Dwight - Redux!

Hey all!

It's that time of year again... yes... it's time for Switzerland!! (insert groan that is as long as necessary depending on the number of times you've heard me mention this!)

After reading an entertaining (for South Dakotans anyway) article online on what distinguishing characteristics make us South Dakotans, I had an interesting idea. It's true! We South Dakotans do know our South Dakota trivial facts and we are proud, even anxious, to graciously gift you with our knowledge of anything that might connect the certain situation, person, joke, story, smell, sight, sound or awkward moment to something "South Dakota!"

Despite our passion, I still don't think people get it. (Or maybe it's the wind.)

So I thought I might appeal to a different sensibility. Since most of my cohort classmates (OK let's be honest, none of them) will ever make it out to South Dakota, let alone Sioux Falls, I thought I would bring the beauty of Sioux Falls to them... Dwight-style.

This is Part 1 of "Dwight around town" where Dwight visits some of my favorite spots in Sioux Falls. To all those native SuFu people, let me know what I missed and I will go take pics! Please do so quickly, though, because I leave on Wednesday.

Enjoy!
Kira

The finger

No... not that finger. The one just on the other side of it but still in the middle. No. not the all important left ring finger in Midwestern, Heartland-of-America culture. It's the one on the right hand. Yes. The ring finger on my right hand.. the unimportant and least valuable finger on my right hand is in a split. I've injured my finger, perplexing my doctor as to how to fix it and making her scratch her head more than I think she'd care to admit, and now it's in a splint.

As I've been typing this I am using my left hand in the proper form on the 'home row' and my pointer and middle finger is doing everything else on the right-hand side of the keyboard. To be honest, my right pointer and middle finger are pretty efficient at the key strokes. Maybe we don't even need 5 fingers. Maybe 3 OR EVEN 4 would suffice for everyday living as the characters of The Simpsons suggest... what... with their daring portrayal of yellow 4-fingered people! This is something to consider. I'm doing just fine with 4 fingers on my right hand... maybe evolution should consider the same.

I'm sooo not serious about this, but I must admit being a nine-fingered woman is much easier than I anticipated. :)

The Sickness

I will not bore you, disgust you or otherwise force you to skim, rather than read, this post by delving into the details of being sick the last few days. Instead, I thought I would enlighten the healthy folk with a few things I've discovered in case you too get the sickness.

Sick Tip:
#1) When others cover their mouth and nose in your presence or in general try to avoid any contact with you, that means you seem to be really sick. Go home.
#2) Don't buy the "Low Sodium Diet" Chicken Noodle Soup. I had no idea what I'd gotten myself into when I purchased this raunchy flavored water with chicken chunks.
#3) Cough Syrup still doesn't work. I've never felt like those syrupy renditions of "cherry" actually stopped a cough - they still don't.
#4) Ibuprofen, tylenol.. whatever works for you (or your doctor recommends) to break the fever - take it! The parts that really suck are the aches and chills that come with the high fever. Plus it's good for you not to be hanging out with a temp in the 100s.

That's it...Stay healthy!

The Exciting Daily Grind!

I have nothing exciting to say.

It's funny how even the mundane seems exciting when you're abroad, and how even the exciting seems mundane when you're back home. Let me illustrate what I mean by this:

Homework
Home: I was at school until 6 tonight correcting tests, and even when I think about it I get bored.
Abroad: I am still working on homework we started in July, and even when I tell other people about it they are excited to hear about it.
Winner - Abroad.

Eating Lunch
Home: A sandwich, some yogurt, and a beautiful view of my desk while correcting papers in the Math TPC.
Abroad: A sandwich, some yogurt, and a beautiful view of the Swiss scenery (you know.. mountains, hay fields, sunflower fields, trees etc..)
Winner: Abroad

Class
Home = In a room with no windows, air conditioning and 30 glorious TI-Nspire calculators.
Abroad = In a room with windows lining two walls, natural air conditioning and access to Facebook.
Winner: Abroad

Yogurt
Home = Comes in a plastic container and is still tasty despite having fewer calories.
Abroad = Comes in a delightful terracotta container and is the tastiest yogurt ever. (with many many calories)
Winner: Abroad

Hmmmm... I think abroad has it.

