If sophomore fall was the most pivotal of my semesters at Harvard (according to the blog entry about it I just read, anyway), then junior fall was probably the least.
I predicted at its start that it would be a “nothing” semester, in terms of stressing out about classes and stressing out about social affairs, and for the most part, it was. Since I took two classes in Vienna over the summer which counted for Harvard credit, I decided that I could take three classes this semester instead of four. I had somewhat grandiose ideas for what I would be doing with time that would have otherwise been spent in a class, but didn’t really accomplish anything major. I’m not too disappointed, though. With the time that I had, I was able to:
• think deeply about what I was doing and continue thinking about what I may want to do in the future
• truly enjoy being with my amazing friends without stressing out about work that needed to be done and rushing our meetings
• fulfill my extracurricular responsibilities
• devote myself wholly to the work I did have to do for my classes instead of halfheartedly rush through readings and assignments
• impulsively do things off campus and attend cool events around campus, of which there are so many!
Of course, all the extra time also meant that I spent an awful lot of time by myself, and having always been someone subject to excessive introspection, I sometimes found myself plagued by self-doubt and fear of the future. This was mostly in the beginning of the semester, but once I settled into a routine, the thoughts bothered me less.
Something that kind of failed was going to the gym four times a week. I was so disappointed to see that they had canceled 7:15 am Zumba (which in previous semesters I would regularly go to 2-3 times a week), which meant that I had to actually branch out and try other things at other times. I think the class I went to most consistently was 9 am Pilates on Tuesdays, which was something I hadn’t done before and quite good for me. I also tried to do 11 am BollyX (kinda like a Bollywood version of Zumba) on Wednesdays, 7:15 am Cardio Kick on Fridays, and 11:30 am Zumba on Saturdays. Those were much harder to go to consistently, thanks to them being at such odd times. I found myself sleeping a lot more this semester so Cardio Kick was sometimes hard to make, and lunch plans and other things got in the way of BollyX and Zumba a lot. Either way, I’m glad I still found some time to go to the gym and exercise. At least I also got to bike and walk around a lot!
(What was the point of that last paragraph, I don’t know, but it’s my blog so I can write whatever I want.)
Probably the main point of this semester was dedicating my life to two particular countries where I will be spending much of 2017 in, planning and preparing for my upcoming travels and whatnot. If you would like to find these two countries next to each other on a list besides “Countries Amanda Flores will spend time in in 2017,” check out #1 and #2 on this list: http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm
So in what ways did I spend my time dedicating my life to these two countries?
Rwanda: I took beginners’ Kinyarwanda this semester, which is the language spoken there. Considering it’s my first African language (though not my first non Indo-European language), I had a lot of fun! It was quite different and challenging, but being a major language nerd, I really enjoyed learning. I also applied to a study abroad program (this one, so I don’t have to explain anything), got in, and had to deal with a lot of logistical things throughout the semester to prepare for my visit to Rwanda through this program. To keep a long story short, I decided to go to Rwanda for a semester because a) I just wanted to go to Africa for a semester since it’s the last inhabited continent I have to visit and I wanted to learn an African language by doing so; b) Harvard would pay for it; and c) I’ve known people from/who have been to Rwanda and have heard so much about it, and in general would like to see it for myself.
Bolivia: LOL LIKE I DON’T MENTION THIS COUNTRY ENOUGH. I already knew that I wanted to go back to Bolivia to do field work for thesis research, so from the start of the anthropology junior tutorial I was working towards that goal. Basically in junior tutorial, you’re in a small group and each person develops their own research projects by doing various assignments (like looking up relevant histories, finding critical literature, etc.) and sharing their work with the group in a workshop style. The final product of this course is the junior paper, which may or may not lead into a senior thesis. Of course, I worked on this class as if I were coming up with a thesis topic and writing a paper containing content which will go into my funding proposals, so it was very helpful. I think I’ve found an appropriately narrowed-down topic, and although I haven’t yet perfected an elevator pitch to explain it, roughly it has to do with transnational human rights ideals vs. local realities (in particular the right to adequate housing as defined in the UN’s Convention on Cultural and Socioeconomic Rights), poverty, and the urban indigenous legal/cultural identity. Basically, I’ve somehow fallen into the hole of legal anthropology and managed to also squeeze in my obsession with cities into the idea of doing stuff with urban anthropology as well. The paper was supposed to be 10-12 pages long, but mine ended up being 13. I’m so glad to have found a topic I’m in love with and to return to a country I’ve fallen in love with to explore it further, because senior year I will be basically dedicating my life to this thesis so it better be something I like.
