Good things come to those who wait

Many exciting things have been happening these past few weeks.
First off, I got accepted into graduate school! I'm going to be pursuing a Master's part-time starting in the fall.
I was accepted to George Washington University's Higher Education Administration program with a focus on international ed, but am also in the process of applying to American University's International Training and Education Program. My ultimate goal is to begin working in study abroad at a university or college, or at a foundation working in international academic exchanges. I'd really like to be a study abroad advisor, helping students travel abroad and helping international students acclimate to the US. For me it would be a great combination of things I like: international affairs/relations, counseling/working with people one-on-one, possibly traveling? and working in a university environment (it would feel like home...that's because I grew up in a college town).

Or who knows! Maybe someday I will have my own study abroad program and get to do site visits around the world. :-P We shall see where this fork in the road takes me!

I've been volunteering more and more with Homeward Trails Animal Rescue, working at dog adoption events and meeting transports to get adopted and fostered dogs handed over to their new families. It makes me so happy to see these animals placed in good homes; plus, people are elated when they get to meet the newest member of their family.

Typically the people that would say this don't do any volunteer work themselves, but sometimes I get asked why I would choose to volunteer for an animal-rescue organization, as opposed to volunteering for an orphanage or at a soup kitchen or some other organization that helps people instead of animals (and for the record I have volunteered at organizations that help people).

My mom, who also picks up a lot of stray animals and tries to place them in good homes, has also gotten this remark as well, and my answer is quite simple: it doesn't matter where you give your time, as long as your heart is in it, and as long as you make a difference to someone. The dogs and cats that we rescue are going to bring a lot of joy into their adopter's life, perhaps someone who has never known the kind of unconditional love that an animal is capable of giving. And the animal in turn is going to benefit from having a loving family.

Being more humane towards animals is good for society as a whole. Have you noticed that the most-developed nations typically already have a system in place for animal welfare, whether it is veterinary care, humane societies, ASPCAs, and animal rescues? (it makes sense: you can't begin to address the welfare of animals in a country where the people are dying of hunger).

The HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) doesn't just advocate for cute little furry kittens and puppies. A lot of their work involves preventing cruelty towards farm animals - and after reading Fast Food Nation and Omnivore's Dilemma, and learning about the kind of work HSUS does, I have been much more conscious of the kinds of meat I eat. Did you know for example that grass-fed cows actually only spend two-thirds of their lives out in the pasture and the rest in a feedlot? Apparently "grass-finished" cows are the ones that spend their entire lives living the way cows are meant to live - out in an open pasture, able to roam and graze freely. If I'm going to eat meat, I have to be accepting of the fact that an animal died for my consumption, and as far as I'm concerned that animal should have had the best life possible (not to mention that the meat from happy cows and pigs is probably much better for your health).

But I digress...
I'm also very excited to be going home for Easter. Yes, it's sleepy old Davidson, whose Main Street hasn't changed in 25 years, and where people leave their doors unlocked, but it's very comforting to be home, and I love North Carolina in the springtime. Also, I get to get away from DC drivers for 4 days.

Jacques and I, after almost signing a lease for a new, larger apartment near American University, have decided to stay in our cheaper, smaller place near Georgetown in order to save some cash and (maybe?) buy a place in the area! Prices seem to have gone down a little. Granted, it would probably be a 1-bedroom condo, this is still the DC market we're talking about! Home-ownership, meeee? Who would have thunk it. The first thing I'm doing if and when we move is get a dog and cat!!!

Finally one more exciting piece of news, my dear friend Nathalie from France, who was one of my bridesmaids, is going to be visiting me the week of my birthday in May! I am definitely throwing a party. We're also probably going to the Big Apple for a few days.

Hooray for all these good things. Toodles!

Pretty as a picture

2009

My first moments of 2009 began on the beach in Acapulco nearly getting pummeled in the face by misdirected, poorly-placed green fireworks and then hiding under my napkin. Let's hope that is not an omen for how the rest of the year is going to turn out. In Mexico, as in Spain, they give you twelve grapes on New Year's Eve which you are supposed to eat at midnight, one for each chime of the clock. I decided to forgo that part, not wanting to choke, and I was too busy avoiding the fireworks.

