Time Zones

Sitting in this airport dealing with so many time zones it confusing here it goes.

Right now it is 4:49 AM in Washington DC
                     10:49 AM in Mostar, Bosnia
                     11:49 AM in Egypt (Fiona)
                      1:49  AM in Portland

Right now my body is telling me it is almost 11 AM, but it is way earlier here in DC and even earlier in Portland, I might be a bit discombobulated for awhile.  And my watch, computer and cellphone are all on different times....
Plus I'm calculating times for Chicago, Qatar, and Mumbai...could it get even crazier? :)

Adventures in an International Airport

Hey Everybody!

I'm sitting here stranded having an adventure in the Washington D.C. airport in the middle of a huge winter snowstorm.  :)  If I wanted snow for Christmas I sure got plenty of it! 

Dane is lying in front of me on one of the baggage carousels asleep, and she is such a cute shminkus.  We spent a great night with a wonderful family in Sarajevo - classic Bosnian hospitality, with kava and caj.  Then in the morning they drove us to the airport, first the Dutchies for their early flight, and then Dane and I at seven to catch our connecting flight from Sarajevo to Vienna.  The airport in Sarajevo was operating, but we were nervous flights would be canceled due to the snow there as well as the fog, but we made it into the air and on our way to Austria safely and on time.  Thank goodness!  It was beautiful seeing all the mountains from above with snow covered peaks.

   I started reading my first book of the trip, "The Bridge Over the Dhrina" and after living in BiH it gives a very interesting, more ancient, historical perspective to the conflicts and divisions within the Balkans.  The author  Ivo Andrić won a nobel prize in literature for this book.  Just in case you wanted to know ;)  Anyways, it was a 10 hour flight from Vienna to Washington D.C. and it went well until we got to the Eastern seaboard where it is currently a raging snowstorm, which is dumping maybe a foot or two of fresh powder snow all over the city.  I sat next to a really interesting guy who is building the new US embassy in Sarajevo.  He told me lots of stories of his travels around the world first with the navy, and now as a private government contractor.  Besides a lot of experience traveling all over the world, he told me a lot about the fraud and waste involved in government projects that are not properly managed.  This starts a complete conversation about governments, corruption, and then of course the next question - how can we solve it?  The same principles apply to any project, if it is well organized and managed a project is more bound to be successful than one that is thrown together, especially if each person knows what they should do, and what is expected of them.  This applys to UWCs, to NGOs, to governments, to everything.  One lesson that I am debating in my head is what Barbara told me right before I left for Kosova, "Don't be a candle that burns at both ends."  What is the tipping point between excelling and doing a lot of things and doing too much!  It is easy to want to do more than is possible at UWCiM because there is so much potential and passion.  

    Back on topic, we were barely able to land in D.C. because the snow was falling thickly and the wind was blowing quite hard.  The scrapers and trucks and workers couldn't keep the runways clean and the planes de-iced.  I found out later that our flight was actually not supposed to leave from Vienna, but I am glad that it did - even though I am not home to Portland, I am at least back in the US and across the Atlantic Ocean.  We landed, but weren't able to escape the plane for an hour, and when we finally did we had to wait for our baggage for an hour to an hour and a half.  Well, when we finally got that we had a mini celebration, then went to brave the news about our flights to Oregon and Michigan.  Turns out all the flights for the rest of the night were canceled and the airport was officially closed but all the people who are stranded are allowed to spend the night here.  It is quite a nice environment, everybody is really friendly.

    I got REALLY lucky!  I have a guardian angel, because I went to reschedule my flight for as soon as possible, and originally the guy said unfortunately the soonest he could get me a flight would be on Wednesday the 23rd.  I was close to losing hope, but he kept on looking and I was praying and crossing my fingers and he really wanted to help me get a flight sooner.  Thank goodness he kept looking, because he somehow found me the last ticket for a flight to San Francisco at 6:45 Sunday (this) morning and then FINALLY a flight to Portland at 10 AM (but you need to take into account the time difference.)  So since about 7 this evening I've been hanging out in the airport.  Everybody is really friendly here, because we all a common bond - we're all trapped here trying to get planes to where we need to go.  There are lots of international travelers trying to get to foreign countries.  Right now its just a little past midnight, and I am sitting with a group of students studying at universities in the US, but originally from Qatar, and I also had a conversation with several guys from Mumbai who are trying to get home to the sunshine.  A girl named Zainab  And several young guys in the navy who don't have very much experience.  Ratatoui is playing on a laptop.  Christmas jazz music is playing in the background.

    So many questions are running through my mind right now, as I go through this transition back home I'm really reflecting on the past five months.  I'm noticing many differences between the US and Bosnia, and Europe.  Things that I wasn't even conscience of before.  I need to think about this a little more and then I will add it :) 

   Now I need to sleep myself on the carousal, pray that I can leave in the morning as well as Dane!

