Yes, WE can!

I must admit that living and studying abroad for the past year I have become painfully aware of the bad reputation Americans have in other countries, even in England. When I tell people I am an American studying Conflict Resolution many laugh and say "You all need to study that!" Even though I know the policies of our current administration do not represent all of us, sadly, I can admit that I have felt ashamed to be an American.

After eight years of feeling powerless and voiceless in my own country, November 4th marked the day of my renewed faith in my fellow citizens, democracy, and my hope for the future. I have never felt so excited about and inspired by a politician in my life. It's this feeling in the pit of my stomach which I cannot describe; of excitement and optimism for the future of our country and the world. I am now so excited to get back to the US and I can indeed say to everyone: I'm proud to be an American. Anything is possible! Yes WE can!

OK, now for the update! It's been a long, long time since I've updated this blog and a lot has happened! First of all, I finished my internship in Germany at the end of August. It was a long and challenging few months, but in the end I learned so much and it was a very positive experience. And it looks like I will be published (assistant editor) by next year!

When I got back to England I had a wonderful quick visit from my sister and brother in law and then had to dive right back into my studies by working on my dissertation proposal. I've decided to write my dissertation about the implementation of peace settlements in ethnically divided societies. I will more specifically look at the settlements in Macedonia and Kosovo. It's an interesting topic and I am excited about exploring these issues more in depth. I've now started writing my dissertation and I must admit it is a little more slow going than I had hoped. :( Due to financial reasons (Cat transportation, to name one) I started a part time job at a cafe. Although it has played a large role in my cultural orientation to England and Yorkshire, it has also taken up a lot of my time! Also, Gardijan had the chance to visit his family in Macedonia in September, which was really nice for him to see them one last time before he leaves Europe.


In October, to celebrate my birthday, Gardijan took me to my home away from home, IRELAND! We just stayed for a couple days, but it was so wonderful to be back. It really felt like home to be back in Ireland. I was so happy. It is one place that will always hold a special place in my heart and I hope to go back again and again in the future - after I win the lottery! :) I've put a few pictures of the trip.



Shortly after getting back from Ireland I had to start planning for our large Rotary seminar, which this year was called the Bill Huntley seminar. It was held on November 1 and each of us fellows at Bradford had to give a 10 minute presentation about our experience and research to an audience of 100+. I spoke a bit about who has influenced me, my experience in Macedonia and my current dissertation research. After being extremely nervous for two weeks, it actually went really well and I received great feedback from the audience. What a huge relief it is done!


And now here I am. In terms of future plans, I will submit my dissertation on December 12th. Gardijan, Mila and I plan to return to Boston in mid-December (December 17th to be exact). It looks like Gardijan will get his job back, which is a huge relief. I'm still busily applying to jobs with not much luck yet. I'm a bit nervous but confident I can find something once I get there. We have an apartment to sublet in Chelsea, so we're excited about that! I'm so excited to get back and celebrate the holidays with my family.

Any way, I think that is the update for now! I just want to say thanks to everyone (Friends, Family and Rotarians!) for all of the support over the last year. We couldn't have done it without you! I'll try to update this one more time before we depart. Until then....

Fjords, Flensburger, Fitness, Football and Conflict?!

I'm currently on a brief visit to the UK to see Gardijan and Mila and thought I'd post a quick update on life in Germany!

I arrived on June 1, and so far things have been going well. Flensburg is a beautiful city (well, feels more like a town) in the North of Germany and is very close to the Danish border. The city itself is on a fjord, which gives the city a "nautical" feel. There is a large picturesque pedestrian area in the center with little alleyways which lead to cobblestoned courtyards with restaurants and shops. What a pretty city! I'm living in ECMI's intern apartment which is located in a residential area about a 15 minute bus ride from the center and just a 10 minute walk from the ocean.

The organization I am working for is called the European Center for Minority Issues (ECMI) which actually was founded by both the Danish and German governments in response to the large minority Danish population living here. ECMI now works all over Europe on minority issues. It is primarily a research organization, but they do have field offices in Georgia and Kosovo and are implementing projects in those countries. I have recently been assigned to assist with a publication that deals with ethnic conflict settlements. My responsibilities are to research and compile ethnic conflict settlement documents for certain countries and then write a one-page summary about each country/conflict. I've been given the title of assistant editor on the publication, so that is quite neat! It's looking like it will be a lot of work, so I think this will consume the majority of my time until I leave at the end of August. I will definitely learn a lot!

