finally doing something!

My new workplace....

My office (ok, just kidding, that's the main entrance)

I was almost certain my next post would be entitled "doing nothing - week 3" and I almost made it but fortunately I started my job today. It's much more exciting than I thought it would be to be working at the World Bank - probably because I don't have to go through a metal detector to get in anymore and because the cafeteria has a city wide reputation for being amazing and I can eat there all I want now (though I already made my sandwich for tomorrow...). There's also the minor detail that I momentarily feared I'd be unemployed all summer long and that the job I got is going to be fantastic.

For those of you who've never been, the World Bank building is amazing. Even though I have a cubicle I feel like I have a huge office with windows because all the walls are glass so I get tons of natural light and can see the city all around me. My co-workers seem great and the project is interesting so I really couldn't ask for more - except for larger water glasses. There's everything you could want as an employee (fancy pens, about 15 printers for about 5 people, beautiful Asian artwork in the the office) but the cups at the water cooler are about the size of a thimble! Strange...

doing nothing - week two

Those of you who know me well know I'm horrible at having nothing to do. This weakness is vastly magnified after two years of studying for about 15 hours a day. It turns out that you can visit a lot of museums in 15 hours (also turns out they're not open for 15 hours a day). So I've been trying really hard to find things to keep me busy now that I'm unemployed and out of school.

The good news is that I have been offered a job in the East-Asia Pacific Vice-Presidency of the World Bank that should start next week if all goes well (but as anyone who glances at the newspapers these days knows, things are not going particularly well at the WB... hopefully I won't have another job fall through at the last minute).

In any case, here's a quick summary of my last two weeks of fun: spent lots of time making lists of what I should do, found an apartment in Dupont Circle, tried to sell furniture on craigslist, went to a Japanese movie at the Freer Gallery (Ken Watanabe starred in the film and was there to introduce it - he's also in Memoirs of a Geisha, the Last Samurai etc), played lots of soccer, read (for pleasure!), cooked (also for fun!), went to a congressional hearing on HIV/AIDS for the ILO, went shopping, went to dinners with friends, looked for the job that I found (see above)...

Last night Alicia and I got together for a Spanish dinner that consisted of chorizo, cheese, olives, and wine. We were going to go to an art exhibit afterwards but that plan fell by the wayside as the conversation got funnier and wine bottle emptier. Now I'm about to go to a soccer game and hope to still be able to run today after last night's less than balanced meal!

nice end to a bad start

I have to admit that this week started off pretty badly when I learned on Tuesday that the internship I hoped to start tomorrow wasn't going to work out after all. Now I'm madly searching for something and it is doubtful I will find legal work to do for the summer as those jobs are mostly taken and I won't be able to get credit for my work if I don't find something by Thursday. So, please cross your finger and don't uncross them until Thursday at midnight at the very earliest! Thanks!

After putting that disappointment into perspective my week got much better. This weekend I played soccer on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday's heat and humidity made me realize just how bad of shape I'm in but today's game was great. GW alumni (yes, I sort of jumped the gun on getting onto that team but you have to be optimistic in life) beat the Yale alumni 4-2 to remain undefeated. It was great. After today's I was a linesman (one of the side refs in soccer) for the first time in my life. The first 15 minutes was really stressful because everyone was telling me what to do although I thought I knew. Some people take soccer too seriously (and by some people I mean Penn State alumni).

On Saturday night I went to a going away party at my friend Blase's house. We met last summer interning in Costa Rica and he left today for a great summer job at a law firm in Chicago. Then he's going to study abroad in Santiago, Chile next semester. So, all in all, the week was good - particularly since exams are now over!!!

Goodbye Blase!

weekend at the beach

The boardwalk.
Amish DJs.... who knew! And a huge lizard on the roof!?

Sohail flying away in 40 mph winds.

The beach.

To celebrate the end of the semester Sohail and I went to the beach to do nothing but relax for an entire weekend. It was a bit windy and chilly so we didn't swim but we did kick the soccer ball around, go for a run, play tennis, read, and eat lots of good food. For those of you who know SC beaches, this beach was like part folly beach (laid back beach bum beach), part myrtle beach (tacky beach), and part hilton head (fancy tourist beach)... a very strange combination.

exam time....

Surprisingly enough, this has been the most relaxing exam period of my entire law school career and that's mostly because I paid my dues to the world of law school stress all semester long as I was writing the 5 papers I had to write (this has, by far, been the worst semester yet even with this easy exam period). Because of all the paper classes, I only have one final in Constitutional Law (abortion, affirmative action, freedom of speech, right to bear arms, etc) and I have really enjoyed studying for it so far. My days mostly go like this: 9:00 (when most of you are already hard at work) I wake up. Then I make a breakfast and watch / listen / read the news. Then, around 10:00 I check my emails, read some more news, and get started on my studying. I do that at home or at the library all day with breaks to juggle my new soccer ball or go for runs. In the evenings I take a long break and study again after dinner until about 1 or 2 and go to bed. I think the fact that I have so much time to study is actually making this enjoyable...

