First of all, last Sunday’s football tournament was intense. We got there at 10 AM and played until around 5 PM. I can’t say I carried to team to victory, or anything
glamorous like that, especially given that Lavanah, a girl on our team, is currently trying out for the national team. But when I was on the field mud, I successfully avoided any own-goals, headed the ball in the right direction a few times, and most importantly, kids, I had fun! My team, the Jewish Spartans, came in 2nd to the Mojo Express, although the final was marred by fight, after which several of our players refused to play. Please observe the photo of both teams together in harmony after the match.
That night, to watch the final of the World Cup, I went over to Effie’s apartment. Since the game didn’t start until midnight here, and went on forever, I ended up staying over. Effie was a great host, and I enjoyed a strawberry milkshake, breakfast in the morning, and a packed lunch (courtesy of his aunt).
Research wise, I had a decent week as well. I got a few more contacts, and did three interviews. I’m not entirely sure where this all leads me, which is going to be a problem, but in the meantime, it feels good to be talking to the people I meant to talk to, and having the conversations I wanted to have. I need to pick up the frequency of interviews though, since I only have about 16 days left here.
The interviews are interesting for a bunch of different reasons. Some people have unique ideas and perspectives on the issue, such as one person who believes that we shouldn’t act on environmental issues, because they are simply nature’s way of killing off enough humans to keep our population in check. Some people I meet at interesting moments in their lives, like one interviewee who had just quit his/her job that day, and could barely focus long enough to answer questions before going out and celebrating. And sometimes, the mechanical parts of the interview go awry, such as when we did the interview in a coffee shop, and my voice recorder only heard Miley Cyrus on the radio for an hour, instead of the actual discussion.
On Thursday night, Sanctuary Asia magazine hosted a discussion with 
an American environmental lobbyist about international environmental negotiations post-Copenhagen, which was really cool. A fair bit went over my head, lost in a code of acronyms, but I was still filled with this sudden realization that some of my classes have actually been relevant to my life, and are applicable to the field I hope to go into! After the event, most of us in the office went out for dinner and drinks at Café Mondegar. It’s very cool to be working in an office with fun, enthusiastic people, and even more fun to hang out with them when they aren’t stressed about getting a publication ready for print. (Right: Vidya and I. I'm pretending to be a tiger.)
Finally, I’ve been meaning to show you a picture of my new hotel r
oom. It’s much cleaner than this, now, since the front desk specifically asked me to take all my things off the floor so they could sweep it better. I appreciate that they clean my room daily, but I think I value the privilege to dirty my own space even more. We’ll just have to see what they say about my fish!
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