Well, I just received another email from one of the non-profits I contacted about internships, and have another internship offer for the summer. Now I just need to decide what I want to do for the summer, where I want to be, and how important it is for me that it correlate with my thesis, or more important if it links to connections that could link to an eventual job. Hopefully I can make a decision relatively soon. But, I'm pretty excited about having three options for the summer-- I think no matter where I end up, this will be good!
--brianna
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
A Good Day
So, yesterday entailed a little bit of everything-- church in the morning, followed by a trip to Best Buy to pick up mario kart, a walk down to the creek, several hours spent playing the wii, followed by a walk to the ice cream store, followed by more playing the wii, and eventually convincing ourselves that we needed to sleep. Don't worry, I did manage to get some research done in there too!
As you can probably tell, it seems that Mario Kart is a continued bonding experience for Cody and I, for reasons that I will admit that I don't fully understand. I am not usually much of a video game person, but I enjoy the wii quite a bit, and I very much enjoy mario kart (not so much a fan of super smash brothers though-- I haven't actually played it, and have no desire to).
Cody and I achieved new levels of nerdiness/enjoyment though, when playing mario kart against some friends online, and setting up our laptops via skype, so we could all essentially watch each other play and talk to each other as we raced together. It was a lot of fun! :)
Our trip down to the creek was to watch the rubber duck race. We managed to stumble upon (we had heard rumors about it) hundreds of local children racing tiny rubber ducks down the creek in town as a fundraiser for the local 4H. It was a lot of fun to watch-- looking down the creek to see thousands of tiny yellow ducks, and they went on, and on, and on. Apparently the kids drop them over the bridge of the gorge into the creek, and the ducks race over a mile down the creek all the way to the lake (at least if we understand it correctly). So, we watched kids cheer as the ducks continued down their path, some of the older kids jump into the creek to free the ducks that were caught in the reeds, and at the very end, the several adults who were following down the creek as the duck herders. Dressed in waders, carrying large sticks, they were responsible for the stragglers, and it made me smile, watching them poke and prod at the little ducks in order to free them.
On a side note, one of the parts of living in upstate New York that is a little saddening to me is the fact that there are no Dairy Queens near here. I realize that not all of you will understand how DQ is fully ingrained as a part of my childhood. I grew up with a dad who knows where just about every DQ is in the state of Minnesota, and in my family we would take trips to the DQ almost weekly, whether it be after a softball game, on our way to run some errands, etc. we some how managed to fit trips to the DQ in everywhere. So, because there are no DQ's anywhere near here, Cody and I take occasional walks to Purity ice cream instead. It's not quite the same, but it's still pretty good (how can you go wrong with a hot fudge sundae on a chocolate chip cookie, with vanilla ice cream with peanut butter and chocolate swirls?).
All in all, it was a pretty good day. Perhaps even a very good day.
And, on the upside, this is the last week of classes, and I received another internship offer today! I am still waiting to make any final decisions until I hear back from everyone that I applied with/had interviews with (which should be fairly soon). But, it's nice to have options, and I am hoping to have a decision made soon so I can figure out where I will be for the summer (and if I need to buy a plane ticket somewhere!).
--brianna
As you can probably tell, it seems that Mario Kart is a continued bonding experience for Cody and I, for reasons that I will admit that I don't fully understand. I am not usually much of a video game person, but I enjoy the wii quite a bit, and I very much enjoy mario kart (not so much a fan of super smash brothers though-- I haven't actually played it, and have no desire to).
Cody and I achieved new levels of nerdiness/enjoyment though, when playing mario kart against some friends online, and setting up our laptops via skype, so we could all essentially watch each other play and talk to each other as we raced together. It was a lot of fun! :)
Our trip down to the creek was to watch the rubber duck race. We managed to stumble upon (we had heard rumors about it) hundreds of local children racing tiny rubber ducks down the creek in town as a fundraiser for the local 4H. It was a lot of fun to watch-- looking down the creek to see thousands of tiny yellow ducks, and they went on, and on, and on. Apparently the kids drop them over the bridge of the gorge into the creek, and the ducks race over a mile down the creek all the way to the lake (at least if we understand it correctly). So, we watched kids cheer as the ducks continued down their path, some of the older kids jump into the creek to free the ducks that were caught in the reeds, and at the very end, the several adults who were following down the creek as the duck herders. Dressed in waders, carrying large sticks, they were responsible for the stragglers, and it made me smile, watching them poke and prod at the little ducks in order to free them.
