My Buddy's 21st Birthday!

Last night was my roommate's birthday, the big 2-1, so we all went out to Zaytinya for dinner.  It's a Greek-Turkish-Lebanese restaurant in Chinatown owned by superstar Chef José Andrés.  He's pretty much the most well-known chef in DC, and he's internationally renowned, as well.  Below is a spot on him from 60 Minutes!  Yes, I watch 60 minutes... I am your grandfather.



If you're not up for watching the piece, it talks about all his innovative creations and how he re-defines foods as we know them, completely re-purposing ingredients we know and love to make something almost revolutionary.  One of the concepts he employs is called "molecular gastronomy"--too much for me to explain, watch the piece or Google it.  But olive oil ice cream, for instance--sounds so weird but it was awesome!  Rose water ice cream, as well.  And that was just dessert.  (Listen to me, JUST dessert.  Oh please, Shireen.)

Additionally, he is an avid supporter of DC Central Kitchen, which feeds the homeless AND trains them as chefs to work in restaurants.  He's originally from Spain, but Andrés now makes DC his home, and he claims he loves it.  I believe it!  

So all around great cause, great guy, and great food.  I was so excited to finally go to one of his restaurants!  I've wanted to for sooooo long--he's kind of an icon.

AND my friend had a lovely birthday, and we loved sharing it with her!

email me: shireens@gwmail.gwu.edu

<3 Shireen

Viaje a Putre, Belen y Lago Chungará

I'm doing a really great job at blogging regularly... (not). Sorry to my anxious readers who are following my moves in Chile! :) And wow I have a lot to catch you all up on.

This past week, my SIT study abroad group traveled east with our program director and program assistant into what is called the "pre-cordillera," meaning basically the foothills of the Andes mountain range. These foothills were also around 12 000 feet of altitude change for all of us. We left Arica in the morning and arrived in Putre late afternoon Tuesday, with several stops along the way in order to acclimate as much as possible. Thankfully, my dad suggested I get some altitude medicine before leaving home, and it came in handy because my symptoms were much less severe than some girls on the trip. Once there, we had some pretty interesting presentations from traditional Aymara medicine men and an Aymara midwife where they showed us the herbs they used and described certain ceremonies they practice. We also toured the local health center and talked to locals about the interaction between Aymara medicine and modern medicine that goes on in Putre and the surrounding areas.

Town of Putre, population around 1 000

Yatiri (Aymara medicine man)

Partera (Aymara traditional birthing assistant) showing how she uncoils the umbilical cord from around a baby's wrist or neck without even touching the mother

After a few days of class in Putre, we continued on to Belen to visit the rural health post where one paramedic attends to the 27 inhabitants of the village and also treats others who come over the border from Bolivia or surrounding camps. The town is so small that we were greeted by a town elder. The town was tiny yet beautifully located with many abandoned houses among the rocky landscape. The school only has 7 students, ranging in age from 5 to 12, and many of the children are Bolivian. We brought them candy (good work, public health program) yet didn't feel too bad because they only get it from our visits- otherwise all the food they eat is locally produced. That afternoon, in another small town on the way back to Putre for the night, we had a typical Aymara lunch where they cook the food underground. We were stuffed to the brim with lamb, corn, and potatoes by the time we left and everyone napped on the way back to the hotel.

7 person school in Belen, town population is around 27 (!!!)

Unearthing a traditional Aymara feast of lamb, pastel de choclo (corn paste cooked in its husk), and potatoes

After a surprisingly great sleep at altitude, we traveled even further into thin air to 14 764 feet to Lago Chungará in Parque Nacional Lauca. I kid you not. It was impossible to walk quickly, jump, and make sudden movements (yet of course we tried, who doesn't want a jumping picture next to one of the highest lakes in the world?). It was amazingly beautiful and fun to finally sightsee. That afternoon, we also stopped for lunch and a swim at a hot springs. There were several pools with mud floors and one bigger concrete pool pictured below. We headed back to Arica after lounging around in the sun and the warm water!

Parinacota Volcano, Lago Chungará, and my roommates for November!

Termas Jurasi (hot springs)

Overall, it was a really amazing first trip with the program and I am excited for our adventure next week to Tacna, Peru!
As always, email me at marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu
- Marisa

Book Festival!

I never get a chance to go to the Library of Congress National Book Festival.  Except this year... but I wasn't able to stay for long.  So I STILL didn't get to see any of the cool panels or get any books signed by awesome people!!!

Two of my favorite modern authors were there: Toni Morrison (though I *did* see her like, 4 days ago when she came to campus) and Sarah Vowell, who writes books on history in a really quirky and funny manner.  You may have seen her on The Daily Show, or as the kid in The Incredibles.  Yeah, she did the voice for that--she's really cool.

But I didn't get to see either of them, because I'm an idiot and didn't budget my time!  They were both there Saturday and I went Sunday, and I only gave myself 2 hours to spend there so I didn't get to do much.  I'm a jerk.  Welcome to my self-loathing blog.

