Three day weekends rock, don't you agree? I'm excited about this weekend but I'd be more excited if my Scientist were in town, but seeing as how he's off hanging out with grandma and spotting bobcats feasting on roadkill while whizzing down the open road, I'm out of luck.
I also wish I would've heard something from the U of Minnesota and the U of Iowa by now. I turned my application over 4 weeks ago and haven't heard squat. I think on Tuesday I'll give both departments a call. I was told by both parties that I should have heard something by now.
I haven't got much planned really; I'm going to look for a bike (does anyone in the area know where to get a good mountain bike?), read, hang out with my dad, work out and maybe call a few people I haven't talked to in a while.
I hope everyone has a great weekend.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Sexual Harassment Soapbox
I was having a great day until about 4 pm when I called my lawyer to ask him about something regarding the status of my case. I won't bore you with the details, but needless to say I got a little testy and now I'm in a pissy mood. I even ditched my Pilates class and workout to come home, pout, listen to my iPod and fix myself some comfort food.
I lodged a formal complaint against Jackass yesterday. Apparently, he went into HR on Tuesday morning and talked to our HR guy (who, incidentally really likes me, as most people at my job do), who then requested that I write down an account of everything happened. After I'd written everything up my boss, H, and I then went in and talked to HR guy. I got the whole speech about howI shouldn't have to put up with this type of harassment, blah blah blah. Everyone nodded their heads and agreed Jackass had, indeed, been a jackass and if anything else happened I shouldn't hesitate to come to HR guy and we would then "deal with Jackass in the appropriate manner". In other words, his ass will be fired.
What I found a little, well, disturbing was a series of comments H made regarding what would have been the appropriate manner for Jackass to ask me out and how this was a 'generational thing'. According to her, part of the problem with this "whole thing" was the difference between how my generation deals with "this sort of situation" and the way H and Jackass's generation deals with it. H said, "If he had said something like this to me, I would have, you know...blown it off [insert wild hand wave here]. But your generation [nod to me] doesn't deal with it that way...which you shouldn't. Jackass [okay, that's not his real name, I'll admit it], needs to learn how to control himself."
Color me stupid, but I think part of the reason why Jackass still has a fucking job at Pearson is because of a general belittling, oh-it's-not-that-serious feeling towards sexual harassment, as H expressed, there. I absolutely agree with H--a small part of Jackass's problem is that he didn't grow up with SH policies at the work place like I did. But the other, larger part of the problem, the part that I think caused him to open his fucking mouth, is that he a) honestly does think what he did was inappropriate and b) he's never been called on it even though he's acted inappropriately towards other women at at least two different jobs. It's attitudes like H's, not to mention the attitude of the other supervisor on my project who led to him thinking it was okay to say that to me.
The other highly suspect thing H said was, "it totally would have been different had he asked you out in the parking lot at work, alone, than doing it like he did at work in front of everyone." When I made the comment that, yeah it totally would have been different, it would have creeped me out even more to have him approach me in a parking lot alone, she said, "Oh no, that would have been some guy just asking you out. That would have been okay."
Um, I beg to differ. I've had people ask me out before outside of work and when I've turned them down, our work relationship has either turned sour or really strained. I'm not saying you can't date someone you work with (God knows I've dated plenty of my co-workers; my last relationship was with a man that was my boss), but you have to be very careful how you approach that person. Asking someone, say, to go to a party, or out with a bunch of people is a way to spend time with that person and not run the risk of either a) rejection, b) seeing if that person is truly interested and c) avoiding charges of SH.
I don't want to crucify this guy, but, really, if I don't take the higher ground here and make this about him acting and saying things that are inappropriate in a professional setting he'll simply keep doing it. History has proven that. I hate being the example as well as making an example of another person in order to prove a point but I feel like in this situation I need to see this through to the end.
I lodged a formal complaint against Jackass yesterday. Apparently, he went into HR on Tuesday morning and talked to our HR guy (who, incidentally really likes me, as most people at my job do), who then requested that I write down an account of everything happened. After I'd written everything up my boss, H, and I then went in and talked to HR guy. I got the whole speech about howI shouldn't have to put up with this type of harassment, blah blah blah. Everyone nodded their heads and agreed Jackass had, indeed, been a jackass and if anything else happened I shouldn't hesitate to come to HR guy and we would then "deal with Jackass in the appropriate manner". In other words, his ass will be fired.