On a side note, one of the parts of living in upstate New York that is a little saddening to me is the fact that there are no Dairy Queens near here. I realize that not all of you will understand how DQ is fully ingrained as a part of my childhood. I grew up with a dad who knows where just about every DQ is in the state of Minnesota, and in my family we would take trips to the DQ almost weekly, whether it be after a softball game, on our way to run some errands, etc. we some how managed to fit trips to the DQ in everywhere. So, because there are no DQ's anywhere near here, Cody and I take occasional walks to Purity ice cream instead. It's not quite the same, but it's still pretty good (how can you go wrong with a hot fudge sundae on a chocolate chip cookie, with vanilla ice cream with peanut butter and chocolate swirls?).
All in all, it was a pretty good day. Perhaps even a very good day.
And, on the upside, this is the last week of classes, and I received another internship offer today! I am still waiting to make any final decisions until I hear back from everyone that I applied with/had interviews with (which should be fairly soon). But, it's nice to have options, and I am hoping to have a decision made soon so I can figure out where I will be for the summer (and if I need to buy a plane ticket somewhere!).
--brianna
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
anticipation
Now the end of the semester is really practically here-- next week is my last week of classes, and my finals are quickly approaching. Fortunately, this means that summer is almost right around the corner, and it will be nice to have the chance to have a summer vacation (even if I may be working full time for free, there isn't the insane pressure around the internships that I am looking at is there is in some of the classes that I have been taking this year).
And, it looks like progress is continuing for my summer internship plans-- woo hoo! Rather than having second interviews last week, as was originally the plan, they happened earlier this week. One interview (once again, they were both via phone) got a little crazy, as the interviewer thought I would be available to talk any of the times I gave him, so he didn't email with a specific time. It just meant I was sitting in the library doing econ work when my phone rang, I looked at the number, quickly picked up when I realized what it was about, and told him I would call him back in five minutes when I had checked out a private study room so I wouldn't be disrupting all of the 3rd floor study area where I was working. (That is one of the nice things about going to a school with money-- they have massive libraries with every book you would ever need, if they don't have it you can use the book loan program from one of the other ivies, or can request that one of the Cornell libraries gets a copy. And, they have tons of private or group study rooms, another excellent feature that I have found very useful. The picture is of the library where I spend all of my time-- Mann.)
So, I called him back for a brief, but good, interview, and have now sent him a list of references. It was nice to hear that I was one of the first people he was interviewing (the guy calling would be my direct supervisor), as I feel like its better to be earlier on this list rather than later. I should hear back by the end of the week. I also contacted the guy I have been working with on setting up an independent internship, and he said he too would get back to me by the end of the week. I am a little nervous about that one simply because he made it sound like they had hired an abundance of interns for the upcoming summer, so they were still trying to work out the logistics.
But, on the positive side, during my Tuesday afternoon interview, with the director of a non-profit in New Haven, CT, I was offered an internship for the summer! I am excited about the prospect of spending the summer with this group, as I think they are doing really good work on human rights, and it could be a substantive internship (though unpaid!), but I want to wait and make a decision once I have all of my internship-related information, when I know what all of my options are. One aspect that I am still trying to figure out is whether it is better to take an internship for the summer that fits in with my specific studies here at Cornell (and could help me put together my master's thesis), whether it is better to make connections for where we want to live when I graduate next spring, or how substantive the internship is. I think all of these are important factors in the decision making process, but I am still trying to figure out how one aspect ranks or relates to another. I suppose it will be easier to see when I know what all of my options are, but it is my tendency to over-analyze, so I figured I would over analyze and see if any of you had input on my thoughts. Let me know if you do. And, of course, I will definitely update when I know more and have made a decision.
And, just for kicks, I will fill you all in on what I am writing my final projects/papers on for the semester. I feel like I publicize this information, but half the time Cody tells me that he has know idea what I am talking about when I randomly bring up my projects, so for kicks and giggles (and to explain why half of the time it may seem like I am suffering from a really short attention span), here is the list:
For econ: I am contemplating (its not certain yet) writing a paper on how exchange rates are determined, and the impact of artificially setting an exchange rate for international trade.
