Update

Well, my first set of fundraising letters have definitely begun to pay off. Bike and Build brochures are en route to my house and I'm preparing another huge mailing to be sent out after the holiday season (once people have forgotten their credit card bills from December). I'm also working on a press release to send to the local newspaper...hopefully community members will want to give their support as well.
Come January I plan on starting an actual workout schedule, something along the lines of swimming, stationary bike, and indoor lifting. I just need to keep in shape so once the snow melts (if we ever get any), I can hop on my bike no problem and bust out 30 miles. I'm exciting to start riding again; the cold weather can be very discouraging, though other bikers are already pushing forward with there training. I have no worries that I'll be prepared when June 20th rolls around, to get on a bike for 2.5 months and make my way across the country. 

Let the fundraising begin

So fundraising can be tough, especially during the holidays, but I have begun to raise some bucks!

Let me know if you have ideas about fundraising, I still have a ways to go :)

It's been awhile...I've been waiting

So yes it has been well over a two weeks since my last post...oh well it happens. Anyway, here's why. Two weeks ago I applied to bike across the country and build houses for affordable housing through a group called Bike and Build. My boyfriend did it last summer and it motivated me to do the same. Hundreds of people apply and are put into a lottery to be assigned a team and route...many are wait-listed...so naturally we're all very anxious to hear the news. Well, I finally heard today that I was assigned to my top choice route: the Northern US (the route beings in Providence, RI and ends in Vancouver). I'm super ecstatic and am relieved that my days will no longer consist of obsessively checking my email and application profile.

I look forward to the physical and mental challenge this summer! For now, this is all I've got for you...but stay posted for more information later.

Helping Children Artistically

As I have given more thought to my future goals and strong desire to make a difference in the people's lives and remain connected to my artistic side, I've become more attracted to the idea of working with children. Helping children now, helps every generation to follow. The overwhelming process of scanning hundreds of non-profits across the country and looking for job opportunities has led me back to my deeply engrained love of the arts. I want to reach out to children through music and theatre and bring them the happiness that I have seen in so many young kids when they stand for the first time on a stage and sing a slightly out of tune song they've been working on for their parents. It's not about perfection in what we do, I think it's about the joy that can be brought to others through the work we do.

Think about this

Graduation is Approaching

I realize it's only October, but I continually get the standard question from adults, when they find out I'm graduating this year, "So, what are you going to do after graduation?" These kinds of questions have always been around.  First they ask, "Where are applying to school?" Then they wonder, "What are you majoring in?" There's always some question that people ask in which we've all formulated our generic answers for. At the moment my answer for post-graduation plans is as follows:


"I'm not really sure. Since I'm graduating early I'm going to take some time to travel because I never studied abroad.  Then we'll see where I end up and go from there.  I'm not worried about it.  I'm actually enjoy the ambiguity of the future."

The typical response I get from people after they've heard this answer is usually something along the lines of utter disbelief, confusion, and a wary, "well good luck with that." I've come to expect these responses and they don't bother at all, because I'm quite content with my answer.

HOWEVER...getting this question time and time again has really put the pressure on to think about the rest of my life. I'm fine with the future being up in the air, but what freaks me out a bit is that when I do spend time thinking about what I want to do, there are so many possibilities AND I want to do them all.

How can I possibly settle for one over another? Here are the options:

- Teach swing dancing
- Travel the world
- Work for the UNDP
           ~ Help Africa
           ~ Solve poverty...etc
- Work for a non-profit
- Open a small theatre company
- Open a shop (bakery, flowers, chocolate)
- Teach kids
- Work at a nature conservancy

This list goes on and I can't even think of everything right now.

Anyway, I'm not worried about securing a job or leading a happy life, I know those things will happen...I just don't know how I choose which of the amazing things I want to do I should do. Oh well...the list will continue to get longer and graduation will keep creeping up on me.  Life is exciting and I am grateful that my worries are over something as incredible as having the choose to pick what I want to spend my life doing...or at least part my life.  Maybe I can even do everything on the list (except solving poverty may be a stretch).

And I'm back...Let's Help Africa...Let's Solve Poverty

So, I'm taking this African Business and Labor class right now, along with Global Politics class and an Economic Development class.  Between the three of them I've been exposed to a fair share of the sad and terrible conflicts that are taking place in Africa right now. From the civil war in the Congo (perpetuated by our own demand to coltan) to the genocide in Darfur to the general underdevelopment of the people, classes can get a bit depressing. But, this is a good thing too, because I want to make a difference and do my part to help Africa AND I'm 100% serious. I'm not that kind of person that sees a video about the child labor in the Ivory Coast, says "oh that's sad" and then buys a chocolate bar after class and continues with her day. 

The big question for me is: how to help? and what is the best way? and what area to focus on? To get started I've compiled just a few websites of organizations devoted to the problems facing the African nations.  My explorations have just begun, but here is what I've touched on thus far.


All For Africa - reducing poverty
Africa Oasis Project  - tackling education, clean water, and hunger
Stop Child Labor - self-explanatory
Wiser - reducing gender parity
Save the Congo  - Congo
Develop Africa - meaningful and sustainable development
UN Development Program
Africare  - food security, water, health, and emergency response
Save Africa's Children
The Save Africa Project
Save Africa Now - helping AIDS orphans

AND... Africa Guide - the ultimate list of charities in Africa.  Instead of re-posting them all here, just refer to this site.

Also, there are numerous sites out their for Darfur efforts, which I have come across in my research for a paper.

Save Darfur
Eyes on Darfur - part of Amnesty International

It's quite clear there is a great deal to dive into and I can't wait to explore everything. This is a daunting task and I'm really not sure of the best path to follow, but I'm one of these websites will lead me an interesting and rewarding direction.

Conscious Dollars

Democratic

Republican

GoodGuide.com political contribution data for over 100 companies
View data for other companies at GoodGuide.com

Life is Distracting

Well, life distracted me from this blog, how ironic? It's a good things though, it means I'm living in the world and not in this computer screen.  School has begun, meaning a hectic couple of days, and then a hectic couple of months.  My roommate has agreed to do a lot of cooking, yay! This means less planning dinner while trying to focus on economic development and global politics.

I'm going out swing dancing tonight...it's been so long (well 2 weeks, but that's too long).  I can't wait! If you don't swing dance, you should, it's so wonderful. Anyway, that's all for now, I'm off to study worldly topics.

And the cooking begins...

On the menu for last night: Dal with basmati rice. Yum!

This recipe is so simple, though it does take some time (and patience when you're hungry). To begin make rice: 1 C rice to 2 C water...boil and then simmer for about 45 minutes. Done!

Now on to the Dal. Pick any lentils and then boil them for about 10 minutes...1 C lentils to 4 C water.  In frying pan, heat up A LOT of butter. Then add a bunch of Indian spices. This time around I used coriander, ginger, pepper, salt, and curry powder.

Then, add your lentils to the butter and spices and simmer for a while, occasionally stirring. 

Have a quick taste and then your set. I like to sprinkle a little feta cheese on top too! Delicious!

The Weather is Changing

It's that time of year again.  School begins in a week and the smells of fall are beginning to inhabit the morning...along with brisk temperatures. This is the best time of year; September is right around the corner! This time of the year offers so many new beginnings and fresh starts, more than January does.

Here are some of the wonderful things about fall:
- School starts...or a new work year
- The leaves change colors and fall from the trees...offering ample piles to jump in
- Cool mornings and nights
- Sweatshirt weather
- Crisp air
- Bon fires
- Thanksgiving
- Coziness

And so much more...

As I did last year at this time, I will post my favorite song, September by Earth, Wind, and Fire, because I believe it best encompasses these feelings in music.

Consuming Hours of My Time

My new favorite website: http://dearblankpleaseblank.com/

Some samples...

"Dear Shakespeare,
Poetic talent is easy to fake when thy sentence doth no freaking sense make.
Sincerely, confused high school student"
OR
"Dear readers,

You will read this a second time just to hear it in my voice.

Sincerely, Morgan Freeman"
OR
"Dear Gangstas,

We'd like our waddle back.

Sincerely, Penguins"

Education

I was going through my old notes from an incredible class I took last year, To Infinity and Beyond and I came upon this point I wrote down, which I find to be very accurate and I try to live by in my own pursuit of education:

In our society the purpose of education is for job placement and money.  For Plato, to achieve virtue you must be educated and enlightened (or perhaps only those who are virtuous pursue education?). Education was a spiritual journey for him.

My own goal in attending college is merely to be educated...to learn how to think and problem solve, and learn about the world.  I'm not in school to attain a high income after graduation or be placed in a particular job. I'm an International Studies major because it offers me the most well-rounded curriculum; it's like majoring in the liberal arts. Seeking an education is one of the best things you can do for yourself...it makes you a better person and keeps your mind in motion. I've walked away from my classes with more questions then I went in with and they've left me with lifelong intellectual curiosity. Education offers us a lifetime of learning!

Rainer Maria Rilke

I have just finished one of the best classes I've ever taken: The Dilemma of Existence. We touched on so many topics regarding death and living a happy and truthful life. Anyway, our final reading was Rilke's The Duino Elegies, a must read for everybody! I do not want to discuss the ending, because the process of getting to the final conclusion is as important as the end itself. All I will say is that it gives an incredible perspective on life and how we should be enjoying every moment of it; we are lucky not to be perfect and flawless, our imperfections prompt awe and wonder.


My next read is Letters to a Young Poet (in hopes that it will fuel my research project as a supplementary resource). Before we left our last class, my teacher gave us the following excerpt from the book and I find it to be a great inspiration:

"You are so young, so before all beginning, and I want to I beg you, as much as I can, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant into an answer." - Rainer Maria Rilke

I think I live a life full of questions and this quote will continue to urge me to keep asking and seeking questions. Humans are lucky to have curiosity about the world and about life.  We will be asking questions forever, for there can never be an end to what we desire to know; this is the beauty of being imperfect creatures (read The Duino Elegies)

Yoga

What an incredible form of stress management, exercise, and flexibility and strength training. I've just started taking yoga classes again and I'm super excited about it. A local studio offers a class that is unlike any other form of yoga, thought most closely resembles bikram or hot yoga. The teachers describes it as "a non-traditional form of yoga performed on a BOSU, which provides the opportunity to challenge the body to do more work than it has ever done before" (http://theyogafactory.com/Yogasu.aspx).   The balance was difficult on top of the BOSU and my muscles were screaming (my 30 mile bike ride yesterday didn't help); I can't wait to try more. Plus, the room was 90 degrees and humid, which was perfect for stretching, but was accompanied by mass amounts of sweat - sorry to get graphic.

Yoga is so vital to dealing with stress for me and I think everybody would benefit from doing a bit of it every week. Connecting the mind and body is so important for our wellness, especially if we're anxiety prone; what better and more fun way to do it than yoga!!!

Ireland

One of the places my sister and I plan on seeing together someday is Ireland. I came upon this website, which is great for anyone that loves to travel...it has lots of info, pictures, helpful suggestions.  It's a perfect starting place for planning a trip.

I love to travel and cannot wait to take on the world!

Check this out, if you love to travel: http://www.worldtravelguide.net/