What I found a little, well, disturbing was a series of comments H made regarding what would have been the appropriate manner for Jackass to ask me out and how this was a 'generational thing'. According to her, part of the problem with this "whole thing" was the difference between how my generation deals with "this sort of situation" and the way H and Jackass's generation deals with it. H said, "If he had said something like this to me, I would have, you know...blown it off [insert wild hand wave here]. But your generation [nod to me] doesn't deal with it that way...which you shouldn't. Jackass [okay, that's not his real name, I'll admit it], needs to learn how to control himself."
Color me stupid, but I think part of the reason why Jackass still has a fucking job at Pearson is because of a general belittling, oh-it's-not-that-serious feeling towards sexual harassment, as H expressed, there. I absolutely agree with H--a small part of Jackass's problem is that he didn't grow up with SH policies at the work place like I did. But the other, larger part of the problem, the part that I think caused him to open his fucking mouth, is that he a) honestly does think what he did was inappropriate and b) he's never been called on it even though he's acted inappropriately towards other women at at least two different jobs. It's attitudes like H's, not to mention the attitude of the other supervisor on my project who led to him thinking it was okay to say that to me.
The other highly suspect thing H said was, "it totally would have been different had he asked you out in the parking lot at work, alone, than doing it like he did at work in front of everyone." When I made the comment that, yeah it totally would have been different, it would have creeped me out even more to have him approach me in a parking lot alone, she said, "Oh no, that would have been some guy just asking you out. That would have been okay."
Um, I beg to differ. I've had people ask me out before outside of work and when I've turned them down, our work relationship has either turned sour or really strained. I'm not saying you can't date someone you work with (God knows I've dated plenty of my co-workers; my last relationship was with a man that was my boss), but you have to be very careful how you approach that person. Asking someone, say, to go to a party, or out with a bunch of people is a way to spend time with that person and not run the risk of either a) rejection, b) seeing if that person is truly interested and c) avoiding charges of SH.
I don't want to crucify this guy, but, really, if I don't take the higher ground here and make this about him acting and saying things that are inappropriate in a professional setting he'll simply keep doing it. History has proven that. I hate being the example as well as making an example of another person in order to prove a point but I feel like in this situation I need to see this through to the end.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Working girl
Work has been more stressful than usual. As most of you know, I'm working as a supervisor at Pearson for the next few weeks on a project. The beginning of any new project kind of sucks; the scorers don't know what they're doing, I don't know what I'm doing (although I have to pretend like I do), there's mass confusion, etc. Nothing too unusal or unexpected.
Unfortunately, one thing I didn't expect was a jackass on my team (he's what you would call my 'subordinate', I guess) hitting on me in front of everyone, and, when I didn't respond the way he wanted, making a fool out of himself and embarrassing me. This is how it went down:
(Me and 45 year old subordinate discussing a paper)
Him: You know, if you weren't my supervisor I'd ask you out.
Me:(standing there, blinking, and in shock)
Him: You're suppose to say, "Oh no, that's okay."
Me: (feeble laugh, still in shock)
About two seconds after that took place, J (one of my two bosses), charged up and started scolding Jackass for misscoring a paper. I siezed that opportunity to slink off, but was inundated with questions by a scorer sitting near Jackass. J, after finishing his rather strenuous speech about how poorly Jackass was scoring then pulled me aside and proceeded to tell me that he had heard the entire exchange between me and Jackass (as did a bunch of people around us, I found out later) and would "totally back me up" in I went to HR about it. I honestly think he was more upset about it than I was.
I ended up not needing to go to HR, seeing as how the whole situation was taken out of my hands when H found out about it. It seems as though this isn't the first time Jackass has hit on his supervisor; in fact, he hit on the supervisor on the other team (my project is divided into three teams) repeatedly on a previous project. As a result she had requested he not be on her team, and thus he was put on mine.