But today merits a blog post because I reached a very important point in my studying... my outline is complete! Most law school exams are open book so having a really good outline that is perfectly organized and easy to use in the exam is crucial. In order to give you a sense of the extent to which this organization can be taken by nerdy law students I'm posting a photo of a "random" outline:

notice the table of contents and tabs for easy access to important information on constitutional law.... what you don't see is that each section is divided into cases on the left page (with all important aspects underlined) and law on the right page....

In hopes that all of you won't think I'm a complete nerd, I should mention that last Saturday I played a great soccer game. We tied 2-2... Revenge will have to wait until the playoffs... I also watched Kandahar, a movie about Afghanistan that I highly recommend, and I went out to dinner with Sohail. I just didn't have a camera for any of those events. And let's be honest, those things aren't nearly as exciting as a complete outline!

My exam's on Thursday and my last paper is due Monday and after that I hope not to take photos of anything on my desk for months to come.

Spring's finally here!

My favorite tree is in bloom all over DC!

Does anyone know what this tree is called?
A victorious team!

My roommates Anne & Ben enjoying the sun (and some homemade guacamole) on our stoop.

The weather has finally decided to cooperate and it is beautiful in DC. So I took advantage of it and played soccer on Saturday with my women's team. We won 3-1. Then I hung out with my roommates Anne & Ben for a little while in the afternoon. They're both great cooks and had made fresh guacamole & salsa to enjoy outside in the sun. Then, I went for a long walk around DC in the afternoon.

Sunday I played tennis with Sohail. Well, maybe "played" is an overstatement. The truth goes more like this: Sohail was kind enough to occasionally hit the balls in my direction exactly arms length from my body so I'd have the satisfaction of hitting a few back until I stopped playing because of the massive blisters I developed on my thumb and forefinger and I left Sohail to practice his serves! Seriously, we had a lot of fun and I fully intend on being a slightly below average tennis player by the end of the summer (I strive for mediocrity in life). Then we went for another nice walk through DC and had a sushi dinner on a terrace.

For those of you who may be worried about my lack of studying at this moment in the semester (Maman...) don't be! I studied plenty and will be studying all week long.

weekend de pacques avec ma Maman cherie

Two posts in two days!? That's right... I'm back!

Here are some photos of Maman's visit last weekend. We both had high hopes of spending our time admiring the beautiful cherry blossoms but unfortunately it was freezing (it even snowed on Saturday) and we stayed inside most of the time. Fortunately, we were inside museums, inside concernt halls (one japanese concert and on brazilian concert), inside shops, and inside restaurants.

It was a wonderful weekend and now I feel fully refreshed to attack my finals.

Japanese concert at the Kennedy Center
the extent of our participation in the Cherry Blossom Festival

Snowy Saturday!

Maman on the "weightless" chair that is part of the Modernisim exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. This room was really cool because it was decorated entirely with furnishing from when modernism was at its height (1914-1939) and everyone can test everything out. That particular chair is extremely comfortable.

A beautiful orchid at the Botanical Gardens that I saw when I ran around capitol hill searching for Maman after I realized my office was closed for Good Friday. Unfortunately we never found one another before lunch time despite visiting the same exhibits at the same museum (the french ones at the Nat'l Gallery)...

Easter brunch with two of my best friends in DC - Alicia and Luna - and with Maman who was everyone's mother for an hour during brunch!

soccer season!

George Washington alumni team

WMD - can anyone find me?

First, I'd like to apologize for not posting anything in so long. School has been keeping me busy so my life hasn't been particularly blog worthy (unless you like photos of laptops and books and links to boring law school papers) and I haven't started carrying my camera around to share the daily DC oddities with you.

Last week Maman was in town for her spring break and we had a wonderful time but I'll share more on that once I get the pictures from her...

Since Maman left on Sunday, my biggest distraction has been the flurry of emails in my inbox from my two soccer teams. I'm really excited to start playing again and will be playing up to 2 games a weekend for the next 10 weeks. That's probably more soccer than time spend in any one law school class! My women's team is called WMD (Women of Mass Destruction). I played with them last season and it was pure fun. The co-ed team is in an alumni league so we're [not so creatively] called George Washington. However, they are creative in terms of jersey color considering GW's colors are gold and blue... This will be my first time playing on the team but I've played with a lot of the people in weekend pick-up games. In any case, I just can't wait to be back on the field!

Ishmael Beah - an inspiration for all of us

Yesterday I saw Ishmael Beah speak (I'm getting my fair share of speakers these days!). He was a child soldier during the civil war in Sierra Leone and recently published a book about his experiences. I've read about half and I can't imagine a more hellacious experience for a young boy. What I found most amazing as I heard him speak was his optimism and approach to the healing process. He feels that all child soldiers can be rehabilitated and reintegrated into civil life, even after years of fighting. For him, part of that healing process has been writing the book and talking to people about his experiences, in large part through UNICEF. He's even gotten to the point that he can forgive the people who made him fight by rationalizing that wishing harm to them doesn't help him at all and only perpetuates more violence. He also believes that those people have families that need them in some capacity and wishing violence on those people would hurt those families. I find this amazing and inspiring.... It also really puts things into perspective! Here's his website if you're interested: http://www.alongwaygone.com/

Ishmael Beah

His book. Buy it! It's a very powerful book and Starbucks will donate money to UNICEF for each book that sells.

