What a great 2008

A good paper
Innovation party
Lunds visit
New Delhi, Agra, Mumbai, Bangalore
Anders & Cory visit
Wilfried & Sarah dinners
Tapes & Tapes
Papers
Edinburgh
Compassionate Care for Rape Victims becomes law
March for Sex Workers' Rights
Meghan & Mike visit
Papers
Cizor's haircuts
Laurent and the server
Sarnowskis visit
Madeleine the MPA baby
Accepted to the UN
Papers
Matt G visit
Bridget visit
Paul, Melissa, Jennie visit
Brittany & Normandy trip
Italy with Erin
Moving to Geneve
Meeting friends for life
Dasha bike trips
Deirdre dinners
Italy with Dasha
Bicycle accident
Goth night with Gerrit & Agathe & Caroline
Carte de sejour
Boulangerie sandwiches
March for Transsexual Rights
New fridge
Daylight savings time
Obama!
Papers
Global Public Policy Network Student Conference
London with Caroline, Anne, Patricia
Bahrain
Amanda & Leo visit
Capstone awesomeness
Thanksgiving expat style
Dasha visit
Drinks with Anand
Gotan Project
Christmas dinner expat style
Phone calls with Josh
Friends getting married
Friends having babies
Friends' birthdays
New friends, old friends

...All of this because of my wonderfully supportive family.

Wishing you a New Year that exceeds what you deserve and is better than you imagined!!!

A bientôt 2009!

The bad side of grad school

I'm sitting here at midnight and friends have asked me out for drinks and I'm trapped here under a (so far) 6 hour analysis of a policy-turned-law 10 years ago in the US.

I'm intrigued with the makings of the law, the complex coalition that was grown out of a truly disturbing personal goal of one man. I've read at least 12 different sources that have analyzed the history and outcomes of this law and its process.

I can see with my eyes that I am bigger than the small icons on my laptop. I am a monster in comparison to them. I could eat each little icon as a peanut.

Yet, I am so insignificant in the world. I am a spec on a grain of sand in a millennium of time. I can research this piece of foreign policy and can understand the humanity behind it, the assumptions that made it. But I'm frozen when it comes to the section wherein I'm supposed to make recommendations to change it or improve it or demolish it or convert it. I'm a blip in voices who think they could make a difference. Who do I think I am to recommend anything? As if a year and half of school should give ME the wisdom to make any difference.

The more I learn, the more I know I know nothing.

What recommendations would make any difference? It's one small policy in a world of complexities. It's one 3 billion dollar line item in a budget that can give trillions away to the auto industry. It's one policing policy in a thousand passed over the last 8 years.

I am frozen when it comes to the next step. I could give a 100-page dissertation on how to make things better, to rectify what damage has been done... but I am still coming from my own interpretations, my own background, my own beliefs, my own ideas of what is "better" or my own vision of the future. What good does that do? I am no Gandhi. I am no MLK. I am no Mother Teresa. I am a tiny ant living at the top of a small hill in the marsh of a microscoped country in an itty-bitty continent on a cell of a planet. What strength has my little voice? What change can my Times New Roman font make into the pool of chaos? What's the point? Even if I were to publish the papers on which I write - into one of a million journals - who would care?

I'm finding it interesting to read and understand these policies that we so rarely hear about. That our (US) tax dollars pay for. But I don't even hope to work for the US government. So, who cares? What is the point of all this? Who cares when the more things change the more they stay the same?

Sigh.

..... we now resume with our regularly scheduled programming......

Some views of holiday around Paris these days

Happy holidays!!!!!

(click to enlarge or visit the Flickr site for more)


Paul & Joe store front



Santa at the pawn shop



Picking a tree



Cassina store in white and silver foxes



Trees in my neighborhood



Lights on rue Lepic, Montmartre



Lights near Beaubourg (aka Centre Pompidou)



NOEL - I couldn't tell what this whole street art on the metro said, but something related to Noel 2008 Biento 2009 (ie, "à bientôt" = see you soon)

Missing summer: photo update

Added more photos to the Flickr. Most are of Geneve since they're overdue and I'm missing the sun. And totally procrastinating a really lame paper I have to write.

The conference in Brussels was educational (a conference on diversity and both my colleague and I got snubbed various times), helpful (diversity is not about silos: gender, race, ability, sexual orientation), awesome (Lord So-and-So gave the keynote and mostly talked about how awesome Obama is for not making race an issue and how there's hope for the USA yet), and tiring (I took pages and pages of notes and worked it to get 4 business cards and 2 references for other contacts).

Anyway, new photos:
Geneva apartment
for the love of a bicycle
Geneve: Saint Pierre Cathedral
Geneve: Walk in Vieille Ville
Switzerland: bike from Geneve to hike Saleve
Geneve: bike accident
Paris: Marais (some random photos)
Geneve: around the city
Geneve: in the city, by the river (lots of street art)
Geneve: Artamis and K-bar (squat community with lots of street art)
Paris: Random, Misc
Street art walk in Belleville: Rue Deyonez
Meals, snacks, wine (a few Paris food pics)

others you might have missed recently:

Thanksgiving in Paris
4eme to 7eme walk
Sidrans in Paris
Bahrain
London to Bahrain
London in November
Palais Royal walk
GPPN conference and Paris
Paris Right Bank: summer walk
Paris Gay Pride
11eme summer walk

Holidays in Paris

(click the images to enlarge)

Dasha arrives at Gare du Nord - yay!



Thanksgiving party with ex-pats, French friends, and other EU folks

I decided to go with what I've traditionally brought to Thanksgiving for the past five years (inspired by Bowen and enjoyed by my family), which ironically is getting only better now that I'm in Paris: cheese and bread!


photo © Dasha


Stopped by my local "cave" man. "Cave" means something like wine cellar in French. Gilles hooks me up with lovely vin rouge or blanche or champagne. He's great. Visit him at Terroir et Nature on the corner of rue de Douai and rue Fontaine.


photo © Dasha


so. much. good. bread.

photo © Dasha


Dasha models the heavy bread bag, the heavier cheese bag, the wine



The fromage guy wrote each name and type of cheese for us - so nice!!



The beginning of the feast - great: cooking, cheese, bread, friends, wine, and more and more food (batteries weak, no flash)


I was at the little kids' table, there were 27 of us

photo © Kenny

The big kids' table

photo © Kenny

Dancing ensued at the end (had to find a way to work off all that pie!) and then champagne came out

photo © Kenny

And then, there were crazy antics (yes, that's me being hoisted)

photo © Kenny

All in all, a fabulous way to spend Thanksgiving when not with family back home. Thankful for all these great friends.