Besides working there isn't too much else I do here! I joined a gym, so I'm trying to work out as much as possible. I've also been fortunate enough to arrive during the Euro football championship, so I've spent some nights sitting outside at a local cafe and watching the games on the big screen with some new friends I've met. Flensburg is proud to have a local beer called, surprisingly enough, Flensburger, which I've sampled during the occasional football game. Overall, life is pretty good in Flensburg. :) I've put some pictures below with descriptions. I think I will sign out now, but will try to post another update in the next month or so! Send me e-mails when you have a chance! :)

The beach near my apartment

My bedroom at the apartment

My desk at ECMI

The water view from my desk window

The ECMI office


Out watching a football match


A church right near the office


Another building near the office

A boat in the harbor that just celebrated its 100 year birthday


A Danish minority celebration and parade in Flensburg

Off to Germany....

24 hours and counting! I'm flying to Germany Sunday night and I am just about packed. I have mixed emotions as I know this will be a great experience for me, but at the same time I'm going to miss Gardijan and Mila tremendously. Fortunately, I already have a ticket booked to visit them on the July 4th weekend. I'm sure the summer will fly by!


I've just recently returned from a great trip to Vermont which included at lot of family, fishing and micro brew drinking! It was a wonderful trip. I will try to post pictures next time I post on here.


Last week I handed in my last paper of the semester, which was a great feeling. I can't believe the only thing I have left to do is a 40-page dissertation and I will have my Master's! Very exciting!


I better get back to packing. I will be sure to post again once I've settled in to life in Flensburg. Until then!

Gardijan Turns a Quarter of a Century and other "bits and bobs"!

Hi all - I guess it is time to update the 'ole blog again!

Gardijan's Birthday

The most important news is that Gardijan turned 25 on April 6th! To celebrate we had a few people over the night before for a BBQ - which is nearly impossible with unpredictable British weather but we made it work. :) Below are a few pictures from the evening...

The Lake District

I had the opportunity to take a day trip to the beautiful Lake District of England and it was quite breathtaking! I tried to capture some of its beauty on the camera, but I do not think the pictures do it justice. Here they are any way...

Germany or Bust!

So, it turns out after much deliberating I have decided to do my internship this summer in Flensburg, Germany with the European Centre for Minority Issues. Flensburg is near the Danish border and looks like quite a cute little town. I've put a picture to the right to entice you to come and visit since none of you have yet to visit us in the UK! I decided to back out of the UN internship in Cyprus because I decided it would cost too much money and would be too far away from Gardijan and Mila who will be staying in the UK over the summer months. I'm still quite sad to be missing out on an opportunity with the UN, but I think this one will work out just fine. I will start the internship on June 2nd and finish in late August.

Hmm, what else is new? It turns out I will be going to Vermont sooner than I thought! I will be there on April 28th and will stay for a couple weeks, so I hope to see some of you there! Gardijan will stay in the UK with Mila but he will be taking his own 5-day trip to Germany to attend a family wedding at the end of April. Fun stuff!

And, finally, my semester at Bradford is just about done! Two more papers to write and my coursework will be done. After that I'll only have to write a 40 page dissertation and I'll be finished. If only a 40-pager were that easy. :) Any way, I suppose that is it for the update for now. I hope to see some of you in Vermont in the coming weeks - otherwise the rest of you better come to Flensburg to visit this summer! More later....

Paris, je t'aime!

I cannot believe I waited this long to go to Paris. What an amazing and beautiful place. Around every corner another beautiful building, amazing museum or cute, old cobblestone street. I'm in love with the city of Paris.

Well, words do not do it justice, so here is a sampling of pictures from our trip:

Us at the Basilique du Sacré Coeur, in the Montmartre area of Paris. It was our first day in Paris, the sun was shining, people were out and we all sat on these stairs looking over all of Paris and listening to some people play guitar and sing Bob Marley and Beatles classics. It's a moment I'll never forget.

Another picture of Gardijan in the Montmartre area.

Me after a long walk up a steep street in the Montmartre area!

A final picture of the Montmartre area. Can you tell this was one of our favorite places!

Out at a cafe for the evening

At the Arc de Triomphe

A view from a bridge on the river Seine

We took a "Batobus" tour on the river, which was really nice.

Notre Dame - simply beautiful...

The Latin quarter


Of course we needed a picture of us at the Eiffel Tower! :)

C'est Magnifique!

The Louvre

A painting in the Louvre which I thought was relevant, being a peace studies student. :)

We had a wonderful 4 days in Paris and hope to go back some day. If you are reading this and you have not been - go now! :)

Tomorrow I will go to the Lake District for the day. After that the fun will end and I will settle in to write my first paper for the semester. I will plan to write again soon!

Cyprus....or bust?

It's amazing how quickly this semester is flying by! I literally only have about a month of classes left and a few papers before I am done with my coursework! Then I will go somewhere during the summer months to conduct my Applied Field Experience (AFE) and then I will return to the UK to write my dissertation from September to December. Before I know it, we will be leaving England!

(By the way, here is a picture of Mila looking cute in our flat! :)

Speaking of AFE's, I have begun applying to internships for the summer. One would think that NGO's and institutions like the UN would be jumping at the opportunity to receive "free work" from a highly qualified Master's student, but that isn't the case! Myself and my fellow Rotary fellows have been applying to many organizations for the past several months without much luck at all! BUT - miraculously I did apply to one internship with the UNDP (United Nations Development Program) in Cyprus and I got a response! They are interested in having me intern this summer (working on their peacebuilding and conflict prevention program) and we are currently negotiating, but I haven't signed anything yet, so I will not get too excited. After speaking with several friends and professors it sounds like this is an amazing opportunity that I can't pass up - so say a little prayer for me that it works out! The difficult part about Cyprus is that it could be challenging to get Mila and Gardijan there - because of Mila's passport issues and because Gardijan would not be able to work there. It is highly likely that we will keep our apartment in Shipley over the summer and Gardijan and Mila will stay there for the summer while I do my internship. :(

I am also having to start thinking about what I am going to write my dissertation (my final large research paper) on. I still haven't got a clue what it will specifically be about but I would like to focus on peacebuilding, so perhaps if I end up in Cyprus I can look at grassroots peacebuilding there. I have until September to figure out the topic, so no rush!

I currently have two weeks off from University for "Easter break." It's amazing how much time we get off from school! So, Gardijan and I are going to Paris in a couple days! We found another cheap flight (thank you Jet2.com!) and will go from Wednesday to Sunday of this week! We have never been to Paris before so I am getting quite excited. I will be sure to post pictures on here next week when we get back. Also, two days after I get back I will take a day trip to the Lake District in England! A Rotary member in my Host Rotary Club has offered to take myself and one other person (possibly Gardijan if he can get the day off) for a day of driving around and seeing the Lake District. It is supposedly the most beautiful part of England and is only a two hour drive from here. I'll also be sure to post pictures of that on here next week!

Speaking of pictures, I took a few pictures around Shipley yesterday, so people could see what our town looks like. They are below with descriptions. Watch for a post from me later next week with lots of pictures from Paris and the Lake District! Take Care! :)

A Church right next to our flat in Shipley

Another church which dominates the Shipley skyline


The Public Bath house erected in 1906 - now a furniture shop.

A new sheep statue just put up in Shipley center. We are very close to the Yorkshire Dales which has more sheep than people, so perhaps this is an ode to the sheep!

Gardijan at our local "Beer and a Burger for 4.50" joint in Shipley.

Me at the same joint enjoying a Guinness for St. Patrick's Day! :) Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone!

Germany and Belgium....Roma Style!

Gardijan and I made a last minute decision to visit his various family members in Germany and Belgium after we found an extremely cheap flight to Dusseldorf, Germany. Thank goodness for Jet2.com! :) We went at the end of February for a week (I had a week off from school!).

We spent our first night outside of Dusseldorf with Gardijan's father's cousin. Gardijan hadn't seen them since he was a child, so it was interesting to try to find them at the airport! They were a really nice family and even offered to drive us to Antwerp, Belgium the next day to visit Gardijan's uncle.