I actually have a very intense fear of them, if I'm too close, and of firecrackers, too. I think it stems from when I was five and in Paris with my parents for the summer. Bastille Day in July 1989, the bicentennial of the start of the French Revolution: there were thousands of people in the streets that night and people were throwing firecrackers on the ground. And then my parents and I had to walk several kilometers back to our apartment late in the night because the metros were filled to capacity. I remember it vividly, probably because I was scared out of my wits!

Anyways, I digress. I actually had a fantastic New Year's Eve this year, although it didn't feel like New Year's Eve because of the balmy weather in Mexico. We were treated to a scrumptious meal on the beach with dancing until 8 am (I keeled over at 4:30, not quite being able to party until sunrise anymore). Most of the songs were Mexican eighties' pop.

We're almost a month into the year and I have yet to write my resolutions. Hmmmm...here are several. I've given a lot of thought to them because 1) I firmly believe your resolutions should be doable and 2) if they're not doable I won't stick to them.

- Invest more in my friendships. They're more stable and have a higher value than the stock market anyways.
- Become the Bill Gates of cooking. This will probably take much longer than one year, but I am taking baby steps.
- Write more to my grandmother.
- Be more patient and less clumsy. I say this to myself every year.
- Finally learn to drive stick-shift and speak Italian. Not necessarily at the same time.
- Get into just the right shape so that my favorite jeans will also become my most comfortable jeans again. My heart will thank me too.
- Be kinder. That is a universal resolution.

Put a ribbon in your hair???

Oh man. Just when I think women have a long way to go to achieving equality, I find something that reminds me how far we've come already! Courtesy of Jezebel (a blog I read voraciously) I found this AWESOME "Good Wife's Guide" from 1955. I'll have to ask hubby how I measure up, considering my culinary masterpiece is Kraft Mac&Cheese!
I particularly like the part about "Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it." And "Let him talk first - remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours." Haha! Click on the image above for the full article.

Bedtime Tunes - Updated Nightly

I have rediscovered the loveliness that is Bedtime Tunes: check it out online for some really mellow ambient/electronica/trip hop/folksy tunes.

In other news, the sky is blue.

Food price crisis and financial crisis present double threat for poor people. Nooooo, really???

Ode to Wine

I am short on inspiration today, so I'm letting Pablo Neruda's words work their magic:

Day-colored wine,
night-colored wine,
wine with purple feet
or wine with topaz blood,
wine,
starry child
of earth,
wine, smooth
as a golden sword,
soft
as lascivious velvet,
wine, spiral-seashelled
and full of wonder,
amorous,
marine;
never has one goblet contained you,
one song, one man,
you are choral, gregarious,
at the least, you must be shared.
At times
you feed on mortal
memories;
your wave carries us
from tomb to tomb,
stonecutter of icy sepulchers,
and we weep
transitory tears;
your
glorious
spring dress
is different,
blood rises through the shoots,
wind incites the day,
nothing is left
of your immutable soul.
Wine
stirs the spring, happiness
bursts through the earth like a plant,
walls crumble,
and rocky cliffs,
chasms close,
as song is born.
A jug of wine, and thou beside me
in the wilderness,
sang the ancient poet.
Let the wine pitcher
add to the kiss of love its own.

My darling, suddenly
the line of your hip
becomes the brimming curve
of the wine goblet,
your breast is the grape cluster,
your nipples are the grapes,
the gleam of spirits lights your hair,
and your navel is a chaste seal
stamped on the vessel of your belly,
your love an inexhaustible
cascade of wine,
light that illuminates my senses,
the earthly splendor of life.

But you are more than love,
the fiery kiss,
the heat of fire,
more than the wine of life;
you are
the community of man,
translucency,
chorus of discipline,
abundance of flowers.
I like on the table,
when we're speaking,
the light of a bottle
of intelligent wine.
Drink it,
and remember in every
drop of gold,
in every topaz glass,
in every purple ladle,
that autumn labored
to fill the vessel with wine;
and in the ritual of his office,
let the simple man remember
to think of the soil and of his duty,
to propagate the canticle of the wine.