Although, despite the above evidence proving the superiority of travel, I was really excited when I got home - mundane and all.

Back in the U.S. of A.!

I'm back!

Whew! What a trip! The last 4 weeks have left a huge impression on me, and I hope I can work all of my new ideas into my classes for the fall. It will be an immense amount of work, but I'm really excited about it all!

Soooo... I didn't really write any haiku while I was away. So I figured since I started my trip with a haiku, I will end it with haiku as well. Here you go:


Switzerland haiku:

La Suisse impressions
Espresso, chocolate, yogurt
Eating is my sport


Post-Switzerland haiku:

La Suisse impressions
Espresso, chocolate, yogurt
Running's my new sport

Peace,
Kira

Riiiiiii-cco-laaaaa!!!

I think the subject line speaks for itself, but let me explain anyway.

I got to play an Alpine Horn!

There was no leiderhosen involved, but we were at a Swiss-German tourist trap of a restaurant called Edelweiss where the magic happened. And when I say tourist trap, collect all the ideas you have about tourist trap restaurants and that was Edelweiss Restaurant. Complete with ridiculous uniforms for staff, outrageous prices for a bucket of fondue cheese and giant hordes of tourists invading the restaurant (besides us). There were about 80 people that showed up right after us for dinner (3 bus loads of Japanese tourists), at the same time. It was like we were a poor sandbar on the river just waiting to be obliterated by the incoming flood - of tourists.

At the restaurant we ordered fondue, which was a first for me for two reasons: 1) I'd never had fondue before and 2) I'd never spent that much money on a bucket of cheese before! (It was still good though!)




The best parts about the restaurant? The wicked awesome musicians and their instruments. There were two gentlemen on the stage dressed in the appropriate Swiss-German garb playing the accordion plus some extras like the saw, the cow bells (about 24 cow bells hanging on a rod), the bowl (coins spinning in a bowl), the spoons, the flugel horn, and of course the ALPINE HORN! And yes, I got to play it.. not once but twice!

Who would have thought I'd actually get to check that item off my life-long To Do list?

Peace,
Kira

Take Action

Simple concept.

Organize, inspire and motivate youth to do something good and in turn be a part of something bigger than themselves... together.

We're calling it "Take Action" (for now), and it will run on a website with a new "action" to take each day. When you've completed the action you click "I've Acted" and you get added to the total number of people who have taken action. On the website, people will be able to share their thoughts and experiences via a forum, upload photos and upload videos. There will also be links to resources about why their actions are important (they are related to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals).



Check out the video for a little bit of what we envision this to be.

The Project...

Eureka!

On the list of "To Dos" for my classes here in Geneva, figuring out a project idea was basically THE most gratifying item to check off the list. My parter Ben and I were able to check it off on Wednesday!

Since then we've been busy working on video to present the idea, concept mapping for the web page, goals, a "one-pager" which we can give to potential partners (NGOs that would work with us on the project) and... lots of other things we haven't even thought of yet. However, we couldn't get started on any of this other stuff until we figured out our idea. So I'm thrilled that we have it worked out on paper and people seem excited about it when we tell them what we'll be doing! I'll post our video when it's finished so you can get a sense of what I'll be working on for the next year. It's going to be very cool.

And no... I'm not going to tell you the idea until we finish the video. I'm interested in everyone's opinions, and I think the video is a good way to get the basic idea of what the project is about!

Peace,
Kira

The return of Dwight!

Dwight is back!

Dwight was returned safely on a beautiful Friday night during a big group meal/BBQ! The culprits were my roommate and project partner. I guess it shows you can't trust anyone... when it comes to kidnapping bobbleheads!

(Despite the kidnapping, Dwight is in good spirits. He was enjoying some Nutella shortly after his return!)

Hungry? This is where I eat lunch...

I thought you might like to see my "campus" here in Geneva and where I eat lunch... since lunch is the best class of the day! :)



Or maybe there's another reason lunch is the best part of the day...

Dwightgate: Day 3

As I’ve told you before. Dwight has been kidnapped. Below you can see the media I’ve received as “proof” he’s OK and basically floating somewhere among my fellow cohort members. My investigatory skills have led me to discover some important information about one of the people involved.