And as if those two incidents alone didn't make him a big enough insensitive dickhead, I was told later that he was fired from his last job for having an affair with his boss's wife! Can you believe that shit? I thought that stuff only happened in on TV. Who would be stupid enough to sleep with their boss's wife....and then, once they've been fired from that job to continue to hit on women at their new job? Does this man only think with the head in his pants, for Christ's sakes?
Thankfully, today we had a re-ordering of teams, and Jackass is no longer my problem. I think I may go ahead and have a private conversation with HR about how I think they should strongly consider firing this man. Permanently. I'm actually surprised they haven't done it already.
Unfortunately, one thing I didn't expect was a jackass on my team (he's what you would call my 'subordinate', I guess) hitting on me in front of everyone, and, when I didn't respond the way he wanted, making a fool out of himself and embarrassing me. This is how it went down:
(Me and 45 year old subordinate discussing a paper)
Him: You know, if you weren't my supervisor I'd ask you out.
Me:(standing there, blinking, and in shock)
Him: You're suppose to say, "Oh no, that's okay."
Me: (feeble laugh, still in shock)
About two seconds after that took place, J (one of my two bosses), charged up and started scolding Jackass for misscoring a paper. I siezed that opportunity to slink off, but was inundated with questions by a scorer sitting near Jackass. J, after finishing his rather strenuous speech about how poorly Jackass was scoring then pulled me aside and proceeded to tell me that he had heard the entire exchange between me and Jackass (as did a bunch of people around us, I found out later) and would "totally back me up" in I went to HR about it. I honestly think he was more upset about it than I was.
I ended up not needing to go to HR, seeing as how the whole situation was taken out of my hands when H found out about it. It seems as though this isn't the first time Jackass has hit on his supervisor; in fact, he hit on the supervisor on the other team (my project is divided into three teams) repeatedly on a previous project. As a result she had requested he not be on her team, and thus he was put on mine.
And as if those two incidents alone didn't make him a big enough insensitive dickhead, I was told later that he was fired from his last job for having an affair with his boss's wife! Can you believe that shit? I thought that stuff only happened in on TV. Who would be stupid enough to sleep with their boss's wife....and then, once they've been fired from that job to continue to hit on women at their new job? Does this man only think with the head in his pants, for Christ's sakes?
Thankfully, today we had a re-ordering of teams, and Jackass is no longer my problem. I think I may go ahead and have a private conversation with HR about how I think they should strongly consider firing this man. Permanently. I'm actually surprised they haven't done it already.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
A Fabulous Weekend
Finally, summer has (more or less) arrived in Iowa!
I had a wonderful weekend. I spent basically all of it in Iowa City with the Scientist. In fact, I guess you could say it was a turning point, of sorts, with him: he introduced me to his friends, showed me where he worked, cooked for me and went shopping at the girliest of girly stores for smelly soap.
It was awesome. I didn't get sick of him, I don't think he got tired of me, the two friends of his I met were super sweet, he didn't make fun of my weird food habits--what more could I ask for? Other than having met him about 5 months ago...
I had a wonderful weekend. I spent basically all of it in Iowa City with the Scientist. In fact, I guess you could say it was a turning point, of sorts, with him: he introduced me to his friends, showed me where he worked, cooked for me and went shopping at the girliest of girly stores for smelly soap.
It was awesome. I didn't get sick of him, I don't think he got tired of me, the two friends of his I met were super sweet, he didn't make fun of my weird food habits--what more could I ask for? Other than having met him about 5 months ago...
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Teensy weensy bit guilty
Why, oh why, do I have to go back to work on Tuesday?
I guess it'll be nice to have something to do other than work out, read and hang out with the Scientist, which is precisely what I've been doing this whole weekend.
Speaking of the Scientist, I'm becoming a bigger and bigger fan the more I get to know him. Yes, he's conservative, which is certainly a change from the men I usually date, but he's not socially conservative which is really what's most important to me (no homophobes for me, thank you very much). That, and he's really pretty open minded and respects my opinions, which often times differ greatly from his (on Tuesday we had a heated discussion about the role biology plays in determining the destinies of each gender respectively). He's a good cook and gives me a lot of shit, in addition to being able to take it, which is a nice.
