I am writing a bit earlier than usual this week because I will be spending most of Sunday on a bus to NYC!!!!! I am sooooooo pumped!
This week was a good one, but very exhausting. As usual, I had internship on Monday/Tuesday. Everything went well--I have made a ton of progress on my research project. On Tuesday I met with my supervisor, who seemed very pleased with the work that I've done and with what I'm finding out. I got a bit more of an idea of what she wants from the project and I will be able to develop it a bit more. She's also working to get me a "contact" from the State Department, which I think basically makes me sound pretty important! ha!
Unfortunately I woke up Tuesday feeling a bit under the weather. By noon on Tuesday I was feeling exhausted and asked to go home early, which I was granted. I got back to campus around 3:00 and promptly took a 2 hour nap (very unusual for me...I am NOT a nap-taker). I would have loved to sleep all night, but unfortunately had to go to my night class. I made it through that in a sick, sleepy, and NyQuil-induced stupor. Wednesday I was supposed to go into my internship to make up for the days that we will miss traveling, but I decided not to go in. I slept about 10 hours Tuesday to Wednesday and spent most of Wednesday in bed. I've also downed about a gallon of orange juice in 2 days...and I don't even like orange juice. After Wednesday I've felt a lot better, but I am tiring very easily. It is just a simple cold but it has really drained me! I'm hoping for tomorrow to be restful day, so that I can try to recuperate for New York.
Yesterday my class had a really interesting speaker from Amnesty International come to talk to us about the political situation in Zimbabwe and speculate on the power-sharing agreement that was recently negotiated. I really liked her and thought she was very intelligent. I was glad because I got to ask a question that I have wondered for awhile: "what will a post-Mugabe Zimbabwe look like?" The man is, after all, 84 years old! Her response was grim, but honest, which I respected. She said that it will depend a lot on how this power sharing agreement plays out. If Mugabe is really going to share some power (doubtful?) then Tsvangirai or his party might actually be able to lead Zimbabwe. However, if Mugabe is successful in holding on to all the power in this "power sharing" agreement, then she predicted a short power struggle within the party until one of Mugabe's men rises to the top. It was a very interesting discussion!
Today we had a morning speaker who founded a small NGO that teaches yoga to victims of the Rwanda genocide. I really liked her talk and found it very interesting, but we were unfortunately mixed in with an American University class that was studying nonverbal communication. Apparently the speaker was only informed that she was speaking to those students, so the talk wasn't really aimed us. A lot of my classmates found it to be a waste of time; I didn't find it particularly relevant to my studies, but still enjoyed what she had to say.
This afternoon our speaker was AWESOME! He is an attorney in DC who is suing Iran for funding the terrorist attack against Marines in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983. He was very animated and absolutely fascinating. He did a really good job of explaining just HOW one goes about suing a sovereign state (typically the Sovereign Immunities Act prevents this, but an amendment to the act in 1996 allows one to sue a sovereign state if the state is on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list and funded a terrorist attack against an American that occurred outside of the sovereign borders of that state....in case you were wondering!). His case has been heard in DC federal court and won something like a 2 billion dollar settlement. Of course, Iran isn't exactly willing to pay up so they have to track down Iranian bank accounts or businesses tied to the U.S. and freeze those assets. Very interesting!
Of course, the highlight of the week was the Biden/Palin showdown last night, which I feel that I am obligated to weigh in on. The debate was a good one and I do think Biden emerged as the clear winner, though Palin did not fall as flat on her face as I expected (and hoped). The NY Times summed it up best this morning: "She succeeded by not failing in any obvious way." Is that really the standard we have for our vice presidential candidates? Sad. I thought Biden did a good job, though, and I hope that the debate might really push the campaign forward. It's too close for my comfort, at this point.
ALSO! I forgot the most important thing of the week: I VOTED IN MY FIRST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It felt AWESOME!
That is the general recap of my week. Tonight I have a dinner and movie date with Lizzy and tomorrow a possible excursion into Georgetown. I must also find some time to start my research for my final paper for my genocide class, since I really only have about one month to work on it (most of November will be spent in Europe!). If only there were more hours in a week...
I hope everything is good on your end!
~Katie
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