Life has been settling back into the school life, and I have to admit, I am out of practice. That being said, we are also in ‘class’ 6 hours a day, which is a lot of brain time. So far though, finding most of it quite interesting. This week our focus has been on conflict prevention. It has been a bit of a crash course for me in a few areas and have been getting back into the more poli sci oriented things, but some of it is definitely coming back, and with the added dimension of my legal studies. Lecturers have included William Zartman from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Terrance Hopmann also from SAIS, Joyce Neu who is a mediator from the Carter Center and David Francis from the University of Bradford. We’ve covered everything from the primary drivers of conflict, to inter-state organizations such as the OSCE, Women in conflict prevention and an analysis of peace and security architecture in Africa, focusing on the African Union. It’s been good.
On Thursday morning, we took part in a simulation of an OSCE meeting taking place in 1993 where each participant took the role as either a country representative, an observing party or an individual member of the Troika (the administrative structure of the OSCE). I was Josef somebody-or-other, the past chair-in-office. It meant that I got to be an organizer and help the Current chair-in-office, some lady from Sweden (played by Jaroslav from Czech Republic) organize the meeting and facilitate the discussion between multiple parties. I thought it was pretty great how into it all people got and how they really did their research and sorted out the position of their country. The goal of the whole meeting was to step in and help create a peace agreement in the Bosnian crisis. It was interesting to put some of what we’ve learned into practice.
Ok, now for the Italy side of it all. It’s been good, but busy. We have a lovely roof terrace at the hotel and it is not uncommon to have thirty of us up there having a dinner of bread, cheese and a variety of fruits and veg, which for me clearly involves avocado. It is a beautiful view of old Bologna and all the towers.
Wednesday, I decided I wanted to walk up to St. Luca, which is this beautiful basilica overlooking the city. We can see it from the roof and decided it would be a great walk. We don’t have class Wednesday afternoon, but there was a screening of a documentary about reconciliation in Rwanda, so after that, around 5:30, Nick (from Oregon) and Michael (from Oz) and I started the walk. It was a cool walk through the city and I have to say, I really love the porticos all over the city. Well, although the walk seemed like a good idea, it was the walk that never seemed to end. We finally got to the base of the hill on which St. Luca is, and I have to admit, the stairs looked very daunting. We finally made it to the top, after a million stairs (note: everything in Italy apparently involves a lot of stairs), only to find the gate closed. I knew that it was supposed to close at 7, but we still had 10 minutes according to my watch. I was not impressed. Anyways, we ended up having dinner up at the top. Elisa (my roommate from Italy), Matt (from Washington DC) and Thiago (from Brazil) met us there. After dinner we had the joy of the walk down, which I have to say was way better then up. We stopped for amazing gelato on the way back. I was so glad to see my bed when we finally arrived at the hotel.
Yesterday, we mixed up the food a bit and 10 of us went out for Indian. It was wonderful. I have to admit, I am getting a bit tired of pasta, paninis and pizza (which is quite shocking). Afterwards, we went out to celebrate Thiago’s birthday. Going dancing in Italy is always quite amusing – first I swear half the people there are 10. Anyways, it was a great night out. One of my favourite points was having James (from Oz) teach his roommate Usman (from Pakistan) to dance. Jacob (US) and I stepped in and helped out as well. However, allowing Jacob and I to help may have been a bad idea as we both love the dorky dancing. Anyways, we taught him how to do the sprinkler.
I think I am going to stick around Bologna today and maybe head out towards the Adriatic coast tomorrow – oh decisions.
On Thursday morning, we took part in a simulation of an OSCE meeting taking place in 1993 where each participant took the role as either a country representative, an observing party or an individual member of the Troika (the administrative structure of the OSCE). I was Josef somebody-or-other, the past chair-in-office. It meant that I got to be an organizer and help the Current chair-in-office, some lady from Sweden (played by Jaroslav from Czech Republic) organize the meeting and facilitate the discussion between multiple parties. I thought it was pretty great how into it all people got and how they really did their research and sorted out the position of their country. The goal of the whole meeting was to step in and help create a peace agreement in the Bosnian crisis. It was interesting to put some of what we’ve learned into practice.
Ok, now for the Italy side of it all. It’s been good, but busy. We have a lovely roof terrace at the hotel and it is not uncommon to have thirty of us up there having a dinner of bread, cheese and a variety of fruits and veg, which for me clearly involves avocado. It is a beautiful view of old Bologna and all the towers.
Wednesday, I decided I wanted to walk up to St. Luca, which is this beautiful basilica overlooking the city. We can see it from the roof and decided it would be a great walk. We don’t have class Wednesday afternoon, but there was a screening of a documentary about reconciliation in Rwanda, so after that, around 5:30, Nick (from Oregon) and Michael (from Oz) and I started the walk. It was a cool walk through the city and I have to say, I really love the porticos all over the city. Well, although the walk seemed like a good idea, it was the walk that never seemed to end. We finally got to the base of the hill on which St. Luca is, and I have to admit, the stairs looked very daunting. We finally made it to the top, after a million stairs (note: everything in Italy apparently involves a lot of stairs), only to find the gate closed. I knew that it was supposed to close at 7, but we still had 10 minutes according to my watch. I was not impressed. Anyways, we ended up having dinner up at the top. Elisa (my roommate from Italy), Matt (from Washington DC) and Thiago (from Brazil) met us there. After dinner we had the joy of the walk down, which I have to say was way better then up. We stopped for amazing gelato on the way back. I was so glad to see my bed when we finally arrived at the hotel.
Yesterday, we mixed up the food a bit and 10 of us went out for Indian. It was wonderful. I have to admit, I am getting a bit tired of pasta, paninis and pizza (which is quite shocking). Afterwards, we went out to celebrate Thiago’s birthday. Going dancing in Italy is always quite amusing – first I swear half the people there are 10. Anyways, it was a great night out. One of my favourite points was having James (from Oz) teach his roommate Usman (from Pakistan) to dance. Jacob (US) and I stepped in and helped out as well. However, allowing Jacob and I to help may have been a bad idea as we both love the dorky dancing. Anyways, we taught him how to do the sprinkler.
I think I am going to stick around Bologna today and maybe head out towards the Adriatic coast tomorrow – oh decisions.
No comments:
Post a Comment