estamos feliZ

UPEACE-- so far, so great! there are 160 students from over 50 countries!

today is the last day of our foundation course--which lasted three weeks and touched upon all of the different masters programs that UPEACE has to offer. so we have all been together and our seminars/discussion groups have been a mix of the different masters too which is cool to get to know other people better because the rest of the year i will just be having classes with my peace ed. program and sometimes the peace and gender program.

so we have had readings and lectures in sustainable development, international human rights law, war crime tribunals, gender issues, quantum physics and peace, peace ed, environmental security, and the processes of conflict transformation in areas of protracted conflict.

you can imagine how mind opening it is to hear these lectures and then go to discussion groups where your peers are from Sri Lanka and can tell you about the conflict there first hand, or from Cambodia where the war crimes are on trial-- or armenia where there is only one women's rights organization which was started by the girl sitting next to you!

the professors have been from egypt, peru, brazil, uk, hungary, um.... and their life experiences are just jaw dropping. the war zones that they have been in, the work that they have accomplished or sometimes just attempted. its really interesting because they aren't just academics.

my peace ed. program is led by a brazilian woman, and her assistant from cameroon. we have 16 classmates including students from Rwanda, Iran, Iceland, Belize, Costa Rica, Canada and the States. we've only met once so far, but they seem like a great group.

its definitely a change of pace to get back into this school thing! i dont know how some people are in so many clubs (though they do have some fabulous clubs at school) plus are doing the 8 page papers we have had almost weekly and 3-4 hrs of reading daily. shew.

although UPEACE is a lot lot lot like evergreen, one thing that is different is that they do give grades here. i havent gotten a grade since high school ten years ago, what a trip! plus they have grade inflation or something too, which i dont really get yet, but anyhow i did great on my first paper.

as you can see below, the parties have been great too! its just so cool that we are all so different and yet are all working for the same cause. also it is great that we all came at the same time so everyone is really open to meeting everyone else.

almost everyone here are world travelers and if not they have established themselves in their local communities in some amazing program or another--there are people who have worked in the u.n., profesors, former peace corp-ers, and more.

alright time for school :)

love to you from us xoxo

tHiS iS it--

can you believe it? so after the 15 minutes of winding up and down a dirt road lined with jungle trees, coffee plants, and streams you walk out to see this! this is the view from campus, also the view from the lecture room so when i happen space out for a moment during class i can watch huge hawks soaring in circles above that view. picture all the countries flags that are in the united nations on those flag pole. apparently they only put them up a couple times a year. oh well! i can't believe that i have been so lucky as to attend 2 schools on hundreds of acres of rainforest :) life is good******

red is really loving Rancho Mastatl too- thats the alternative building farm he went to go check out 2 weeks ago. its apparently amazing there and where he will spend a good portion of his time this year. although its three hours away, we are both really happy about that situation. its an apprenticeship, where he learns to build as well as run a farm/nonprofit and with room and board (delicious homegrown meals) it costs $100/mo!

its something he has wanted to learn for years, something we hope to use in the future, and its great we are both furthuring ourselves!

another exciting thing i learned is that there is a practicum option for our final project in peace education. there are 3 schools in costa rica that are bi-lingual and open to having a partnership with UPEACE where we can create a curriculum and go in the schools and teach... PEACE ED! thats really exciting to me, because i have thought about running a summer camp/after school program type thing and i wanted to create a curriculum for that-- but there are only 6 positions available so i will have to duke it out with the other peace ed. students... you know, fight over who gets to teach peace? er...

anyhow--i will write more soon--leave us some comments!

"Productive Fun"

PuRaVidA

this is our landlady, Annia, and her family's house.. that's nicki, costa rica's sweetest and smelliest pup

la casita rosa y arbol de aguacates

vEry exCitiNg

last sunday night we went to a party here and met some of my schoolmates. unfortunately only one of my classmates was there-plus an advisor for the peace ed program--but they were both very cool and said that there is going to be only 15 students in the program this year!!! apparently there were only 8 last year! thats fantastic to me!

there were maybe 30 people at the party including some Ticos too, which was great. man-- it got me soo excited the life experiences of the people that go to this school are absolutely incredible! We met people from Camaroon and Tanzania, a girl who worked at a women's rights NGO in Armenia, one who worked on a Biodynamic Waldorf farm in NY, a guy who did peace corps in Ghana, a guy who taught English in Kazakhastan, two who taught in Japan and one in China--and more.

School orientation starts tomorrow- and i couldnt be more excited!

1 Life and 4 Pink houses---hmmmm...

As I sit peacefully enjoying the best coffee in the world (any coffee in Central America) in my new Casito, which is a Spanish word that I just made up meaning little house. Ticos (Costa Ricans) are famous for adding “ito” and “ita” to the end of words to make them like nicknames. Instead of nino they will call a boy hombrecito (little man) and on and on. Somebody told me that’s why they are “Ticos” instead of Costarricanos or something. Hmmm… Actually the internet isn’t working right now, not sure the problem other than I am in costa rica which to me isn’t a problem. I‘ll just have to wait until it decides that its time again. I am sitting here in my kitchen/living room listening to the family (my landlady’s) that share a yard with us chatter up a storm. I think there are a minimum of 8 people living in that house. She seemed great yesterday though and even though we are a little tiny house in her yard. Kind of like where you would put Gramma when she couldn’t live on her own anymore. But we are a tiny little house (which to me is better than an apartment) and its cute. My days of worrying about getting in trouble with a landlady are past so really I am optimistic about it.

Phew and to my great relief---AlTHouGH the outside of the house is pink (making this the 4th pink house I have lived in-not counting my mama’s purple house!) she recently painted the living room/kitchen yellow. There are huge windows- which is very key for me too (even though they are so close to the neighbors). The inside is cute though and its got a little sitting area out front and also a GIGANTIC avocado tree out front too! That will come in handy. Not to mention, cable with at least 6 English channels? Ooh and a little path through the back gate down in between back yards to a Pulperia Chino (Chinese mini-market). Only the guys that work there are Chinese, not the food unfortunately, but still its less than a block away which is helpful. I guess we will worry about the fact that there are no screens on the windows when the mosquitoes come. YIKES. Interesting I didn’t know mosquitoes had an e in the end. The computer just schooled me.

So even though it’s a little pricey we are going to keep it. If we happen to meet the coolest person ever we may invite them to live in our clothes room (little second bedroom) but its so small and I am kind of feeling too old for roommates anymore.

What else--- so its been absolutely gorgeous every morning from when the sun comes up until around noon. Thats the glass half full way of looking at it, because in the three days that we have been here it has also rained GATOS Y PERROS (cats and dogs) for a minimum of 8 hrs from then on! I dont really mind though, really Red and I have been in Summer for the last 15 months or so and even when it is pouring, we still have our windows open and are wearing shorts and long sleeves! plus i have a great pair of Bumblebee rubber boots :) at least my feet will be dry!