Old Concept, New Blog

The Ohio Experiment is in the capable hands of Janet (though, neither of us seemed to regularly update things).

In the spirit of new beginnings, check out our new blog, the rwanda experiement, at http://goingtokigali.blogspot.com/ (yes, "goingtorwanda" was taken).

Ohio postings - sure, they'll continue. Rwanda postings, yeah, don't hold your breath either, but I'd say odds look good that you'll get some good reading . . .

B.

Graduation is upon us.

Exactly a week from now, Brian will have completed his Juris Doctorate with all sorts of academic extras. (He's studying for his very last final now.) Looking back it's been a bit of a three year whirlwind. While of course, it's a relief that it will soon be over, it's a mixed bag of emotions. We'll definitely miss all the great friends we've made, and then there's the bar exam to contend with and of course Brian's year-long African adventure. Anyway, we're looking forward to seeing everyone next weekend to help us celebrate!

We have some things to update you on. We have a new animal addition to our family. Her name is Katie Louise. I prefer to call her Kitty. She's a long haired black and white kitty that we got from Brian's professor and wife. She and Brisco have a tenuous relationship, but it's getting better. They've both taken to fighting over me by trying to intimidate one another off my lap. I'm sure we'll post a picture eventually.

In Rwandan news, the President of the Rwandan Supreme Court will be in DC for a week in June, and Brian has been asked to accompany her on "high level court" meetings. His (and therefore, my) hotel stay will be paid for, and they'll be paying him a salary approximately equivalent to what he was getting in the summers at Huntington. We're still not sure what week it will be, but we're excited for the trip!

We have also (almost) secured an apartment for me while Brian will be gone. It's a little smaller than our house, but not by much. Rumor has it that the landlord is great, it's pet friendly, and it's by our friend Joe, who will be here until at least October. It's got a guest room, so I'll still be taking visitors. We've viewed it, but just need to sign the contract.

In work news, it's been busy. We're having our biggest annual scholarship fundraiser of the year, the day after Brian's graduation. We had three weeks lead time to plan it, which is the shortest time we've had yet. So far, so good though. I have off on Friday for Brian's graduation party prep stuff, so hopefully we'll be ready by Thursday evening for the fundraiser on Monday.

You may have heard/read about Brian's "Olympic" decathalon against his friend Randy. Well, they both survived the ordeal, but barely. (I had to literally help Brian into the car to drive home.) And, Brian had a sound victory over Randy. All in the name of the class gift. Here are a couple pictures.



I am in the midst of reading the Wheel of Time series, but took a break to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was EXCELLENT, so as soon as I was finished I had to read the next one - The Girl Who Played with Fire. The third book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, in the series comes out later this month. I'm looking forward to the movie too, but I think I'll have to wait for it on NetFlix.

So, there's an update for you. I'm going to go make our lunches for tomorrow. (Roast beef & swiss, mmmm!) See some of you next weekend!

Rwanda Update

Okay - you've gotten some information about my pending post as a law clerk / attorney advisor to the President of the Supreme Court of Rwanda. Here is a bit more detail:

the project I'm working for is funded by USAID, and is being administered by a group in D.C. called Chemonics International (a for-profit international development consulting company). The project I'm working for is called "Strengthening the Rule of Law for Policy Reform, 2009-2011." A description follows:

The 1994 genocide left scars on the Rwandan justice system as well as its people. Courthouses were destroyed, and citizens lost their trust in the government’s ability to resolve conflict. To rebuild its judicial system, in 2003 Rwanda began implementing wide judicial reform, overhauling the system to create new courts, procedures, and academic standards for judges, lawyers, and senior registrars. The Strengthening Rule of Law for Policy Reform project is helping the Government of Rwanda in its efforts, working along two tracks: institutional capacity building and regulatory reform. For the first, the project will work with the Institute for Legal Practice and Development to develop postgraduate curriculum for both Rwandan law graduates and active judicial professionals. For the second, the project will work with the government to extend its reforms to promote judicial independence and to enhance civil liberties by supporting the creation of a Law Reform Commission, by increasing opportunities for citizen input on new legislation, and by strengthening the Legal Drafting Units in the Ministry of Justice and the Parliament. E-solutions will be developed to help judges to research and apply the law and allow lawmakers to collaborate on drafting legislation. Through these efforts, the project will be supporting the growth of an efficient and effective judiciary that is more responsive to Rwandan citizen’s needs.

I'm still waiting on details, which should be here in the coming weeks, but all is a go! It is most likely a Christmas in the U.S. for me, but we are not sure, given my time home, whether we'll be leaving Ohio. More details will follow when I get my travel itineraries.

Janet and I are excited, and nervous, and agreed that we're not looking forward to the time apart. We're constantly being creative at how to spend more quality time now, and see each other a lot while I'm in Rwanda. No doubt, I'll be blogging about my experience while I'm away.

Yellow Fever ain't got nothin' on me!

Or, at least it won't come tomorrow. That's right, inoculation day. Taking the trip to Columbus to the OSU Medical Center Infectious Disease Travel Clinic for a panel of pre-travel vaccines.

