find birthdays to be typically exciting because I'm just another year older (and wiser, I hope) but it's nice to have an excuse to spend time with friends and family and to celebrate. Though I'm not overly materialistic, it's nice to receive gifts, especially if its something that I probably wouldn't be able to afford on my own and that I really want.

While last year's birthday in Thailand was pretty amazing, this weekend was awesome. I played nine holes of golf with my dad and my good friends Tino and Andy, drank some beers and enjoyed myself. I'm not good at golf but I had a great time. To make it even better, the previous night I finished and submitted all of my work for school. It was well timed but I didn't realize just how well timed it was until I arrived at home on Saturday after golf.

On the way back home from Gleneagle golf course, I fell asleep pretty quickly, due to staying up late to finish school work, waking up early for golf and drinking a few beers during and after the golf action. I woke up as we pulled into the driveway, groggily made my way to the front door and walked in to the house, behind Tino. As soon as I walked in, I saw my cousin, who I wasn't expecting to see, then I looked around the room and saw my dad, a large group of my good friends, and my best friend Ben, who was supposed to be in Iraq as far as I knew. Needless to say, I was really surprised seeing so many of my good friends and family waiting for me at the house, decorations, food, drinks, etc. Hanna had somehow coordinated this surprise barbecue party without me having a clue. I spent the rest of the day catching up with friends, eating good food and drinking margaritas. The evening consisted of Mortal Kombat, partying with friends, beer pong and flip cup, then a brief excursion to the bar down the street. We also managed to witness a minivan slam into and knock over a street lamp, run over a utility box and drive into an empty dirt/grass lot, but that's a story for another day.

Hanna and my dad bought me an amazing gift, pretty much the only thing I've wanted for the past few months, a DSLR camera. It's a Nikon D3100, which is supposed to be good for beginning photographers. So far I've really enjoyed playing around with it and learning how to use it. The picture quality is vastly superior to any point and shoot I've ever owned and I'm really excited to learn more about photography, and to be able to take better quality pictures when I am in places like New York City and Kenya soon. I don't really know why but I always said that I didn't want to get into photography because I thought there was just too much to learn, too much competition, and that the equipment was too expensive. I love taking pictures and I always have, but up until the last couple of years, I was never too concerned with the quality. Now that I've seen just how big of a difference having a legit camera makes, I want to learn more. It really makes me wish I would have had such a camera while I was in Mongolia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. No need for regrets though, I just need to move forward and take advantage of what appears to be an emerging new passion. I will definitely post up more pictures as I learn better how to use the camera and hopefully gain a better eye. I have some friends who are pretty impressive photographers so I will definitely be bugging them for advice and resources. Here's a pic of what my camera looks like:

I've got a little over a month before I move to New York City, a couple of months until my trip to Kenya and just under four months before I begin my first semester at NYU. I'm hoping to get a lot of reading done, continue working out regularly, continue learning French, and to learn a lot more about using my camera. Until next time, cheers!

Last night I submitted the rest of my materials for my last course and I'm officially done with my first semester of grad school. It feels good to be done but a little frightening to know that I have two more years of this.

Well, at least I'll be studying the things that I'm most interested in. :)

Off to play golf today with my dad and two of my good friends. I haven't played golf in four or five years so I'm sure it will be a disaster, but fun.

Yesterday evening I turned in final papers and gave presentations for two of my classes, both of which I'm officially done with now. I have to complete and turn in assignments for one more class before Sunday, then I will officially be done with my first semester of graduate school. It's been pretty challenging and I've struggled with procrastination and staying focused but I think I did pretty well. I'm looking forward to relaxing, or trying to at least, for a month or so. Late June, early July is when we'll be moving to New York City so I'll have quite a bit to organize and take care of before then. We've got the move, then the oh so fun process of looking for jobs/internships, I'm going to Kenya for two weeks, then school starts in September.

Now I need to focus on finishing up the rest of my assignments in the next few days and do my best to avoid distractions via the NBA playoffs and the new Mortal Kombat, which is pretty awesome by the way.

Here's a translated transcript of a video taped message from bin Laden back in 2004, courtesy of my friend Kelly: "Go ahead and give it a read, and try to be open minded about what he is saying. Contrary to what the US news/politicians say, america isnt always right."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16990-2004Nov1.html

Article I read today from Yahoo News on what it cost us to get to the recent killing of bin Laden. Roughly $3 trillion over the course of 15 years.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_exclusive/20110506/pl_yblog_exclusive/the-cost-of-bin-laden-3-trillion-over-15-years

"Representative Steve Simon (DFL Hopkins/St. Louis Park) says a proposed Minnesota constitutional amendment is largely about religion. He says if sexual orientation is innate as science is showing us, and not a lifestyle choice, then God created gay people. He asks how many gay people must God create before we accept that he wants them around."

Couldn't agree more.

One of my favorite songs put in a well done amateur vid showing off some cool tricks with a unicycle (I think that's what it's called?).

Back to school work!

