Set to battle with the ice storm tomorrow...

I don't even know where to begin at this point. I have so many random thoughts about everything, and I've been doing a spotty job of updating this blog. Right now, it's reflective of my general feelings of being overwhelmed by everything that's going on at the moment. I don't know if I've mentioned this enough, but I've been busy. See, some of the Washington Semester programs are notoriously easy, as our professor explained. Peace and Conflict Resolution (which will hereafter be referred to as PCR - deal with it) is not one of those classes. And I'm okay with that. It's going to be a thoroughly fulfilling quarter. I just need to do a better job of organizing my things throughout the semester when I've got:

• A 40-page research paper (I think it'll be about Spain and Mexico)
• A group project about Burma where we organize an event
• An independent "intervention"  project, where we choose an issue and come up with some type of practical manner to aid in the resolution of the conflict
• Oh, you know, 2 days a week of full-time interning
• Class the other three days a week, with assigned readings and excursions downtown
• Reading a book every 2 weeks for class (we just finished Three Cups of Tea, and now we've moved onto Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War, which describes the horrors of Bosnia so brutally that it almost made me vomit last night. This is a true story.)
• Keeping in contact with everyone now that I can use my American cell phone again (and not making up things like yesterday, when I thought that I had talked to Mom earlier in the day and hadn't. In my defense, I had talked to her on Saturday...)

I think it's all starting to get to us. At dinner in our dining hall, my friends and I were essentially delirious - laughing harder than I've laughed in a really long time. But at least we're all in this together!

Tomorrow, I'll hopefully be picking up my State Department badge for my internship! (Sorry if anyone's been harassed by the government on my behalf. Please tell them lovely things about me.)

(Oh, and if you're reading this because Kelly's blog sent you here - hi. Not quite sure what else to say, since we've never met, but I hope I'm not too boring for you folks...)