I leave in about two hours for London New Years Eve celebrations, and I am quite excited to see my friends here and catch up on our trips, nevermind the incredible fireworks.
2009 for me was an incredible year. Put into context, my years, for the past four or five anyway, have always been better than the year before, and that certainly holds true for 2009 over 2008. Sure, a year is an arbitrary measurement wherein it was decided that at this point we should consider the Earth's rotation around the Sun the "end" and thus "beginning," but they offer a convenient way to measure and thus reflect, and as such, so be it. The way I see it, my year can be divided into three chapters that I think will make sense as I go over them.
Chapter One:
A year ago, I had absolutely no idea where I would be now. I was a week graduated from UW-Madison, and as evidenced from my posts of a year ago, I had also just returned from a week trip to Arizona, and I was looking forward to the NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field on January 1 (this year it is at Fenway Park - be sure to watch tomorrow!), a trip to meet up with Adam in New York and road tripping up to Montreal, and heading to the Presidential Inauguration in Washington D.C. working for People to People, and that's about all I had in front of me (okay, so that is a lot, but it only covered a month, not a year). Well, I managed to do all of those things, and then...
I passed the U.S. State Department Foreign Service Officer Test, smoked the GRE, and took several hockey-related trips up to Madison to go to a few games with Adam. I took an epic road trip with David down to St. Louis, Memphis, and partied with Andy for Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The day I returned I had a big package in the mail... from the London School of Economics - I got in! So it was by mid-February when a picture began to emerge of how 2009 would go... a few weeks later I headed off to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a couple of weeks volunteering in Bangu, a drug-free favela on the outskirts of town. I also got to meet up with my Uncle Jordan and Ana for a few days in Rio before starting the project! Three days after returning from Brazil, I took a week trip here to London with my parents and Justin to check out LSE and Bankside, and yeah, we all loved it! We managed to do the Paris day trip as well - that, we did not enjoy so much, but you can't win them all! The day after returning I was off to work in Washington D.C. on two World Leadership Forums for People to People, and I finally got to see the D.C. cherry blossoms!
Upon returning home for my birthday in late-April, I decided to slow down the pace... I got to go to all of the Blackhawks home playoff games, where they destroyed Calgary in the first round, Vancouver in the second (which included "Game 6," which has to be the greatest hockey game I have ever seen, and was certainly the best played in Chicago in at least 15 years), and fell victim to Detroit in the Western Conference Finals in a very tight series. This coincided with Brittany and Justin's respective graduations in mid-May and early-June from Harper College and Stevenson High School, and I could not have been more proud of either of them for doing so well!
Chapter Two:
By the second week in June my summer travel schedule began, working for my fifth summer in a row with People to People. I tried a "new program," for me anyway, the Business Summit, and the first few days were rather uneventful. It was great to see some old friends - some of whom I worked with just two months earlier in April, and others who I had not seen in 2/3/4/5 years! Never in my wildest imagination could I have seen what would happen though... the trip itself was great, but not in the "oh I got to go see the Statue of Liberty again" way. Nor was it in the "these students were the best group I have ever had" way. Nope... this trip was defined by a lack of sleep, and by that I mean even less than "normal." It was defined by stories of absolutely anything and everything from around the world until 2, and sometimes past 3 in the morning while keeping an eye on those 9th floor John Jay students who just "had to take a shower" at 1:30am. A bus ride to and from Philadelphia for a day. I guess it happened partly by nature - the Site Coordinator and Primary Lead Facilitator tend to work on the complete opposite assignments, which draws them to work together. Likewise, the Logistics Coordinator and Academic Lead Facilitator also have near-opposite roles, which draws them to spend more time together as well. It was nothing intentional - it just happened... I fell in love.