There were numerous times over the weekend where I almost came clean about this blog, but swallowed my confession at the last minute. I guess I want to see where this is all going, in addition to feeling like I should hold something back. I know this is ridiculous, but I feel like I'm jinxing things by acknowledging to him that I've been so openly positive about things going on between us in such a public way.
God, that looks even dumber in print than it sounds in my head.
I guess it'll be nice to have something to do other than work out, read and hang out with the Scientist, which is precisely what I've been doing this whole weekend.
Speaking of the Scientist, I'm becoming a bigger and bigger fan the more I get to know him. Yes, he's conservative, which is certainly a change from the men I usually date, but he's not socially conservative which is really what's most important to me (no homophobes for me, thank you very much). That, and he's really pretty open minded and respects my opinions, which often times differ greatly from his (on Tuesday we had a heated discussion about the role biology plays in determining the destinies of each gender respectively). He's a good cook and gives me a lot of shit, in addition to being able to take it, which is a nice.
There were numerous times over the weekend where I almost came clean about this blog, but swallowed my confession at the last minute. I guess I want to see where this is all going, in addition to feeling like I should hold something back. I know this is ridiculous, but I feel like I'm jinxing things by acknowledging to him that I've been so openly positive about things going on between us in such a public way.
God, that looks even dumber in print than it sounds in my head.
Friday, May 12, 2006
I heart Federal Student Aid
Yesterday I received a letter from the Financial Aid office at Marquette. They want to give me almost $30,000 for my first year of graduate school there.
I thought receiving a letter that clearly stated in black and white how much I was really going to need to borrow (and eventually pay back) would flip me out, but it had just the opposite effect: I felt relieved. No matter what happens regarding my applications to the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota, I know I can always go to Marquette.
I've pretty much decided that if I'm admitted to the University of Minnesota, I'll accept. I think....See, I say, er, write that, and suddenly I can think of 5 reasons why I should choose Marquette over Minnesota: it's a small school, by getting a degree focused on Public Service I'll be able to easily move into other areas of non-profit work, I'll get (some) more non profit experience at MU, Milwaukee will be cheaper than Minneapolis, and it would be nice to challenge myself yet again by moving TOTALLY out of my comfort zone to a city I've never even been to (unlike Minneapolis which is about as familiar to me as any city out of state can be because I spent time there as a child).
Getting that letter from Marquette also made me a teensy weensy bit sad. See, for all my bitching about being back home, it's been wonderful to be home and spend time with my mom and all you guys (this is about as close to a collective hug and kiss as I can give y'all via the internet, folks). I've hung out with all the people I love as well as made a number of new friends, none of which I could do if I were any place but Iowa.
I'm also unsure about what to do with the Scientist. I've been seeing him for only a few weeks, but I really like him. In fact, I think he's pretty fucking great, even if he is politically conservative (I know, it makes me cringe too). He's really smart, funny as hell, thoughtful, a great conversationalist, challenges me constantly and, well, he thinks I'm the shit. I was really up front with him about my plans to flee from the first time we met, but, well, now I'm starting to think it's not going to be so easy to just leave. Time won't make this any easier; it'll just complicate both of our feelings for each other. I'm not going to think about that now, though. I'm just going to have fun and enjoy his company.
I thought receiving a letter that clearly stated in black and white how much I was really going to need to borrow (and eventually pay back) would flip me out, but it had just the opposite effect: I felt relieved. No matter what happens regarding my applications to the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota, I know I can always go to Marquette.
I've pretty much decided that if I'm admitted to the University of Minnesota, I'll accept. I think....See, I say, er, write that, and suddenly I can think of 5 reasons why I should choose Marquette over Minnesota: it's a small school, by getting a degree focused on Public Service I'll be able to easily move into other areas of non-profit work, I'll get (some) more non profit experience at MU, Milwaukee will be cheaper than Minneapolis, and it would be nice to challenge myself yet again by moving TOTALLY out of my comfort zone to a city I've never even been to (unlike Minneapolis which is about as familiar to me as any city out of state can be because I spent time there as a child).
