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Showing posts from June, 2015

Week 44: The "I Made It Moment"

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It’s been a phenomenal, once in a lifetime learning journey - my Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship. It’s been an amazing year filled with friendships for life, laughter and joy, reunions and get-togethers, cheerfulness and bliss. But it's also been quite a challenging year marked by nostalgia, lonely nights, tears, disappointments and frustration. It's been a year of determination and perseverance. And courage. And  I made it happen.

Week 43: America Is Its People

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The question everybody asks me these days is what I like about the US most and what I'll miss most when I get home. I'm definitely going to miss the rich multicultural diversity of its people. For me, America is its people. Open-minded, generous, kind, helpful, supportive, warm-hearted, caring - people who have made my Fellowship year a once in a life time experience.

Week 42: Living in Virginia

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Living outside of DC has its advantages and disadvantages. I commute to the District every day. It’s not a long commute, about 30 minutes on a good day. Traffic in DC is heavy, parking is scarce and expensive so lots of people use public transportation to get to the City (New Yorkers would say there is only one City and that’s not DC!). Because of that, buses and metro run frequently during the week, but at weekends they get really slow. So I tend to spend weekends in Alexandria instead of going to DC. I live in an affluent neighborhood where people know their neighbors, where even I know my neighbors. Passers by say hi to me even though I don’t know them. This is a neighborhood watch area and people often get together, like at the potluck by the community pool this past weekend.