Today I was able to enroll in my first semester of classes at NYU and get a better idea of what I'll be starting with in September. As a new student, I'm required to take three classes in my first semester so while keeping those in mind, as well as the backgrounds and credentials of the professors, and times/days of the courses, I put together a schedule that I feel will be challenging and interesting, give me access to professors with knowledge and experience in fields that I am very interested in, and hopefully allow me to work a part time job.

My courses will be Analytical Skills for Global Affairs, International Political Economy, Global Civil Society, and International Relations in the Post-Cold War Era. I'm excited to begin these classes in a few short months, once I'm (hopefully) settled in New York City.

As I scramble to get everything done for my current courses at UCCS, the semester is quickly coming to a close (less than two weeks left, holy crap). I have been thinking a lot about what I've learned over the course of the semester and what I've gained from my one semester as a public administration student. I feel it's been very beneficial and that I've learned a lot about myself, areas that I need to work on, management, time management, stress reduction, and the importance of planning effectively. I also learned that graduate school requires a lot more reading, a lot more writing, a lot more time spent in the library, and a lot less bullshitting. Even though I will not be continuing in the MPA program at UCCS, I am really glad I started and am completing this semester. I feel like it has prepared me a lot more for what it's going to be like as a full time graduate student at NYU. Keep this post in mind for future reference when I'm trying not to lose my mind while working on my thesis.

Apologies before I go on in this blog. I will undoubtedly write more about the bin Laden circus over the next few days or weeks, but it's only because I feel it's necessary, given the media coverage of American jubilation, flag waving, and excitement over the news of bin Laden's death. A friend and former Marine buddy recently commented on my cynical Facebook status update about bin Laden's death and the costs. Basically the gist of it was that I could have waited a few days before questioning our valiant efforts in killing bin Laden.

Above picture courtesy of Rob Shore, Mongolian RPCV. http://www.thedandybird.com/

My immediate response was that I think it's incredibly important that we question these things as soon as possible. I'm no conspiracy theorist but I'm always wary of what I hear, especially if it comes from any mainstream media 'news' source. I feel that questioning what we see, hear and read is pivotal in the learning process. Part of me understands the excitement of Americans over bin Laden finally being brought to justice but part of me also finds it disturbing and worrisome. It's hard not to think that this accomplishment and the media circus that follows is not just another shiny distraction to excite Americans and turn their attention from the fact that we are still borrowing money to fight wars in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan, as we continue to build upon our already massive debt.

Call me a terrorist or communist but the idea of American exceptionalism, in my humble opinion, reeks of hypocrisy, arrogance and dillusion. I believe that America as a nation has many great qualities and that there have been and still are great Americans who've accomplished amazing things. I will always be greatful that I was able to grow up in a nation where I didn't have to live in fear of being killed because of my skin color, ethnic background, or spiritual beliefs, where I was able to receive a good upbringing, a reasonable education, access to countless resources, good food, countless sources of fun and recreation, good medical care, and I was able to complain endlessly when I didn't get my way.

All that being said, Americans need to recognize that the world is becoming smaller as improved technology creates new, advanced methods of transportation and communication and as the global population continues to expand. If Americans expect to continue to be a leader and a major player in the global community, we had better realize this quickly. We may have been the 'leader of the free world', the world's melting pot, one of the world's first and most successful democracies (or constitutional republic) and been able to live in squalor, excess and privilige (well a lot of us, not all) for decades, but if we don't adapt, it will not continue. Our increasing disregard for the lives of anyone other than our own citizens (and Western Europeans occasionally), makes us increasingly polarizing. When we see Arabs or Muslims celebrating the death of an American, we react with disdain and disgust, yet there are flag waving, red, white and blue rallies being held in D.C. and NYC (and other places in the U.S. I'm sure) to celebrate the death of bin Laden. You'd think we just won the World Cup. When American or European civilians are killed, it's terrorism. When Arab or Afghan civilians are killed, it's collateral damage. When Americans are killed in retaliation to the killing of innocent Arabs and Afghans, it's STILL terrorism. When WE retaliate against the deaths of innocent Americans, it's just us fighting terrorism and preserving freedom and democracy, keeping the world safe, and avenging the loss of our innocent civilians. Americans are apparently the only ones allowed to defend ourselves and avenge the loss of innocent lives.

Much of the rest of the world doesn't suffer from the same memory loss that Americans do. At the risk of being pessimistic and paranoid, what happens if we default on our massive debt? What happens when the dollar is no longer relevant? You think that if the U.S. ever becomes a third world country that the rest of the world will suddenly forget everything that we did under the guise of spreading freedom and democracy and fighting terrorism? The rest of the world hasn't forgotten what we did during the Cold War, what we did under the guise of fighting communism, so I doubt they'll forget what we have been doing over the past couple of decades.

I have heard it plenty of times before and I'm sure people will continue to claim that my criticisms indicate a hatred for the U.S.A. I will continue to argue that I only criticize because I want to see improvement, I want things to be better. There are a lot of things I love about the United States of America and there are a lot of things I want to see improved upon here.