Love,

Hilary  

I woke up this morning in Kosovo and it was snowing!

Good Morning Everybody!

I'm in Kosovo right now for a two day Social Issues conference directed by the American School in Kosovo.  The school is located in the capital city Prishtina - and this morning we woke up and a blanket of snow covered all the rooftops and the ground and flakes are still gently swirling down :)
     It is beautiful, and reminds me of all the Christmas feelings :)  To everybody back in Portland, I hope that you are also enjoying your winter storm that blew in!  I hope that it doesn't last a week, because in exactly a week from today I AM COMING HOME!  At the beginning of the year Christmas seemed like an eternity and it literally feels like the time has passed in only a few days.  Although I do not want to leave Mostar, and all the amazing new friends and family that I have there - I am really looking forward to coming home.  Because there is no place like home for the holidays.
    The conference here is very interesting.  Students from all over the Balkan region are doing research presentations on social issues in their region.  Shaked and I did a project together titled, "Educational Reforms in Post-Conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina."  We had a successful presentation yesterday, even though there were minor technical difficulties with power stopping several times.  The educational system in BiH is a central topic of discussion, especially at UWCiM because it is very segregated and georaphically separated between the three ethnic groups (Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs).
   While in the conference,  I realized that these presentations are great - but what really needs to be done is to take the suggestions each of these students make to improve the situation AND PUT THEM INTO PRACTIC.  Students are not too young to make a difference.  So, even though plans are still in the pre-infant stage I want to organize a youth conference with students from all ethnicities to come together and discuss how the education system can be reformed.  Hopefully we could cooperate with the OSCE, and there would be presentations, debates, and most of all lots of discussion - finally concluding with some sort of unified statement about what students think about Educational Reforms.
    I also learned a lot about the history and current affairs here in Kosovo.  This state only gained independence from Serbia in April of 2008, but Serbia and several other countries still do not recognize its indepdence.  The US has played a huge role here over the years, first when President Wilson created Albania and then secondly, and more recently when President Clinton saved Kosovo in 1999.  Because of this people here I can truly say are obsessed with the US.  They have a street named Bill Clinton street.  They have statues of US presidents.  American flags fly from flag poles.  And students dream of studing in the US.  The majority of people speak English and people know the current affairs and history of the US really well.  The capital city Prishtina is an interesting mixture - trying to be "American" but it is also very undeveloped and run down in many ways.  Kosovo is one of the poorest countries in Europe.  But there is a sense of optimism running through the people here.  Even though currently there are many trials, economically and political corruption, they still have a lot of hope for a better future.  Now we are going on a tour of Prishtina to see the historical sights, like the Newborn sign, and Bill Clinton street and then off to another day of Presentations.
   I am here with Shaked my roomy from Israel, Isabelle my good friend from Holland, Ana Filipovic from BiH, Marko from BiH, and two teachers Mr. Raymond Lewis (Economics teacher from Wales) and Dzenan (pronounced Jennan) the history teacher from BiH.
   Last remark, Happy 17th Birthday Fiona!  I wish you all the best, Hilary motto - dream big, and then turn those dreams into reality :)

Yours Always,

Hilary

The First Day of December

December 1^st, 2009

First off, I cannot believe how quickly the days, weeks, and months are flying by.  Even the days seem to zoom past in a second, but when I look back it seems like much more time has passed than actually has because each day is jam packed with work, school, friends, amazing conversations, projects, dreams, goals, and most of all Adventures.

                This past week has been especially adventurous, because first I was in northern Bosnia and Serbia with Milica and Shaked, as I said before and now I am finishing my third day in the Open European Debate competition.  I didn’t believe that I could say this, but each day here is even longer than days back at school, because there are no breaks.  Most of the day we are either debating or preparing for the debate, and during the mornings and evenings we are still thinking about the motions.

                Each morning I am waking up at six o’clock to arrive at school by seven, because that is when classes for my host sister Oana start.  I attended German classes this morning, and ironically they were debating in class – about whether to extend the school day, because classes end a little after noon. 

Each morning there have been organized activities for the debaters to do, as well as prepare for the two upcoming debates in the afternoon.  This morning was a lot of fun for me, because a group of ten or so people were invited to go to a local bakery and learn how to make and bake pretzels.  So, we watched the bakers operate all the fancy equipment that mix and cut the dough into equal pieces, and then we rolled and twisted the balls of dough into pretzels!  Then we coated them with butter and salt crystals with another machine, and loaded them into the huge ovens to bake for only 12 minutes before they popped out hot, delicious, and golden brown.  Yummy!