That being said, my last week at Harvard (for a while 😮) was kind of hectic. First of all, syllabi from 2/3 of my classes lied to me, because I thought the Kinyarwanda final would be the week before my last week, and I thought the junior paper was due on December 5th. I therefore thought I’d be done with everything on December 5th, so I decided to leave Harvard on December 9th and do my semesterly visit to New York on December 6th. Except whoops, turns out these are classes that don’t take their syllabi word for word, because Kinyarwanda decided to have its final on December 7th and the junior paper was actually due on December 9th. I still worked on the junior paper as though I had the December 5th deadline, and in some ways it was good the Kinyarwanda final wasn’t until later because I don’t think I would have been ready to take it the week before. But like, I was also randomly going to New York, leaving on a 7 am bus and not returning to Harvard till like 1 am, and I had already not gotten that much sleep the day before (because of quad formal and then needing to go to a review session on Monday the 5th), or the day after, because the final was at 10 am. Also, I’m not one to wake up even an hour before my first engagement of the day, because I just like taking my time in the morning. And then after Wednesday, I was preoccupied with packing up my entire room, so I couldn’t really sleep that much either. Then on Friday the 9th, when I was supposed to leave, it turned out my flight had been canceled, so I had to spend the morning trying to find a new one. And then this new flight (which I am on right now) left at 7 am. SEVEN AM. No rest for the wicked. I’m so sleepy. But I’ve gotten this and the missed GCs done, so I think I might spend the rest of this flight bumming around in my seat. That sounds good.
In the meantime, here’s a copy of the photo status I’ll be posting on Facebook to announce my extravagant 2017 plans and kind of say bye for now to Harvard/Boston.
After dedicating my life this semester to two countries, I might as well announce that I’ll be spending next semester in Rwanda studying post-genocide restoration and peacebuilding, and the summer in Bolivia doing thesis research on the human right to adequate housing in urban slums.
See you in September Boston, thanks for a formidable 2.5 years ❤️ Ni aho mu kwezi kwa kabiri Rwanda, luego nos vemos al fin de Mayo Bolivia! 🇷🇼 🇧🇴
P.S. Coincidentally, these two countries have something interesting in common...
I predicted at its start that it would be a “nothing” semester, in terms of stressing out about classes and stressing out about social affairs, and for the most part, it was. Since I took two classes in Vienna over the summer which counted for Harvard credit, I decided that I could take three classes this semester instead of four. I had somewhat grandiose ideas for what I would be doing with time that would have otherwise been spent in a class, but didn’t really accomplish anything major. I’m not too disappointed, though. With the time that I had, I was able to:
• think deeply about what I was doing and continue thinking about what I may want to do in the future
• truly enjoy being with my amazing friends without stressing out about work that needed to be done and rushing our meetings
• fulfill my extracurricular responsibilities
• devote myself wholly to the work I did have to do for my classes instead of halfheartedly rush through readings and assignments
• impulsively do things off campus and attend cool events around campus, of which there are so many!
Of course, all the extra time also meant that I spent an awful lot of time by myself, and having always been someone subject to excessive introspection, I sometimes found myself plagued by self-doubt and fear of the future. This was mostly in the beginning of the semester, but once I settled into a routine, the thoughts bothered me less.
Something that kind of failed was going to the gym four times a week. I was so disappointed to see that they had canceled 7:15 am Zumba (which in previous semesters I would regularly go to 2-3 times a week), which meant that I had to actually branch out and try other things at other times. I think the class I went to most consistently was 9 am Pilates on Tuesdays, which was something I hadn’t done before and quite good for me. I also tried to do 11 am BollyX (kinda like a Bollywood version of Zumba) on Wednesdays, 7:15 am Cardio Kick on Fridays, and 11:30 am Zumba on Saturdays. Those were much harder to go to consistently, thanks to them being at such odd times. I found myself sleeping a lot more this semester so Cardio Kick was sometimes hard to make, and lunch plans and other things got in the way of BollyX and Zumba a lot. Either way, I’m glad I still found some time to go to the gym and exercise. At least I also got to bike and walk around a lot!
(What was the point of that last paragraph, I don’t know, but it’s my blog so I can write whatever I want.)
Probably the main point of this semester was dedicating my life to two particular countries where I will be spending much of 2017 in, planning and preparing for my upcoming travels and whatnot. If you would like to find these two countries next to each other on a list besides “Countries Amanda Flores will spend time in in 2017,” check out #1 and #2 on this list: http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm
So in what ways did I spend my time dedicating my life to these two countries?
Rwanda: I took beginners’ Kinyarwanda this semester, which is the language spoken there. Considering it’s my first African language (though not my first non Indo-European language), I had a lot of fun! It was quite different and challenging, but being a major language nerd, I really enjoyed learning. I also applied to a study abroad program (this one, so I don’t have to explain anything), got in, and had to deal with a lot of logistical things throughout the semester to prepare for my visit to Rwanda through this program. To keep a long story short, I decided to go to Rwanda for a semester because a) I just wanted to go to Africa for a semester since it’s the last inhabited continent I have to visit and I wanted to learn an African language by doing so; b) Harvard would pay for it; and c) I’ve known people from/who have been to Rwanda and have heard so much about it, and in general would like to see it for myself.
Bolivia: LOL LIKE I DON’T MENTION THIS COUNTRY ENOUGH. I already knew that I wanted to go back to Bolivia to do field work for thesis research, so from the start of the anthropology junior tutorial I was working towards that goal. Basically in junior tutorial, you’re in a small group and each person develops their own research projects by doing various assignments (like looking up relevant histories, finding critical literature, etc.) and sharing their work with the group in a workshop style. The final product of this course is the junior paper, which may or may not lead into a senior thesis. Of course, I worked on this class as if I were coming up with a thesis topic and writing a paper containing content which will go into my funding proposals, so it was very helpful. I think I’ve found an appropriately narrowed-down topic, and although I haven’t yet perfected an elevator pitch to explain it, roughly it has to do with transnational human rights ideals vs. local realities (in particular the right to adequate housing as defined in the UN’s Convention on Cultural and Socioeconomic Rights), poverty, and the urban indigenous legal/cultural identity. Basically, I’ve somehow fallen into the hole of legal anthropology and managed to also squeeze in my obsession with cities into the idea of doing stuff with urban anthropology as well. The paper was supposed to be 10-12 pages long, but mine ended up being 13. I’m so glad to have found a topic I’m in love with and to return to a country I’ve fallen in love with to explore it further, because senior year I will be basically dedicating my life to this thesis so it better be something I like.
That being said, my last week at Harvard (for a while 😮) was kind of hectic. First of all, syllabi from 2/3 of my classes lied to me, because I thought the Kinyarwanda final would be the week before my last week, and I thought the junior paper was due on December 5th. I therefore thought I’d be done with everything on December 5th, so I decided to leave Harvard on December 9th and do my semesterly visit to New York on December 6th. Except whoops, turns out these are classes that don’t take their syllabi word for word, because Kinyarwanda decided to have its final on December 7th and the junior paper was actually due on December 9th. I still worked on the junior paper as though I had the December 5th deadline, and in some ways it was good the Kinyarwanda final wasn’t until later because I don’t think I would have been ready to take it the week before. But like, I was also randomly going to New York, leaving on a 7 am bus and not returning to Harvard till like 1 am, and I had already not gotten that much sleep the day before (because of quad formal and then needing to go to a review session on Monday the 5th), or the day after, because the final was at 10 am. Also, I’m not one to wake up even an hour before my first engagement of the day, because I just like taking my time in the morning. And then after Wednesday, I was preoccupied with packing up my entire room, so I couldn’t really sleep that much either. Then on Friday the 9th, when I was supposed to leave, it turned out my flight had been canceled, so I had to spend the morning trying to find a new one. And then this new flight (which I am on right now) left at 7 am. SEVEN AM. No rest for the wicked. I’m so sleepy. But I’ve gotten this and the missed GCs done, so I think I might spend the rest of this flight bumming around in my seat. That sounds good.
In the meantime, here’s a copy of the photo status I’ll be posting on Facebook to announce my extravagant 2017 plans and kind of say bye for now to Harvard/Boston.
After dedicating my life this semester to two countries, I might as well announce that I’ll be spending next semester in Rwanda studying post-genocide restoration and peacebuilding, and the summer in Bolivia doing thesis research on the human right to adequate housing in urban slums.
See you in September Boston, thanks for a formidable 2.5 years ❤️ Ni aho mu kwezi kwa kabiri Rwanda, luego nos vemos al fin de Mayo Bolivia! 🇷🇼 🇧🇴
P.S. Coincidentally, these two countries have something interesting in common...
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