Besides routine vaccines, the CDC recommends vaccines for Hepatitis A and B, Yellow Fever, and Typhiod. Let's hope for the best with no negative reactions after the shots.

On Tuesday, it's a brief trip to Wisconsin for a couple family visits, and some meetings - and hopefully time with friends. Back to Ohio on Thursday, and to Columbus for meetings over lunch and dinner on Friday. There ends the final spring break of the law school career.

This weekend was spent largely relaxing, visiting with friends, and watching the very close USA-Canada hockey match.

More to follow.

happy belated valentine's day.

We had a whirlwind weekend of fun. Friday night we played the new Wii Super Mario brothers game at a friend's house - you can play cooperatively all at once, and you don't run out of lives. (This last point is particularly important for me.) Oh yes, and it was Olympic kick-off, which we caught the tail end of. Everyone should really be watching the Olympics!!

Saturday we went to a Valentine's Day party at one of Brian's professor's. Lots of other students were there, as well as professors. Everyone was greeted with slippers and could choose any number of appetizers or drinks...brian and I stuck to the wine table and met some fun new professors and an episcopalian minister. We helped close down the party.

Sunday was Little Sister day and we made a "from scratch" chocolate cake and played on the Wii. Misty brought over a game for me to try, so we busted out the Wii Balance Board and used it to roll a marble through a course by leaning every which way.

In other news, I wanted to share a book I just finished for book club - The Wednesday Sisters. It was excellent, about 5 women that start meeting in a park to discuss books, and decide to start a writing group and end up supporting each other through all sorts of trials and tribulations. And, it's set with the backdrop of the late 60s. Everyone in the group LOVED it.

Okay, so that wasn't as earth shattering as Brian going to Rwanda, but it's what we're doing. We'll keep you updated as things progress.

Post-Grad

Here's an announcement:

It has been confirmed. But for a few formalities and minor negotiations, I have a job placement for after graduation.

The past two years of my J.D. elective study has been largely dedicated to international law, and foreign and comparative law. It became somewhat of a career dream, if you will, to practice in international law upon graduation. Come August, I will take the first step in this process.

I will be working for one year with the President of the Supreme Court of Rwanda, as part of a USAID project working to strengthen the rule of law in the post-genocide regime. Details of my job description are slowly trickling in (somewhat delayed by the immense snowstorm in D.C.). More to follow, but to answer the big questions:

No, Janet will not be joining. But, she will have wide latitude to take 2-3 weeks off to come and visit at least once, maybe twice.

Yes, I'm looking for additional funding! If you know someone giving out grants, send them my info!

Yes, we're both very excited!

That's all for now - some news to digest. More to follow.

sorry...we're still developing our new habits!

So as Brian stated, we have failed at our new year's resolution. But, lots is going on and now of course, I'm sick with a horrible cold. Anyway, here's the catch-up.

Last weekend we had some friends (Shawn & Shawn) from Wisconsin come down for a visit to balmy Ohio. (I grew up with girl Shawn, and we met boy Shawn over the weekend.) They came down by train late Thursday evening and after Brian's classes Friday we travelled to Cleveland for some exploring. We had an excellent dinner at the Cleveland Chophouse Friday night, had some drinks at the bar, and went to sleep. I was fast asleep, Brian even had to take my glasses off for me. Around 2:30am, we were awakened by obnoxious yelling in the hall coming from the D1 basketball player that was on our floor. Brian bolted out of bed, threw open the door, only to be confronted by an empty hallway. (thankfully) He channeled his half-asleep rage to call the front desk and complain nicely. The next morning we found out it was actually a UW-Milwaukee player. oops. Here are some views from our hotel.



Saturday we started off by going to A Christmas Story house. We didn't actually go in, because it seemed like a rip off. BUT, we went to the gift store like any good tourist. Here's a picture for you.


After that we went to the Historical Museum, which had lots of dinosaurs. And, they had an outside zoo-like area with a few animals. Our favorite animals were the bald eagles, but not to feel bad - the eagles that were caged were crippled, so they wouldn't have survived in the wilderness. Pictures:




After our trip down historical lane, we went to the Great Lakes Brewery restaurant. I had a mac n cheese dish to rival Rock Bottom Brewery's - there was pancetta in it. Then we checked out the local market (found awesome cheese counter, but still not as awesome as Shorewood's Sendiks). Last but not least we checked out Lake Erie. We didn't have enough time for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, so we scoped out the gift shop and toured around the lakefront - nice skyscape. pictures....




Then we left The Shawns in Cleveland to catch their train the next morning. On Sunday, Misty and I made a homemade pizza and played BoomBlox on the Wii while Brian was at school.

In other news, Brian is officially ranked #7 in his class, and therefore gets inducted into Willis Society, which means he finished in the top 10 of his class. (yay! resume builders!) And, as a teaser for those of you that don't know - Brian's off to Rwanda in August. Watch for more details!

laaate

New Year's Resolution fail - I know - it's on me. Janet is going to pick up the slack soon with photos from our day in Cleveland, and possibly my near-altercation with a D-1 bball player.

At least our lives aren't boring....