For my class on women's history: the role of women's community in historically black colleges and universities
For my community development class: I am profiling a non-profit that works on affordable housing in urban areas (I am specifically profiling Urban Homeworks)
and, well, stats needs no writing, it is simply an exam-- so we will see how that goes!
It makes me laugh to think that most graduate school programs really seek to focus your studies, and in many ways my education is focused, but in other respects (like thinking about the diversity of topics that I am writing papers on), it is still incredibly broad. I guess that's just the way it works sometimes!
--brianna
Monday, April 21, 2008
A Protest Revisited
Before you read this, read my previous post, it will add some context.
As it turns out, the leader of the protest held in our store on saturday was this guy. He came on Friday to lead a concert/protest in the town commons, and then came to our store on Saturday. The really funny thing is that he made the front page of the local paper! I think it is hilarious that my manager was mentioned by name, but also a little sad that they didn't give much context to why the police were called. Let me tell you, this guy is intense. A lot of people in our store, including myself, felt threatened and nervous when they came in. There was no explanation or warning from them, they just grabbed our stuff and started talking.
In some ways, having more context to the event is helpful. I was really disappointed on Saturday to think that this was something put together by locals, because I had thought that I lived in a town that approached this with a lot more class and intelligence. It is encouraging to know that it was somebody from outside of town that came up with this. I won't lie, our store is out of place in a town with this much of a world/environmental/small town/organic conscience, but seems pointless to protest the whole company in a context like this. It seems odd to attack customers, who on a basic level, probably agree with your point, but don't agree with the inflammatory methods. It seems like it will only turn people against your cause.
My final thought: I feel famous to have been in the same cafe as a guy who had a documentary made about him!
As it turns out, the leader of the protest held in our store on saturday was this guy. He came on Friday to lead a concert/protest in the town commons, and then came to our store on Saturday. The really funny thing is that he made the front page of the local paper! I think it is hilarious that my manager was mentioned by name, but also a little sad that they didn't give much context to why the police were called. Let me tell you, this guy is intense. A lot of people in our store, including myself, felt threatened and nervous when they came in. There was no explanation or warning from them, they just grabbed our stuff and started talking.
In some ways, having more context to the event is helpful. I was really disappointed on Saturday to think that this was something put together by locals, because I had thought that I lived in a town that approached this with a lot more class and intelligence. It is encouraging to know that it was somebody from outside of town that came up with this. I won't lie, our store is out of place in a town with this much of a world/environmental/small town/organic conscience, but seems pointless to protest the whole company in a context like this. It seems odd to attack customers, who on a basic level, probably agree with your point, but don't agree with the inflammatory methods. It seems like it will only turn people against your cause.
My final thought: I feel famous to have been in the same cafe as a guy who had a documentary made about him!
A Wii and a Protest
Its time for a random update. As some of you might know, it was my b-day about two weeks ago, I got some cash, and after some prompting from Bri, decided to buy a Wii. It turns out that they are still really hard to get ahold of these days. After a week of searching, I located one on Craigslist and made an offer. The seller accepted and I made arrangements to pick it up. Turns out, the only time he was available was after 10 PM. So, last Wednesday night, Bri and I drove up the hill, and I bought a Wii in a dark parking lot, with cash, from a nerdy college student. The whole drive home Bri and I were laughing at the absurdity of the whole deal. The whole thing was legit, but it felt so shady. Good times.
In other completely random news, the store I work at was protested on Saturday during my shift. About 20-30 people made their way into the store around 2 PM and began picking up chairs, tables, lamps, bottles of water, bags of coffee, and anything else they could get their hands on. At first, they were just reading the labels, or something. Then, the leader began a type of call and response, condemning us for destroying a forest in order to have chairs and tables and the such in the store. The creepy thing was that all the other protesters were calling back Amen! and Hallelujah! The whole thing lasted about 20 minutes, and finally they all filed out of the store as the leader yelled at customers to evaluate where they spend their money. About five minutes after they left, the police finally showed up. Through the whole thing, my store manager was trying to politely request that they at least put the tables, chairs, lamps, etc down and not yell at customers, but he was completely ignored.