Getting that letter from Marquette also made me a teensy weensy bit sad. See, for all my bitching about being back home, it's been wonderful to be home and spend time with my mom and all you guys (this is about as close to a collective hug and kiss as I can give y'all via the internet, folks). I've hung out with all the people I love as well as made a number of new friends, none of which I could do if I were any place but Iowa.
I'm also unsure about what to do with the Scientist. I've been seeing him for only a few weeks, but I really like him. In fact, I think he's pretty fucking great, even if he is politically conservative (I know, it makes me cringe too). He's really smart, funny as hell, thoughtful, a great conversationalist, challenges me constantly and, well, he thinks I'm the shit. I was really up front with him about my plans to flee from the first time we met, but, well, now I'm starting to think it's not going to be so easy to just leave. Time won't make this any easier; it'll just complicate both of our feelings for each other. I'm not going to think about that now, though. I'm just going to have fun and enjoy his company.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Post-accident
It's been a rollercoaster week so far. I wish I could avoid these ridiculously emotional weeks where I swing from one intensely dramatic mood to another. It's exhausting and I'm a total bitch and I know it, which, in turn, make me frustrated and even more bitchy.
The thing that seems to set me off, almost without fail, is when I have any sort of appointment relating to my lawsuit or any pain that resulted from injuries incurred in my accident. This week I've had both.
On Monday I had an appointment with my newest physical therapist for a running assessment. I was really jazzed about this appointment because I foolishly thought having my running "assessed" would mean I would be back on my way to starting a running program, which I haven't been able to maintain in any way, shape or form because of my back injuries. A problem arose when I started having back and hip pain on Thursday, which I alerted my PT to and subsquently cancelled my appointment because of, last week. I was still having problems on Monday, but my PT, seemed unperturbed about it and when I showed up on Monday said she wanted me to continue anyways. I foolishly ignored my better judgement and experience in this area and decided to trust her judgement and go along with the assesment anyways.
So, I got on the treadmill, as instructed, and walked and, later ran. And, other than being completely disconcerted by the fact that I had two women totally staring at my ass and "evalutating" me as I trotted along, things went okay. I was even impressed by my ability to run for several minutes on end and not really get winded at all. Not bad for a three year break (more or less).
The thing that seems to set me off, almost without fail, is when I have any sort of appointment relating to my lawsuit or any pain that resulted from injuries incurred in my accident. This week I've had both.
On Monday I had an appointment with my newest physical therapist for a running assessment. I was really jazzed about this appointment because I foolishly thought having my running "assessed" would mean I would be back on my way to starting a running program, which I haven't been able to maintain in any way, shape or form because of my back injuries. A problem arose when I started having back and hip pain on Thursday, which I alerted my PT to and subsquently cancelled my appointment because of, last week. I was still having problems on Monday, but my PT, seemed unperturbed about it and when I showed up on Monday said she wanted me to continue anyways. I foolishly ignored my better judgement and experience in this area and decided to trust her judgement and go along with the assesment anyways.
So, I got on the treadmill, as instructed, and walked and, later ran. And, other than being completely disconcerted by the fact that I had two women totally staring at my ass and "evalutating" me as I trotted along, things went okay. I was even impressed by my ability to run for several minutes on end and not really get winded at all. Not bad for a three year break (more or less).
What unfolded after my run was what irritated the hell out of me. After I had finished running they basically told me my form was all wrong--I was compensating for tension in my hip and a bad achilles in my left heel. Then, I got down on the floor and proceeded to completely fuck up the exercises I had been shown a week and a half before. I had on a moderate amount of control over my right hip flexors and was totally doing an exercise incorrectly.
Now, I've had bouts of pain worse than this most recent episode before. The incredibley frustrating thing about this appointment was my PT kept looking at the other woman who was clearly more experienced and was acting in what I can only assume to be a supervisory role, and saying "She was so much more stable and controlled last time...." In fact, I bet she repeated this, face flushed and clearly irritated at me (?!), half a dozen times in the 45 minutes I was there. We ended the session with her uttering this phrase again to me, very quickly running through the exercises I had been messing up and rushing me out the door.