More on this soon, homework calls. In the meanwhile, here are a couple of interesting articles on the death of Osama bin Laden:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/05/02/dont_get_cocky_america

http://www.desertlamp.com/?p=10108

On my way back from the library tonight, I received a text message from Hanna, letting me know that Osama bin Laden was killed. I was a little surprised, since bin Laden has been a non issue recently, despite the fact that the actions of his organization almost ten years ago were the catalyst for our never ending 'war on terror'. I turned on NPR and caught the end of President Obama's address to the nation. As I drove home, listening to the president, part of me felt relief and a bit of excitement, but a bigger part of me started to reflect back on what it took us to get to this moment. It's very difficult to not be cynical about this bittersweet 'victory', if that's what we can call it. Mad props, no doubt, go out to the American servicemen and women who worked towards his demise and those who finally carried it out. What keeps running through my head though, is whether or not it was worth the cost.

It's been almost ten years since the attacks of 9/11 and needless to say, a lot has happened since then. Even though our actions in Afghanistan in the 1980's and the resulting blowback, as well as our other actions in parts of the Middle East and Africa, were directly related to the September 11th attacks, I am one of many Americans who believe that invading Afghanistan was the right thing to do. We needed to hit Al Qaeda and the Taliban hard. We seemed to start out on the right track, ousting the Taliban from power and hunting for Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda homeboys.

It didn't take long before things went awry. I don't think it's necessary to go into too much detail about the buildup to the Iraq war and the justifications, as that's been battled back and forth countless times over the past eight years. That being said, it's hard not to look back and wonder how much more quickly we could have killed bin Laden if we hadn't been engaged in our grand Iraq adventure. The 9/11attacks resulted in the deaths of roughly 3,000 people, maybe more depending on your source. It's terrible that those people died, not taking anything away from that. Also depending on your source, somewhere between hundreds of thousands and millions of people have been killed in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, as a result of the war on terror, not to mention the number of people turned into refugees. Five years ago, the number of servicemen and women killed, involved in the war on terror, passed the number of people killed on 9/11.

The deaths of thousands of American servicemen and women, the deaths of hundreds of thousands to millions of Iraqis and Afghans, a few trillion dollars (that we had to borrow from China), and increased hatred and vitriol towards the United States and its citizens, all over the world.

I posted the above (or pretty close to it) as my most recent Facebook status update and a friend just asked 'how many more would be lost without the effort?'. I can't say for sure, nobody can, whether or not more Americans would have died if we hadn't launched the war on terror but if you compare the numbers of casualties on 9/11 (combine it with any other terrorist attack against Americans if need be) to the number of casualties as a result of the decade long war on terror, I think you can come to a pretty reasonable conclusion. How about if we had never invaded Iraq? Hindsight is 20/20 but perhaps Saddam Hussein, were he still alive today, would be in the midst of being ousted in another Arab revolution. Just a thought.

Sure there's no doubt that Osama bin Laden was a nasty man who did some terrible, terrible things. He needed to be captured or killed, I agree with that. Was it worth the costs though? Why did it take so long? How many more terrorists and extremists were spawned as a result of our decade long 'war on terror'? Everyone will have an opinion on this, and of course the major media outlets are going to be thrilled to have a big story to spin and exploit and rave about for a couple of weeks until Lindsay Lohan gets arrested again. I just wanted to put some thoughts down while they were fresh.

I try not to spend too much time watching tv but I do like to watch basketball, as well as Comedy Central, on occasion. The tv is often on in the house though (as well as at the gym) so I can't help but catch advertisements, commercials, etc. Every time I see an ad for a new reality show (Mob Wives? Really?) I can't help but wonder if we are just inching closer and closer to Idiocracy.

Scary.

A couple of days into my combined stress reduction and time management exercise experiments/school projects, I am pretty pleased with the results. Avoiding time wasters like Facebook and messageboards has allowed me to spend more time at the gym, more time reading, more time writing and even freed up some time to watch some NBA playoff games.

I'm finishing up the books 'First Things First' and 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People', both of which are for my Management Development class. I was a bit skeptical of the Covey materials at first but I've really gotten into them and I think there is a lot of great information in both books. I would recommend them for anyone who's interested in becoming a better worker, student, friend, etc. or learning more about time management. I have been following my plan for the past few days, with a few misses but I feel good about accomplishing small goals and I'd like to do my best to turn some of them into regular habits, as well as trying out some others.

I had started reading 'Stones Into Schools' by Greg Mortenson but given the recent accusations that came out in the 60 Minutes special, I've been waiting to hear more information. I have checked out a few random stories online since the story aired and I found this one to be interesting and somewhat hopeful:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/opinion/21kristof.html?_r=4&partner=rss&emc=rss

I first read 'Three Cups of Tea' when I was in pre-service training for Peace Corps in Mongolia. I found it to be an incredible story, very inspirational and very beneficial to my idealism. In addition to people like Samantha Power and Rory Stewart, I found Greg Mortensen to be an incredible person, someone who accomplished feats similar to what I dream about. I was pretty upset and disappointed to first see the allegations but like anything that comes from the mainstream media, I took it with a grain of salt and I'm patiently waiting to learn more. In the meanwhile, I just started Rory Stewart's 'The Prince of the Marshes', about his time in Iraq. I really enjoyed Stewart's account of his walk across Afghanistan, 'The Places In Between' and a couple of chapters in, I'm already enjoying this book as well. If you haven't heard anything about Rory Stewart, I highly recommend 'The Places In Between', as well as some of his articles in magazines like The Economist.

