Update

MeMUNC is over, the semester is over, the thesis is just going through a few tweeks, Graduation is done, the Family have returned home, Oliver Kahn has retired, Hitzfield has left Bayern for the Swiss National team, and worst of all: the Bundesliga Season is over.

Oh well, guess I'll have to watch the Champions League final on Wednesday and then take in the Euro Cup (starting in 21 days) ... damn. Even worse - I'll be watching a handful of games in Paris.

On  more serious note, Dr. B and I talked about what the post-semester (read: season) slump would be like. Although I have kept busy with MeMUNC and next week I have pleanty of work at the Trade Center, and after that, hopefully a job, it is still tough to be done with the work I really enjoy - academia. Now it's time to reflect on the next step, whatever that may be. Top choice is still Right To Play - but I may find myself unqualified for the position. Alternatives are the State Dept., general work in a variety of locals (UK, Germany, France, US).

In more immediate terms, working for the PUSL this summer will be good, and might even get me the experience needed for joining Right To Play. Beyond the fact that RTP works with sports as a way to restore communities (see all of the below entries for the many problems this brings with it...), my attraction to the program is also that it takes place outside of the west. I continue to be fascinated with places I've never been and are entirely different from those I have been.

Why is this? I had a discussion with E about this yesterday. It seems connected to my ideological perspective that we should also live without borders, both mental and physical (at least as far as they prevent us from moving, and existing, as freely as we want. My lack of roots or any "real" homebase is another important factor. I not only live as a sort of modern nomad, but I also feel most comfortable advocating philosophies and ideology that suggests nomadic life as a solution to global problems.

I have no roots to create a strong nationalistic identity for myself, no religion to retrain me from moving into new cultures. I was educated with other global nomads in a school system designed, in many ways to socialize us into a western ideology, yet it also demanded tolerance of difference. I follow a philosophy that advocates against being obsessive about your identity and trying to control the chaos in the world. As a result: I constantly seek expansion and change outside of myself - so as to stretch what is inside.

Film Recommendation: La Commune (Paris 1871)