The President of the US of A at GW! And lunch with Ben, Terri, and Emily.

Emily (Ben & Terri's baby)

Al Gore

That's right.... Al Gore came to speak today for the National Association of Environmental Law Societies annual meeting which was hosted by GW Law this year. I was wonderful to see him in a small auditorium - so small that I was just 5 rows back from him when he was being introduced - because it felt very personal. His talk was interesting, for the most part, with lots of analogies that helped me better conceptualize some arguments of the "global warming is not occurring or is not as bad as it seems" crowd. One such example is: if your baby has a fever and you take it to the doctor and the doctor asks why you didn't bring him in 3 days ago when it started you wouldn't argue it's because it was only a 3 degree fever... then when the crib's on fire you're not going to argue the baby's flame retardant! What I enjoyed most was hearing his stance on the role the US should play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and, more importantly, the political and economic hurdles that must be overcome in today's world for the US to become a leader in that realm. It seems most of his optimism rests upon the fact that more people are becoming aware of the issues and involved in making changes. His message today is to go to www.algore.com to see what you can do to help. I haven't done that yet but I figure I'm doing my part by giving him some free coverage here.... (for the probably 2 of you who read this blog)

As luck would have it, my good friends Ben and Terri who were on their way back to Philly from Charleston called as I was leaving the Gore talk and asked if I could meet them for lunch. It was really nice seeing them again and meeting Emily, the latest addition to their family. She's absolutely adorable. I also met Ben's sister and her co-worker who were in town for a conference. While neither of them were nearly as cute as Emily, they were really nice and interesting people.

president carter at GW

I just got back from an amazing speech given by former President Jimmy Carter at GW. He spoke about his new book "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid" which has been very controversial, particularly in the Jewish-American community. In fact there were even protesters outside of the talk. I wish I'd followed the controversy more closely and read the book before going to the talk because he used some of his talk to respond to criticism his book has generated. However, I have added the book to my list of reading for this summer. I found President Carter's description of the situation in Palestine and his suggestions for peace in the region very interesting. He also happens to be a great public speaker and very funny person.

After his speech, he took questions from undergraduate students. That was fantastic because they had very pointed questions and President Carter actually answered them all fully. It was a refreshing change from the question dodging that generally goes on in DC.

relaxing at home

Hmmm.... maybe they're hiring

The buffalo on the left was sleeping, stuffed, or dead

View of Charleston for those of you who've never been

Early last weekend I decided to spend a long weekend in Charleston to visit family, take bubble baths, eat home cooked food, bask in the sun, and run with Max... all the things law school limits my ability to do! It was really wonderful. For those of you who live in Charleston, I apologize for not calling but I was either with family or studying.

On Saturday Maman, Max, and I went for a long walk on Folly Beach where we saw some kite surfers and had a picnic with our backs to the wind. Then we had aperetif on the porch by a fire and unsuccessfully chased after the lunar eclipse in the car but were rewarded with a beautiful sunset.

Yesterday I went out to lunch with Dad, Joanne, and Avea and then to Charlestowne Landing to visit the animals. We saw otters, buffalo, and a "billy" bob cat (it is SC after all). Today Dad and I walked around the market. The past few weeks have been very stressful and this weekend was just what I needed to gear up for the second half of this semester.

Maman & Max trying to eat without blowing away

Aperetif by the fire

Avea joking around as usual

After Lunch

Conference on Immigration and Human Rights

Since July I've been working on planning a Conference on Immigration and Human Rights with two other law students (and lots of help in the last few weeks). We invited other student organizations to host panels so that we'd have a wide variety of topics discussed. Today it finally happened and it went well. I'm exhausted and happy it's over but it was nice to see everything come together and some of the panels were really excellent. For those of you interested in more details check out our website: http://docs.law.gwu.edu/stdg/hrls/conference06.htm

Entrance to the law school with my friend Rebekah greeting people.

Our Keynote speaker (and my boss at the ILO).

il neige

It's been snowing all day today which has made writing my paper significantly more fun. Here's the view from my room:

El Paso, Texas

In light of Derek's upcoming 1 year "vacation" in Afghanistan I decided to start a blog of my day-to-day life to make the distance & time feel less significant. And the rest of you are just the beneficiaries of sisterly love. I'll let you decide whether my life is actually interesting enough to merit a full-time blog (unless your name's Derek Fro, in which case you have no choice but to check it regularly, act interested, and do like your big sister and start a blog...).

My first post is of my trip to El Paso, Texas with Maman to see Derek before his departure. So El Paso's no Belize but it was a really nice break from my DC life and wonderful to spend time with family. What's nice about El Paso is the arrival on the plane where mountains and dunes seem to appear out of nowhere in the middle of a huge desert. Also nice is the fact that it really feels like a latin american country with great mexican influence in food, architecture, and culture. Saturday we went on a hike up a mountain from which we could see all of El Paso. Also interesting was experiencing life on a military base. I'll miss Derek.