Update on Kelsey from Leah

Hi, this is Leah... I'm one of Kelsey's best friends. As we talking on the phone, she mentioned some internet difficulties, as in, not being able to get on. And I, stupidly, decided to allow her to dictate to me. She wanted me to let you know that she working on getting things updated. She has them all written out, she just can't get to the internet. She'll try to get them up tonight, but no guarantees!

NEW ORLEANS SPRING BREAK!

Well today the first group of HU students headed down to the 'big easy'. At this point I don't believe that New Orleans can be described as either big or easy. The population that has returned is still from what I understand dismal and the work that still has to be done is incredibly difficult and a long process ahead. I am very excited to be going down again and to see what has changed in the past year.
Last night I got a phone call from a woman named Elnora. Some of you may recall stories I have told about this amazing and couragous woman. I sent her a letter a few weeks ago saying we were coming down again and I am looking forward to the opportunity to meet with her again, she truly is an inspiration and it will be wonderful to see how she has done living in New Orleans over the past year.
I am terribly excited about this trip and can't wait until the plane flight tomorrow. I am a little uneasy due to the fact that I am the only authority figure going down tomorrow and am responsible for getting all the rest of the students to NOLA safetly. Don't get me wrong, I love traveling but group travel can be slighly nerve wracking and problems tend to arise when there are large groups traveling together.
I hope the rest of my group members have arrived safetly (or will in a few hours time) and I can't wait to be down there myself. I'll be sure to update as soon as I get a chance and let you know what I'm thinking and how things are going!

New Semester

Tomorrow begins a new semester, one that will prove to be quite exciting. I started an internship that is really just a volunteer position at United Hospital in St. Paul. I am enjoying it thus far. I've put in nearly 20 hours already. Up till now I've been working in an area called patient discarge escort service. Basically I cart patients around the hospital mostly for admitting and discharge. I get to meet a lot of patients and some even talk with me about the medical procedures they have gone through. That is the most exciting part for me. Thursday I'll begin a new area of volunteering. I'll be working in a Nursing Unit. I dont' know what I'll be doing yet, but I'm excited to begin it.
I'm only taking two real classes this semester: Physics and Death and Dying (religion course). My other courses are the internship, an independant study in German, band, and biology seminar. I'll still be keeping busy though, I will be starting a MCAT prep course in March and have to start studying for it soon. My date to take it is May 31st. The countdown has begun.
I have been applying for summer research positions at many different places. My number one choice would be an internship under a PhD student in German, number two would probably be in Boulder, CO doing cancer research and then all the other positions fall under those two.
That's about all for now, I'm still chair of MPIRG's Homelessness and Affordable Housing Task Force, I'll be planning the Famine for this spring, I'll be leading a group of HU students to New Orleans for reconstruction work over spring break, and still working three jobs on campus.

Hurricane Worker's Reunion

This evening I worked and attended an event on campus that was basically a bunch of people that live in the twin cities and surrounding areas who have gone down to New Orleans since the hurricane and helped. They brought in a pastor from First Street in N.O. and a woman who works at the church, there was also a movie that was a documentary type film that talked a lot about what type of work was being done in N.O. and what needed to be done and what people were doing. It was really encouraging to see so many people there and to see that there is so much being done and that that many people are dedicated to helping our fellow citizens.

On a different note tomorrow I will be attending the pre-conference part of HU-CORE (Hamline University - Conference on Race and Ethnicity). I am very excited about this conference because I think it will give me an opportunity to stretch my beliefs and to cement what I really believe and feel. I will be sure to write about it soon.

Good Morning

It has been a while so here is what I'm up to. Classes are still going and they continue to get more difficult. The first time serving dinner at the Simpson Men's Shelter this fall went wonderfully, however, there were only 3 of us serving. This Wednesday is the second time we're going over there and we will have possibly as many as 15 of us. One of the Freshman classes is going as a class trip, myself and a few of the MPIRG members who are a part of the homelessness and affordable housing task force with me are going as well. I have decided to plan a 3 or 4 day homelessness emersion either during J-term or right between the two terms. I'm thinking probably during J-term. I think it will really be an eye opening experience and one I will take with me for a very long time. I have begun to debate what activities I will do for the summer. I would like to travel because I love traveling, but I probably should do some significant research so I can put together a senior honors thesis and it looks better for med school.

Back to School

Today was the first day of school and it started quite well. This morning I had Biochemistry, Physics, and Theories of Personality. This afternoon I had band and then in about 45 minutes I have a meeting to go to for an orginization I took on a leadership position in (I'll let you know how it goes). Then tonight hopfully I will be watching the movie on the lawn and then possibly shopping at Target. Tomorrow I have Tennis, German, and Physics lab. Friday we don't have classes due to Staff/Faculty convocation. I love having 3 day weekends just after school starts!

The school year has barely started and I'm already wonderfully overwhelmed :)

Bye for now!

A few other blogs to check out

Here are the blogs I promised. The first is a blog from a lebanon resident and the second is a compilation of several people in northern israel. I have also added links to several wikipedia articles regarding the situation in the middle east.


http://cedarseed.livejournal.com/

http://israelnorthblog.livejournal.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Israel-Lebanon_conflict

Nearing end of summer

It has been a while since my last post and for that I apologize.

Summer has proceeded at a wonderful pace. I have spent the majority of it working at Essential Industries in Merton, WI.

The past two weeks I spent in Germany and Holland and it was thus far the highlight of my summer. If you ever make it to Cologne, Germany walking up to the top of the Cologne Dome is the most amazing and awesome thing I have done in a very long time. The view is georgous and well worth the painful hike up.

A ceasefire was finally declared between Lebanon and Israel and I think it is well past time for this. I have found a few blogs that I think are terribly interesting reading regarding the conflict. I will post them tomorrow or the day after for further reading.