The calm before the storm…

So I have about one week of sanity left before my hair lights on fire and I become incommunicado for a little while. To celebrate the ½ way mark of my internship, I will be spending my week writing my paper. Yay! Ok, not so exciting. But what is remotely more exciting that its coming along well and hope to finish soon.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty interesting as I have been attending the International Studies Association conference, providing a pretty amazing opportunity to network with practitioners and academics in my field, and trying to narrow down a few career options (perhaps one of my weaknesses). I’ve also been getting out for some ulti including some pick-up games and to training with the local ladies teams. One of the down-sides to life in NYC is that all the decent fields are backed by major highways and auto-routes. But great people, and its really good to be playing again, especially with all the tourneys coming up. I am known as the Canadian refugee…

One of the girls I met works for the Stanford Group. Apparently in their Florida offices, regulators have been storming the offices and shutting them down as part of the investigation. She seems to think that her Investment Banking branch is legit, but is nonetheless working on her CV at the moment, and is a little stuck with what to write. To help her out, we suggested a few bullet points: Thinking outside the (legal) box; flexible and adaptable to new situations (and applying ethical values); networking and resolving disputes with challenging transnational partners (such as Mexican drug lords), etc.

And of course the financial world just keeps on keeping on… imploding, that is, with UBS recently admitting to conspiring to defraud the US government and planning to disclose its US account holders, all possibly marking the end of road for off-shore banking… interesting times indeed.

But back to fun stuff before I sign off. So this week, I have managed to get tickets to the filming of the Daily Show (not an easy task, to be sure). Look for me in the audience on Thursday night! Also, Deb and Clara have now both booked to come visit me here which is quite exciting!

Ok, that’s all for now. I will do my best to keep up the blog as my travels begin. Wish me luck! Missing everyone at home! Hope you’re all well.

The days are just packed…

Ok, not really. But I’ve always liked the Calvin & Hobbes title. And my schedule has been a little more robust that it has been in recent months, with lotsa new stuff coming up.

But first a quick recap of the last few weeks:
• Ma and b-stop hit NYC for an action-packed 3-day long-weekend in mid-January that included two Broadway shows (Billy Elliot & Osage County), one empire state building, a certain Statue of Liberty, a visit to one mostly submerged US Airways in the Hudson, two celeb sightings (William H Macy & Lucy Liu), a LOT of shopping, and a walk around the World Trade Centre site.
• For inauguration a couple of days later, I hit Times Square for a lot of raw emotion and celebrations from the people on the streets.
• By some miracle, this year’s Super Bowl actually managed to top last year’s game, and while my motives for cheering on the Steelers had nothing to do with football and everything to do with revenge (but she seems so sweet!) and I was the sole Steelers supporter at a party where I knew noone, it did not stop me from cheering loudly and obnoxiously when they stole the game back in the dying seconds.
• Saw a New York Ranger vs. Washington Capitals at Madison Square Garden - the game was complete with back-to-back fist fights, seeing Ovechkin kick ass, an overtime period, and a Rangers win in a shootout
• Catching up with friends in the city and family that I haven't seen in eons
• Visiting the South African permanent mission to the UN (next week: China and Zimbabwe)
• Seeing Mira Sorvino become the most recent Goodwill Ambassador to the UN on matters of Human Trafficking

I just returned from a fabulous couple of sunny days in Florida, and getting my head ready for the months ahead. I am partying with all the UN interns, checking out the hot spots around NYC and generally having a great time. The rest of February is dedicated to paper-writing, but the pace picks up after that. The UN Commission on the Status of Women Conference runs from March 1 - 14, I fly out March 13th to speak on two panels at a conference in Calgary, Clara visit at some stage, I jet to Texas a week later for an ulti tourney, and somewhere in between I need to submit my first draft of my paper. In April, we play sectional in Ithica, NY, regionals in Princeton, NJ, and I potentially fly to Vancouver at month-end. My final paper is due mid-April, I hope to visit Deb & Rory in DC and maybe Jordan in Boston, and somewhere near the end April, I head back to Ottawa. I’m not even going to talk about May.

I don’t know where I will land next or what I will do, but I’m increasingly feeling that, bit by bit, the answers that are starting to take shape into something more concrete, if still fluid. And while I have had moments of doubt along the way, I’m really very happy with the direction I am headed. Sometime this year, I will choose a semi-permanent home and try to beat my record of 3 years in one city since 1992. Not sure where this will take me, but as my brother once described his outlook on unemployment, with no prospects, “open skies, baby, open skies!”