I've also started a book called 'The Primal Blueprint' by Mark Sisson, a text recommended to me by my friend Ryan, from Peace Corps. Hanna and I are both reading it and considering trying out some of the diet and exercise recommendations. I'm skeptical of diet fads or exercise routines but I'm open to reading about different approaches and giving them a shot. I love and hate reading about personal fitness and nutrition because it's so hard to figure out who or what to believe, there is so much conflicting information, and it's such a profitable industry, it's hard not to think that anything you try is just profiting some scam artist. More on this as my reading progresses and I try different things out. :)

Playing basketball and working out for a few hours a day definitely feels good but I believe that I need to try some new things and be more active (especially outside) in order to reach my fitness goals.

No alcohol and no fast food for a few days feels nice as well, though I admit, I have been wanting a cold beer while watching basketball. Persistence, discipline, mental strength, I must focus. :)

Other thoughts for the day:

Every crime show on tv is pretty much the same. And...there's a MILLION of them. WTF?

Today when I was at Souper Salad, 'Africa' by Toto came on. It made me even more excited to go to Kenya in a few months.

There's a guy in one of my classes who earned a bronze medal in wrestling at the Beijing Olympics. Pretty cool, nice guy to talk to. His name is Adam Wheeler, look him up.

I hate writing cover letters. I remember discussing this with my friend Chris in Cambodia, extensively and cynically. I take all of this time to prepare my resume, which details my education, job history, etc. and then I have to write a letter explaining to a company or organization why I want to work there, to talk up my job experience, and explain why I'd be a good fit. I think I've written about two hundred cover letters in the past eight months. Even more frustrating is when you have to fill out an application, detailing your job and education history, AND submit your resume. Are both of those really necessary? If I give my resume, I shouldn't have to fill out an application that has the EXACT same information.

I'm starting to ramble. I'll write more when I'm focused and have something worth writing in detail about. :)

It's official. Tickets to Kenya in August? Purchased.

My good friend Jordan and I will be spending two weeks in Kenya in August, visiting our friend Chris (currently serving as a Peace Corps volunteer there) and enjoying all that Kenya has to offer.

This will be my first excursion to the African continent and I am really excited. Moving to New York City in the summer, spending two weeks in Kenya traveling with good friends, then starting graduate school at NYU. Awesomeness. Short post but just wanted to share, especially since I'm currently avoiding Facebook. :)

Though I am transferring to NYU and will be moving to New York City this summer, I am still taking my public administration courses at UCCS and finishing the semester pretty soon. Even with my reduced work hours at the new part time job, I've done far too much procrastinating and have allowed myself to get behind in some reading and projects for my classes. I'm currently trying to remedy that and a big part of that is the course work for my Management Development class. I attended three weekend class sessions at the beginning of the semester but I have until mid May to finish all the assigned work. The work includes a Stress-Reduction Exercise and what's called a 'Quadrant 2' Time Management Exercise. The purpose of the stress reduction exercise is to identify five things I'm willing to do in order to reduce stress in my life and find a way to measure them over the course of a few weeks. The purpose of the time management exercise is to plan out my life over the course of about a month and focus on 'quadrant 2' activities, which Stephen Covey identifies as important but not urgent. I'm working on both of those right now and I'm sort of mixing them together. I'm planning out this week and working on prioritizing and getting the most important tasks done first and I've also made a list of things that I will be doing from today until next Sunday that are aimed at reducing my stress levels. Here's what I will be focusing on for this week:

1. No internet time wasters (Facebook, messageboards or forums, etc.). My time on the computer will be limited to responding to important emails, documenting my progress on these projects, typing other papers or researching for school, and maybe a little bit of news browsing.

2. No fast food, no soda, no alcohol. Also will be watching my calories, cutting back on foods with high fat intake, and eating smaller portions.

3. I'm going to wake up 20-30 minutes earlier each morning to start my day with some light exercise (pullups, pushups or crunches) and to take my dog Jack for a walk, before I go to work.

4. I will go the gym for a minimum of an hour each day (I've been doing this pretty regularly as of late but I want to make sure I continue and also focus on getting more out of my workouts). I am trying to lose weight and continue to get in better physical shape.

5. A minimum of 2 hours of reading each afternoon/evening for school. If I have more time to read books not required for my classes, great. If not, what's important is that I stay caught up on my school reading.

6. One French lesson per day. Hanna and I started the French language Rosetta Stone program this week and I want to make sure I'm doing lessons daily. A lot of the places I'd like to work when I finish my graduate studies will be much more easily accessible if I know a second language, such as French or Spanish. We decided on French. The lessons are about 30-40 minutes each so if I'm managing my time effectively, there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to keep up with this.