Moral of the story:  GO TO THE NATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL.  But even more: FIND OUT WHO IS SPEAKING AND WHEN.  and then GO WHEN COOL PEOPLE ARE SPEAKING.  And you won't hate yourself as much as I do right now... in fact, you'll be very satisfied with your planning and time management skills.

Heed my warnings, folks.  They're real.  Coming from a true source of wisdom.

Email me and chastise me for not taking advantage of the LOC National Book Fest: shireens@gwmail.gwu.edu

<3 Shireen

Busy, Busy Weekends

At this very moment, I feel like a zombie. And I probably look like one too. Why you ask? Let me explain the last two weekends. First, last weekend, my team and I were in San Diego for the San Diego Volleyball Tournament, which meant we left on Thursday morning after practice and returned on the red eye flight Sunday morning at 9am. It was probably the fastest weekend of my life. We were either traveling (by plane or vans), playing volleyball, eating, or trying to catch up on sleep. Unfortunately, in California, our undefeated streak ended at 10. But we are learning from those losses, so while it sucks, we are trying to make something good come out of it. You might wonder why we took a red eye flight to return back in D.C. early Sunday morning instead of waiting until later. Well, we had an event waiting for us back on campus. Our new athletic director planned for the entire student-athlete community, a student athlete leadership retreat. I will do a separate post on that in a few days.

our hotel in San Diego

creepy doll picture that was in every room

Now this weekend, we are traveling on the road again, but this time for the beginning of the A10 conference season! We are playing Duquesne and St. Louis, which means that we bus from D.C. to Pittsburgh, then from Pittsburgh to St. Louis with a stop overnight in Springfield, Ohio. Then, on Sunday, we will be flying back to D.C. and arriving back on campus after midnight. I am actually currently on the bus as I type traveling to St. Louis. I love traveling on buses so much more than our vans that we take to local games/tournaments. Mainly because there is so much more space, meaning you can sleep, and also since we can watch movies (we watched the Proposal on Thursday’s drive).

driving through Ohio- looks exciting....

bus ride!

Now, you can probably understand why I look and feel like a zombie. Lots of travel, volleyball, and homework (I had 3 papers due and my first exam this past week). Well, I’m going to attempt to take a nap for the remainder of the drive then catch up on some homework.

Feel free to email me with any questions! cbgraf@gwmail.gwu.edu

-Christie

Choice USA Generation 2 Generation Awards

Last night, my roommate (also my Voices for Choices VP) and I went to the Gen2Gen Celebration for ChoiceUSA.  This weekend is their annual conference in DC, and the weekend-long affair kicked off last night at K Street Lounge with an award ceremony featuring Gloria Steinem!

I know... I'm pretty lucky to have seen Toni Morrison and Gloria Steinem ALL IN ONE WEEK!  And within only a few days of each other!  Eek!

Obviously, as VFC President I'm all about pro-choice advocacy, but I haven't had a lot of opportunities to schmooze with others in the field.  Last night was my first exposure to that world, and I'm super excited to immerse myself in it even more!  I was told by my liaison with Planned Parenthood that we've got exciting things in store for the campus PP groups--can't wait!

So it was a really cool event with a whole lotta awesome pro-choicers and members of the sexual advocacy community.  I also got to meet with Georgetown's H*yas for Choice, and we started the planning process for a DC University-wide event, so be on the lookout for that!

The event will include the entertainer at last night's happy hour celebration, a spoken word artist based in DC named Sonya Renee.  She was really good, we all got chills from some of her poems--so we really want to have an event with her!   It would probably be at a venue in or around Dupont Circle, so we can get a steady audience from GW, Georgetown, and AU as well.  Let me know your thoughts on that!

Email me!  shireens@gwmail.gwu.edu

<3 Shireen

TONI MORRISON.

I cannot describe how much I love Toni Morrison and her books.  I've read Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, and Beloved twice each, as well as a few of her others.  I just love her style of writing, the subject matter, and the characters, and today, on Toni Morrison Day (as announced by the DC government!), I got to see her for the SECOND time!  Once was enough of an honor, but now TWICE?!  Too good to be true.

Here she is!  What a lady.

But alas, it is true!  As a result of the efforts of my former professor and another highly-regarded writer, Evelyn Schreiber, Professor Morrison came to Lisner Auditorium last night to read from her latest work, A Mercy, and give a brief snippet of the piece she's currently working on, entitled Home.  When she revealed the title, the entire audience responded with a resounding "hooomeee..." as if on cue.  It was really cool that we all just did that without thinking--and after realizing it, we all laughed at ourselves.  Toni just does that to you.  She's the bomb.

Needless to say, my heart was aflutter the entire time, and I hung onto every single word as if she was explaining the meaning of life.  She was also REALLY funny!  The first time I saw her was a few years ago in high school, and she was kind of stoic and not as chatty, I was a bit intimidated.  This time, she was so relatable and just full of laughter and kindness!  She even dragged out the Q&A section a bit longer to accommodate eager questioners.

All in all, tonight was fantastic.  When you visit GW, go see the bench dedicated as part of her Bench by the Road Project.  It's a lasting testament to the abominations of slavery as well as the total awesomeness of Toni Morrison.

Not often you see slavery and total awesomeness in one sentence, eh?  That's what Toni provides.  Go read Song of Solomon NOW!