The rest of 2009 was defined by this... we worked together the next week in Boston at Harvard university. After a couple of weeks at home (yes, I spent more than 1 day at home in 2009, a welcome "break" from my incredible summer of 2008), and a weekend family trip to Minocqua, Wisconsin (which brought back a plethora of childhood memories), she came and visited me and my family for nearly a week in Buffalo Grove, Chicago, and we also took a day trip up to Madison. I never really feared that they would not get along - I knew based on their personalities and whatnot that they would - but it always feels nice to see it happen in front of you instead of leaving it to your thoughts. Everything I love about her, they do too! I don't suppose it could have gone much better, and for that I was delighted and I am thankful. A few weeks later, we were walking the beaches of Oahu, swimming in the Pacific, climbing Diamond Head, tasting pineapple at the Dole Plantation, and looking at pearls in Waikiki. Add Hawaii to my list of states!
Chapter Three:
By the end of September it was clear that things would be changing, and in a hurry. We can get specific and just call it September 15-22, my week at home after a tearful goodbye from Hawaii and before leaving to London. Unpacking, laundry, shopping, and packing combined with goodbyes with friends and family later, and on the 23rd of September I woke up on final descent into London Heathrow with my parents. A week of orientations, inductions, and travel around London and SE England (Dover, Canterbury, Leeds Castle) later, and I said goodbye to them too.
As classes began it was clear that my MSc group was awesome - 26 students from 16 countries, and everyone is great! In fact it has been oddly strange not seeing any of them for the last few weeks, and I'm excited to see some of them again in another hour or two to ring in the New Year! One crazy Mexican Society party, lots of tequila, and many a trip to the basement bar with Ian, my suitemate (we share a bathroom) from Seattle later, and everyone is still having a great time. Classes themselves were also wonderful - I was in three classes this first term: our core year-long class, Public Policy and Administration; Global Environmental Governance; and Quantitative Analysis (Statistics). I enjoyed all three and feel that I have a good understanding of all of the concepts presented.
I also took two trips from London this term... the first was to Vienna, Austria, to meet up with a good friend of mine! We got to have a few nice dinners, and during the day I was off in the November snow exploring the city, which to call picturesque is a gross understatement. Just a few weeks ago, as anybody reading this blog knows, I was in Copenhagen, Denmark, and also took an afternoon trip over to Malmo, Sweden. I wrote from the COP15 for G-1 Billion, a truly rewarding experience that I hope to expand on over the next year and more. I have always considered myself an environmentally conscious person, but I feel even more so now than I have in the past, which says a lot given Hillel's LEED certification and more.
In London, I have explored many of the cultural and historical elements of the city... I saw the HMS Belfast, went to several markets (including the best and famous Borough Market with Hadil), tried (and LOVED) Indian food in the Eastern Hemisphere with my first visitor, Charity, as well as saw the Imperial War Museum (which contains the UK Holocaust Museum within) with her. I saw the British Museum with the Rosetta Stone and many of the statues that are from the Parthenon in Athens. I saw Abbey Road and the Benjamin Franklin House. I saw the State Opening of Parliament, and the Queen twice. At LSE I saw many Prime Ministers and Presidents... of Ecuador, Hungary, Jordan, and Norway. I'm sure I am missing a lot, but to say the least I have made great use of my time here and had a great time overall!
Finally, the last two weeks I have been home - it was great to see my friends and family again. We had a very nice Hanukkah Party at home, and I saw three Blackhawks games - they won all three! A week in Arizona, and 72 hours of flying later, here I am...
2010 is just five and a half hours away, and while I have a much better picture of how the next six months will go, I have just as little a clue as to how the second half of 2010 will go (like how I had no idea how February and beyond 2009 would go). From now until June 25, I have my second term, summer term, and finals here in London. Mixed in I will try and see more of the city, and my main goal is a trip to Rome, probably in late-March. June 25 will be my last final, and then I'm kicked out of Bankside July 2, while my dissertation is due September 2. My goal is to have a first draft of my dissertation entirely done before finals start, however, and if that is the case, I might not stay in London over the summer in order partially to save money, and also for a reunion. By next year this time though, I really have no idea... LSE graduation is in December. I'm certainly not going to be going for a PhD right away, so that means I need to have a job! Washington D.C. is most likely, but beyond that I don't really know. I guess what I really want is six months instead of one.
On that note, a happy and healthy 2010 to all of you! Thank you for all of your great comments and it has been wonderful seeing most of you in the past few weeks. Next post (and this is a promise) is from next year!