These exercises or attempts at increasing my time effectiveness/stress reduction (and potential for getting an A) are also tied into another project I'm working on for my Organization Management class called a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). My BHAG is focused on personal fitness, losing weight, maintaining a healthier diet and getting back into basketball shape. I won't go into too much detail right now but I have a few goals outlined that I will be focusing on. Working on these activities, as well as other papers and projects for my classes, will require a lot of focus, concentration, discipline and effective time usage. I'm going to record my progress, do my best to avoid excuses and see how things go. Basically I'll be doing school work while doing a lot of things to better myself.

Writing on my blog, while often an activity that helps me reduce stress, could be considered an internet time waster for the purposes of these projects, so I'll cut this one off before I get too far off track. :) More to come soon, thanks for reading.

http://i.imgur.com/FHlzx.jpg

One of my friends posted this on Facebook. I enjoyed it.

For those of you who haven't seen the short CNN video on Narayanan Krishnan, I recommend you take a couple of minutes to check it out. I love seeing things like this and I'm not too 'manly' to admit it brought tears to my eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiC_9RHTvsA

Not able to embed the video but copy and paste the link. It's worth a look. :)

On a messageboard that I post on frequently, someone posted this video and a friend of mine made a couple of comments that basically said 'Don't just talk about it, do something about it' and 'Too many people talk about how horrible this and that is, but do nothing about it. All Talk'. I gave him a little bit of crap about it and he commented back to me that I am a 'doer', so he wasn't referring to me as part of the 'all talk, no action' crowd.

Assuming that there was no sarcasm, I was flattered. It did, however, make me think about what I've been doing over the past few months. I am happy to be taking classes right now, to be learning, reading, and writing and of course as I've mentioned before, I'm happy about my new job. I'm excited to be doing work that I feel helps people out, to be in a nonprofit environment and to be learning things I think will be useful in the future. I have struggled with some things over the past few months though. When I was working at my previous job and even at my new job, I still feel like I could be doing a lot more with my time and that with all my talk, all my concerns, frustration and far too often, anger, I could be doing a lot more. Using time effectively is something I feel I struggle with and I'm working on changing that. Some of the material I've been reading for my Management Development class has been very interesting and eye opening and focuses a lot of using time effectively, learning the difference between urgent and important, etc. I highly recommend Stephen Covey books, pretty interesting stuff.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. An opportunity recently presented itself at a nonprofit called 'My Play Date', which is where Hanna currently works. It's basically an organization that works with kids who have developmental disabilities. From what Hanna has told me, a lot of the kids have varying levels of autism and aspergers. She really seems to enjoy her work there and always has interesting stories about her day when she comes home. She told me that they are looking for some extra help, preferably males. I thought about it for a bit and while I do enjoy the free time that my part time job affords me, I decided to apply and see if I could work some extra hours during the week. I filled out an application, had an interview and this Friday I'm going in for an observation. With my current work schedule and school work load, I told them I could only really work about ten hours a week, which they are fine with. If things go well, I'll be starting that next week, working a couple hours here and there in the afternoons. I've had almost no experience working with disabled children, mentally or physically, so I think this will be interesting and challenging. The pay is not much and while a few extra bucks is never a bad thing, I'm doing it for the experience and to learn something new. Obviously because we are moving to NYC this summer, it will be short term but I figure it's worth it.

Even though I've struggled with my idealism and optimism in the recent past, I feel it has made quite a comeback and I've realized that I need to work in fields where I'm helping people, where I'm doing something to make the community or the world, a better place. I like money, benefits and stability/security, sure who doesnt? It's not what motivates me though. I'm all about the experience and I want to experience new and interesting things, while helping others. My recent reflections and realizations have helped me select what my concentration will be as a graduate student, Human Rights and Humanitarian Assistance. :)

I'm sure many others have felt the same way but when something terrible happens around the world, whether it be a tsunami, an earthquake or genocide, I feel helpless to do anything. Sure we can make donations and I'm sure that often money raised during and after disasters helps a lot of people out but it's hard to be trustworthy about where your money is going and it just doesn't feel like it's helping that much. I've had an interest in human rights and genocide prevention ever since I read Samantha Power's 'A Problem From Hell' as an undergrad and I feel that this is a field in which I could learn a lot, experience a lot, and hopefully help a lot of people. I figure with that as my focus at NYU, and some smart networking, volunteering and taking any sort of related job opportunites in these fields, I could work towards some great career opportunities.

I have more to write about but delicious home made Korean food courtesy of the girlfriend awaits!

1. Hanna and I went up to Denver and met up with a number of my friends, some from Colorado Springs, some from Denver, some RPCV's, some from Castle Rock, etc. We had a good group of people, many of whom had never met before. We did some bar hopping, played some games, drank some beers, ate some delicious pizza and had a grand ol' time on Broadway. Everyone got along. At one point in the evening, on our quest for further greatness, we ended up going to a....wait for it *gasp* gay bar.

