Borderland Edition

So, Hurricane Hannah is supposed to hit the east coast this weekend, bringing rain and wind. Just in time for the 100-mile C&O Bike Ride! It’ll still be fun, I’ll just be muddy all weekend. When I found out that we had to meet in Georgetown I thought of skipping the whole thing since that means I’ll have to drive into DC, but I decided to suck it up and just enjoy the hour or so in traffic it’ll take to go ten measly miles. Staying at home playing with Oracle for hours and hours would’ve been lame anyway. Plus, I already raised the money and paid for the hotel. I’m excited about staying in the hotel by the way, it’s like a mini-vacation.

I’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures of the muddy mess that it’s sure to be.

So I decided to do a 100-mile bike ride in September. I need to raise $500 in donations for the ride by the end of July. Here’s your chance to do something good as well as encourage me to ride 100 miles on a mountain bike. The link for donations is below. Go ahead, donate something, I know you want to.

Fundraising Page

Don’t forget.

I usually get to work earlier than everyone else. Well, I guess the correct way of saying is that I arrive at the office before most everyone. I don’t usually start work straight away because I need to check my email, read the news briefs, catch up on a few blogs, and other assortment things that one needs to do on the Internet.

I’m still working on getting settled into the D.C. area. It feels like I’ve been roaming since December, but I’m finally in a more, semi-permanent living situation now. Although who knows how long that will last. The commute is a bit awkward because the house isn’t as close to the metro as I had thought. Walking home at night isn’t as enjoyable as I had thought. I decided to take the MARC (commuter train) today. The 7:17am train was canceled I discovered so I waited for the 7:38 train. The train seems to be quicker than the metro and I like the sound of the train rolling along the tracks, it reminds me of Ukraine. It’s interesting to me how often trains are delayed or the metro breaks down. Public transportation in D.C. seems to be less reliable and less convenient than in some developing countries. At first I was annoyed by the delay caused by the cancelled train but then I realized it doesn’t really matter if I am 30 minutes or an hour late even. My job is not that important. In fact, it doesn’t matter if most of the people on the train/metro are late. Important people fly around in helicopters so they are never late.

As I was walking out of the train station towards the escalators down to 10th street, I ran into a large crowd of people waiting to use the escalator so I avoided the crowd and took the longer route around the building. As I walked, I thought of the important things I must do today. They aren’t really important at all and I’m lucky to have such small problems such as not receiving my Political Russian textbook yet, even though it’s the third week of class.

I’ve heard rumors that Madeleine Albright is here today for some conference. I’m not sure if that’s true or not. It would be fun to run into a famous person at work. Although I’d rather meet Condi than Madi. We could chat about Russia and Putin for a bit before she went to the conference and I went back to making websites. As I should do now…

** Update ** Two weeks+ after I ordered the textbook and three phone calls later I finally got an update on my precious shipment of one Political Russian book. I spoke with a lady named Sam, who was actually helpful, at the bookstore and she tracked the package down to a delivery truck. So, inshallah, by tomorrow at this time I will be browsing the pages of a brand new Russian textbook. Darn, life is exciting…

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted here. Life has been quite busy lately as I’ve embarked on a new adventure. This time I decided to stay in-country for the journey. After visiting Washington DC in February, I decided that I wanted to move here to restart life in America after Peace Corps. DC is an exciting place with lots of interesting opportunities. I started work two weeks ago at a non-profit organizations that works to find practical ways to protect the earth and improve people’s lives around the globe by providing information and proposals for development. I’m currently working on a project that involves designing a map-based web application to view funding allocation to third-world countries in Africa, Central Asia and the Caucasus as well as allowing user-defined scenarios to display how modifications in the funding allocations would change specific situations. For me, it’s a cool confluence of using technology to make an impact on policy and people’s understanding of the world.

This summer I’m thinking of registering for an intensive political Russian course at John Hopkins University. It’ll be pretty sweet - three hours of class, four nights a week, for eight weeks. In addition to giving me a chance to continue studying Russian, I’ll get a feel of my capacity for hardcore studying and time management required of pursuing a Master’s degree.

So, yes, exciting things are on the horizon. The cherry blossoms are about to bloom beneath the watchful eyes of Mr. Lincoln and the long winter is finally coming to a close.