Email me with any info your heart desires!  Unless it's hating on Toni.  shireens@gwmail.gwu.edu

<3Shireen

Another Conference, Hopefully You're Not Tired of All These--I know I'm not!

I seem to be going to a conference a week for work, and it's awesome!  Today's was about Islamic Finance law and policy, and it took place in the GW law school, so I didn't have to go far, which was nice!  Also, it was catered by corner bakery, which I love!  I had to fight myself not to grab like, 18 sugar cookies.

But back to the conference:  I met a lot of fancy people, most of which traveled rather far to attend.  And I swapped business cards with people!  Yay for networking!  It would be a lot more helpful if I was actually a business-inclined person, but hey, why not?  They were all talking about finance and risk-sharing and more business jargon and so much of it went over my head.  Then they got to the Islam side and I totally knew what they were talking about--finally.

The deal with Islamic Finance, in layman's terms, is that asking for or paying interest is against Shari'a law.  It's also not kosher in Talmudic tradition and in Christian teachings.  (haha didn't even mean to pun "not kosher"... I say that a lot).  SO these companies and organizations have to find ways around loans, mortgages, and other finance stuff that doesn't deal in interest.  And that was really interesting!  Actually!  Even when they started talking dollars and cents and using business talk!

So while this isn't my principle interest in life, it definitely broadened my horizons and opened up a lot of new opportunities for me!  It's something I'd definitely like to learn more about and do some of my own research on.

Send an email with whatever you'd like!  shireens@gwmail.gwu.edu

<3 Shireen

GW Law School Fair 2011

Howdy guys!!!

Although Monday's are probably one of my busiest days of classes, I found way to make it to GW's Second Annual Law School Fair. It was an absolutely amazing event that I was able to cover in two one-hour sessions between my Youth & Delinquency class and Chemistry evening class. Over 120 law schools were in attendance, even including 17 of the top 20 law schools (which by the way includes GW law) Look for yourself : http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/law-rankings

Go to GW?

The tables covered the entire floor of the Charles E. Smith Center, GW's main indoor sports arena right in the heart of campus if you haven't heard Christie or me mention it before. Some of the tables I checked out were the University of Alabama Law, Michigan State Law, UC Irvine Law, Yale Law, Columbia Law, William & Mary Law, The University of Texas School of Law, NYU Law, George Mason Law, Georgetown Law, Vanderbilt Law, The University of Maryland Law, Cornell Law, Santa Clara Law and last but certainly not least The George Washington University School of Law. I was very impressed with all the information I gathered on these schools as a sophomore in college and have a great knowledge of the opportunities available to me both locally and nationally as I go to these events and see the schools that are anxious to get GW graduates.

This is an amazing opportunity for GW students as it was held on our campus and attended by not only GW students, but other local college students and even local DC workers looking to go back to college. It was amazing to have this resource available to me all afternoon and speaks to the life of a GW student- going to career or professional school fairs between classes.

As always, please feel more than welcome to ask me any questions and I am thoroughly enjoying those of you I am currently assisting. Keep your grades up, stay involved and work on those essays!

Peace, Love and Hippos,

Brandon
brmoore@gwmail.gwu.edu

Conference at The New American Foundation

Today at work, I was sent out to a conference at The New America Foundation.  It was entitled Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against Al-Qaeda.  The speakers were Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, co-authors of a book sharing that title and NY Times correspondents on national security.

It was a really interesting discussion and very relevant to my studies, though not so much to my current job... it's aiight though.  I got to leave the office for a bit (and go directly across the street, haha)  But as you may have noticed in past posts of mine, I really like events with cool DC people and big wigs. 

Here's a video from the discussion:

Video streaming by Ustream

Cool, huh?  And guess who's back-of-the-head is right in the middle of the screen, there.  Mine!  So yeah.  Pretty cool indeed.

As always, shoot me an email at: shireens@gwmail.gwu.edu

~~~Shireen

¡El 18 de septiembre- fiestas patrias!

We are gearing up here in Chile to celebrate national independence day, the 18th of september! Today, I don't have class and Monday is a national holiday so Chileans take this opportunity to celebrate all weekend long. It's amazing how proud Chileans are of their country- in every stand, store, and home, there are decorations with the flag and flag colors. It's hilarious to me that the U.S. and Chile share red, white, and blue as their flag colors so I feel very patriotic for both countries while sporting these colors around town.

I will be attending several lunch barbecues ("asados") with my family and hopefully going out downtown to see the festival and parade this weekend. Everyone relaxes, eats a lot, and gets together with their family. I am excited to finally meet my host dad who is coming into town for the weekend to spend time with his family. He usually works about 10 hours away so he will be taking a bus here today and returning Monday by bus for work on Tuesday.

Chilean flag on the morro (huge rock hill basically) overlooking downtown

Main street throughout town is named for this holiday!

A typical all meat barbecue (called an "asado")

Chilean mulled wine ("navegado"): red wine, oranges, sugar

Traditional Chilean dance, the cueca

Hope everyone is enjoying the DC weather- I would love to get some more heat down here!

As always, ask me anything! marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu
- Marisa