More later...

Geneva - it's more than just the landscape

We’ve been really fortunate.

I’m not just saying that because I get to hang out in Geneva, Switzerland and stare out at some of the most beautiful landscape I’ve gotten the chance to gaze upon in my life. I’m talking about all of the people we’ve heard from the last week and a half. Leaders of all sorts of NGOs have come to talk with us, brainstorm with us and listen to us – about how to help affect some positive change in the world. This is pretty cool since a NGO is sort of like a non-profit organization working to better the world. Why are we in Geneva to listen to them? Since the UN Office in Geneva works with human rights, a lot of the NGOs are based here. This is important because what makes an NGO so special is that they have special permission to present documents (in a sense “lobby”) to the UN. So, it’s fairly powerful that we get to meet with these groups.

This program is pretty unique. I will hopefully finish the program completing a project for my Masters that will have made a difference in some small way, and without explaining what my project is right now, let me just say it’s going to be pretty awesome.

All my best to you! I hope you find my updates informational (sometimes) and characteristically “Kira-esque” (all the time) :)

Peace,
Kira

So... Geneva? Why Geneva?

People have been asking me what I am doing in Geneva. Some of what I'm doing in class is easy to explain and some of it is hard, so I will try:

1) We're learning Ruby on Rails which is a web design programming language that we will use in the design of our projects during the next year.

2) Digital video. We've made a couple videos, but we haven't spent as much time on this as we have on #1 and #3.

Speaking of #3...

3) This is the big one. This is the time we spend researching and listening to people who are working on some sort of project that is trying to improve conditions in the world. My final project will have something to do with this Project conceptualizing/speakers/collaboration - this is a lot of why we are here in Geneva. We've spent time hearing from all sorts of people working to change the world for the better in their own ways. We've heard from a man from the UNA in Congo who is working to improve the lives of people in the Congo (trying to prevent malaria by getting people mosquito nets, for example), we heard from the Director of Projects at WFUNA (World Federation of United Nations Associations), the ILO (International Labor Organization), the Loi Gai Project (this refers to people in prisons in China... there are some really horrible things happening there), tomorrow we will hear from the International Red Cross, and we've heard from some others as well... anyway. We've spent a lot of our time here on this part, but that's because it's the hardest part. I'm not totally sure what my project is going to look like yet, but I'm getting there...

Does this clear up, ever so slightly, what I'm doing here? Basically. We're learning the skills we will need in order to use technology to educate/advocate others/students about global issues. Or maybe I'm just here to hang out in Switzerland for three weeks! :)

I hope you are all well! Let me know if you have questions..

Peace,
Kira

DwightGate: Day 2

Update: Dwight has been spotted. Where he is being held, I still do not know.

I'll keep you posted.

kc

Attack of the Weevil

Fear was ripe in the classroom last Thursday night when we were attacked by a 4-inch long weevil. (I measured it. You know I did.) Here’s the story from the Weevil’s point of view.

It was late. The good and hard working students of the UM Flint Global Program were working studiously on their homework in the classroom. Weevil knew this was the moment. He spread his abnormally long majestic weevil wings and took flight. His first target, a row of unsuspecting students on the windowless side of the classroom: woosh, swoop, woosh! Then he saw it. The whole reason he entered this sweltering room – the golden glow of the fluorescent light above was all he wanted. He flung himself toward the promise of its warm glow – thunk! He hit its hard plastic. No! He hit the hard plastic again, and again only to anger the golden glowing god who punishes Weevil by swiftly relinquishing his bright inspiration and instantly depressing poor Weevil. Blinded by his grief, Weevil flies frantically around the room. His frenzied flight finally leads him to rest upon a shoe in the corner. Then out of nowhere an angel of mercy carries the poor, defeated Weevil out of certain death. Her swift and gentle hands brought him back home to the cool grasslands of the John Knox Center where Weevil could sulk… and begin planning his next attack…

More thoughts and stories later. I thought you all might enjoy this one.

Peace,
Kira

PS I was the angel of mercy :)

Where's Dwight?

Dwight is missing.

He has been kidnapped.

I've decided to treat the situation just like the U.S. government - no negotiations.