Now I consider myself a pretty open-minded guy and I feel that over the past couple of years I've become increasingly open-minded. I have made a lot of new friends in my experiences overseas and a number of them are gay or bisexual. It doesn't bother me and I recognize that gay/homosexual peeps are no different than anyone else. We all want the same things, we all want to be loved, to be accepted for who we are and we don't want to be harassed or oppressed because of how we live our lives.

That all being said, I was appalled by what I saw in the gay bar. These people, the gays, were out of control. They were drinking alcohol, dancing, flirting, laughing, and engaging in all sorts of fun. I couldn't believe it. As I watched these people engaging in their debaucherous behavior, I couldn't help but think to myself....'We can't allow these people to marry, they would ruin all that is sacred and beautiful about marriage. Straight people would never engage in this sort of behavior'.

Wait, what? O_o

Sarcasm aside, in my first excursion to a gay bar, I think the most licentious thing that I saw was a man in some crazy leather strap outfit working up a sweat on the dance floor. Looking back, it probably wasn't any more provocative than what the majority of girls wear out to the clubs here. I admit, before I made friends with more gay people, I was guilty of saying 'I don't have a problem with gay guys, as long as they don't try to get on me'. I've learned how ridiculous that sounds and now if I hear one of my more obviously insecure/homophobic guy friends say something like that, I laugh and shake my head. I'm pretty sure that the majority of men in that club knew that I wasn't gay and I'm certainly not arrogant enough to think that they all wanted to man rape me.

My name is Matt Becker. I'm a straight male and I survived my first gay bar experience, unscathed.

2. Whenever I'm driving and Lady Gaga comes on the radio, I want to swerve my car into oncoming traffic.

3. Today for breakfast, I ate an omelette that was about the size of my head + three pancakes. I finished all but 2-3 bites of the omelette. I was both impressed and disgusted by myself at the same time.

4. Today I farted....................in the library.

We are supposedly bombing Libya and have CIA boots on the ground to prevent a humanitarian crisis, to prevent the slaughtering of the rebels, etc. etc. etc. Just saw on CNN that the Red Cross is reporting 800 massacred in Ivory Coast.

Too bad they don't have any oil. Maybe then we'd offer some 'humanitarian assistance'.

Digusting.

Sitting in the library at UCCS, attempting to work on a legislative history paper for my policy process class, A.D.D. is kicking in.

After much consideration and weighing choices, I have made the decision to attend NYU this coming fall. I think that both University of Denver and The New School are great institutions and I know that I'd have great experiences at either school but the NYU Center for Global Affairs is where I want to pursue my masters degree. University of Denver, while a great insitution, was ruled out because Hanna was accepted into Columbia and I had two great options in New York City. New York City and Washington D.C. seem to really be the places for students and professionals in international relations/studies, development, and the like. I love Colorado and it will always be home to me but in order for me to move forward professionaly and academically, NYC is where I need to be. I mailed my tuition deposit check today (found it a little strange that I couldn't pay by card online or over the phone) and Hanna and I have decided that we will more than likely be moving to NYC in early to mid July.

Logistics and the actual move will be a pain in the ass, especially with two dogs coming with us. Once we get that all figured out, I'm looking forward to exploring a new city, having new experiences, meeting new people, and starting my M.S. program in Global Affairs. I still haven't spoken to my advisor at UCCS yet but hopefully I can meet with him sometime this coming week. Unless I come across a large sum of money sometime soon, it will be pretty much impossible for me to continue my MPA at UCCS. The classes I'm currently taking in management and policy process are interesting and intriguing but my heart and my passions are in global affairs and international relations. Perhaps one day in the future I will finish an MPA for from this summer until I finish, my focus will be on global affairs at NYU.

I was thrilled to find out that in addition to my good news and Hanna's good news, our good friend Cristiana was accepted into Columbia for nursing, my friend Anna was accepted into Columbia to study international affairs and my friend Ryan was accepted into Duke to work toward his MBA. March seems to have been a month of great news, no complaints here. I'm very excited for the next few years and very happy for my friends' recent success as well.

The new job is going well. I am still waiting on my background check to come back, still need to be sworn in as a court officer and I need to become a bit more familiar with the procedures before I can do assessments on my own but I'm learning a little more each day. My coworkers are friendly and helpful and I have witnessed some interesting cases thus far. The only thing I will really regret about moving to NYC this summer is that I will have to leave my new job. I'm sure there will be a number of interesting job opportunities and internships available in New York City but I'm not looking forward to the job hunt again. As much as I'd love to be nothing but a full time student, I'd prefer not to accumulate astronomical debt over the next couple of years so I'm fine with working at least part time while I am in school.

I should be working on my legislative history project, as well as other writings for my classes, but once again I find my A.D.D. has taken over and I'm doing anything but that. Time to start focusing. Oh, one more thing. I have been in occasional correspondence with the Peace Corps volunteer who replaced me at the children's development center in Olgii, a guy named Justin. From the last couple of emails I received from him and my former director, Doman, it seems like they are getting the ball rolling on having a new children's 'palace' or center built and they are still in need of some of the funds. I told them I'd like to see about helping raise some money so I will get back on the blog with more details soon. I am hoping to do some work on that, as well as some work with my good friend Travis Hellstrom (AKA Hellstorm) on a few things. For those of you who don't know Travis, he's a Peace Corps volunteer leader in Mongolia finishing up his third year and an all around super hero/humanitarian. If you haven't seen it yet, check out his website and blog at www.advancehumanity.com. Off to be productive! More to come soon!