The two hour drive from Dusseldorf to Antwerp was fairly uneventful. We drove through parts of Holland and Belgium and it was all flat and kind of boring looking. Not much different than driving on any highway in the US, I guess. The most interesting part of the drive was the various trance and techno music one of our hosts in the front seat subjected us to throughout the ride!

When we arrived in Antwerp and went to Gardijan's uncle's place it felt like we had arrived in Shutka in Macedonia! As soon as most of his family members (aunt, uncle, three cousins, cousin's wife, and cousin's two children) slowly trickled in from work the Roma music blasted, we ate Macedonian Roma food and we watched Roma wedding videos. Belgium....Roma style! We spent the rest of the night drinking, eating and talking - it was great. (See picture above).

The next day Gardijan's cousin Sudo came home early from work and offered to show us around Antwerp for part of the day. We took the bus to the center of the city and I was pleasantly surprised - it's quite a cute city and not so boring! We walked around, had coffee in a new mall, walked some more, ate extremely yummy Lebanese food (see picture to the right), perused the many shady jewelry shops and walked some more. All is all it was a good day. In the evening several more family members who lived close by came over and we spent another night eating and talking.

After spending a good 2.5 days in Belgium we decided it was time to move on as we had several more families to visit in Germany and only half a week left. We took a 6 hour train ride from Antwerp to Minden, Germany where Gardijan's cousin Orhan lives.

The train ride to Minden was long but was quite nice at times. Our first train from Antwerp to some airport in Holland was tense at first. For some reason G and I were sat facing each other in one of those 'four seats and a table' arrangements. Next to me was a lady with a lap dog that was practically sleeping and drooling on me (the dog, not the lady!). Gardijan was not happy because his dog allergies were flaring up. Fortunately we didn't have to be on that train for so long and the dog lady got off eventually. The scenery out the window was nice - we went through Rotterdam and the Hague and I even saw some of those famous traditional style Dutch windmills! We changed to another train which brought us all the way to the center of Germany, in Minden. I realised how much I love taking the train long distances in Europe as long as I have a good window seat and some good music, I could do it for hours and hours and days. I love it.

Orhan picked us up at the train station and brought us to his beautiful house. He bought a run down house several years ago and worked several jobs and spent his spare time fixing up the house. Now it is beautiful and we were impressed! His wife and three children (14, 10 and 5) are also wonderful and we had such a nice first night there we decided to stay two more nights! Unfortunately soon after we got there Germany had begun experiencing some nasty, rainy, windy, tornadoey like weather for the duration of our stay in Minden. I think the weather may have only been a good excuse but it meant we didn't get to see a whole lot of Germany during our time there (except a really nice meat packing plant, a mall and a 5 minute stroll in downtown Minden), but we did get to see a lot of family members' houses! We spent the next couple of days seeing a lot of family that Gardijan had either never met or hadn't seen in years. We drank a lot of coffee and beer, we inhaled a lot of second hand cigarette smoke and we ate a lot of really good home cooked Roma Macedonia food. It was Germany....Roma style! :)

Our second night there Orhan and his wife prepared a feast for us and invited over all of the family for an evening of eating, drinking, singing and dancing. It was a lot of fun and we stayed up until 5 in the morning! The two pictures above are from that evening.

All in all we spent most of our time in Minden, indoors and with various family members. The day before we had to fly home another one of Gardijan's cousins (Ramo) who lives near Dusseldorf drove to Orhan's house to pick us up. We then had a two hour drive to his house and stayed with he, his wife and three children for one night. They were also really great and we had a nice last day with them. We then flew back to Bradford. That is Gardijan and Ramo in Hagen in the picture to the right.

We came back to the UK a week ago now and went straight back to work and school. I'm still working for the professor and have classes twice a week. This semester I'm taking Conflict Resolution 2, Peacebuilding and Reconstruction, and Issues in Development Policy. I'm really enjoying my classes so far. I'm also now starting to think about two really important upcoming things - my dissertation topic and my summer Applied Field Experience (Internship)! I'll try to write more about these in a separate blog entry sometime this week.

More later! :)