Julie L

Right? It’s always funny how much time goes by between writing blog posts. It’s the classic phenomena of feeling like it was a short yet long amount of time between events. So since I last wrote, it has felt like months and hours. The main things I’ve been focused on are my internships, working at the hostel, looking for other jobs and places to live, and making friends. My internship has also been paradoxical, busy and yet not. We accomplish a lot of work but it feels very slow and I don’t necessarily feel like I’m doing a good job. I have two main projects. One is working on researching and writing a proposal about the role of religious groups on post-conflict development/reconstruction and their interaction with political parties. Apparently this issue hasn’t been studied very ... read more

I have been learning so much during my 2 weeks here. It’s election time which has been very enlightening on the political situation of DC. Apparently there are no representatives with voting power in the House or Senate which creates a unique situation for our government capital. Other things I’ve learnt about DC are the different neighborhoods and people inhabiting the district. Although normally not a runner, I have been really into running around the magnificent places in DC. I recently expanded my run from Union Station, the Capitol Building and Washington Monument to include the Whitehouse, Lincoln, WWII, and Korean War memorials. Running has become a metaphor for my transition in DC- a completely different mental and physical state than I’m used to. I’ve realized that each of us has hidden capacity to accomplish things ... read more

Hello all, It's been awhile since I have written and I decided as this is a new adventure I should start again. Hopefully this blog won't only help you keep up on my life but also help me deconstruct everything going on. So many things are new and I have so much to get used to that everyday feels overwhelmingly difficult. As this is my first week things are still very hectic and I will write soon about how I arrived in DC, my first week and my observations. Thanks for your interest in my life! Please keep me up to date on what is happening in your lives as well. Julie... read more

A couple things I feel I haven’t talked about: People are very proud to be Indian and being from the same country is a uniting factor just like in the US; however, each state has its own identity that might even override their patriotism. More people turn out for local level elections than national elections and an Indian person will always identify where they are from. Each state has its own dishes and traditions that people follow and make it very hard to generalize India. People in Maharashtra, the state I live in, especially are proud of where they are from. So the food I’m eating, the culture I’m experience, is Maharashtran. If I was in the South, where Hindi is abhorred and things are more liberal, or up north where the very poor live and ... read more

On Tuesday the 29th of September Sandhya, the coordinator of my program, came to take me to Chaitanya. I was unsure if Chaitanya was a town or the name of the organization I was going to work with and basically unsure of anything where I was going. We went by a car and drove through the most beautiful scenery. We kept rising in the mountains and went through a beautiful mountain pass. The sparse houses and green hills surrounding us in contrast to the buildings of Mumbai created so much excitement for what was to come. I arrived in Rajgurunagar or Khed (same town) mid-afternoon and went to Chaitanya, which turns out to be an organization. Rajgurunagar has two names because it was renamed after India’s independence from England for a famous freedom, Rajguru, who was ... read more