Just a few short hours after I found out that I was accepted into NYU, Hanna received her acceptance to Columbia! That was her top choice and she was really worried about getting in(I knew she would). Pretty crazy to think that in a few months we will be moving to New York City for graduate school. Hanna is going to be working towards an MA in international education at Columbia's Teachers College, which is a one year program and I will either be at NYU studying global affairs or New School studying international affairs, both of which are two year programs. I have a few weeks to make my decision so I will definitely be weighing a lot of options.

I don't know whether or not I will be able to continue my MPA at UCCS after this semester but I will talk to my advisor and see what my options are. I'm also not sure if any credits from this program will transfer into either of the programs in NYC but we'll see. Outside of finishing this semester, training at Mission Possible and getting ready for NYC, I am going to try and work on some interesting projects with my good friend Travis Hellstrom, who is still in Mongolia as a Peace Corps volunteer leader. I had a chance to catch up with him tonight and as always, he inspired and motivated me in many ways. I just need to focus on managing my time better and hopefully I can get some good things done over the next few months. More to come!

This week has brought so much in the way of good news. Less than 24 hours after finding out about my acceptance into The New School I just found out I was accepted into the MS program in Global Affairs at New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. I was pretty shocked and surprised, as NYU was my top choice. I had to read the acceptance message/email 4 or 5 times just to make sure I wasn't delusional. I feel very privileged and I am excited about the prospect of studying at the NYU SCPS Center for Global Affairs. According to the Foreign Policy Association, it's one of the top programs in the U.S. Here's a bit more information on the program.

http://www.scps.nyu.edu/areas-of-study/global-affairs/graduate-programs/ms-global-affairs/index.html

Hanna is still waiting to hear back from NYU and Columbia but hopefully since I got my notification today she will hear back from both soon. If we end up going to New York, it will be hard to decide between The New School and NYU. Anyone have a few hundred thousand dollars you wanna give me? :)

Perhaps with my recent wave of good luck I should buy a lottery ticket.

After a week of fun in Portland, one night in Seattle visiting friends, and a lot of delicious food and beer, I flew back to Colorado today. Ben and I had a good time, he was successful in passing his tests for the Portland PD and I was able to visit Seattle for the first time. It was rainy and overcast in Seattle and most of the time in Portland but it was still a great trip. I need to spend the next few days recovering/hitting the gym and getting reading and work done for school. St. Patrick's Day is on a few days, hoping I will survive.

I was surprised and excited today to receive another graduate school acceptance letter. I was accepted into the Masters of Arts Program at The New School in NYC to study International Affairs. It seems like a really interesting place to study and a great program. The possibility of going there is very exciting. I'm still waiting to hear back from NYU and Hanna is still waiting to hear back from NYU and Columbia, before we make our decisions.

Some interesting lists that The New School made in the Princeton Review (via Wikipedia, an always reliable source):

"Dodgeball Targets" (#1)

"Great College Towns" (#1)

"Intercollegiate Sports Unpopular Or Nonexistent" (#1)

"Class Discussions Encouraged" (#1)

"Long Lines and Red Tape" (#1)

"Students Most Nostalgic For Bill Clinton Politics" (#2)

"Least Religious Students" (#2)

"Nobody Plays Intramural Sports" (#2)

"Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians" (#3)

"Most Politically Active" (#7)

"Town-Gown Relations Are Great" (#11)

"Gay Community Accepted" (#13)

"Most Liberal Students" (#16)

"Students Dissatisfied with Financial Aid" (#18)

"Lots of Race/Class Interaction" (#19)

Ben and I have been in Portland for a few days now and it's been fun. The weather has been a bit overcast and rainy, which I guess is typical for this time of year but it hasn't been too chilly. Ben passed his tests today and has the physical portion tomorrow. I'm procrastinating on my homework and stressing out about UCCS sticking it to me with late fees even though I've done everything I needed to do and I was just waiting on them to dispurse my financial aid. Oh the joy.

We've hit some great breweries out here, enjoyed some views of the Columbia and the city and did quite a bit of driving all over the place. Per recommendations from my friend Murf we found a great brewery called 'Rogue' and tried some great, new beers. Depending on how long Ben's test is tomorrow, we might try to take a trip up to Seattle to visit my friend Jennie. I've never been to Seattle and I've heard good things about it from a lot of people so I'd definitely like to go.

In other good news, Hanna was also accepted into Josef Korbel at the University of Denver to study international development. Needless to say we were both excited about that. We still haven't heard anything back from the New York schools but maybe next week? Fingers crossed. Possible trip to Seattle. Next few days in Portland. Back to Colorado on Monday, starting my new job on Tuesday. No more phone calls with terrible, miserable customers. Life is good.

