Ian finally chimes in...

Hi,

So I've definitely let Laura take the lead on this here blogging thing. What with my academic pursuits and her lady of leisure time we let her run the blog-show. I'm going to quickly try to recap two of my past trips now a little after the fact.

Korea - March 14-21
South Korea was a great little hiatus from the heavy Italian food. The slightly lighter fare (hopefully pictured in the slides) provided me with a great array of Bibimbaps, Bulgogi, and small dishes of different vegetables. SAIS definitely represented it's impressive alumni connections and was able to set up meetings with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a Korean political “think tank”, Hyundai heavy industries (Hyundai's son was a SAIS grad), and the former Foreign Minister Dr. Young-Kwan Yoon. We also spent a night at a temple which included waking up at 4:30 am for silent morning yoga, followed by silent walking meditation, and then a silent ceremonial breakfast. The silent part was a challenge for my loquacious self but I did complete all tasks without a peep.

South Africa - June 18-30
EL COPA MUNDIAL!!!!! BAFANA BAFANA
Well as many of you know I tend to support the USA and French teams in World Cups so, their relatively poor showings didn't help my experience, but it was still amazing.
I went to the following six games:
Cote d'Ivoire v Brazil; Soccer City, Joburg (Was so hopeful for Cote d'Ivoire)
Argentina v Greece, Polokwane (Maradona literally fell over after a shot hit the post)
USA v Algeria, Pretoria (BEST GAME- Stayed at the stadium chanting/singing for an hour after the game, also may have been on Algerian television)
USA v Ghana, Rustenburg (Was on TV in the US with a sad face afterwards)
England v Germany, Bloemfontein (Looked like a goal from where I was sitting, although didn't mention that on the German fan bus ride home)
Japan v. Paraguay, Pretoria (Dressed as referees in the stands for the second time and was let down by the Blue Samurais)

The trip worked out really well and we shared a house in Linden with an assorted group of friends and two coworkers. Drove around with five big guys in a small red (clown) car.

I also did some reseearch for the African Studies department while in South Africa on the minibus transportation system's reaction to the Rea Vaya bus system which is being implemented. This clash of two transportation systems from the global north and less developed countries was really fascinating and if anyone wants the paper let me know.

I'll try to upload photos for these two trips. I'm now back in Haiti for the next month and a week, so the internet will be slow. I'll try to blog a little bit while I'm down here, as I'll have extra time since there's a curfew for most of the NGOs in town.

a dopo


Also

Spring Break

Not quite the raging college students that we once were, but Ian & I still had a pretty jam packed SB2K10! We spent a week visiting my family in Ireland: the Husseys in Co. Galway (Ballintava, Curragh West) & the Sheridans in Co. Donegal (Craig, Rathmullan). It was so good to see everyone, catch up with my unbelievably hospitable family all over, see a lot of the country & introduce Ian to the "real" Ireland outside of Dublin. We did get to play tourists for a bit with 2 days in Dublin, before hoping over to Brussels to visit our friend Ioanna. We had a really fantastic mini-Euro tour & can't believe we are leaving it all so soon.

galway.ballintava.curraghwest.ireland

rathmullan.ireland

dublin

brussels & amsterdam

Playing catch up

I've been extremely bad at keeping this blog updated since Christmas and as our days are numbered in Bologna, here's my best effort at sharing what we've been up to...

Just prior to Ian's finals wrapping up in Bologna in January the earthquake struck Haiti. Luckily, most of Ian's co-workers survived and the main PIH clinics outside the city as well as some emergency tent clinics they set up were able to (and continue to) provide support there. Given the amount of time Ian has spent in Haiti over the last few years, he decided to take his winter break volunteering with the procurement team. He made a quick visit to the Boston office, spent the majority of his time setting up a new depot in Miami to coordinate shipments to Port-au-Prince (PAP) & then wrapped up the trip with about a week in PAP. Here are a few pics that he put together from his time there.

Meanwhile, I did what any good lady of leisure does and went on our previously planned trip to Morocco...

2010.1.27-29.Marrakech

2010.1.30-31.Khenifra

2010.2.1-3.Morocco.Fes

Afternoon call to prayer

I attended the SAIS Austrian Ball in Vienna at the Hofsburg Palace with friends from school.

2010.2.Vienna

And spent Valentine's Day in Venice checking out the Carnevale. Rough life, I know.

2.14.10.Carnevale

We also had a few visitors:

Amanda & Lauren came and helped us with our Haiti Fundraiser "Charitivo" (Charity + Aperitivo)that raised over 2700€!:

From attachments

and my mama came to visit:

From KarenItalyTrip

To wrap up February & kick off March, Ian went to Korea, I had a birthday, & that's about it 'til our spring break trip, which I'll post soon!

From attachments

From Drop Box

Miss you all!

Better late than never...

Did I mention the Italian tradition of Cupid being in charge of delivering Christmas photos? No? Well then.... :)

Ian and I had a really wonderful & memorable Christmas abroad, celebrating a bit in Bologna prior to setting off for a grand tour of Sicilia with his family. A big thanks to them for the fantastic trip to Palermo, Segesta, Agrigento, and Siracusa!

2009.12.Christmas.Bologna

Collages

2009.12.Christmas.Sicilia

2010.1.6.Epiphany.Bologna