I can't say I am surprised. In many ways, this fits the mentality of Ithaca. I will say I was disappointed though. I expected a protest in Ithaca to be better thought out, and more useful. In the end, the protest felt inflammatory and pretty much lacked any sense of tact.
In a completely unrelated side note, I picked up the new Cloud Cult album over the weekend, and it is amazing. I highly recommend it.
In other completely random news, the store I work at was protested on Saturday during my shift. About 20-30 people made their way into the store around 2 PM and began picking up chairs, tables, lamps, bottles of water, bags of coffee, and anything else they could get their hands on. At first, they were just reading the labels, or something. Then, the leader began a type of call and response, condemning us for destroying a forest in order to have chairs and tables and the such in the store. The creepy thing was that all the other protesters were calling back Amen! and Hallelujah! The whole thing lasted about 20 minutes, and finally they all filed out of the store as the leader yelled at customers to evaluate where they spend their money. About five minutes after they left, the police finally showed up. Through the whole thing, my store manager was trying to politely request that they at least put the tables, chairs, lamps, etc down and not yell at customers, but he was completely ignored.
I can't say I am surprised. In many ways, this fits the mentality of Ithaca. I will say I was disappointed though. I expected a protest in Ithaca to be better thought out, and more useful. In the end, the protest felt inflammatory and pretty much lacked any sense of tact.
In a completely unrelated side note, I picked up the new Cloud Cult album over the weekend, and it is amazing. I highly recommend it.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Springtime has arrived!
It is about 60 degrees and sunny here, and I have to say, I enjoy spring in Ithaca. Unlike Minneapolis, there is no freak, end of winter/early spring snow storm. Maybe a couple of inches in the end of March, but nothing massive. While everyone kept joking/muttering about being prepared for the winters here, I am beginning to realize that it is simply the complaining of a few people who can't hack it out here.
Anyway, it has been a busy week here. While I still don't have an internship yet, much progress has been made on this front. I started receiving several emails earlier this week in response to the plethora of applications I sent out, and they wanted to interview me this week. So, I have just completed two phone interviews today for internships. I always think that phone interviews are a little weird, you just have to guess what the other person thinks of your response based on their tone of voice or next question. Granted, the pressure level isn't quite the same as an in-person interview (after all, I was sitting in jeans and an old Bethel t-shirt for the phone interviews), but there isn't the immediate satisfaction of: Yes! Good answer! when you get a smile that seems to indicate understanding. I am also looking at setting up an independent executive level internship at a foundation in Minneapolis, so I am going to speak with the director next week about that possibility. Next week will be busy, as it sounds like I will be doing follow up interviews for both internships.
On top of the busy week in terms of internships, it was Cody's birthday on Tuesday, and we decided to celebrate. It wasn't the same as the birthday bbq celebrations of the last few years, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Instead, we got burritos at the Ithaca equivalent of Chipotle and went outside to eat them in the park across the street from our apartment. In the evening we went out to the Chapter House for some drinks and the chance to listen to the Irish music. It was a good day (even if I did pull an all-nighter that night to finish an exam due at noon the next day).
And now off to do some statistics work-- I know you all are jealous!
--brianna
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
the beginning of the end (of the semester)
So, it has been awhile since we posted last, but that is at least in part because it seems like not much is going on here. Life has been pretty boring-- a very slow and relaxing spring break, and now back into classes for the past couple of weeks. The odd realization now is that at the end of this month, classes will be done. That will be followed by one week for reading week, and a week of finals. Then, I will be on summer vacation! And, hopefully have an internship by then-- I have sent out many applications-- so I am hoping to hear back from at least one of them sometime in the next few weeks. I have no idea where I will be, which is a little scary, but I am sure I will manage.
Now is just the time to start researching my final papers. I am hoping that one of them will be able to tie into my masters thesis (at least a little bit). We will apparently start learning soon about how to write our theses for next year, which I am hoping will be helpful, because I don't have a definitive idea yet. That is about all though. We are looking forward to seeing what the summer will bring!
--brianna
Now is just the time to start researching my final papers. I am hoping that one of them will be able to tie into my masters thesis (at least a little bit). We will apparently start learning soon about how to write our theses for next year, which I am hoping will be helpful, because I don't have a definitive idea yet. That is about all though. We are looking forward to seeing what the summer will bring!
--brianna
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