I hate celebrity obsessions but this video of Charlie Sheen 'winning' and 'bi-winning' is f'n hilarious. I can only that if I ever become famous I don't turn into a coked out, drunk, bat shit crazy douche bag. Way to be a good influence on your kids Charlie, way to go. Keep winning.

As of today I am no longer employed at my technical support/customer service job. Leaving today, knowing that I no longer have to listen to miserable, terrible, ignorant, overprivileged, assholish customers bitch and whine about every little problem with their phone, cable and internet(or their own inability to handle the responsibility of paying their bills).......what an awesome feeling. Words cannot describe it.

I will flip burgers before I will ever work another customer service job again. Can't wait to start my new job with Mission Possible. More to come!

Absolutely disgusting. I have a terrible taste in my mouth and I am honestly disturbed by this.

Since I gave my notice of resignation at my current work today and for the most part its common knowledge that I'm leaving, I'll go ahead and post some more information about my new job opportunity. Sunday is my last day of dealing with miserable, terrible, no good customers on the phone and on March 15th I will be starting a new job with a local nonprofit organization called 'Mission Possible'. It's a part time job with the possibility of going full time. I'm fine with part time because I really need more time, so I can finish the rest of this semester strong and not have to worry about losing my mind dealing with assholes on the phone. My work title is going to be 'juvenile assessor' and my primary responsibility will be to perform risk assessments on kids who get put in the Spring Creek corretional facility, ages 10-17. I'll be assisting in the legal/judicial process in assessing whether or not kids will be at risk to be repeat offenders. It seems like a really interesting job opportunity and I am excited to start. I can feel some of my idealism coming back, we'll see if that continues. ;)

Working 20 hours a week and doing something that is actually related to the type of work I've done the past few years as well as the work I'd like to continue to do in the future will be a lot less stressful than working in a call center environment and having to listen to people bitch and moan all day. I'm sad that I won't be working with some of the good friends I've made there but I'll be keeping in contact with them and harassing them into hanging out with me outside of work.

In other news, congrats to Hanna for landing a pretty sweet job at a local nonprofit working with developmentally disabled kids, as well as a part time tutoring job and some other interviews. Congrats to Ben Rexroad for getting a provisional job offer from the Santa Fe police department. Ben and I will be taking a road trip up to Portland, where he will be testing for their police department and we will be enjoying the city and hopefully spending time with a few friends. Should be fun. Pictures and stories to come.

Today was a day of bad news and good news. This afternoon I received my results for the Foreign Service Officer exam, which unfortunately, I did not do well enough on to get selected for the oral assessment/interview portion. I admit I was a little disappointed but given that I spent maybe a total of 3 or 4 days preparing and studying, while working full time and starting graduate classes at UCCS, I'm not letting it get to me too much. I missed the score necessary to be selected for the next part of the process by seven points. I am not too distraught about it, because my intent was to get a feel for the test and see how I did the first time around. I might consider taking the test again next year after more preparation but it depends on how things are going with grad school.

On to the good news. About an hour and a half later, I received an email notifying me that I have been accepted to the Masters of Arts program at Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. Needless to say I was very excited, as well as surprised. My dad did his Phd and JD at DU, my stepmom did her JD there, my cousin Shanae is finishing up her MA there now, my undergrad advisor Dr. Hazan did his Phd there and my friend Brian is finishing up his MA there as well. From all of these people, as well as other friends and acquaintances, I've heard many good things about the Josef Korbel school at DU. I feel very privileged to have been accepted and I'm very excited about the possibility of studying there.

We're still waiting to hear back from schools in NYC, both for Hanna and I, and we're waiting to hear if Hanna was also accepted into DU before we make decisions about where we'll be attending school in the Fall. To complicate things further, I'm enjoying my current MPA classes at UCCS and I'd like to continue in this program. I'm looking into the possibility of doing a short term study abroad in Europe and I'm going to sign up for at least one summer class. If possible, as I think I've mentioned previously, I'd love to get both my MPA and an MA in international studies but we'll see where things go once I know what my other options are.

In other good news, a new job opportunity has become available that I'm very excited about. I'm keeping the details on the down low until I know more but I will update the blog with more on that as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading, more to come!

Here's a music video and song put together and performed my friend Mike Farrell (and I believe his brother, Zach). Mike and I worked together a few years ago. He's one of the funniest guys I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. I wouldn't be surprised to see him become a pretty famous comedian/actor/musician one day, haha. Keep up the hard work and craziness Mike!

Okie, got my original blog fixed and back up. Very busy at the moment with school and work, more to come.

My good friend Agii was the local coordinator when the BBC came to film a bit on Kazakh eagle hunters, pretty cool video.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00dwd5x

Same vid but this is the link from BBC.

Also, a friend from Arizona, Pat Phillips, a river raft guide, started doing river tours in Mongolia with the help of Agii while we lived there. Here's a link to his site, pretty cool stuff, check it out.

http://www.mongoliariveradventures.com/MongoliaRiverAdventures/Home.html