I was pissed off. I felt like this woman had wronged me in two very real ways: a) she gave me some seriously false hope which led to a great deal of frustration on my part when it didn't work out the way we had hoped and b) she had the gall to get irritated at me when I was the one in pain. How messed up is that? Now, I realize I may have made her look silly in front of her boss, but for Christ's sake, I didn't do it intentionally and in the grand scheme of things, my on-going back pain is far more serious than her looking a little like a jackass in front of someone she wanted to impress.
I've talked about this before with my friends and family but I don't think any one--not one single fucking person reading this blog right now--can understand how frustrating, disheartening and absolutely maddening is it for me to continue to have health problems as a result of my accident. I was explaining this to the Scientist a couple days ago. I said that I often times divide my adult life into two distinct periods: the life pre-accident and then my life post-accident. Not even Peace Corps has had a big of an effect on how I conduct myself and live my life on a day-to-day basis as those 10 seconds three years ago. My accident was as much a part of my Peace Corps experience as being single and female was: it is a part of me now. And that really fucking sucks.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
'Napolis is the bomb
I think I may be in love with Minneapolis.
In fact, so many great things happened both before and during my trip to Minneapolis I'm not quite sure where to start. I guess I could do something lame like make a list, but that would be a poor excuse for a blog entry and entirely inappropriate given the wonderful time I had. No, instead I'll embark on a too-long synopsis of my 4 day trip to 'Napolis.
The impetus for my trip was a silent auction. Unless you're dead or have been completely tuning me out for the last, oh, 5 years or so, you know I spent some time in Ukraine as a Peace Corps volunteer, and over the course of that I time I became entangled in various camps, seminars, committees and projects.
One of the two most productive projects I worked on was a camp organized by my amazing friends Rosa and Wendy. I had the incredible good fortune of living only three hours north of the town they served in, Nikolaev (that would be Mykoliav in Ukrainian), and over the course of the two years I served in Ukraine was coaxed into working on ennumberable projects they thought up. The most consuming of those projects was the regrettably named Camp ABC (American Borsht Camp--the campers came up with the name, not us, and I cringed every time I heard it last year).
Camp ABC was by far the most rewarding (if not the most exhausting) project I participated in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. For two weeks I taught civics and writing to about 50 teachers and students between the ages of 15-22. I felt like, for once, I was having an impact on the students and was facilitating meaningful cross-cultural dialogue as opposed to forcing the students to talk. We, the volunteers, also had the amazingly good fortune to work with a fabulous group of Ukrainian college kids who acted as counselors and teaching assistants.
After last year's smashing success of Camp ABC, Rosa and Wendy decided to expand the camp internationally and try and attract students from all over Europe and the U.S. As it stands right now we have applicants from Armenia, Georgia, Macedonia, Albania, Belorus and the U.S. planning on attending....Rosa/Wendy also made the executive decision to change the name of the camp to International Outreach Camp (IOC). Thank God.
Of course, with the expansion for the camp came the need for more money. So, in addition to having everyone involved apply for any and every possible grant that we had even a remote chance of receiving, Rosa started appealing to Minneapolis based businesses for services that we could auction off in a silent auction. And boy did she get some cool stuff!
So, on Monday, Rosa and I spent all day running around getting stuff organized and hauling items from one place to another. While I wouldn't describe it as "fun", it was really nice to spend some quality time with Rosa, as well as feel like I'm still contributing to the camp.
Things went well. We didn't end up raising as much money as we had hoped given all the things we had to auction off, but we were still successful overall. I also ended up with an awesome new bag and a Russian doll from Baltic Imports in Minneapolis--all for only $29! Not bad. Plus, I spent my money knowing it was going to an excellent cause.
Tuesday, my mom and I went to the Mall of America were I proceeded to spend a buttload of money. I'm usually very hesitant to spend money on myself, but I desperately needed sandals and shirts (not to mention those little foamy things that go over my iPod earbuds--I keep losing them). That, andI have miraculously mangaged to hold onto the majority of my readjustment allowance.
In fact, so many great things happened both before and during my trip to Minneapolis I'm not quite sure where to start. I guess I could do something lame like make a list, but that would be a poor excuse for a blog entry and entirely inappropriate given the wonderful time I had. No, instead I'll embark on a too-long synopsis of my 4 day trip to 'Napolis.
The impetus for my trip was a silent auction. Unless you're dead or have been completely tuning me out for the last, oh, 5 years or so, you know I spent some time in Ukraine as a Peace Corps volunteer, and over the course of that I time I became entangled in various camps, seminars, committees and projects.
One of the two most productive projects I worked on was a camp organized by my amazing friends Rosa and Wendy. I had the incredible good fortune of living only three hours north of the town they served in, Nikolaev (that would be Mykoliav in Ukrainian), and over the course of the two years I served in Ukraine was coaxed into working on ennumberable projects they thought up. The most consuming of those projects was the regrettably named Camp ABC (American Borsht Camp--the campers came up with the name, not us, and I cringed every time I heard it last year).
Camp ABC was by far the most rewarding (if not the most exhausting) project I participated in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. For two weeks I taught civics and writing to about 50 teachers and students between the ages of 15-22. I felt like, for once, I was having an impact on the students and was facilitating meaningful cross-cultural dialogue as opposed to forcing the students to talk. We, the volunteers, also had the amazingly good fortune to work with a fabulous group of Ukrainian college kids who acted as counselors and teaching assistants.
After last year's smashing success of Camp ABC, Rosa and Wendy decided to expand the camp internationally and try and attract students from all over Europe and the U.S. As it stands right now we have applicants from Armenia, Georgia, Macedonia, Albania, Belorus and the U.S. planning on attending....Rosa/Wendy also made the executive decision to change the name of the camp to International Outreach Camp (IOC). Thank God.
Of course, with the expansion for the camp came the need for more money. So, in addition to having everyone involved apply for any and every possible grant that we had even a remote chance of receiving, Rosa started appealing to Minneapolis based businesses for services that we could auction off in a silent auction. And boy did she get some cool stuff!
So, on Monday, Rosa and I spent all day running around getting stuff organized and hauling items from one place to another. While I wouldn't describe it as "fun", it was really nice to spend some quality time with Rosa, as well as feel like I'm still contributing to the camp.
Things went well. We didn't end up raising as much money as we had hoped given all the things we had to auction off, but we were still successful overall. I also ended up with an awesome new bag and a Russian doll from Baltic Imports in Minneapolis--all for only $29! Not bad. Plus, I spent my money knowing it was going to an excellent cause.
Tuesday, my mom and I went to the Mall of America were I proceeded to spend a buttload of money. I'm usually very hesitant to spend money on myself, but I desperately needed sandals and shirts (not to mention those little foamy things that go over my iPod earbuds--I keep losing them). That, andI have miraculously mangaged to hold onto the majority of my readjustment allowance.
Wednesday, my mom and I went back to the mall, shopped a little more and then headed to the University of Minnesota campus where I had an appointment with a professor at the School of Public Health. It was, when all was said and done, a productive appointment. In all honesty, though, I guess thought I would be meeting with someone from the department that had more clout as far as my impending admittance to the Public Health Administration and Policy program was concerned. The gentleman I met with at the SPH is the director of a certificate program I'm interested in pursuing at U of M, not a member of the admittance committee. Nevertheless, he was duly impressed with my Peace Corps experience and seemed excited about having someone who was interested in doing HIV/AIDS work in Eastern Europe. If I'm accepted into the program I will be the only person doing any work/research in Eastern Europe. I guess that would make me a trail blazer.
The last exciting thing that happened while I was in Minneapolis came in the form of an e-mail from the Peace Corps Washington office. It appears as though I am, in fact, qualified for the recruiter position and my file has been approved and forwarded on to the Peace Corps Minneapolis office. That means I have to basically continue waiting in the vain hope that someone in the Peace Corps Minneapolis office will contact me for a interview. I'm really trying not to get excited, seeing as how even if I DO get a call from the Minneapolis office and do go to said interview, I still won't get the job. Hey, if being negative and refusing to believe I will be offered this job has worked well thus far, why start being up-beat and hopeful now?
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