Dwight will be returned. I know that.

I will give the kidnappers no glory.

I will prevail.

Mwhahahahahaha!!!

That is all.

Peace,
Kira

Genève!

My first week in Geneva (pronounced Genève locally) has been wonderful!

My days consist basically of morning class from 8:30 until 12:00 where I've been learning some programming (Ruby on Rails), basic video design and production, and playing games. In the afternoon, from 1:00 until 5:00, we've generally heard someone speak from an organization (Non-Government Organization or NGO) that is doing some sort of work that is genuinely attempting to help improve the world in which we live. The reason we're spending the time to listen to the people from these groups is because eventually we (the students in the program) will be designing/coming up with an educational program in partnership with one of these groups to help build awareness etc... It's been really inspiring to hear about the work these groups are doing. I'm still trying to work out what exactly I will do for my project, but I think I'm closer than I was on Monday. In the evenings all of us work on our homework in the "salle" or classroom and we eat together (including the instructors and their families) either at John Knox (the place we're staying) or downtown.

This experience is unlike anything I would have imagined it to be. I talk to my professors regularly. They are instantly there to support, listen and hang out. Unlike a traditional post-undergrad program, I see my classmates all the time everywhere. We are immersed in the program. It's great because, a lot like undergrad, we don't have the distractions of living outside of school. It feels unreal that I could be a part of something this incredible.

This has been awesome so far... I can't wait for the next two weeks!

Peace,
Kira

My first thoughts on Geneva...

Yes! I am in Geneva!

I got here on Sunday night and was immediately greeted with helpful friendly people who turned out to be my fellow classmates and professors. When I arrived, a lot of the other students had left for dinner in Old Town, so I was invited to eat with one of my professors and his family. They made a wonderful meal which we ate outside overlooking the peaceful, beautiful view of a hay field backdropped by the mountains. When I saw this the first time, my jaw dropped. (Seriously… someone commented on my wide open mouth.) I’m hoping that I will never feel apathetic toward this place. It is beautiful visually, climate-wise and culture-wise. I think I could live here for a very long time. (What you see in the photo is what I get to look at every day on my way to class, during breaks, during lunch, during supper... this is the view from where I am staying and the picture really doesn't do the view the justice.)

I would like to write more because I have lots of thoughts to share, but I’ve put off writing for too long already. I’m better off posting this than nothing!

I hope all of you are well! I hope you all got the chance to enjoy a little bit of Jazz Fest and the beautiful weather you were having!

Peace,
Kira

Amsterdam Airport

Put yourself in the dead center of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport. You know the spot I'm talking about. Where most of the concourses converge and you can buy just about anything that you might want when in an airport. Now, build a mental picture of the environment around you. There are people with rolling luggage rushing to make their connections, families trying to keep everyone together while the kids talk excitedly about whatever's on their mind, business people are talking on call phones making plans, etc... you get the idea. I just got off the plane in Amsterdam and I am stunned. There are so many people walking around the terminal in front of me and it is remarkably quiet. It's amazing how loud the quiet felt to me. I remember feeling this way when I'd been out of the country before, but it's different to actually experience the quiet.

I should be in Geneva in about 3 hours! I've been traveling a long time and not sleeping nearly enough. The flight over the Atlantic was very smooth, but it was impossible to sleep. I tried drinking a glass of wine, but the uncomfortable seating arrangement was the deciding factor in the battle between rest and restlessness.

It sounds like the weather in SoDak was beautiful this weekend and that Jazz Fest was great (as usual!) I’m excited for the 3 weeks ahead, but I also think of all of you back home often!

Take care… and take a moment to vote in the current poll!

kc

Pass the chips..

I just spent an hour hanging out at Chili's Too (not to be confused with the regular Chili's which offers 3 courses, 2 people $20) watching the Twins game and eating some chips.

I got to MSP and I was super hungry so I bellied up to the bar and got some chips a salsa. There was such an enormous amount of chips in the bowl that when a girl sat down a couiple seats from me, I shared. Then a guy sat between us and she shared with him. After that, a girl sat down next to me and the guy shared with her. Soon enough there are 4 of us chatting away enjoying our time at Chili's Too watching the Twins game.

Gotta love the Midwest.