Esther Brady Crawford - faintstarlite

So… an update is needed on my quest to figure out my post-graduate plans. After researching and listing every possible grad school in the states that offers International Relations, emphasising the Middle East .. the list was pretty small. I felt really good just by listing what some possible grad school options were and putting them down on paper… small victories are the ones that count. =)

Anyways I went through and started charting out important things like admissions requirements, cost, location, etc. After putting in .. I dunno.. at least 8-9hrs between two days – I came up with this bright idea of asking someone for help. I’m taking a class entitled “International Relations and Diplomacy in the Mid. East” .. and the prof is only two years out from his PhD… so I was like “I should ask him about schools specializing in this since he must’ve gone through the same painstaking process of trying to locate a good program.” I eventually made it up to his office to talk to him about it.. and within 15mins he was handing me the postgraduate prospectus of the school he went to – the best school in Mid. Eastern Int’l Relations prob in the world. …. dun dun dun ….. The Univ. of Durham

Now right now you must be saying to yourself…. hmm… thats funny – cuz I’ve never heard of that school…. Durham..? Where is that? …. Well nice of you to ask that – I never would’ve found the school or program myself because of my short-sightedness….. its in England.. northern England to be exact. The last 3 days I’ve spent reading everything I can about the program, school, etc … its really an amazing school. I can’t say for sure that I’ll end up there – but right now its my #1 choice on my list … not just because of how excellent the program is, but because it allows for post-grads to spend time back here doing their research which is awesome. And.. get this – its almost half the price of the schools offering such programs in the states.

Anyways I just thought I’d share that cuz it was exciting actually making some progress.

I finally got my ticket today to Berlin, Germany. I can’t remember if I wrote about this or not – but about a month ago I had applied for a scholarship to this conference in Berlin hosted by Americans for Informed Democracy( www.aidemocracy.org ) a non-partisan organization aimed at promoting int’l awareness to Americans…. anyways I applied, then made it past the interview .. and was offered a scholarship to join them in Berlin for Thanksgiving weekend… so Fri at 4:30am I’m leaving for Germany! Its really crazy how things work out that you never dreamed would… I applied mostly on a whim thinking, well if I get it then its meant to be .. if not, no biggie… and now I’m really excited to go and make some great connections and learn some good stuff. =)

Anyways I need to go read.. I’m obsessed with this new book I bought yesterday… its called the Seven Daughters of Eve – its really amazing. I stayed up til 4am reading it last night. The top geneticist in the world talks about how his research with DNA lead him to the realization that almost all Europeans can unequivocably trace their ancestry to one of seven women ..whom at the end of the book he gives fictional names and lives as a way of bringing them to life. Anyways most of the book is taken up by his story & the research itself… which I normally wouldn’t like – but its a really fascinating, and fairly easy read. So I gotta go finish it =) … ma’salaama