From Hezbolah to Madonna

Well, it's Sunday night, and it feels so good to have had a relatively relaxing two days. Whodathunk?

Friday afternoon after getting back that diastrous quant exam, I took my econ exam and felt like I aced it. I then had a nice lunch with Chip (whom I mentioned earlier is also an Ashtangi and friend of Tim Miller's). I then went to blog a bit before heading out to our last "Globalization" lecture. I was a little squeamish after the discussion the day before. But today, Mandell outlined major turmoil - i.e. "terrorism" that defines many of the conflicts in the global world, as well as outlining causes of conflict. It was definitely slightly to the left, but made some pretty major assumptions - that "terrorism" only applied to certain people in the world - not the U.S. who has killed countless Iraqi civlians, etc. etc. - He also, I don't think, took into account the major power shifts because of land and natural resource appropriation by the western nations, namely the U.S. Nonetheless, it was an intriguing analysis. But then, the open mike. The dreaded open mike.

I hadn't said anything the day before because of the narrow topic. Friday's question to the mid-career students was divided by American and non-American or "International" - For the international students, whom he had go first, he asked them what they would say to Americans about American intervention overseas (ok, it wasn't as negative as that) - and what Americans would say to International students about "our" role abroad. Except for a student from Trinidad Tobago, most folks were pretty generous with U.S. foreign policy - i.e. communicate more with us when you come. An Israeli woman was adamant that noone else was helping out, and the U.S. was very generous with their assistance. When it was the Americans turn, I decided I had to speak up. I'm not sure why. The military dudes gave their typical gung ho comments, as did other Americans.

When I took the mike at my turn, I suddenly felt very nervous and confused about what to say, but I did mention that I was from the country of California (which got a good laugh) I referred back to Native Americans, slavery and then U.S. intervention at the turn of the century - Mandell, who has encouraged brevity and focused, asked me to do so, I then mentioned the U.S. claiming democracy but then propping up undemocratic regimes and even ousting democratically elected governments. So then, he said, thinking I would deny it, that the U.S. role is hypocrasy. Yes, I said and everyone laughed. Then, to respond to Mandell pressing me to say what I would say to the International students, I said that I wanted to dialogue with them since U.S. intervention has stopped when U.S. ngos talk to international ngos - i.e. Central America. I'm not sure what else I said - something about solidarity, apartheid, etc.

I felt embarrassed - that I had been very inarticulate.

But Pamela congratulated me, and afterwards, quite a few progressive folks came up to me to thank me for speaking up - both international students and Americans. It was a great way to meet more like-minded students.

Then, a well-deserved Friday afternoon in the "quad" of the K school - beer and junk food and volleyball. It was great to munch and have a beer and connect with folks, especially a woman I hadn't had a chance to meet yet who had been doing great activist work and has a similar past. Then, Chris came with the kids. They loved running around and everyone was wowed by Kalian. Liam slept most of the time in the stroller. We actually went out to dinner - at a yummy Algerian cafe afterwards - though we were with the kids, it felt so adult. It was expensive, especially with the parking garage fee, but it was great to feel like a real person.

Saturday morning I had that relaxing time with the kids while Chris took some time off. I then went to another cafe to study and got most of my homework done. That felt so liberating. After I got home, we headed over to Joel and Lani's for dinner, which also felt very adult.

This morning, I went to an Ashtanga mysore class. That didn't feel so great. I hurt my back halfway through primary series. The worst part, though, was letting the teacher give me an adjustment in kurmasana that exacerbated the pain - when she offered to give me this adjustment on my mid-back, rather than tell her I know it wouldn't feel good, I not only let her do it, but I didn't even tell her it hurt. Why? It didn't feel like disempowerment but I guess it was on some level - strange for a yoga teacher, but alas, women still have so much to fight.

Then, we went to REI to take advantage of the taxfree holiday. Big mistake. The kids melted down. But then we went to the North End for an Italian festival. At first, we were frustrated b/c no food vendors were open and it looked pretty lame, but then I started talking to one of the guys in the Madonna of the ??? society, and he told me all about the procession - the "story" of their society - some deaf/dumb guy was able to speak/hear after finding a stone with madonna's image - in Sicily, so now they walk around the whole Italian section of Boston with her image and collect money for the church, as well as drink everywhere for 8 hours. Then, they gathered, and they had a marching band, which both Liam and Kalian loved. Afterwards, I had a nice chat with an Italian woman who barely spoke English, and said she had been in the U.S. for over 40 years. Pizza in the park and then home...to more news of bombings...more contradictions...