Dave and Busters

Dave and Busters is like... the adult version of Chuck-E-Cheese. after getting stuck at a terrible arcade in the mall with Claudio and his good friend Gonzalo (photo below), I need I had to finally introduce Claudio to it's greatness. 

So, here's some photos of Claudio in the process of winning not one but 2 jackpots and obviously flaunting that in my face. Oh Claudio, you are such a competitor.

And of course, I lost. He has magical fingers, or so he thinks, and that is precisely why he is NEVER allowed to enter a casino. We're planning a trip to Las Vegas for when Gonzalo comes to visit us in Provo, and trust me. I'm going to be in charge of the money. 

The NEW plans for the furture

Remember those plans for the future I told you about a few weeks ago? Well, those has kind of been placed on the back-burner for now.

Claudio, my husband, got accepted into Brigham Young University! For the summer, at least. So instead of chilling in Hawaii for the summer as he takes more classes, we're headed out to The Beautiful and oh-so diverse Provo, Utah on April 15th!

As I've been attempting to find a full-time job, I've realized my International Cultural Studies major is almost pointless without a Masters degree (Which you will remember I plan on receiving!). If companies aren't requiring a bachelor's degree, they pay $9.00/hr. If they do, it is obviously in computer science or business. Why did I follow my interests and want a degree I liked, again? Don't ask me, because I obviously don't know. Nonetheless, I've applied to about 50 positions in and around Provo Utah, and hopefully I can find a job somewhere. Maybe I'm lacking humility, but I won't let myself go door to door selling pest control, alarms, or even working at a call center. You don't get any experience, and how miserable could that be? Maybe I'm just being prideful.

The main reason Claudio is transferring to BYU is because he loves economics. BYUH had an economics minor for some time, but recently decided to stop offering the classes needed for the minor. Nice move, guys. He is studying finance, but he really wants to study economics. So, here we come Provo!

When September comes, we're not sure where we'll be. We may be able to find a loop hole and have him stay for Fall semester, we may stay working, we may go to the University of Utah, or one of the graduate schools I love may let me in and we'll be able to go. For now, I think the only two that may postpone Claudio's school would be Southern Methodist University or University of Konstanz. Wish me luck, I'm supposed to hear about SMU before this Wednesday!

We're busy selling our things in Hawaii (yeah, you try shipping everything you own..) and slowly organizing, whilst we also prepare for the end of the semester. Although moving is hard, and Hawaii is "awesome" we won't miss: being stuck in the middle of nowhere, random monsoons, flooding, sunny days filled with homework, ridiculously expensive rent with $7.75/hr pay, or the general lack of focus that the Hawaiian lifestyle gives you. We will, however, miss our friends and the rare occasion we can go to the beach. We'll miss wearing flip flops every day, and that sunny weather.

Thanks for reading!

My research Conference...

A blog post I did for The David O. Mckay Center's blog

Aloha, guys! For my culminating project as an ICSMajor, I was able to do a Research Associateship with Professor Chad Fordand  was privileged to attend theUniversity of Wisconsin’s conference entitled, “Borders, Boundaries and Peace” onFebruary 28^th – March 1^st. I can tell you the chance thatI had to present and network at this conference was once in a lifetime.

The Conference washosted by the Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict studies that spans allthe universities in Wisconsin. It was hosted in the University of Wisconsin –Milwaukee’s newly created school of public health, in one of the more run-downsections of Milwaukee. It was here that they completely refurbished a 200 yearold building and have received a Gold certificate from the internationallyrecognized green building program.  Itwas beautiful, and held many facets of public health and sustainability that Ihad not considered yet.

Many people presenting at the conference had deepconnections in the peacebuilding field. The CEO of the Alliance forPeacebuilding presented about how the nation is breaking down the barriers of peacebuildingand the growing field. We even had the US Program manager from the Institutefor Economics and Peace explaining their wonderful research in quantifying the peaceful effortsworldwide (you may be surprised to hear that the United States only ranksmedium in the Global Peace Index). Then the conference became veryinterdisciplinary. We had other Keynote Speakers from UWM’s center for WaterPolicy and UWM’s new dean of the School of Public Health. It was amazing to seehow so many different fields care deeply about the world wide efforts towardspeace building how great of a chance we have to get involved.

I was able to present during one of the Student parallelsessions. The sessions were divided into 8 categories, and my presentation fellunder the topic of Central and South American Hegemony. Knowing the conferencewas very interdisciplinary and many had never heard of some of the precepts Iwould be referring to, I kept the presentation simple and went right to “ChadFord’s Photorealistic Iceberg ^tm”. I explained the basis of theconflict I was covering; Chile and Bolivia’s fight for the sea, and then wentto the iceberg. The basic needs that I talked about and the need to get the twocountries to see each other as legitimate and important in the world economywere surprising for many and I hope I opened them up for new perspectives inpeacebuilding.

I enjoyed presenting and listening to everything that allthe speakers had to say. There were so many presentations I would have loved tolisten to, but didn’t have the chance. I came away with new perspectives and anew insight into peace building.

                At the conference, I was able tomeet Rob Ricigliano, Director of the institute of World Affairs at UWM. Ithappened to be that he was coming to do some mediation work in Hawaii and hadan open day to come present at BYU-Hawaii This Thursday, March 28, 2013. Hewill be presenting at 6 PM In the Mckay foyer. It is a great opportunity foryou not only to hear about his work in international mediation, books, andprofessional background, but also because The University of Wisconsin inMilwaukee has created a new Masters of Peace and Sustainability and will beopen for the first time beginning Fall 2014. I hope you’ll be able to make it!




Here's also a photo of Maria, the woman I had the chance to stay with while in Milwaukee: