Getting the Ball Rolling

27 01 2010

Eventually, this may become a professional blog, at which point I may consider just blowing all this up and starting over. But in the meantime, my professor just told our class that he saw an aborted fetus for the first time the other day. Luckily it wasn’t on the streets (that may be permanently traumatizing) but it was on a pro-life rally poster here in DC. He’s a kooky but fun professor who has literally no concern for where is his body is while lecturing. His shirt often lifts entirely to far up his belly and his hands caress his hair in a sort of crazy-scientist-meets-potential-molester kind of way. Such is the summary of my life back at school: the daily grind of merciless lecturing where more than half the class is consumed by Facebook or their Crackberry’s and all the while I just like to put in my iPod. I didn’t ever use my iPod, but I got comfortable with those little head buds in my ear because they drowned out the constant noise of Hong Kong. Now they just drown out the noise of the Jappy girls at GW (PS: That’s Jewish-American Princess-y girls).

I love being back in this city. We went down to the Lincoln Memorial the other day after stopping by a party that looked like the cast of Jersey Shore had invaded. I swear I saw Snooki. How many bumpits can one person use? I love the quiet in the streets and the shorter buildings without losing the cosmopolitan atmosphere. I can tell the difference because when I was looking for internships in Hong Kong (FAIL!), I’d see where they’re office is and be like “Ugh, it’s such a bitch to get to Fortress Hill,” but here I’m interested in where the offices are because this is my temporary home and exploring is part of our mission as twenty-something year olds. I also like not smelling those horrid stalls that sold dried out hearts of octopus and flattened skin of leeches or other items that probably made an appearance on Bizarre Foods at some point. My apartment is my haven within the city and my Dad was such a blessing for helping as much as he did. I’ve gotten a lot of comments on it, but my friend Melanie was the best because she finally said that room (for the first time since Freshman year) did not look like an office. Whatever, she’s blind.

I decided to write on this blog again because this past Monday, during our second meeting of the Elliott School Undergraduate Scholars Seminar (doesn’t that sound important?) I was reminded of a secondary use for this blog: a research tool. A scholar from last year used a blog to update and share his research as it was ongoing. He was researching the comparative nationalistic movements in Belgium and Scotland (I know, wtf?) and apparently got contacts and comments that helped him meet people that he then used to meet people and add to his paper. It’s a cool, if weird, way of networking. I figure if I like writing that boring stuff on here, it can’t hurt. What will hurt is having people read these posts, so who knows what will happen to them. I’ll probably keep them, because if my posts start to revolve around “The Successes and Failures of Chinese State Owned Enterprises in Cross-Border Mergers & Acquistions as compared to American Private Enterprises,” (My topic title as of yet) I might start to look bionic. So an update: I just got my first 6 books (my first from the library) and they’re smelly but I’ll hopefully ut up thoughts on those books, as well as my other regular musings.

Happy (One day late) Birthday Mom! This one’s for you!


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Categories : GW

My Man, Joe Biden

27 07 2009

Oh Joe. He really does make me laugh. But beyond that, he makes me proud to have supported him from early on in the 2008 race. He is often ridiculed for his big mouth, but I really admire him in a weird way exactly because of his mouth. He doesn’t talk in circles or frailties, he says it like it is. I know it’s a cliche defense, but it’s the truth. Not let’s be clear, no one is calling him the most politically correct guy in politics, but who the F cares. This gem is one of my favorites:

“You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent…. I’m not joking.” – Joe Biden

Here are some of my other favorites, most of which came from the 2008 presidential debates and other proceedings, but which propelled Vice President Biden onto stardom.

“If your kitchen table is like mine, you sit there at night before you put the kids to bed and you talk about what you need. You talk about how much you are worried about being able to pay the bills. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not a worry John McCain has to worry about. It’s a pretty hard experience. He’ll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at.” –Joe Biden

“I should start with an apology to Rudy Giuliani. I said every sentence Rudy utters has a noun, a verb, and 9/11 in it. I was wrong. He called me to tell me after Pat Robertson’s endorsement, there’s an Amen in every sentence he says too.” –Joe Biden

And the reason I’m writing this today was because of the recent uproar over his comments about Russia, which I have to say are pretty spot-on. This is the kind of straight-shooting I wanted when I went to Iowa in 2007-2008 to support his campaign. Biden this the following about Russia while on a trip around Eastern Europe:

‘Russia has to make some very difficult, calculated decisions. They have a shrinking population base, they have a withering economy, they have a banking sector and structure that is not likely to be able to withstand the next 15 years, they’re in a situation where the world is changing before them and they’re clinging to something in the past that is not sustainable.”- Joe Biden

Sounds exactly like a textbook I read on international relations. Either that means Joe Biden is simply reading from a textbook, or is dead on…and as a man who chaired the Senate Foreign Relations committee for years, I’m going with the latter. Way to go Joe.


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Categories : GW, Politics

To Intern or Not to Intern?

13 07 2009

I found myself thinking last night (When I forget to take a melatonin, that thinking thing tends to happen a lot…and I mean a lot alot) about whether or not I should try and pursue an internship while abroad in Hong Kong. The program provider, Syracuse University, helps students try and find a suitable internship while abroad if they qualify. I qualify, but I’m not yet sure that I want to devote a month’s full time work to a payless internship.

The pros are obvious in certain terms, with resume experience being the most clear cut. There are supposedly “networking” possibilities, but that is all BS in my book anyway. I agree networking is helpful, but something tells me that the Citicorp or HSBC manager isn’t going to remember the white American guy who worked here for a month. Still the line on the resume that say:

Intern, JPMorgan Chase, Hong Kong, Nov-Dec 2009

seems pretty sweet to me. I also weirdly like the idea of being in such a vibrant city for a long-ish period with the very typical 9-5 schedule. Doing it in Hong Kong seems like the best place in the world, because every night after 5 could be a new adventure. Additionally, it really would be the way to experience the 9-5 for better or worse.

On the flip side is the easier option of “Independent Study,” which to me sounds like a fancy way to say “do nothing and or travel.” While this would normally strike me as the immediate best choice, I just don’t know why, but I’m not pulled toward this with as much gusto as I’d expect. I’ll see some of Thailand, and I plan on hitting up Cambodia and Vietnam during my stay regardless. Beyond that, I plan on doing research at GW in the spring, so maybe a year of research isn’t my thing.


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Categories : Abroad, College, GW