So it's my turn for writing this week, and I have much to report. Brian got a few more grades back, but he's still waiting on some. BUT, so far so good! He has been busy with law review and he entered a national writing competition, so that has been keeping him busy until he goes back to school tomorrow. (I'll let him write more about all that next week.)

I made my television debut on the noon local news program to talk about Ohio State Lima's Super Science Saturday program, which is a partnership between OSU, Time Warner Cable and the Lima Public Library. Three times a year, we have a free science program for kids K-2nd grade at the Library. The first one was on nutrition, this last one was on astronomy. (Thankfully, I didn't say astrology.) Basically, we set up 3-4 "stations" throughout the Library and kids rotate through. One station is led by OSU faculty, one is led by the Library staff, one is by a community expert, and one station is a Starlab portable planetarium - which looks like a giant inflatable igloo. Kids have to crawl in, and it's pretty impressive. Anyway, my tv appearance was all very last minute because the person that was supposed to go was sick. Thankfully it was only a few minutes, and it seemed to go alright.

Saturday's program went very well. We had a HUGE turnout, many more than were registered and more than double than the first program. Check in was a bit of a mess, but we can fix that for next time. The rest of my Saturday I planned to nap and read while Brian did his paper until we were to go pick up some friends at the airport.

We left for the airport maybe around 6:30 or 7pm, and were just about 10 minutes out of Ada in a tiny neighboring town when we saw a dog frantically chasing cars in the middle of the street. Because Brian and I tend to leap into things, we drove after the dog, pulled over, opened our car door and started yelling for him. Well, the dog jumped right in, so we drove back home and dropped me and the dog off and that's where our plan ended. Unfortunately. While Brian went to Columbus, I set up the dog in the garage. Towelled him off, put a furry rug out with food, water and a tiny space heater. I called the police department, and they asked if we didn't mind that we keep him overnight, because they only have an outside cage that is all snowed in.

Now it's Sunday, and I've called EVERYWHERE and nothing is open to take him. So, now the big danger is here - I find this doggie adorable!! He's very affectionate, rarely barks, has not showed any signs of aggression at all. I think he can do tricks. He does pee when he's scared, but hey, who doesn't, right? I gave him a bath, and he might have some flea hanger ons that haven't quite frozen, so I was careful to only let him in the bathroom (for washing) and the laundry room (for drying.) Even after his bath, he's still stinky. And while Brisco doesn't chase and nip at him, Brisco is angry that there is a guest in the garage and he's acting out (with his only weapon - his bladder! Everytime I turn around he's getting more to drink, so he's got more ammunition.) I'm going to try to get a picture of our visitor to post later.

We're hoping one of our classmates will adopt him - we'll keep you updated!
UPDATE: Our friend Tyler is going to take him. He is out shopping for doggie supplies right now! All it took was for Tyler to see how adorable and friendly he is!

Christmas and NYC

The semester is over, and I am anxiously awaiting grades to come in. We celebrated by heading to WI for a brief visit. If we didn't get to see you (which is a distinct possibility), we're sorry we missed you. The highlights, in a nutshell, involved dinners with friends at Lake Park Bistro and Nanakusa. After visiting with family, we left Wisconsin on the 27th at 4:00 a.m. for Ada. After a short layover I met up with my friend Kyle, who accompanied me on a three-day road trip to NYC. The purpose of the trip for for an interview with the Nassau Co. Prosecutor's Office, included with it a day in the City.

NYC was amazing! Kyle and I were fortunate to meet up with a law school classmate who grew up in the city, and whose brother lives there now. After meeting, we walked around a bit, saw some touristy sites like time square, ate a hot dog, and found the most delicious pizza place (http://www.artichokepizza.com/node). We saw Central Park, ate cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery (yum), ate some falafel (also yum), and had drinks at a bar near the Empire State Bldg. at a rooftop bar (and it was only $9 beer night!). After a stop at a Mexican restaurant for more beer, and yucca chips with guacamole, we ended the night at The Summit Bar (http://www.thesummitbar.net/) - and drank the most unique cocktails (check out the drink menu).

The interview went well enough, and We made it from long island to New Jersey in one hour at 4:00 p.m. We were told that this made us true New Yorkers. While I don't know if that's the case, I would have found it quite ironic if I would have gotten a ticket immediately after an interview with a prosecutor's office!!!

In any event, the road trip went well, and Kyle was a fantastic travel companion, with a TON of music on his iPod. The most interesting part of the trip was checking into the Red Roof Inn in long island (Red Roof Inn - NEVER AGAIN). The lesson learned was when you are asked "do you mind a room on the first floor?" - the answer is ALWAYS "YES!!!". After saying no, and discovering a window that did not close or lock, we arranged for a second floor room, convinced that there was a plot between the desk worker and the scary security guard to kill us in our sleep! Fortunately, we lived to tell the tale.

Bloggin' Ahead

A pact was made - Brian and Janet will alternate, and by each Sunday a new blog will be posted.

With Brian's recent trip to NYC - he will be the first. Look for it by tomorrow, 11:59 p.m. EST.

Happy New Year.