Yesterday morning, we attended the famous Christmas market in the center of Stuttgart.  It is a beautiful place because the huge square in the center of the city is filled with booths selling gifts, ornaments, food, and a large fresh vegetable market with all sorts of oddities.  I felt my Christmas spirit begin to glow, and to my dear family and friends in Portland, I cannot wait to decorate the Christmas tree with you, bake cookies, make gingerbread houses, spend time with family, go adventuring, spend time relaxing with friends, eat our traditional seafood Christmas dinner, and find a special way to show my loved ones that I care.  In Mostar, the Christmas spirit isn’t as evident because half of the population of Mostar is Islamic and they do not celebrate Christmas.  But, still it is around the corner, there is a lot to happen in the next twenty days before I finally arrive home.  And I am focusing on living in the moment, because I really do cherish each moment because I am so thankful and always curious about something new.

Then the rest of the day, until eight o’cock tonight was consumed with debating, first preparation for the debates, and then the actual debating.  The two motions for today were:

THBT = This house believes that….

THBT…ferocious animals should not be kept as domestic pets.  (Opposition)

THBT…profit-making dominates healthcare.  (Proposition)          

The great news is that all three of us, Ingrid, Marius, and I learned from our mistakes yesterday, and really improved our speeches for today.  And we won BOTH debates!

Once again, tomorrow we have two more debates, the first one is an impromptu debate, so we receive the motion one hour before to prepare, and the second motion is THBT people are too quick to applaud Obama.  So tonight I need to collect all the information together and write the outline of the debate.

Basic format, for each team there are three speakers, each speech is eight minutes, and then the 4^th speech is a reply speech of only four minutes.  My forte is the third speech because it provides the majority of the rebuttal – and I get to be fiery and passionate and prove that opposition points are completely wrong.  Dad, I completely attribute my great debate skills to you.  Our debates throughout my life made me prepared for even the hardest most experienced opponents.  You would do very well, of this I have no doubt.

This evening, after returning home I ate a delicious Romanian meal prepared by my house mom.  Then with Oana’s German speaking skills we called my distant relative Dieter (my Grandpa’s 1^st cousin?) who lives in Stuttgart, to say hello and see if he wanted to meet.  It worked out very well, and he is planning to come to my host families home tomorrow evening after I am done debating!  I really hope that it goes well, I’m very excited to meet him.  Also, I hope to get in contact with my Grandmother’s best childhood friend, who also lives here.

So, big day for tomorrow – I need a little bit of rest J

Good Night and the updates will continue.

Yours,

Hilary Anna          

I am thankful because….

I am very blessed.

I am at a debate competition in Stuttgart right now

                I have wonderful teammates, Ingrid Fiedler (USA) and Marius Kat (Netherlands)

                We won our first two debates, and we learned a lot of lesson from the two that we lost.

                Our preparation went well tonight, so we should have a strong base tomorrow.

                Stuttgart is a beautiful city, I especially love the Christmas Market it is really bringing the holiday cheer.

I have a surprise from my roommates waiting at home, and they refuse to tell me what it is. (Torture.)

SHAKED AND I WERE SELECTED TO PRESENT OUR RESEARCH PROJECT IN A CONVERENCE IN KOSOVO on the 11^th and 12^th of December at the American School of Kosovo.

                Our project is: Education Reform in Post-Conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina

I had a wonderful vacation and Thanksgiving with Milica’s family and Shaked in North-Eastern Bosnia.

I am surrounded by people that I love, and that I know love me, a deep love, not an artificial one.

                Little things makes this evident.

                Sometimes I don’t know how to show them how much I completely appreciate their influence and presence in my life.

WE WILL HAVE FIRST YEARS NEXT YEAR  (attached is the short letter from our headmaster with confirmation)

Dear students

I am pleased to be able to inform you of the following:

Last Tuesday, after two days of extensive meetings in Sarajevo, the Executive Committee of the UWC-IBO Initiative authorized me to begin the process for the enrolment of a fifth generation of between 80 and 100 students for 2010-2012.

This is excellent news although a major funding challenge still lies ahead of us. I have already made provisional offers of 100 places to  National Committees, and will be following up on this with a firm notification of our intention to them after 15 December.

Best regards

Paul Regan

And the amazing thing is that this list could on for pages, I could write for ages about what has happened in just the last five days.  I arrived here yesterday but it seems like it has been a week.  There are so many insights, things that I have learned, people I have met, new experiences.

I traveled here all by myself on a bus from Belgrade, Serbia – and I’m trying to communicate in so many different languages and cultures.  I would never have believed everything that the Man up above had in store for me even six months ago.  I didn’t know that I was accepted into UWCiM six months ago.  Yesterday was the 3 month anniversary of my official life as a student at UWCiM, because on the night of the 29^th of August, 2009 was my first night staying in my dorm room.  So much has happened since that night, it is a legitimate usage of the word EPIC.

               

 Gute Nacht,

Hilary