news!

Well I am officially done with the class portion of my LLM program! This week was the last week of classes, and now we just have the looming essay deadline of April 25th to contend with before we are home free to focus on our dissertations.

I am working at a good pace on my term essays as long as this weekend is productive, and then I am going to give myself a break but also start doing background research for my dissertation. It has recently become more important that I get a head start on my thesis work, or at least make sure to adopt an efficient work schedule...because I just got a part-time internship for the rest of my time here in Edinburgh!!! I am now the new Marketing/Administration Intern at an international development organization called Link Community Development! I applied, had an interview and completed a timed written assessment, and was just phoned yesterday saying they were happy to offer me the position!

The organization works for sustainable education policy in Africa by working with communities and schools directly and also trying to inform national education policy. The key areas of work are conducting performance reviews of schools, working on capacity building within the schools, and helping to develop education programming that informs the Millennium Development Goals and encourages school attendance and community support of the school systems. Another main initiative is linking schools in rural African communities with schools in the UK and USA (i.e. Scotland in this case) in order to, "learn from one another about development and the wider world, and to work together for quality education." I was attracted to the organization by its focus on sustainable results in all the work that it does. For example, the organization discourages the sending of books and other school materials to these countries, but instead asks willing donors to send money to the school administrations so they can buy relevant materials in their own countries and support their own local economies. Very exciting!

I also managed to find myself a part-time job working with the catering department of the University. I spend most of my time working at different University restaurants and cafes around the city, and also cater for events hosted at venues on campus. I started a few weeks ago and just got my first pay check! It is nice to make some pocket money, I enjoy the distraction from my otherwise very academic-focused life, and I get to meet and hangout with a new group of people a couple days a week. Since I don't have a car and thus have limited mobility, at least diversifying my weekly activities helps break up my otherwise sometimes monotonous feeling schedule. The hours are extremely flexible and the work isn't bad - but now paired with my part-time internship I am definitely going to have my hands full the next 5 months!

The internship is going to start off slow the next few weeks until I finish my essays, and then will only be about 2 days a week anyway. And I only work a max of 15 hours per week at my job (maybe eventually 20 during the Festival period) so that still leaves TONS of time to do dissertation work since I will have no classes. Also, I really just like being busy as it helps me feel organized and productive. So we shall see how it all works out, but I'm excited to be working with such a great organization and it will definitely be a good experience (for me personally, and my resume!) before I start real job searching in the fall.

a break from reality

Last week my dear friend Emily came to visit! Emily is someone that I have been close with since I was about 7 years old, and having her come visit was not only exciting because I've missed her dearly since moving half way across thew world, but it was also really fun to have a good friend here to show around Edinburgh and travel with!

She arrived last Monday, and after a short afternoon of settling in we hopped on a bus and headed back to the airport to fly off to the Netherlands! After a short flight we arrived in Amsterdam and spent the first night just walking around and experiencing some of the shops/night life. Tuesday we left the hostel around 10am and didn't get back until dinner time! We covered a lot of ground, stopping in some amazing shops to sample cheese, chocolates and fresh breads and taking in the beautiful views of the canals. We spent a good deal of the afternoon in the Rijksmuseum wandering around the amazing exhibits and taking in the beautiful art - not only was there a lot to look at for pure aesthetic enjoyment, but there was also a ton to learn about Dutch history and culture.

After taking a quick rest, we got dressed and headed to a different part of the city and stumbled upon a small Peruvian restaurant for a late dinner. We had an AMAZING meal - I mean, really really good - starting with appetizers of goats cheese, bacon and honey on slices of french bread and a Spanish omelet, we then each had a delicious main dish and shared a jug of fresh sangria. After our indulgent meal we went back to our hostel and got to bed early. Wednesday we went to the Anne Frank House Museum and walked around a beautiful area of Amsterdam called De Negen Straatjes, or "the Nine Streets" where we stopped in adorable boutiques and unique shops. The Anne Frank House was a great experience - it drew completely from the facts of Anne's life and the experience of her family and used them to guide the visitor through the events of the Holocaust and not the other way around. It was interesting seeing real artifacts from the time and getting an important history lesson through an accessible, personal story.

