Well I finally got through the roughest finals of my life thanks to a 4 day extension on some of my papers... Clearly there's no way I could have written 5 papers, which totalled over 80 pages, in just a week. It was very intense and I pulled many all-nighters, but working over XMas weekend wasn't all that bad--it's rare to get presents and freshly baked cookies during a study break!
Conclusion: clearly being a senior at Smith is rough, but being a senior and taking 3 seminars is just masochistic. And my masochism continues because I basically had zero time off between finishing finals and getting on a plane to go back to South Africa... which is where I am writing to you all from. Indeed, Eve is back in Africa and loving it :)
So I'm in Cape Town participating in a 3-week symposium on Int'l Mediation and Conflict Resolution which is organized by an American org but taking place at University of Cape Town (check it out)... The classes/training sessions are pretty intense since it's essentially 9-5 every day--particularly hard on me since I am not fully human until noon. But I'm learning a lot about mediation (not mediTation), methods of conflict resolution, and diplomatic skills etc plus meeting some of the top people in the field, as well as the future leaders in the field, aka the other participants in the program. The group is pretty big: 80 people from around the world (DRCongo, Rwanda, USA, Holland, Norway, Colombia is a small sample), of all ages (the range is 19 to mid-30s but most are college age), and all different types of experiences and backgrounds (clueless sophomores to the former assistant to the Congolese President). Clearly there's so much to learn from the other participants and it's such a great opportunity to forge a future network...
Basically I'm feeling like I'm really equipped to solve all of the world's problems... Just give me a year or so and BAM! World Peace ;-)
Anyway, even if those plans don't work out, I'm still having a great time back in Cape Town. Ok, that's not entirely true because I got some terrible food poisoning this weekend and I literally spent New Years Eve getting to know the toilet down the hall... way to bring in 2006, right? I'm back on track now though and I'm loving the hot sunny weather, the food (the kind that DOESN'T inflict 2 days of debilitating illness), the beach, the beauty of the city and all the other wonderful things about Cape Town. I'm especially looking forward to re-connecting with some of the people that I met when I was here last year (or technically 2 years ago now), in particular my precious homestay family in the township. I'm heading back to Langa this weekend to see them and my little sisi Tina who is now 4 years old! And clearly I am bringing her and all the neighborhood kids tons of gifts... I love being Santa :)
Anyway as much as I LOVE sitting in a computer lab while the sun is shining outside, I think I'm going to leave it at that for now... I hope you're all well and I look forward to seeing some of you in the UK in a couple of weeks when I stop through on my way back to the USA!
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