Before heading back to pack up for the airport, we stopped at a nice Dutch restaurant in a quaint square where we sat in a covered outdoor patio and people watched while enjoying some wine and a light lunch. Overall, it was a great trip - a busy two days, but it was great spending some time traveling just the two of us and especially in such a fun and interesting city!

Once back in Edinburgh we spent Emily's last few days across the Atlantic catching the major tourist sites and wandering around the city and the University campus. Emily brought with her an amazing stretch of nice weather and we were able to make the most of the sunny and warm days before she left! A few high points - Thursday we celebrated St. Patrick's day with the vast Irish population in Edinburgh in a local Irish restaurant/pub, Emily had a great time Friday on a bus tour of Edinburgh getting an educational and fun taste of the city while I was in class, and Saturday we climbed Arthur's Seat together!

Sunday afternoon I saw Emily off to the airport and was totally exhausted from our crazy week. It has been a bit of a struggle to get back into studying but I am finally back in the groove. I have also been baking a lot of breads lately - I've made banana bread a few weeks ago, a blueberry loaf to bring as a snack to Amsterdam, and today I made a carrot bread! Baking is very relaxing and also a delicious snack to help me get through long days with my head in my books, and all my friends also appreciate my little baking endeavors since sharing what I make is half the fun. Ok, confession, if I didn't share I would not be able to resist just eating the entire loaf of warm bread the second it came out of the oven or there is no chance it would last the entire first day.

march madness

The start to my month of March has been marked with much needed motivational moments. Alliterations aside, I have been having a surprisingly productive start to the month which gives me hope that the few days before I leave for Vienna will not be consumed by trying to scramble together a 6,000 word essay or two. I am almost done with my essay on 'The Legality of Targeted Killing in Contemporary International Humanitarian Law' and am working hard on the research/outline phase for my harder essay on Kosovo's right to self-determination and the lawfulness of its unilateral declaration of independence under international law. My third essay, which I am yet to sort out, will be on cross-border coordinated policing efforts in the European Union.

I also believe I have my dissertation topic finally sorted out! I originally was looking at analyzing human rights concerns/lack of human rights safeguards in policies of asset seizure and confiscation set out in international conventions combating organized crime. I met with the head of the international law LLM program (also my international criminal law professor) this afternoon to discuss my idea and inquire about possible directions to go in or other topics that might be more worthwhile to explore.

It was a really helpful meeting, and I walked out with a better topic and some ideas of how to structure my approach (should I look into the topic more and decide on it). We started discussing related areas of law that are 'hotter topics' and where the literature is not comprehensive and the law is still being shaped, and got into discussing the UN Corruption Convention and how assets that are seized from countries whose corrupt leaders have embezzled billions of dollars of their nation's wealth. The issue then is how the stolen assets are recovered to the country, and in practice this is where existing laws and policies seem to fail. This topic is very relevant today, as anyone that flicks past the news can't help but hear about the currently frozen funds of the Gaddafi Family in Libya. Well, this is a different but related topic to the one that I originally thought up - the human rights issues are more abstract (i.e. socio-politica-economic issues regarding getting the money back into the right hands) but the topic is more interesting, seems more worthwhile, and my interest lies mainly in international criminal law these days than human rights.

School, as you can deduce, is going quite well and I'm in a good place with my work. This is a relatively new development, as in February I was very stressed out and overwhelmed with the work that lay ahead and was in need of some direction. Maybe the warmed days and increased sunshine helped? (and I say this as today was particularly cold and even revealed some frost/snow dabbled around the mountains and parts of the meadows!)
Last Friday night my friend Anke had a really nice dinner party for her birthday. She cooked up a 3 course meal for us, including a delicious carrot soup, an asian style spinach salad, and 2 lasagnas (one veggie and one meat). Another friend made Pavlova for dessert - a cake I had never heard of before, but now rank as one of my favorites; it consists of a light meringue base/border filled with a delicious creme that my friend made with white chocolate, and the top is covered with strawberries and raspberries. There was also much wine and a berry cocktail to be passed around the table. Talk about a heavenly meal!
I am also starting to pick up my running exercise regime in hopes of getting into shape for a 10k at the end of May! I am starting to "train" and hopefully as the weather gets nicer my outside runs will get better and better. While 10k is not a very challenging goal, it is a bit more than I can run now and it will give me a reason to actually hit the gym/road and get in better shape. I'm looking forward to it!